Zechariah 14:2. The residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city— It is impossible to reconcile these words with the state of facts at the time when Jerusalem was taken by the Romans; for at that time, we are well assured by Josephus, who was an eye-witness, not only all that were in the city were either slain or made captives, but also the city itself was razed to the ground, so as to leave no vestige of a habitation. BBell. Jud. lib. vi. c. 9. and lib. vii. c. 1. Ed. Havercamp. How then could there be a residue not cut off from the city? And if there has been no capture since to which these words can be applied, we must look forward to futurity for the completion of the prophesy. From its being said, that a residue shall not be cut off from the city, together with what follows, the course of proceeding, it should seem, will be this: upon the city being taken, the most warlike part of the inhabitants will retire in a body to some strong post near at hand, and stand upon their defence; till, being encouraged by manifest tokens of God's declaring himself in their favour, and perhaps reinforced by their brethren of Judah at large, they shall sally forth, and with the divine assistance completely defeat their enemies, and effect their own deliverance; so that, as is said, Jerusalem shall again sit in her own place at Jerusalem. Compare chap. Zechariah 12:5-7. See Blaney. Houbigant is of the same opinion—that this whole chapter refers not to the destruction of Jerusalem by Titus, but to some future and unknown events of the great and final restoration of the Jews.

Zechariah 14:3. As when he fought— Literally, According to the day of his fighting; that is, with thunder and lightning, storms of wind and hail, earthquakes, &c. See Psalms 18:7-16. Habakkuk 3:5; Habakkuk 3:19.

Zechariah 14:4. And his feet shall stand, &c.— Calmet thinks, that by this cleaving of the mount of Olives is meant those incisions which the Romans made in it, to carry matter thence for the siege of the city; not observing that the simile is drawn from things which exceed nature, not from those which happen according to the common course of it. But it is certainly beyond nature, that a mountain should so cleave, as to leave between the parts which are cleft a great valley: it is much more so, that one part of the mountain should remove to the north, the other to the south. Therefore in this place facts and not similes are delivered; and those miracles seem to be foretold which shall happen near Jerusalem at the last return of the Jews. Houbigant. See Ezekiel 11:23. Mount Olivet, we are told by Maundrel, had three tops or eminences, one on the north, one on the south, and one in the middle, whence our blessed Saviour ascended, and where Christians in after times erected a cross, to point out the place of this great transaction.

Zechariah 14:5. And the Lord my God shall come, &c.— And JEHOVAH shall go, the God of all holy ones, with thee. This is a literal translation of the Hebrew text, and affords a sense beyond exception or improvement. The same Jehovah, of whom it is said Zec 14:3 that he would go forth and fight against the unsanctified nations, he as the God, the patron and protector of all holy ones, all true believers, it is here said, will march with thee, O Jerusalem, as thine ally and auxiliary. So the preposition עם im, properly imports. The address is here to Jerusalem in the second person, as it evidently is also, Zechariah 14:1.

Zechariah 14:6. And it shall come to pass, &c.— How this will be fulfilled we cannot know till the time of its completion shall arrive; for a fact certainly, not a simile, is here again delivered. We know that in the Scripture, light denotes joy and prosperity, and darkness adversity. See Houbigant.

Zechariah 14:7. One day— An extraordinary, or very singular day.

Zechariah 14:8. Living waters shall go out, &c.— Here again, real waters, not the figurative ones of baptism, or of the Christian doctrine, are meant; for these waters go out only to the east and to the west, whereas the evangelical waters went forth into all quarters of the world. Houbigant; who, instead of former sea, reads eastern sea; and instead of hinder sea,—the western sea.

Zechariah 14:9. And the Lord shall be king, &c.— Upon this grand conversion and restoration of the Jews, and coming-in of the fulness of the Gentiles, God shall be glorified with one mind and one mouth over all the earth. There shall be one Lord, and his name shall be one. A name was so peculiar an adjunct to a local tutelary deity, that the one supreme God had no name or title of distinction of the local kind. Thus Zechariah, evidently alluding to these notions, when he prophesies of the worship of the Supreme God, unmixed with idolatry, says, In that day there shall be one Lord, and his name one. See Divine Legation, book 4: sect. 6.

Zechariah 14:10. All the land shall be turned, &c.— And he shall surround the whole land as a plain, from Geba even to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem; which shall be high, and shall stand firm, &c. The latter part of this verse describes the extent of the new city of Jerusalem, which the Jews were to rebuild and inhabit; and the words in the next verse, There shall be no more destruction, or anathema, shew that the city of Jerusalem itself is here meant, and not the church under that period; for the church can never be said to have been at any time under a curse.
And it shall be lifted up— And she shall be raised up. That is, Jerusalem, which is here, as elsewhere, represented as a female figure, raised from the ground, and sitting tranquil on her ancient seat.
From Benjamin's gate, &c.— These points are given, no doubt, to signify that Jerusalem shall again occupy as much space as ever it did in its most flourishing times. The same intention appears Jeremiah 31:38-40. Both these places may derive some illustration from comparing them together, and at the same time inspecting the plan of Jerusalem in the Ancient Universal History, vol. 1: b. 1 which seems to have been laid down pretty accurately according to the circuit of the walls made by the two companies, Neh 12:31-40 and the information collected from other parts of Scripture.

Zechariah 14:13. And his hand shall rise up, &c.— And the hand of one shall cleave to the hand of another. Houbigant.

Zechariah 14:14. And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem— And Judah also shall fight for Jerusalem. Not only, the Lord shall fight, (see Zechariah 14:3.) but also Judah.

Zechariah 14:17. Of all the families of the earth— If, according to the opinion of many learned commentators, by going up to Jerusalem to worship, and to keep the feast of tabernacles, be only meant a conformity to the worship of the one true God, or, which is the same thing, to the Christian religion, there can be no objection to understanding a strict universality of the nations: for it is repeatedly foretold, that a time will come, when "all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him," Psalms 22:27. Compare Psalms 72:11; Psalms 86:9. Revelation 11:15.

Zechariah 14:18. That have no rain; there, &c.— Upon them shall be the plague wherewith the Lord, &c. Houbigant. The reader will observe, that the prophet, foretelling the blessings arising from the restoration of the Jews, and the conversion of the Gentiles to the Christian faith, draws his images from the old dispensation; and, as is usual throughout the prophetic writings, expresses the rewards and punishments of the new dispensation, under figures borrowed from the old.