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Easy-to-Read Version

Zechariah 14:2

I will bring all the nations together to fight against Jerusalem. They will capture the city and destroy the houses. The women will be raped, and half of the people will be taken away as prisoners. But the rest of the people will not be taken from the city.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Captive;   Israel, Prophecies Concerning;   Rape;   War;   The Topic Concordance - Coming of the Lord Jesus Christ;   Day of the Lord;   Earthquakes;   Gathering;   Israel/jews;   Jesus Christ;   Nations;   Saints;  

Dictionaries:

- Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Amos, Theology of;   Zechariah, Theology of;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Captive;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Armageddon;   Gog;   Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Rape;   Remnant;   Zechariah, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Antichrist;   Apocalyptic Literature;   Micah, Book of;   Prophecy, Prophets;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Thessalonians Epistles to the;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Jerusalem ;   Micah, Book of;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Adoption;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Jerusalem;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Babylonish Captivity, the;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Siege;   Zechariah, Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Chastity;   Eschatology;   Eye;   Tabernacles, Feast of;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem for battle. The city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.
Hebrew Names Version
For I will gather all nations against Yerushalayim to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
King James Version (1611)
For I wil gather all nations against Ierusalem to battell, and the citie shall be taken, & the houses rifeled, and the women rauished, and halfe of the citie shall goe forth into captiuitie, and the residue of the people shal not be cut off from the citie.
King James Version
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
English Standard Version
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women raped. Half of the city shall go out into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
New American Standard Bible
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be taken, the houses plundered, the women raped, and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be eliminated from the city.
New Century Version
I will bring all the nations together to fight Jerusalem. They will capture the city and rob the houses and attack the women. Half the people will be taken away as captives, but the rest of the people won't be taken from the city.
Amplified Bible
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured and the houses plundered and the women ravished; and half of the city will be exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Geneva Bible (1587)
For I will gather all nations against Ierusalem to battell, and the citie shall be taken, and the houses spoyled, and the women defiled, and halfe of the citie shall goe into captiuitie, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from ye citie.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished and half of the city exiled, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Legacy Standard Bible
Indeed, I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women ravished, and half of the city will go forth in exile, but those left of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Berean Standard Bible
For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into captivity, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city.
Contemporary English Version
But first, he will bring many nations to attack Jerusalem—homes will be robbed, women raped, and half of the population dragged off, though the others will be allowed to remain.
Complete Jewish Bible
"For I will gather all the nations against Yerushalayim for war. The city will be taken, the houses will be rifled, the women will be raped, and half the city will go into exile; but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city."
Darby Translation
And I will assemble all the nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity; and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
George Lamsa Translation
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go into captivity, but half of the people shall not perish from the city.
Good News Translation
The Lord will bring all the nations together to make war on Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half of the people will go into exile, but the rest of them will not be taken away from the city.
Lexham English Bible
I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city will be captured, and they will loot the houses, and the women will be raped; half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Literal Translation
For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem. And the city shall be captured, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished. And half the city shall go into exile and the rest of the people shall not be cut off from thecity.
American Standard Version
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Bible in Basic English
For I will get all the nations together to make war against Jerusalem; and the town will be overcome, and the goods taken from the houses, and the women taken by force: and half the town will go away as prisoners, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the town.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, but the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
For I wyll gather together all the heathen to fight against Hierusalem, so that the citie shalbe wonne, the houses spoyled, and the women defiled: the halfe of the citie shall go away into captiuitie, and the residue of the people shal not be caryed out of the citie.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I will gather all the Gentiles to Jerusalem to war, and the city shall be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, but the rest of my people shall not be utterly cut off from the city.
English Revised Version
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
World English Bible
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y schal gadere alle folkis to Jerusalem, in to batel; and the citee schal be takun, and housis schulen be distried, and wymmen schulen be defoulid. And the myddil part of the citee schal go out in to caitiftee, and the `tother part of the puple schal not be takun awei fro the citee.
Update Bible Version
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Webster's Bible Translation
For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
New English Translation
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away.
New King James Version
For I will gather all the nations to battle against Jerusalem; The city shall be taken, The houses rifled, And the women ravished. Half of the city shall go into captivity, But the remnant of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
New Living Translation
I will gather all the nations to fight against Jerusalem. The city will be taken, the houses looted, and the women raped. Half the population will be taken into captivity, and the rest will be left among the ruins of the city.
New Life Bible
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle. The city will be taken. The houses will be robbed. The women will be taken against their will. And half of the city will be taken away to a strange land. But the rest of the people will not be taken away from the city.
New Revised Standard
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses looted and the women raped; half the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Yea I will gather together all the nations unto Jerusalem, to battle, and the city, shall be captured, and the houses, plundered, and, the women, ravished, - and half of the city, shall go forth, into exile, but, the remainder of the people, shall not be cut off out of the city.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And I will gather all nations to Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken, and the houses shall be rifled, and the women shall be defiled: and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the rest of the people shall not be taken away out of the city.
Revised Standard Version
For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to battle, and the city shall be taken and the houses plundered and the women ravished; half of the city shall go into exile, but the rest of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
Young's Literal Translation
And I have gathered all the nations unto Jerusalem to battle, And captured hath been the city, And spoiled have been the houses, And the women are lain with, Gone forth hath half the city in a removal, And the remnant of the people are not cut off from the city.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
for I wil gather together all the Heithen, to fight agaynst Ierusalem: so that the cite shalbe wonne, the houses spoyled, and the women defyled. The half of the cite shal go awaye in to captiuyte, and the residue of the people shal not be caried out of the cite.

Contextual Overview

1 Look, the Lord has a special day of judgment coming, when the riches you have taken will be divided in your city. 2 I will bring all the nations together to fight against Jerusalem. They will capture the city and destroy the houses. The women will be raped, and half of the people will be taken away as prisoners. But the rest of the people will not be taken from the city. 3 Then the Lord will go to war with those nations. It will be a real battle. 4 At that time he will stand on the Mount of Olives, the hill east of Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives will split in half. Part of the mountain will move to the north, and part to the south. A deep valley will open up, from the east to the west. 5 You will try to run away as that mountain valley comes closer and closer to you. You will run away like the time you ran from the earthquake during the time of King Uzziah of Judah. But the Lord my God will come, and all his holy ones will be with him. 6That will be a very special day. There will not be any light, cold, or frost. Only the Lord knows how, but there will not be any day or night. Then, when darkness usually comes, there will still be light.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

gather: Deuteronomy 28:9-14, Isaiah 5:26, Jeremiah 34:1, Daniel 2:40-43, Joel 3:2, Matthew 22:7, Luke 2:1

the city: Matthew 23:37, Matthew 23:38, Matthew 24:15, Matthew 24:16, Mark 13:14, Mark 13:19, Luke 19:43, Luke 19:44, Luke 21:20-24

the houses: Isaiah 13:16, Lamentations 1:10, Lamentations 5:11, Lamentations 5:12, Amos 7:17, Matthew 24:19-21

the residue: Luke 21:24

shall not: Zechariah 13:8, Zechariah 13:9, Isaiah 65:6-9, Isaiah 65:18, Matthew 24:22, Romans 9:27-29, Galatians 4:26, Galatians 4:27

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 28:52 - General 2 Samuel 10:15 - gathered 1 Kings 2:4 - fail Isaiah 14:2 - whose captives they were Isaiah 54:15 - shall fall Jeremiah 21:4 - and I Jeremiah 30:7 - for Jeremiah 30:16 - General Jeremiah 51:11 - the vengeance Jeremiah 51:27 - ye up Jeremiah 52:15 - carried Ezekiel 5:8 - even I Ezekiel 26:3 - many Ezekiel 38:7 - General Ezekiel 38:15 - and many Hosea 10:10 - and the Joel 3:11 - Assemble Amos 6:11 - he will Zephaniah 3:8 - to gather Zephaniah 3:19 - I will undo Zechariah 11:1 - that Zechariah 12:3 - in that Zechariah 14:21 - in the Malachi 4:6 - lest Matthew 21:41 - He will Matthew 24:7 - nation shall Matthew 24:21 - General Luke 13:35 - your Luke 17:37 - wheresoever Luke 21:6 - there Luke 21:10 - Nation shall Luke 21:22 - all John 11:48 - and the Acts 6:14 - that Revelation 11:7 - the beast Revelation 11:18 - the nations Revelation 16:16 - he

Cross-References

Genesis 10:19
The land where the Canaanites lived went from Sidon down along the coast to Gerar and from Gaza as far east as Sodom and Gomorrah and from Admah and Zeboiim as far north as Laish.
Genesis 13:10
Lot looked and saw the whole Jordan Valley. He saw that there was much water there. (This was before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. At that time the Jordan Valley all the way to Zoar was like the Lord 's Garden. This was good land, like the land of Egypt.)
Genesis 14:9
They fought against King Kedorlaomer of Elam, King Tidal of Goiim, King Amraphel of Babylonia, and King Arioch of Ellasar. So there were four kings fighting against five.
Genesis 14:10
There were many holes filled with tar in the Valley of Siddim. When the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and their armies ran away, some of the soldiers fell into these holes, but the others ran away to the mountains.
Genesis 14:20
And we praise God Most High, who helped you defeat your enemies." Abram gave Melchizedek one-tenth of everything he had taken during the battle.
Deuteronomy 29:23
All the land will be useless—destroyed by burning sulfur and covered with salt. The land will have nothing planted in it. Nothing will be growing—not even weeds. The land will be destroyed like Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, the cities the Lord destroyed when he was very angry.
Deuteronomy 34:3
He showed Moses the Negev and the valley that goes from Zoar to Jericho, the city of palm trees.
1 Samuel 13:18
The second group went southeast on the road to Beth Horon, and the third group went east on the road to the border. That road looks over the Valley of Zeboim toward the desert.
Nehemiah 11:34
in Hadid, Zeboim, and Neballat,
Isaiah 15:5
My heart cries, full of sorrow for Moab. Its people run away to Zoar for safety. They run to Eglath Shelishiyah. The people are crying as they go up the road to Luhith. They are crying loudly as they walk on the road to Horonaim.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle,.... Meaning not the Romans, in the time of Vespasian, for they were not all nations; nor did a part of the city only go into captivity then, but the whole; nor did any remain in it: it seems right to refer it to the gathering of the kings of the earth to the battle of the Lord God Almighty at Armageddon, Revelation 16:14 unless it may be thought better to interpret it of the vast numbers, out of several nations, the Turk will bring against Jerusalem, to dispossess the Jews of it, by whom it will be again inhabited in the latter day; see Ezekiel 38:4 and Kimchi interprets it of the Gog and Magog army. The Jews, in their ancient Midrashes d, apply it to the times of the Messiah; which is true, if understood not of the first times of the Messiah, whose coming they vainly expect, but of the last times of the Messiah.

And the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished, and half of the city shall go into captivity: this will be the time when the outward court shall be given, to the Gentiles, the Papists; the two witnesses shall be slain, and their enemies shall rejoice and send gifts to one another, Revelation 11:2 this will be a trying season, and such a time of trouble as has not been known:

and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city; there will be a remnant according to the election of grace; the city, the church, shall not be wholly extinct; Christ will reserve a seed for himself in those very worst of times, as he has always done: this cannot refer to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, for then all the inhabitants of the city were cut off, or carried captive, and none left; but, if literally to be understood, must refer to what will be, when the army of Gog shall come against it in the latter day; though these circumstances are not mentioned in Ezekiel.

d Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 22. 3. & Midrash Ruth, fol. 33. 2.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I Will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle - This is a feature which belongs to the end. It had been dwelt upon by Joel; Joel 3:2-9, Joel 3:11; Ezekiel spoke of the “many nations” Ezekiel 38:6, Ezekiel 38:15, Ezekiel 38:22 which should come under Gog. John foretells of an universal strife at the end, when “The spirits of devils, working miracles, go forth unto the king; of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty” Revelation 16:14; and “Satan shall be loosed out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints round about, and the beloved city” Revelation 20:7-9. Since no creature can do aught but what God wills, and, in his phrensy against God’s people, is but His instrument, “to try them and to purge and to make white to the time of the end” Daniel 11:35; Daniel 12:10; and the strength of body or intellect, which is abused against His law, He continuously in the order of nature supplies, God may be said to do what Satan does against Him. Satan, in his blind fury, crowns martyrs, fills the thrones of heaven, works, against his will, the All-wise Will of God.

And the houses rifled, and the women ... - The horrors of pagan war repeat themselves through people’s ever-recurring passions. What was foretold as to Babylon is repeated in the same words as to the Church of God. Seemingly “all things” come “alike to all Ecclesiastes 9:2 : there is one event to the righteous and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean and to the unclean: to him that sacrificeth and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner.” The outward event is the same, the hidden part is known to God alone. “And the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city,” unlike the lot of the earthly Jerusalem, in the destruction both by Nebuchadnezzar (which was past) and the Romans (see at Micah 3:12, pp. 46-50). At the first, “Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, carried away the rest of the people left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude” 2 Kings 25:11, so that Jeremiah mourned over it, “Because of the mountain of Zion which is desolate, foxes walk” (habitually) “upon it” Lamentations 5:18. The Romans (see at pp. 46, 47) “effaced the city.” Now “a remnant is not cut off,” because “for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” Matthew 24:32; for our Lord had said, that “the gates of hell should not prevail against” His Church Matthew 16:18.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 14:2. I will gather all nations — The Romans, whose armies were composed of all the nations of the world. In this verse there is a pitiful account given of the horrible outrages which should be committed during the siege of Jerusalem, and at its capture.

The residue of the people shall not be cut off — Many were preserved for slaves, and for exhibition in the provincial theatres.


 
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