Bible Strands
Zechariah 14:1
Behold, a day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Yahweh addresses Jerusalem, announcing an imminent day of divine intervention when the city's captured goods will be apportioned while its inhabitants watch. This declaration precedes the detailed description of the nations gathering against the city and half its population going into exile.
The words — The phrase יוֹם־יְהוָה (yom-Yahweh) literally means "a day of Yahweh," signaling a specific period of divine action. The verb חֻלַּק (chu.Lak) denotes the literal division or apportioning of the city's plunder.
The thread — The concept of a "day of the LORD" recurs in Isaiah 13:9 as a time of cruel fury, Isaiah 2:12 as a moment of judgment against the proud, and Revelation 16:14 as the gathering point for final conflict. These references consistently frame the phrase as an epoch of divine intervention and judgment.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that Jerusalem's fate is subject to Yahweh's sovereign timeline rather than human defense. It requires the reader to acknowledge that divine judgment will unfold visibly and without evasion.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Behold, the day of the Lord cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 13:9 Behold, the Day of the LORD is coming—cruel, with fury and burning anger—to make the earth a desolation and to destroy the sinners within it.
- Revelation 16:14 These are demonic spirits that perform signs and go out to all the kings of the earth, to assemble them for battle on the great day of God the Almighty.
- Isaiah 2:12 For the Day of the LORD of Hosts will come against all the proud and lofty, against all that is exalted—it will be humbled—
- Isaiah 13:6 Wail, for the Day of the LORD is near; it will come as destruction from the Almighty.
- Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Acts 2:20 The sun will be turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, before the coming of the great and glorious Day of the Lord.
- Joel 2:31 The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.
- Joel 3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
- Malachi 4:5 Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and awesome Day of the LORD.