Zechariah 8:1

Study note

Setting — The LORD of Hosts initiates a prophetic oracle to Zechariah, marking a renewed divine communication that precedes the subsequent declaration.

The words — דְּבַר (de.var-) literally means “[the] word of,” and צְבָא֖וֹת (tze.va.’ot) means “of hosts,” together establishing the speaker’s sovereign authority over the message.

The thread — This prophetic formula recurs throughout the minor prophets as a standard introduction to divine declarations, immediately followed in Zechariah 8:2 by the content of the message.

Why it lands — The reader must acknowledge the authoritative source of the coming statement and prepare to receive the subsequent divine assertion without filtering it through human expectation.

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.