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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Zechariah 14:6 - 14:6
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Complete salvation. - Zec 14:6. “And it will come to pass on that day, there will not be light, the glorious ones will melt away. Zec 14:7. And it will be an only day, which will be known to Jehovah, not day nor night: and it will come to pass, at evening time it will be light.” The coming of the Lord will produce a change on the earth. The light of the earth will disappear. The way in which לֹא יִהְיֶה אוֹר is to be understood is indicated more precisely by יקרות יקפאון. These words have been interpreted, however, from time immemorial in very different ways. The difference of gender in the combination of the feminine יְקָרוֹת with the masculine verb יִקְפָּאוּן, and the rarity with which the two words are met with, have both contributed to produce the keri יְקָרוֹת וְקִפָּאוןֹ, in which יְקָרוֹת has either been taken as a substantive formation from קָרַר, or the reading וְקָרוֹת with Vav cop. has been adopted in the sense of cold, and קִפָּאוןֹ (contraction, rigidity) taken to signify ice. The whole clause has then been either regarded as an antithesis to the preceding one, “It will not be light, but (sc., there will be) cold and ice” (thus Targ., Pesh., Symm., Itala, Luther, and many others); or taken in this sense, “There will not be light, and cold, and ice, i.e., no alternation of light, cold, and ice will occur” (Ewald, Umbr., Bunsen). But there is intolerable harshness in both these views: in the first, on account of the insertion of יִהְיֶה without a negation for the purpose of obtaining an antithesis; in the second, because the combination of light, cold, and ice is illogical and unparalleled in the Scriptures, and cannot be justified even by an appeal to Gen 8:22, since light is no more equivalent to day and night than cold and ice are to frost and heat, or summer and winter. We must therefore follow Hengstenberg, Hofmann, Koehler, and Kliefoth, who prefer the chethib יקפאון, and read it יִקְפָּאוּן, the imperf. kal of קָפָא. קָפָא signifies to congeal, or curdle, and is applied in Exo 15:8 to the heaping up of the waters as it were in solid masses. יְקָרוֹת, the costly or splendid things are the stars, according to Job 31:26, where the moon is spoken of as יָקָר הֹולֵךְ, walking in splendour. The words therefore describe the passing away or vanishing of the brightness of the shining stars, answering to the prophetic announcement, that on the day of judgment, sun, moon, and stars will lose their brightness or be turned into darkness (Joe 3:15; Isa 13:10; Eze 32:7-8, Mat 24:29; Rev 6:12). In Zec 14:7 this day is still more clearly described: first, as solitary in its kind; and secondly, as a marvellous day, on which the light dawns at evening time. The four clauses of this verse contain only two thoughts; each so expressed in two clauses that the second explains the first. יוֹם אֶחַד, unus dies, is not equivalent to tempus non longum (Cocceius, Hengst.), nor to “only one day, not two or more” (Koehler), but solitary in its kind, unparalleled by any other, because no second of the kind ever occurs (for the use of 'echâd in this sense, compare Zec 14:9, Eze 7:5, Son 6:9). It is necessary to take the words in this manner on account of the following clause, “it will be known to the Lord;” i.e., not “it will be singled out by Jehovah in the series of days as the appropriate one” (Hitzig and Koehler), nor “it stands under the supervision and guidance of the Lord, so that it does not come unexpectedly, or interfere with His plans” (Hengstenberg), for neither of these is expressed in נוֹדַע; but simply, it is known to the Lord according to its true nature, and therefore is distinguished above all other days. The following definition, “not day and not night,” does not mean that “it will form a turbid mixture of day and night, in which there will prevail a mongrel condition of mysterious, horrifying twilight and gloom” (Koehler); but it will resemble neither day nor night, because the lights of heaven, which regulate day and night, lose their brightness, and at evening time there comes not darkness, but light. The order of nature is reversed: the day resembles the night, and the evening brings light. At the time when, according to the natural course of events, the dark night should set in, a bright light will dawn. The words do not actually affirm that the alternation of day and night will cease (Jerome, Neumann, Kliefoth); but this may be inferred from a comparison of Rev 21:23 and Rev 21:25.