Behold the Day of the Lord cometh - Literally, "a day cometh, the Lord's," in which He Himself shall be Judge, and no longer leave man to fulfill his own will, and despise God's; in which His glory and holiness and the righteousness of all His ways shall be revealed.

And thy spoil shall be in the midst of thee - Jerome: "How great will the strait be, that the spoils should be divided in the midst of her. It often happens that what, by a sudden assault, is plundered in the city, is divided in the field or in solitude, lest the enemy should come upon them. But now there will be such a heavy weight of ills, such will be the security of conquest, that the spoils shall be divided in the midst of the city."

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh - This appears to be a prediction of that war in which Jerusalem was finally destroyed, and the Jews scattered all over the face of the earth; and of the effects produced by it.

Behold, the day of the Lord cometh,.... Or the day when the Lord will come, both in his spiritual and personal reign; for this is not to be understood of his first coming in the flesh, at which time none of the things after mentioned happened; nor of his coming to take vengeance on the Jews; but rather of his coming to convert them:

and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee; not the substance of the nations, divided by the Israelites in the midst of Jerusalem, as the Targum and Jarchi interpret it; but the spoil of Jerusalem, when taken by the enemy, as is after said, which should be divided by them with great joy and triumph, in the midst of it: this refers not to the spoil of Jerusalem by Antiochus or the Romans, but to the slaying of the witnesses, and the triumph of their enemies over them, Revelation 11:7 or else to the spoil and prey the Turks will come to Jerusalem for, when it shall begin the possession of the Jews; and who perhaps at first will have some success; see Ezekiel 38:12.

The judgment and the deliverance. - Zechariah 14:1. "Behold, a day cometh for Jehovah, and thy spoil is divided in the midst of thee. Zechariah 14:2. And I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to war, and the city will be taken, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished, and half the city will go out into captivity; but the remnant of the nation will not be cut off out of the city." A day comes to the Lord, not inasmuch as He brings it to pass, but rather because the day belongs to Him, since He will manifest His glory upon it (cf. Isaiah 2:12). This day will at first bring calamity or destruction upon Israel; but this calamity will furnish occasion to the Lord to display His divine might and glory, by destroying the enemies of Israel and saving His people. In the second hemistich of Zechariah 14:1, Jerusalem is addressed. "Thy spoil" is the booty taken by the enemy in Jerusalem. The prophet commences directly with the main fact, in a most vivid description, and only gives the explanation afterwards in Zechariah 14:2. The Vav consec. attached to ואספתּי is also a Vav explicativum. The Lord gathers all nations together to war against Jerusalem, and gives up the city into their power, that they may conquer it, and let loose all their barbarity upon it, plundering the houses and ravishing the women (cf. Isaiah 13:16, where the same thing is affirmed of Babylon). Just as in the Chaldaean conquest the people had been obliged to wander into captivity, so will it be now, though not all the people, but only the half of the city. The remaining portion will not be cut off out of the city, i.e., be transported thence, as was the case at that time, when even the remnant of the nation was carried into exile (2 Kings 25:22). It is obvious at once from this, that the words do not refer to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, as Theodoret, Jerome, and others have supposed.

Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be {a} divided in the midst of thee.

(a) He arms the godly against the great temptations that would come, before they enjoyed this prosperous estate promised under Christ, that when these dangers came, they might know that they were warned of them before.

14:1 The day - Of vengeance, Joel 2:1,2, cometh, or will soon overtake you, O sinful, unthankful! bloody! Jews. Thy spoil - All thou hast, O, Jerusalem, shall become a prey to thine enemy.

CHAPTER 14

Zec 14:1-21. Last Struggle with the Hostile World-Powers: Messiah-Jehovah Saves Jerusalem and Destroys the Foe, of Whom the Remnant Turns to the Lord Reigning at Jerusalem.

1. day of the Lord-in which He shall vindicate His justice by punishing the wicked and then saving His elect people (Joe 2:31; 3:14; Mal 4:1, 5).

thy spoil . divided in the midst of thee-by the foe; secure of victory, they shall not divide the spoil taken from thee in their camp outside, but "in the midst" of the city itself.

14:1-7 The Lord Jesus often stood upon the Mount of Olives when on earth. He ascended from thence to heaven, and then desolations and distresses came upon the Jewish nation. Such is the view taken of this figuratively; but many consider it as a notice of events yet unfulfilled, and that it relates to troubles of which we cannot now form a full idea. Every believer, being related to God as his God, may triumph in the expectation of Christ's coming in power, and speak of it with pleasure. During a long season, the state of the church would be deformed by sin; there would be a mixture of truth and error, of happiness and misery. Such is the experience of God's people, a mingled state of grace and corruption. But, when the season is at the worst, and most unpromising, the Lord will turn darkness into light; deliverance comes when God's people have done looking for it.