Zechariah 14:7

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.

A very singular, remarkable, and uncommon one; and it will be but one day; things will not continue long in such a position: which shall be known to the Lord; all times and seasons are known unto the Lord, but this will come under his special notice and observation, and be under the direction of his special providence; it will only be taken notice of by him, and not by others; scarce any will observe it, or know what God is doing in it, or about to do: not day, nor night; not clear and full day, as at noon; nor yet quite night or dark, as at midnight; See Gill on Zechariah 14:6, but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light; after this day is over, which is neither clear nor dark, there will be an evening time; things will be worse with us than they are; the sun will be set; Christ will be withdrawn in the ministry of the word; his witnesses will be slain and silenced; great coldness and lukewarmness will seize upon professors; great darkness of error will spread itself everywhere; great sleepiness and security will fall upon all the virgins, and there will be great distress of nations; and, when it will be feared and expected that greater darkness and distress still are coming on, "light" will break forth; deliverance and salvation from Popish darkness and tyranny will be wrought; the light of the Gospel will break forth, and spread itself everywhere; the light of joy and gladness will arise to all the saints, and it will be a time of great spiritual peac

But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, {h} not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening it shall be light. (h) Signifying, that there would be great troubles in the Church, and that the time of it is in the Lord's hands, yet at length (which is here meant by the evening) God would send comfort.

It shall be one day; one continued day, no setting of the sun to make it quite night; God will always act in order to the full salvation of his spiritual Jerusalem. Known unto the Lord; the Lord knows when it shall begin, how long last, and how and when it shall (not as other days, end in a night, but) end in glorious light; till then it is enough for us that our God knows this day that is mixed of trouble and of peace. At evening time, when other days end, it shall be light; this shall be all light and glory, Isaiah 58:8 Psalm 97:11 .

7 . one day ] i.e. an unique day, unlike any other: prorsus singularis . Maurer. Comp. Ezekiel 7:5 , and for the idea Jeremiah 30:7 . shall be known to the Lord ] Rather, is known, R. V. Comp. Mark 13:32 . “Quo temporis momento ingruet soli Deo est notum.” Maurer. not day nor night ] Neither wholly day nor wholly night, but a chequered mixture of both. The new creation shall be ushered in, as the first was, by a day of lurid gloom and “darkness visible,” which shall not, however, deepen into night, but brighten at its close into the everlasting dawn. “At evening time there shall be light.”

7. one day—a day altogether unique, different from all others [Maurer]. Compare "one," that is, unique (So 6:9; Jer 30:7). Not as Henderson explains, "One continuous day, without night" (Re 22:5; 21:25); the millennial period (Re 20:3-7). known to … Lord—This truth restrains man's curiosity and teaches us to wait the Lord's own time (Mt 24:36). not day, nor night—answering to "not … clear nor … dark" (Zec 14:6); not altogether daylight, yet not the darkness of night. at evening … shall be light—Towards the close of this twilight-like time of calamity, "light" shall spring up (Ps 97:11; 112:4; Isa 30:26; 60:19, 20).

Verse 7. - One day. A unique day, unparalleled (comp. Song of Solomon 6:9 ; Ezekiel 7:5 ). Which shall be ( is ) known to the Lord . Its peculiar character, and the moment of its arrival, are known to God, and God only ( Matthew 24:36 ). Not day, nor night. It cannot be called truly the one or the other, because there is darkness in the day and light at night, as the following clause says. This is symbolically explained by St. Ephraem, "It will not be altogether consolation, nor altogether affliction." It is not full daylight, for calamity presses; it is not deep night, because there is hope amid the distress. At evening time it shall be light. In the midst of trouble and danger deliverance shall come. The whole section is a figurative description of the fortunes of the Church militant, even as Christ announced to his disciples: "In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world" ( John 16:33 ); "If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you" ( John 15:20 ); "Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid' ( John 14:27 ). Zechariah 14:7

And it shall be one day: it shall be known unto the Lord: not day, and not night; and at the eventide it shall be light - "One" special "day; one," unlike all beside; known unto God, and to Him alone. For God alone knows the day of the consummation of all things, as He saith, "Of that day and that hour knoweth no one, neither the angels in Heaven, nor the Son, (so as to reveal it) but the Father only" Mark 13:32 . Neither wholly "day," because overclouded with darkness; nor wholly "night," for the streaks of light burst through the darkness chequered of both; but in "eventide," when all seems ready to sink into the thickest night, "there shall be light." Divine light always breaks in, when all seems darkness; but then the chequered condition of our mortality comes to an end, then comes the morning, which has no evening; the light which has no setting; "perpetual light, brightness infinite;" when "the light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold" Isaiah 30:26 ; and "the glory of God doth lighten" Revelation 21:23 the eternal city, "and the Lamb is the light" thereof; and "in Thy light we shall see light" Psalm 36:9 . "Christ shall be to us eternal light, a long perpetual day."

Complete salvation. - Zechariah 14:6 . "And it will come to pass on that day, there will not be light, the glorious ones will melt away. Zechariah 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 לא יהיה אור 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 יקרות with the masculine verb יקפּאוּן, and the rarity with which the two words are met with, have both contributed to produce the keri יקרות וקפּאון, in which יקרות has either been taken as a substantive formation from קרר, or the reading וקרות with Vav cop. has been adopted in the sense of cold, and קפּאון (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).