Part I of this series focused on many of the events that took place on the Mt. of Olives in David’s and Jesus’ lives.  Part II of this series set forth some of the geographical area and the topography of Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives.  This Part III will examine the apocalyptic judgment language of Zechariah 14.

Not one of God’s scriptures may be used in any way that will contradict another of His scriptures.  All of God’s prophesies must be seen in context, and may not be used to invent new ideas, or to read into the text foreign belief systems.  The prophesy of Zech. 14 fits quite well with the other prophesies God gave for the second destruction of Jerusalem.

“ Lo, a day hath come to Jehovah, And divided hath been thy spoil in thy midst.

² And I have gathered all the nations unto Jerusalem to battle, And captured hath been the city, And spoiled have been the houses, And the women are lain with, Gone forth hath half the city in a removal, And the remnant of the people are not cut off from the city.

³ And gone forth hath Jehovah, And He hath fought against those nations, As in the day of His fighting in a day of conflict.

⁴ And stood have His feet, in that day, On the mount of Olives, That [is] before Jerusalem eastward, And cleft hath been the mount of Olives at its midst, To the east, and to the west, a very great valley, And removed hath the half of the mount towards the north. And its half towards the south.”  (Zech 14:1-4, YLT)

Zechariah’s prophesy in verse 2 is of another destruction of Jerusalem.  It is believed that Zechariah and Haggai began prophesying about 520 BC,⁽¹⁾ so this prophesy in chap. 14, the last chapter of Zechariah, most probably written later in his life, well after 520 BC, was written many, many years after the 1^st destruction of Jerusalem had already happened in 586 BC.  This ties all of this prophesy in Zech. 14 to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70. 

The succeeding verses 6, 8, 9, and 13 saying “in that day” refer back to the same day of verses 1, and 4, “a day hath come to Jehovah.”  All of those events then include the time when God would stand on the Mt. of Olives in vs. 4 at the time of the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.  Therefore, splitting the Mt. of Olives belongs to the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Just as in other prophesies we cannot take this symbolic, apocalyptic language to be literal.  Everyone who insists that Jesus has not yet returned in His second appearance / coming because the Mt. of Olives has not yet been split in two is misunderstanding this prophesy.

God used similar language of destruction for earthquakes and the melting of mountains and the raising of valleys, and they were also symbolic.  Splitting the Mt. of Olives is the same as shaking the earth.

David’s victory over Saul uses this same language in 2 Sam. 22:8 –

“And shake and tremble doth the earth, Foundations of the heavens are troubled, And are shaken, for He hath wrath!”  (YLT)

Psa. 18:7 is almost word for word.  Psa. 68:8, “The earth hath shaken, Yea, the heavens have dropped before God,…”  Psa. 77:18, “The voice of Thy thunder [is] in the spheres, Lightnings have lightened the world, The earth hath trembled, yea, it shaketh.” Psa. 99:1, “Jehovah hath reigned, peoples tremble, The Inhabitant of the cherubs, the earth shaketh.”

We have the same language used in the prophesy of the destruction of Babylon in Isaiah 13.

“Therefore the heavens I cause to tremble, And the earth doth shake from its place, In the wrath of Jehovah of Hosts, And in a day of the heat of his anger.”  (Isa. 13:13, YLT)

Prophesying against Israel in Jeremiah 10 –

“And Jehovah [is] a God of truth, He [is] a living God, and a king age-during, From His wrath shake doth the earth, And nations endure not His indignation.” (Jer. 10:10, YLT)

It is the same language in Nahum 1:5 –

“Mountains have shaken because of Him, And the hills have been melted;…” (YLT)

And, again from the judgment against Israel in Isa. 29 –

“By Jehovah of Hosts thou art inspected, With thunder, and with an earthquake, And great noise, hurricane, and whirlwind, And flame of devouring fire.” (Isa. 29:6, YLT)

The judgment prophesied against Samaria and Jerusalem in Micah 1:4 –

“Melted have been the mountains under Him, And the valleys do rend themselves, As wax from the presence of fire, As waters cast down by a slope.” (YLT)

God’s presence was going to be on the Mt. of Olives, overseeing the second destruction of Jerusalem, and the symbolic hyperbole of splitting the mount was the same as shaking the earth of other judgment prophesies. 

“¹⁰ Changed is all the land as a plain, From Gebo to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem, And she hath been high, and hath dwelt in her place, Even from the gate of Benjamin To the place of the first gate, unto the front gate, And from the tower of Hananeel, Unto the wine-vats of the king.’  (Zech 14:10, YLT)

“⁴ as it hath been written in the scroll of the words of Isaiah the prophet, saying, `A voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, straight make ye His paths; ⁵ every valley shall be filled, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the crooked shall become straightness, and the rough become smooth ways; ⁶ and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.'” (Luke 3:4-6, YLT)

Changing the steep hills and deep valleys of the land of Jerusalem into a level plain is not meant to be literal either.  God leveled the playing field, so to speak, between Jew and gentile by removing the old Mosaic covenant and establishing the new covenant of the gospel of Christ.  All could now come to the Father through Jesus Christ (John 14:6).  Jesus is the way of escape. The imagery directly appealed to a people who knew the difficulties of travel in and around Jerusalem. (See Part II of this series.)

We have gone through many of the Old Testament prophesies for the last days, and the second destruction of Jerusalem in this blog, and all have been shown to be about the last days of the Mosaic covenant, and the last days of that animal sacrificial temple in Jerusalem.  Zechariah 14 has to be viewed in the same context for the 2^nd destruction of Jerusalem, and the removal of the old “heaven and earth” Mosaic covenant. 

Standing on the Mt. of Olives meant that Jesus’ presence was felt and He was responsible for that judgment. He had authority over it.  After much research and study, I believe that splitting the Mt. of Olives north and south was symbolic of removing the righteous worship of God – David’s worship at the highest summit – from the unrighteous pagan worship of the idols of Solomon’s wives on the lower and right-hand slopes. (See Part I of this series.)

So many other opinions try to make this division tie to the troop movements of the Roman Legions during the siege, but that is another method of putting a literal interpretation on this very symbolic prophesy.  I allow that there may be other symbolic meanings that can be attributed to the north and south division of the Mt. of Olives.

There is so much more that can be drawn from Zechariah’s prophesy of the 2^nd destruction of Jerusalem, and I encourage you to read all that you can find from Don K. Preston’s site.  He has posted many articles on Zechariah and the comparisons to Jesus’ prophesies, as well as those of both Peter and Paul.  The links to several of these are listed below.

(Edited 02/10/24, Added Luke 3:4-6)

Further Study:

BibleAtlas

Bibleportal

Zechariah 14 – The Earthquake and the Parousia #1

The Eschatology of Zechariah 14 – The Shaking of the Earth and the Parousia – #2

The Eschatology of Zechariah 14 – The Shaking of the Earth and the Parousia – #3

The Eschatology of Zechariah 14 – The Shaking of the Earth and the Parousia – #4

The Eschatology of Zechariah 14 – The Shaking of The Earth – #5 – Conclusion

The Eschatology of Zechariah 14 – The Coming of the Lord With His Saints

The Eschatology of Zechariah 14 – The Coming of the Lord With His Saints #2

A search on DonKPreston.com of “Zechariah” will yield many articles that Don has written about the prophesy of chapter 14.

Zecharia 14

Zechariah 14| A Comparative Study With 1 Peter #1

Zechariah 14 and 1 Peter| A Comparitive Study- #2 Some Preliminaries

Zechariah and 1 Peter| The Eternal Inheritance

Notes:

1) Date of Zechariah – https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/acc/zechariah.html