Zechariah 1:17 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Cry yet - A further promise; not only should Jerusalem be rebuilt, but should as we say, overflow with good ; and God, who had seemed to cast off His people, should yet comfort her, and should show in act that He had chosen her. “love.” In all the cases, which Gesenius cites as meaning “love” Genesis 6:2; 1 Samuel 20:30; 2 Samuel 15:15; Proverbs 1:29; Proverbs 3:31; Isaiah 1:29, the sense would be injured by rendering, “loved”) Zechariah thrice repeats the promise, given through Isaiah Isaiah 14:1 to Jerusalem, before her wasting by the Chaldaeans, reminding the people thereby, that the restoration, in the dawn whereof they lived, had been promised two centuries before. Yet, against all appearances. My cities shall overflow with good, as being God’s; yet would the Lord comfort Zion; yet would He choose Jerusalem.

Osorius: “What is the highest of all goods? what the sweetest solace in life? what the subject of joys? what the oblivion of past sorrow? That which the Son of God brought upon earth, when He illumined Jerusalem with the brightness of His light and heavenly discipline. For to that end was the city restored, that in it, by the ordinance of Christ, for calamity should abound bliss; for desolation, fullness; for sorrow, joy; for want, affluence of heavenly goods.”

This first vision having predicted the entire restoration, the details of that restoration are given in subsequent visions.

Zechariah 1:17

17 Cry yet, saying, Thus saith the LORD of hosts; My cities through prosperityc shall yet be spread abroad; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.