The Lord Will Reign: Zechariah 13:7–9 prophesied eschatological death, destruction, survival, answered prayer, and renewed covenant in familiar language. In the final chapter of Zechariah the same story includes bizarre images that describe the overthrow of the world as we know it. There is no clear chronological arrangement of the material in Zechariah 9–14, but this chapter brings us to the consummation of the book’s eschatology. The Creator will reshape the creation and will rule from Jerusalem as king over all the nations of the earth.

Zechariah 14 resembles other OT passages in which God announces the intention to bring nations against Jerusalem for the purpose of defeating them there (e.g., Isa. 29:1–8; Ezek. 38–39; Joel 3). These passages share complete faith in the revelation of pro…