Zechariah 14:20

"This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths."

Key Reflection

Zechariah 14:20 speaks about a future divine judgment where Egypt and other nations that fail to participate in the Feast of Booths will face punishment. The Feast of Booths, or Sukkot, was a significant harvest festival in Israel that also served as a reminder of their wilderness wanderings. By not observing this feast, these nations would experience a profound spiritual consequence, symbolized by the inscription on horse bells declaring them "holy to the Lord." This text underscores the importance of communal worship and obedience to God's commandments, highlighting the consequences for those who neglect such duties.

From the Scholars: Barnes' Notes

In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, Holiness unto the Lord -He does not say only, that they should be consecrated to God, as Isaiah says of Tyre, “Her merchandise and her hire shall be holiness to the Lord”Isaiah 23:18; he says that, “the bells of the horses,” things simply secular, should bear the same inscription as the plate on the high priest’s forehead. Perhaps the comparison was suggested by the bells on the high priest’s dress ; not the lamina only on his forehead, but bells (not as his, which were part of his sacred dress), bells, altogether secular, should be inscribed with the self-same title, whereby he himself was dedicated to God.

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