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"Judah, My bow"

Text: Zechariah 9:13

A DEEP PROPHECY

Prophecies are never shallow statements. They are profound in more ways than one.

“For I have bent Judah, My bow,
Fitted the bow with Ephraim,
And raised up your sons, O Zion,
Against your sons, O Greece,
And made you like the sword of a mighty man.”
Zechariah 9:13

1. The first profound statement

a) Judah and Ephraim

i) Judah is a reference to the Southern Kingdom.

ii) Ephraim represents Israel the Northern Kingdom.

iii) Israel became two monarchies (Rehoboam was king of Judah;

Jeroboam I was the first king of Israel, Northern Kingdom, in the year 930 BC.)

b) In this prophecy

i) Judah was the bow.

ii) Ephraim was the arrow.

iii) An astonishing prophetic view of the day when Israel would be joined together as one nation.

2. The mention of Greece is another profound statement

A rough timeline

a) Assyria conquered Israel in 722 BC.

b) Babylon conquered Judah in 586 BC.

c) The Persian Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 BC.

d) The Greek Empire ended when Alexander the Great died in 323 BC.

e) The reference in this text is to Hellenistic Greece (after the Greek Empire split).

f) The Maccabees defeated Antiochus Epiphanes, (who ruled Israel then) 167-160 BC.

g) The Maccabean Revolt enabled them to regain control of Jerusalem.

Israel would become like a sword of a mighty man.