The Prophecy in Zechariah about the fall of Gaza
A message to the Christian friends of the Jewish people, for all those for whom the Bible is a source of hope and inspiration:
For the Jewish people, October 7th was our darkest hour since the Holocaust. The Hamas perpetrated unspeakable horrors reawakening past traumas. In these dark times we can find some hope in the words of the book of Zechariah that predicts a conflict with Syria, Lebanon (=Tyre and Sidon) and Gaza and foretells the fall of the leadership of Gaza. It even mentioned freedom of captives from their prisons and the call “never again”. May by the grace of God this salvation come swiftly, for the sake of the Children of Israel, for the sake of humanity.
1 A prophecy: The word of the Lord is against the land of Hadrak
and will come to rest on Damascus—
for the eyes of all people and all the tribes of Israel
are on the Lord.
2 and on Hamath too, which borders on it,
and on Tyre and Sidon, though they are very skillful.
3 Tyre has built herself a stronghold;
she has heaped up silver like dust,
and gold like the dirt of the streets.
4 But the Lord will take away her possessions
and destroy her power on the sea,
and she will be consumed by fire.
5 Ashkelon will see it and fear;
Gaza will writhe in agony,
and Ekron too, for her hope will wither.
Gaza will lose her king…. Never again will an oppressor overrun my people,
for now I am keeping watch.
In the next chapter it is written: “I will free your prisoners from the waterless pit.”
Yakov Nagen is the Director of Ohr Torah Stone's Blickle Institute for Interfaith Dialogue and the Beit Midrash for Judaism and Humanity. He is also a Rabbi at the Yeshiva of Otniel. His book "Be, Become, Bless - Jewish Spirituality between East and West" was recently published by Maggid.
