NRSV

[10] The whole land shall be turned into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem.  But Jerusalem shall remain aloft on its site from the Gate of Benjamin to the place of the former gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. [11] And it shall be inhabited, for never again shall it be doomed to destruction; Jerusalem shall abide in security. 

[12] This shall be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh shall rot while they are still on their feet; their eyes shall rot in their sockets, and their tongues shall rot in their mouths. [13] On that day a great panic from the LORD shall be on them, so that each will seize the hand of his neighbor and the hand of one will be raised against the hand of the other; [14] even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. And the wealth of all the surrounding nations shall be collected – gold, silver, and garments in great abundance. [15] And a plague like this plague will fall on the horses, the mules, the camels, the donkeys, and whatever animals may be in those camps. 

[16] Then all who survive of the nations that have come against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and keep the festival of booths.  [17] If any of the families of the earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain upon them. [18] And if the family of Egypt do not go up and present themselves, then on them shall come the plague that the LORD inflicts on the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths. [19] Such shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to keep the festival of booths. 

[20] On that day there shall be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “Holy to the LORD.” And the cooking pots in the house of the LORD shall be as holy as the bowl in front of the altar; [21] and every cooking pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be sacred to the LORD of hosts, so that all who sacrifice may come and use them to boil the flesh of the sacrifice.  And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day.

LXX

[10] Someone will circle all the earth and wilderness from Gabe until Remmon to the south of Jerusalem; but Rama shall remain upon the place, from the Gate of Benjamin until the place of the first gate, until the gate of corners and until the tower of Hananeel, until the wine vat of kings. [11] They shall dwell in it, and there shall not be anathema any longer, and Jerusalem shall dwell confidently. 

[12] And this shall be the downfall with which the Lord shall strike every people who warred against Jerusalem; their flesh shall be consumed while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall melt from their sockets, and their tongues shall melt in their mouths. [13] And it shall be on this day a great ecstasy of the Lord shall be upon them, and they shall each grab onto the hand of their neighbor, and their hand shall be intertwined with their neighbor’s hand. [14] And Judah shall battle in Jerusalem and gather together the strength of all the people encircling, gold and silver and garments in great multitude. [15] And this shall be the downfall of horses and mules and camels and donkeys and all the creatures which are in these encampments, each shall have this downfall.

[16] And it shall be that who would remain from all the nations will come upon Jerusalem and go up each year to make obeisance to the King, the Lord Almighty and to feast the feast of tent-making. [17] And it shall be that who would not go up from every tribe of the earth unto Jerusalem for obeisance to the King, the Lord Almighty, also these ones they shall be added to this. [18] But if the tribe of Egypt would not ascend nor come thence, also upon these ones shall be this downfall, which the Lord shall afflict on all the nations who would not feast the feast of tent-making. [19] This shall be the sin of Egypt and the sin of all the nations, who would not ascend to feast the feast of tent-making.

[20] On this day, on the bridle of a horse shall be “holy to the Lord Almighty”, and the pots which are in the house shall be for the Lord as the phials before the face of the altar, [21] and every pot in Jerusalem and Judah shall be holy to the Lord Almighty; and all the sacrificers shall come and take from them and boil in them.  And there shall not be Canaanites any longer in the house of the Lord Almighty on this day. 

Notes on Text

The basic premises of this passage should be familiar to us now from other parts of Zechariah.  The main themes here are that God will smite the enemies of Jerusalem, Jerusalem will be protected, the other nations will make obeisance to God.  In Zechariah 9:7, God promises that foreigners will become “like a clan of Judah” because of their observance of dietary restrictions, here we see in vv. 16 and vv. 18-19 a similar promise that foreigners will observe the festival of booths, which is the Jewish holiday of Succoth. In ch. 9, the context indicates that this observance will take the form of conquest, in Zechariah 14:16-17 it is quite explicit that this religious observance is tribute of the sort that someone would pay to the a worldly emperor.  Care is taken in both verses to describe God as “the King, the Lord of Hosts” or “the King, the Lord Almighty,” emphasizing his sovereign nature and using language similar to the that which Herodotus, for example, uses to describe the Persian emperor. 

With the nations subordinated to God and Jerusalem, vv. 20-21 describes a newly sanctified Jerusalem (and Judah), in which even everyday items like the bridles of horses and ordinary pots and pans have become sanctified.  This is worth elaborating on further, since it relies on an understanding of sanctity that is somewhat alien to modern religion.  For ancient Hebrews in the era of the Temple, religious observance was essentially following a set of rules to maintain ritual purity, with the understanding that you must be pure to interact with God.  The closer you got to the altar and the holy of holies, the more pure that you needed to be, so that some rituals were only performed by the sanctified priestly class in specific, clearly outline circumstances, after specific rituals were performed to ensure that they were ritually clean and thus capable of interacting with the sacred without invoking God’s wrath by sullying it with the filthy disrespect.  Verses 20-21, then are describing a utopian state in which the level of sanctity belonging to the temple and priestly class are extended to all of Jerusalem and Judah, and the level of sanctity originally belonging to the Hebrews is extended to all the nations.

Rereading vv. 12-19 in the light of vv. 20-21, what is actually being described here is a process wherein the nations as a whole are punished in the way that Jerusalem/Judah were punished for their lack of fidelity in the Babylonian exile, and then turn to towards God just as the Israelites turn to God after being punished various times throughout the Hebrew Bible.  This is an underplaying aspect of the Hebrew Bible in most current churches, but religion for the ancient Hebrews (and throughout the ancient world more broadly) was somewhat explicitly a hostage situation wherein failure to remain pure and faithful to God were punished grievously.  Here we see that same relationship extended to all the nations, and the Greek word I have translated as “sin” in vv. 19, ἁμαρτία hamartia, means sin, but in the context of Hebrew religion, this explicitly means the failure to observe a clearly defined ritual obligation to God. 

This leaves us with a question regarding vv. 21’s “And there shall no longer be traders in the house of the LORD of hosts on that day / And there shall not be Canaanites any longer in the house of the Lord Almighty on this day.”  The traders/Canaanites substitution here is a choice by the NRSV translator, with the actual text itself reading Canaanites.  It should be noted that LXX uses Canaanites quite consistently throughout Zechariah where NRSV has “traders,” “merchants,” and similar terms, although based on annotations in the NRSV this is possibly the only instance where Canaanite is the literal text. 

This merchants/Canaanites association is interesting inasmuch as it seems to imply that the profit motive is ungodly, but within the context of this passage there is also the question, have the Canaanites been removed from the house of the Lord because they have physically been removed, or have they been removed from the house of the Lord because even non-Hebrews have become godly?