Zechariah 9:10-12

The Voice

¹⁰    I will dismantle Ephraim’s chariots,
        retire the warhorses from Jerusalem,
        send home the archers to their families in peace.
    He will make peace with the nations;
        His sovereignty will extend from coast to coast,
        from the Euphrates River to the limits of the earth.

Like many earlier prophets, Zechariah tells of a day when an ideal King will enter Jerusalem to the uproarious shouts and jubilant celebration of the people. Unlike other kings, this King enters humbly riding on a donkey, a beast of burden, not on a warhorse. He comes to establish real justice. God has given Him the victory, and now He shares that victory with the people. In that day, as His reign reaches the ends of the earth, war and the instruments of war are laid aside in the greater interests of an abiding, universal peace.

¹¹Eternal One: As for you, because of the covenant promise I made with you through your ancestor David,
        a covenant sealed in blood,
        I will free your prisoners from the waterless pits of death.
¹²    Return to your walled cities, safe and secure,
        O hostages of hope.
    I announce today that I will restore to you twice as much as what was taken.