Daughter Zion Part 2

In Part 2 of Daughter Zion, I am looking at important passages that refer to her. I will direct you to books of the Bible, and specific chapters, and highlight some verses that seem important.

The first mention of Zion in Scripture is 2 Samuel 5:7. This is part of the story about David taking the Jebusite town that would become his capital. From Genesis, this is the area where Melchizedek met Abraham as he returned from rescuing Lot. I will list some facts about Zion because every website stresses or says something different.

  • Zion may mean citadel or fortress.
  • It does refer to the small section of Jerusalem that was the City of David.
  • The term was expanded to mean all of Jerusalem.
  • It was extended further to include all of Judah and Israel.
  • Christians refer to it as the heavenly city.
  • Are any of these better than the others? No. Just realize that the term will change depending on who wrote the information.

Psalm 9:14 is the first use of Daughter Zion and Zechariah 9:9 is the last reference to her in the Old Testament. (Zechariah is quoted again twice in the New Testament.) Both verses tell us to praise and rejoice and refer to gates. Zechariah 9 is about the coming king (Jesus). It has much to say about Israel’s neighbors, which in Zechariah’s time were still causing problems with the rebuilding of the Temple and Jerusalem. Psalms 9 and 10 may have been acrostic and set to the tune “The Death of the Son”. Verse 7 of Psalm 9 is about the Lord reigning forever with righteousness and justice.

Micah 1:13 O thou inhabitant of Lachish, bind the chariot to the swift beast: she is the beginning of the sin to the daughter of Zion: for the transgressions of Israel were found in thee. (KJV)

Micah is a contemporary of Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Jonah. Their messages carry many of the same warnings and good promises, present and future. Micah 1 does not mince words about Samaria and Jerusalem, God is not pleased. It also talks about many places. I believe you need to look at the meanings of these names to make sense of this section. Lachish means “invincible”. It was a major fortified city in Judah, south of Jerusalem, and was attacked by Assyria and captured. The “chariots and fast horses” seem to refer to them needing to flee from Assyria. It was also a center for ironworking in Israel. I think that the iron-hard invincible attitude is the “beginning of sin” that God is talking about. It was the pavement for Jeroboam to make golden calves, select his own priest, and make Bethel a center of worship for the northern kingdom. Most of the mentions of Lachish in the Bible are in Joshua and Isaiah and are connected to war and fighting.

Micah 4 has three different aspects of Daughter Zion. 1. Verses 6-8 are positive because the Lord will rule from her, and things will be restored. 2. Verses 9-10 have her going to Babylon as a captive (this is more than 100 years before it happens). 3. Verses 11-13 where she will be an aggressor and break nations to pieces.

Daughter (of) Jerusalem – This is a good place to add her to the study. She appears in Micah and in other passages. She is often mentioned with Daughter Zion. It may be a way of emphasizing the same thing in a different way, but Hebrew literature will repeat itself for effect. In Micah 1:5 Jerusalem is singled out from Judah as a specific problem, so it could be the Spirit is alerting us to two different entities in the same country.

Lamentations 2 is a chapter that has many versions of “Daughter”. Jeremiah writes about Zion but also Daughter-Zion, Judah, Jerusalem, and Virgin Daughter Zion. A very important addition in this chapter is who is being lamented for. There are dwellings, strongholds, palaces, princes, kings, elders, my people, and children and infants. It also seems that the speaker changes several times in the chapter (which is normal). This chapter will need its own post as there is a lot of info in it.

I will end with Isaiah 66:8. It does not mention daughter but it is clear who it is speaking about and sounds like Micah 4.

Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children. (KJV)

Please read Lamentation 2 and see if “the Church” and “the Bride of Christ” could be exchanged for the daughters in this chapter.

The Sermons on the Mounts-War and Rumors

In Matthew 24 Jesus has finished His sermons on the Temple Mount, for the leaders and the crowds, and is going to the Mount of Olives. The disciples comment about the stones of the Second Temple, built by Herod, and Jesus predicts they are coming down. (Rome accomplished this in 70 A.D.) Back on the Mount of Olives, the disciples ask when the end will come, this is the start of several lessons about the end times and the kingdom of God. Jesus, in Matthew 24:6, uses the phrase, “wars and rumors of war”. Mark 13:7 and Luke 21:9 also are references, Luke has the term revolutions.

War or Battle

We do not tend to think of these as the same thing, but in the Greek (Strong’s 4171) they are the same word or from the same root word-polemos. There are a few times polemos is translated as the word fight. The occurrence of this word/idea is rare in the Gospels but not in the Epistles. (Mounce Reverse Interlinear NT) The above verses account for most times it is translated as war with Luke 14:31 being the other time, it talks about a king planning a war.

I find it interesting that Paul and the other Epistle writers talk about war, battles, and fighting more than Jesus did.

Rumor

Akoe (Strong’s G 189) is the Greek word for a rumor. This is a root for many words that deal with hearing or reports.

In studying the idea of rumors, I found two Old Testament verses that cover rumors very well. These are from the NIV.

Jeremiah 51:46 tells us to not lose heart because a new rumor shows up every year.

Ezekiel 7:26-Calamity upon calamity will come, and rumor upon rumor.

The major difference between then and now is these reports can appear in minutes instead of months.

Fight

To introduce the difference between fight and battle and not talk a little about it now, did not seem right. In the New Testament, several words (5 to 8) are translated as the word fight. They indicate levels of conflict and possible places. One is strictly about fighting over words.

On the Mounts

 For those that want to think Jesus just walked about saying love, love; I will point to these sermons before His death. These interactions should be classified as fighting and the whole morning in the Temple as battle after battle, or a war.

The types and shadows of these days started with Abraham leading Isaac to the mount to be sacrificed, Joshua’s journey into the Promised Land, David’s return after the death of Absalom, and Elisha’s trip to Mt Carmel.

Jesus cleansed the Temple and ended the curse of fig leaf acts started by Adam and Eve. He silenced the religious leaders and prophesied the end of the Second Temple. Jesus’ sorties from the east bank included raising a dead man, healing blind eyes, and bringing a sinner back to the Father. He cried over Jerusalem and announced His death, then still did a victory ride into the city to fulfill the words of Zechariah 9:9.

Yes, there have been wars and reports of wars, how could we expect anything else. Come, Lord Jesus!

Christmas Verses – The First Coming #21

Zechariah 9:9 NIV

Rejoice greatly, Daughter Zion!
Shout, Daughter Jerusalem!
See, your king comes to you,
righteous and victorious,
lowly and riding on a donkey,
on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

This “coming” verse was lived out by Jesus at Passover (Easter).  But many of the verses I looked through, and was referred to could be Christmas or Easter verses. 

It is not hard to think that Mary was on a donkey going to Bethlehem, and then a donkey carried Jesus and Mary when they came from Egypt back to Galilee.