Abstract

Prophecies concerning an incredible End of Days for the city of Jerusalem usually make use of stories that deal with beginnings in order to build from their bits and pieces a new one, a new an better beginning. This is not the case in our prophecy, that found in Zechariah 8:4-6, which does not rearrange the order of the creation but instead promises the city days of routine and peace, days in which the weaker elements of society, the elderly and the very young, will enjoy complete security and will have no need for the protection of the powerful. The prophecy yet makes subtle allusion to recent hardships, to the destruction of Jerusalem as that event is shown to us in the book of Lamentations. Unlike the fantastical prophecies, it is precisely the promise of quiet routine that threatens to awaken doubt in the dark and difficult days in which Zechariah lives, and so God announces with insistence that the promise will indeed be fulfilled