[Scene I: The Line]
A young man carried cord and measure,
Walking where the broken gateways lay.
He sought the breadth of new Jerusalem,
The length her streets would hold one day.
[Messenger Interruption]
“Run,” said the angel, “tell the measurer:
The city will outgrow the wall.
People and cattle fill her open places;
No narrow boundary holds them all.”
[Chorus]
A wall of fire round about her,
Glory dwelling deep within.
Not by tower, gate, or soldier,
But the LORD who gathers in.
A wall of fire round about her,
Room for every soul restored.
Zion widens past the measuring,
Kept and kindled by the LORD.
[Exile Call]
Flee from the north, come out of Babylon,
You scattered like the winds of sky.
Who touches Zion touches what is precious;
The plundered will no longer cry.
[Middle Eight]
Many nations turn and join the covenant,
Not crushed beneath a human throne.
The LORD inherits Judah in the holy land,
Jerusalem is chosen as his own.
[Final Chorus]
A wall of fire round about her,
Glory dwelling deep within.
Every line the young man carried
Finds the city wider than him.
A wall of fire round about her,
Songs arise where ruins were.
Be silent, flesh, before the LORD now;
He is raised from holy dwelling there.
[Outro]
The cord fell slack;
The promise had no narrow wall.
Named in this songNew JerusalemZionBabylonJerusalem
About the passage
Zechariah 2: A city too full for the measuring line
A measuring line introduces the chapter, but Jerusalem’s promised future quickly outgrows the survey. The city will spread like unwalled settlements because people and livestock will multiply, while the LORD himself is pictured as fire around it and glory within it. The focus then shifts to exiles still living in Babylon, people addressed as Zion even while dwelling far from Zion. They are summoned out because the nations that plundered them will not keep their advantage forever. The final promise widens beyond Judah: many nations will join themselves to the LORD and become his people, even as Judah and Jerusalem retain their particular place in the promise. Zechariah closes the chapter by moving from song to silence. Zion rejoices because the LORD will dwell in her midst, and all flesh falls quiet because he is rising from his holy habitation.
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