And you shall flee to the valley of those mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the next, and you shall flee as you fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him.
Zechariah 14:3 Then the Lord shall go forth, and shall fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
Zechariah 14:4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is over against Jerusalem towards the east: and the mount of Olives shall be divided in the midst thereof to the east, and to the west with a very great opening, and half of the mountain shall be separated to the north, and half thereof to the south.
Zechariah 14:5 And you shall flee to the valley of those mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall be joined even to the next, and you shall flee as you fled from the face of the earthquake in the days of Ozias king of Juda: and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with him.
Zechariah 14:6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that there shall be no light, but cold and frost.
Zechariah 14:7 And there shall be one day, which is known to the Lord, not day nor night: and in the time of the evening there shall be light:
The verse centers on "shall", "flee", "valley", "mountains", and "joined". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "shall" and "flee", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.
The nearby context moves from verse 4's "And his feet shall stand in that..." into verse 6's "And it shall come to pass in...", so "shall" and "flee" belong inside that flow. In Zechariah context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.
A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "shall" and "flee" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.