Zechariah 14:11 (LSB)

Passage

And people will inhabit it, and there will no longer be anything devoted to destruction, for Jerusalem will be inhabited in security.

Nearby Context

Zechariah 14:9 And Yahweh will be king over all the earth; in that day Yahweh will be the only one, and His name one.

Zechariah 14:10 All the land will be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will rise and inhabit its site from Benjamin’s Gate as far as the place of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses.

Zechariah 14:11 And people will inhabit it, and there will no longer be anything devoted to destruction, for Jerusalem will be inhabited in security.

Zechariah 14:12 Now this will be the plague with which Yahweh will plague all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth.

Zechariah 14:13 And it will be in that day, that abundant confusion from Yahweh will fall on them; and they will take hold of one another’s hand, and the hand of one will go up against the hand of another.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "people", "inhabit", "longer", "anything", "devoted", "destruction", "jerusalem", and "inhabited". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "people" and "inhabit", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 10's "All the land will be changed into..." into verse 12's "Now this will be the plague with...", so "people" and "inhabit" 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 "people" and "inhabit" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.