SEV Biblia, Chapter 14:18
Y si la familia de Egipto no subiere, y no viniere, sobre ellos no habrá lluvia; antes vendrá sobre ellos la plaga con que el SEŃOR herirá los gentiles que no subieren a celebrar la Fiesta de los Tabernáculos.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Zechariah 14:18
Verse 18. If the family of Egypt] This may allude to those Jews who, flying from the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, settled in Egypt, and built a temple at Heliopolis, under the direction of Onias, son of the high priest. JosEphesians Antiq. lib. xiii., c. 6, and WAR, lib. vii., c. 36. If these do not rejoin their brethren, they shall have no rain, no interest in the favour of God.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 18. And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not , etc.] To Jerusalem, the church of God; do not go thither to worship the Lord, attend his ordinances, and keep them in their purity; nor walk as becomes the people of God: by “the family of Egypt” are meant the Papists, so called for their tyranny, cruelty, and idolatry, ( Revelation 11:8): that [have] no [rain] ; have not the pure word of God, and the ordinances thereof, only the traditions of men; yea, the doctrines of devils, and lies in hypocrisy: the allusion is to the land of Egypt, which was watered, not so much by rain as by the overflowing of the river Nile: or it may be rendered, “and upon them there shall be no rain” f310 ; or that which is equivalent to it. So the Targum paraphrases it, “the Nile shall not ascend unto them.”
The sense is, as they are without the pure Gospel of Christ, they shall continue so, and be punished with, that sore judgment of a famine of hearing the word of the Lord. There shall be the plague, wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles ; they shall have the same plague of want of water, a famine; for it is a vulgar mistake that there is no rain in Egypt; it rains indeed but seldom, and only in some places, but it does rain. Monsieur Thevenot says, “it rains much at Alexandria, and Rosetta also; but at Cairo, which stands higher, it rains less; and yet (says he) I have seen it rain very hard every year, for two days together in the month of December.”
And Mr. Fuller says that Sir William Paston, a patron of his, and a well accomplished traveller, was “an eye witness of much and violent rain at Grand Cairo, but such as presaged a great mortality, which ensued, not long after.”
But it should be observed that this is only true of the lower part of Egypt, for in the upper parts it rains not, at least not very commonly: for Herodotus reports that “in the times of Psammenitus, the son of Amasis, king of Egypt, a very wonderful thing happened to the Egyptians; it rained at Thebes in Egypt, which it never had before, nor has ever since, as the Thebans say; for it never rains in the upper part of Egypt; but then it rained at Thebes in drops.”
Yet Mr. Norden f314 , a late traveller in those parts, says he “experienced at Meschie (a city in his travels to upper Egypt) a very violent rain, accompanied with thunder, for the space of a whole hour;” though in the same place he says, at Feschna, and beyond, in the upper Egypt, the sky is always serene and clear. And in his travels from Cairo to Girge, capital of the upper Egypt, he relates, that at a certain place, as he went thither, they had little wind, and a great deal of rain f315 . And in another place he observes, at Menie (a place in upper Egypt) there was so thick a fog that we could perceive nothing at thirty paces distant: wherefore, since it does rain at times in some places, the same plague as before may be here meant; or want of provisions, as others, through a defect of rain; or the Nile not overflowing and watering the land, as Jarchi interprets it: but Kimchi gives another sense, and so Aben Ezra, which is, that instead of having no rain, which they need not and do not desire, they shall be smitten with the plague that the Lord will smite all the nations with that fight against Jerusalem, namely, their flesh shall consume away, etc. ( Zechariah 14:12).
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 16-21 - As it is impossible for all nations literally to come to Jerusalem onc a year, to keep a feast, it is evident that a figurative meaning mus here be applied. Gospel worship is represented by the keeping of the feast of tabernacles. Every day of a Christian's life is a day of the feast of tabernacles; every Lord's day especially is the great day of the feast; therefore every day let us worship the Lord of hosts, an keep every Lord's day with peculiar solemnity. It is just for God to withhold the blessings of grace from those who do not attend the mean of grace. It is a sin that is its own punishment; those who forsake the duty, forfeit the privilege of communion with God. A time of complet peace and purity of the church will arrive. Men will carry on their common affairs, and their sacred services, upon the same holy principles of faith, love and obedience. Real holiness shall be mor diffused, because there shall be a more plentiful pouring forth of the Spirit of holiness than ever before. There shall be holiness even in common things. Every action and every enjoyment of the believer, shoul be so regulated according to the will of God, that it may be directe to his glory. Our whole lives should be as one constant sacrifice, or act of devotion; no selfish motive should prevail in any of ou actions. But how far is the Christian church from this state of purity Other times, however, are at hand, and the Lord will reform and enlarg his church, as he has promised. Yet in heaven alone will perfec holiness and happiness be found __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ואם 518 משׁפחת 4940 מצרים 4714 לא 3808 תעלה 5927 ולא 3808 באה 935 ולא 3808 עליהם 5921 תהיה 1961 המגפה 4046 אשׁר 834 יגף 5062 יהוה 3068 את 853 הגוים 1471 אשׁר 834 לא 3808 יעלו 5927 לחג 2287 את 853 חג 2282 הסכות׃ 5521
