59. 31. I am returned to Jerusalem with mercies: my house shall be built in it. Jehovah of Hosts shall yet choose Jerusalem (Zechariah 1:16-17).

I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. He said, I go to measure Jerusalem to see what is the breadth thereof and what is the length thereof. For I, saith Jehovah, will be unto Jerusalem a wall of fire round about, and I will be the glory in the midst of her. Jehovah shall choose Jerusalem again (Zechariah 2:1-12).

Jehovah chooseth Jerusalem; is not this a brand snatched from the fire (Zechariah 3:2)?

Jehovah said, I will remove the iniquity of the land in one day. In that day shall ye call, a man to his neighbor, under the vine and under the fig tree (Zechariah 3:9-10).

Thus said Jehovah; I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem; therefore Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth, and the mountain of Jehovah of Hosts the mountain of holiness. The streets of the city shall yet be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets thereof. I will bring them that they may dwell in the midst of Jerusalem, that they may be My people, and I may be their God, in truth and justice. Thus many people shall come to seek Jehovah of Hosts in Jerusalem, to entreat the faces of Jehovah (Zechariah 8:2-5, 8, 12, 15, 20-22).

In that day all the nations of the earth shall be gathered together against Jerusalem. In that day shall Jehovah protect the inhabitant of Jerusalem. The house of David shall be as God, as the angel of Jehovah before them. In that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. But I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitant of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of prayers, that they may look upon Me whom they pierced (Zechariah 12:3, 8-10).

In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. In that day I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and I will cause the unclean spirit to pass out of the land (Zechariah 13:1-2).

It shall be one day which is known unto Jehovah, not day nor night; for about evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, in summer and in winter. And Jehovah shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall Jehovah be one, and His name one. There shall be no more curse upon the earth, but Jerusalem shall dwell securely (Zechariah 14:6-9, 11). In that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of Jehovah (verse 21).

(All the gates of Zion are devastated (Lamentations 1:4). Jehovah hath turned me back; He laid me waste (verse 13). My sons are devastated (verse 16). Devastation and breaking are come upon us (Lamentations 3:47).

Thine iniquity is consummated, He will visit thine iniquity. He will manifest thy sins (Lamentations 4:22).

3667. 'God Shaddai will bless you' means the temptations to which that truth and good was subjected and by means of which the joining together was effected. This is clear from the meaning of 'God Shaddai' as temptations, dealt with below, and from the meaning of 'being blessed' as a joining together, dealt with in 3504, 3514, 3530, 3565, 3584. Since Jacob' now represents the good of truth, as shown above in 3659, that good and truth is here meant by 'you'. The reason why 'God Shaddai' means temptations is that in ancient times people gave the Supreme Deity, or the Lord, various illustrious names. They used these in accordance with His attributes and in accordance with the kinds of good derived from Him, as well as in accordance with the kinds of truth, which are manifold, as everyone knows. By all those descriptive names members of the Ancient Church meant none but the one God, namely the Lord, whom they called Jehovah. But after the Church fell away from goodness and truth, and at the same time from such wisdom, they started to worship as many gods as there were descriptive names of the one God - so much so that each nation, and at length each family, acknowledged one of them as its own god. This was how so many gods came into being, who are also referred to in various places in the Word.

[2] The same happened in the family of Terah, Abraham's father, and also in Abraham's house. The fact that they worshipped other gods, see 1356, 2559, and in particular God Shaddai, 1992. And the fact that the worship of that God persisted in that house is also clear from the following places in Moses,

I appeared to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as God Shaddai, and by My name Jehovah I was not known to them. Exodus 6:3.

This explains why Abraham was told, I am God Shaddai; walk before Me and be blameless. Genesis 17:1.

And in the present case Isaac told Jacob, 'God Shaddai will bless you'. The truth of this is also quite evident from this chapter in which, after the Lord had said in a dream, 'I am Jehovah, the God of Abraham your father, and the God of Isaac', in verse 13, Jacob then said,

If God will be with me, and guard me on this road on which I am walking, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, and I come back in peace to my father's house, then Jehovah will be my God. Verses 20-21.

From this it is evident that neither did the house of Jacob acknowledge Jehovah, but that Jacob would acknowledge Him as his God if He conferred benefits on him. It was just the same as it is in Christian Gentilism at the present day.

[3] But as regards the specific name God Shaddai, the Lord had been called by this in the Ancient Church in respect to temptations, and to the blessings and benefits following temptations, as shown in Volume Two, in 1992. This is why here in the internal sense 'God Shaddai' means temptations. Temptations are the means by which the conjunction of good and truth is effected - see what has been stated and shown already about temptations, in the paragraphs referred to in 2819.