Zechariah 1:3

Bible in Basic English (1941)

And you are to say to them, These are the words of the Lord of armies: Come back to me, says the Lord of armies, and I will come back to you.

📖 Grammatical Analysis

Original Text

וְאָמַרְתָּ֣ אֲלֵהֶ֗ם כֹּ֤ה אָמַר֙ יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֔וֹת שׁ֣וּבוּ אֵלַ֔י נְאֻ֖ם יְהוָ֣ה צְבָא֑וֹת וְאָשׁ֣וּב אֲלֵיכֶ֔ם אָמַ֖ר יְהוָ֥ה צְבָאֽוֹת

Transliteration

wᵉʾāmartā to-them, "Thus ʾāmar YHWH ṣᵉḇāʾôt, 'šûḇû to-me,' nᵉʾum YHWH ṣᵉḇāʾôt, 'wᵉʾāšûḇ to-you,' ʾāmar YHWH ṣᵉḇāʾôt

Grammar Details

• *wᵉʾāmartā*: conjunction *wᵉ* + verb qal perfect 2nd masculine singular - and you shall say
• *ʾāmar*: verb qal perfect 3rd masculine singular - said/says
• *YHWH*: proper noun - the LORD/Yahweh
• *ṣᵉḇāʾôt*: noun feminine plural construct - of hosts/armies
• *šûḇû*: verb qal imperative masculine plural - return/turn
• *nᵉʾum*: noun masculine singular construct - declaration of
• *wᵉʾāšûḇ*: conjunction *wᵉ* + verb qal imperfect 1st common singular - and I will return/turn

Word Meanings

• *šûḇû*: return/turn/repent
• *wᵉʾāšûḇ*: and I will return/and I will turn/and I will restore
• *nᵉʾum*: declaration/oracle/utterance
• *ṣᵉḇāʾôt*: hosts/armies/heavenly forces

Referenced Verses

• Mal 3:7 : 7 From the days of your fathers you have been turned away from my rules and have not kept them. Come back to me, and I will come back to you, says the Lord of armies. But you say, How are we to come back?
• Isa 31:6 : 6 Come back to him who has been so deeply sinned against by the children of Israel.
• Jer 3:22 : 22 Come back, you children who have been turned away, and I will take away your desire for wandering. See, we have come to you, for you are the Lord our God.
• Deut 30:2-9 : 2 And your hearts are turned again to the Lord your God, and you give ear to his word which I give you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul: 3 Then the Lord will have pity on you, changing your fate, and taking you back again from among all the nations where you have been forced to go. 4 Even if those who have been forced out are living in the farthest part of heaven, the Lord your God will go in search of you, and take you back; 5 Placing you again in the land of your fathers as your heritage; and he will do you good, increasing you till you are more in number than your fathers were. 6 And the Lord your God will give to you and to your seed a circumcision of the heart, so that, loving him with all your heart and all your soul, you may have life. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on those who are against you, and on your haters who put a cruel yoke on you. 8 And you will again give ear to the voice of the Lord, and do all his orders which I have given you today. 9 And the Lord your God will make you fertile in all good things, blessing the work of your hands, and the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your cattle, and the fruit of your land: for the Lord will have joy in you, as he had in your fathers: 10 If you give ear to the voice of the Lord your God, keeping his orders and his laws which are recorded in this book of the law, and turning to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
• Jer 35:15 : 15 And I have sent you all my servants the prophets, getting up early and sending them, saying, Come back, now, every man from his evil way, and do better, and go not after other gods to become their servants, and you will go on living in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but your ears have not been open, and you have not given attention to me.
• Jer 12:15 : 15 And it will come about that, after they have been uprooted, I will again have pity on them; and I will take them back, every man to his heritage and every man to his land.
• Jer 25:5 : 5 Saying, Come back now, everyone from his evil way and from the evil of your doings, and keep your place in the land which the Lord has given to you and to your fathers, from times long past even for ever:
• Jer 29:12-14 : 12 And you will go on crying to me and making prayer to me, and I will give ear to you. 13 And you will be searching for me and I will be there, when you have gone after me with all your heart. 14 I will be near you again, says the Lord, and your fate will be changed, and I will get you together from all the nations and from all the places where I had sent you away, says the Lord; and I will take you back again to the place from which I sent you away prisoners.
• Luke 15:18-22 : 18 I will get up and go to my father, and will say to him, Father, I have done wrong, against heaven and in your eyes: 19 I am no longer good enough to be named your son: make me like one of your servants. 20 And he got up and went to his father. But while he was still far away, his father saw him and was moved with pity for him and went quickly and took him in his arms and gave him a kiss. 21 And his son said to him, Father, I have done wrong, against heaven and in your eyes: I am no longer good enough to be named your son. 22 But the father said to his servants, Get out the first robe quickly, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand and shoes on his feet:
• Jas 4:8-9 : 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Make your hands clean, you evil-doers; put away deceit from your hearts, you false in mind. 9 Be troubled, with sorrow and weeping; let your laughing be turned to sorrow and your joy to grief. 10 Make yourselves low in the eyes of the Lord and you will be lifted up by him.
• Deut 4:30-31 : 30 When you are in trouble and all these things have come on you, if, in the future, you are turned again to the Lord your God, and give ear to his voice: 31 Because the Lord your God is a God of mercy, he will not take away his help from you or let destruction overtake you, or be false to the agreement which he made by an oath with your fathers.
• Lam 3:39-41 : 39 What protest may a living man make, even a man about the punishment of his sin? 40 Let us make search and put our ways to the test, turning again to the Lord; 41 Lifting up our hearts with our hands to God in the heavens.
• Ezek 33:11 : 11 Say to them, By my life, says the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the evil-doer; it is more pleasing to me if he is turned from his way and has life: be turned, be turned from your evil ways; why are you looking for death, O children of Israel?
• Hos 6:1 : 1 Come, let us go back to the Lord; for he has given us wounds and he will make us well; he has given blows and he will give help.
• Hos 14:1 : 1 Samaria will be made waste, for she has gone against her God: they will be cut down by the sword, their little children will be broken on the rocks, their women who are with child will be cut open.
• Hos 14:4 : 4 Assyria will not be our salvation; we will not go on horses; we will not again say to the work of our hands, You are our gods; for in you there is mercy for the child who has no father.
• Joel 2:12 : 12 But even now, says the Lord, come back to me with all your heart, keeping from food, with weeping and with sorrow:
• Mic 7:19-20 : 19 He will again have pity on us; he will put our sins under his feet: and you will send all our sins down into the heart of the sea. 20 You will make clear your good faith to Jacob and your mercy to Abraham, as you gave your oath to our fathers from times long past.
• 1 Kgs 8:47-48 : 47 And if they take thought, in the land where they are prisoners, and are turned again to you, crying out in prayer to you in that land, and saying, We are sinners, we have done wrong, we have done evil; 48 And with all their heart and soul are turned again to you, in the land of those who took them prisoners, and make their prayer to you, turning their eyes to this land which you gave to their fathers, and to the town which you took for yourself, and the house which I made for your name:
• 2 Chr 15:4 : 4 But when in their trouble they were turned to the Lord, the God of Israel, searching after him, he let their search be rewarded.
• 2 Chr 30:6-9 : 6 So runners went with letters from the king and his chiefs through all Israel and Judah, by the order of the king, saying, O children of Israel, come back again to the Lord, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, so that he may come again to that small band of you which has been kept safe out of the hands of the kings of Assyria. 7 Do not be like your fathers and your brothers, who were sinners against the Lord, the God of their fathers, so that he made them a cause of fear, as you see. 8 Now do not be hard-hearted, as your fathers were; but give yourselves to the Lord, and come into his holy place, which he has made his for ever, and be the servants of the Lord your God, so that the heat of his wrath may be turned away from you. 9 For if you come back to the Lord, those who took away your brothers and your children will have pity on them, and let them come back to this land: for the Lord your God is full of grace and mercy, and his face will not be turned away from you if you come back to him.
• Neh 9:28 : 28 But when they had rest, they did evil again before you: so you gave them into the hands of their haters, who had rule over them: but when they came back and made their prayer to you, you gave ear to them from heaven; again and again, in your mercy, you gave them salvation;
• Jer 4:1 : 1 If you will come back, O Israel, says the Lord, you will come back to me: and if you will put away your disgusting ways, you will not be sent away from before me.
• Isa 55:6-7 : 6 Make search for the Lord while he is there, make prayer to him while he is near: 7 Let the sinner give up his way, and the evil-doer his purpose: and let him come back to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him; and to our God, for there is full forgiveness with him.
• Jer 3:12-14 : 12 Go, and give out these words to the north, and say, Come back, O Israel, though you have been turned away from me, says the Lord; my face will not be against you in wrath: for I am full of mercy, says the Lord, I will not be angry for ever. 13 Only be conscious of your sin, the evil you have done against the Lord your God; you have gone with strange men under every branching tree, giving no attention to my voice, says the Lord. 14 Come back, O children who are turned away, says the Lord; for I am a husband to you, and I will take you, one from a town and two from a family, and will make you come to Zion;
• Jer 31:18-20 : 18 Certainly Ephraim's words of grief have come to my ears, You have given me training and I have undergone it like a young cow unused to the yoke: let me be turned and come back, for you are the Lord my God. 19 Truly, after I had been turned, I had regret for my ways; and after I had got knowledge, I made signs of sorrow: I was put to shame, truly, I was covered with shame, because I had to undergo the shame of my early years. 20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he the child of my delight? for whenever I say things against him, I still keep him in my memory: so my heart is troubled for him; I will certainly have mercy on him, says the Lord.