Zechariah 14:15

Zec 14:15 And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague.

Ver. 15. And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel] All the beasts of service, made use of by the enemy, shall consume in like sort as their masters. First, for a punishment to their owners, who must needs suffer loss thereby: hence Saul was so sedulous in seeking the lost asses. Secondly, to show how God is displeased with, and will severely punish, all that are instrumental to the Church’s calamities or serviceable to their sin. The serpent is cursed, cut shorter by the feet, and made to wriggle upon his belly, yea, confined to the dust for his diet. So God curseth and abhorreth all instruments of idolatry, Isa 30:22 Num 31:22-23 Deu 7:25 "The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire"; the very visible heavens, because defiled with man’s sin, are to be purged by the fire of the last day.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

As the men should be destroyed, verse 12.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

The plague shall affect the very beasts belonging to the foe. A typical foretaste of all this befell Antiochus Epiphanes and his host at Jerusalem (I Maccabees 13:49; II Maccabees 9:5).

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 15. So shall be the plague of the horse, and the mule] There shall be plagues on the substance of the enemies of the Church, as there were on the cattle and goods of the Egyptians.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Zechariah in this verse raises up the minds of the godly, so that they might know that their energies would effect nothing, but that after having tried every thing they would be put to flight by the power of God. And hence appears more evident what has been twice repeated, — that the Prophet does not simply denounce calamities to terrify the Jews, but to animate them to constancy, that they might boldly exult, even when nearly overwhelmed by a vast heap of evils.

The meaning then is, — that after Satan had tried every thing to effect the ruin of the Church, and the ungodly had left nothing undone, there would yet be a successful issue to the faithful; for God would execute his vengeance, not only on men, but also on horses and camels, and on all cattle: and since God’s wrath would burn against all animals, which are in themselves innocent, it may with certainty be concluded, that those enemies who had provoked him by their cruelty, could not escape his judgment, and the punishment described here by the Prophet. He then subjoins -

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(15) The war-horse (see Note on Zec_9:9) and beasts of burden (see Note on Zec_9:9) are to be included in the destruction, even as were the cattle of Achan (Jos_7:24).

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

15. tents] camps, R.V.

as this plague] viz. that described in Zec_14:13. Comp. for this including the cattle in the curse, Deu_13:15; Jos_7:24.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And so shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass,.... The flesh of the horse is said to be eaten, Rev 19:18,

and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague, their beasts shall perish in like manner as themselves.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And so shall be the plague of the Lord ... - Dionysius: “So, when God sendeth the plague, all the irrational animals of antichrist and his satellites shall perish as the aforesaid men, who used them, perished. For, for the sins of men, God, to their greater confusion, sometimes slays their beasts, sometimes also for their loving correction.” “The imagery is from the Mosaic law of the ban. If a whole city became guilty of idolatry, not the inhabitants only, but the beasts were to be destroyed Deu 13:15, so that here, in miniature, should be repeated the relation of the irrational to the rational part of the creation, according to which, for the sins of men, ‘the creature is,’ against its will, ‘made subject to vanity.’ Analogous is it also, that on the offence of Achan Jos 7:24-25, beside him and his children, his oxen, asses and sheep were (stoned and) burned with him.”

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Shall be like this destruction. That is, the beasts shall be destroyed as well as the men; the common soldiers as well as their leaders. (Challoner) --- History does not specify the death of cattle, (Calmet) though in plagues this would inevitably follow; and the pagans complained that they were become more common since the propagation of the gospel. (Haydock) --- The reverses which the troops of Dioclesian, &c., sustained, were to punish their enmity to religion. (Calmet)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Those creatures which the enemy in the wars made use of against the church, shall by the hand of God be suddenly and strangely either destroyed or made useless, neither fit to annoy the church nor to benefit their owners. As God destroyed much of the cattle of the Egyptians by hail, and murrain, &c.; so now shall it be with the cattle of these persecutors, they shall perish with their masters. The horses, as the horsemen, were drowned in the Red Sea.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

So shall be the plague of the horse, etc. As was the plague that came on men (ver. 12), so shall be tide plague that falls on their beasts and cattle. The brute animals suffer for their owners" sin according to the ban under the old Law. (Deu_13:15; comp. Num_16:32, 33Jo 7:24, 25) Tents; camps; Septuagint, parembolaiv . The verse illustrates the utter destruction which shall befall the enemies of God"s Church.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The horse - Those creatures which the enemy in the wars made use of, shall by the hand of God be suddenly and strangely destroyed.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

similar to this plague which is delineated above, that his flesh shall waste away.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.