Zechariah 8:5

Hebrew (Westminster Leningrad Codex)

English Translation

The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets."

World English Bible · Public Domain

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וִֽילָד֑וֹת

yaldâh

H3207

“and · girls”

Conjunction + Noun, Common, Feminine, Plural, Absolute

Appears 3× in the Hebrew Bible
First appears at Genesis 34:4

Full BDB Definition

Origin: from H3206

TWOT: 867b

girl, damsel, marriageable girl

About this verse

These counts appear in no published source. They are computed here, from the morphology-tagged text and Lemma’s own curated glosses. What Lemma adds →

7: words
6: distinct lemmas
Prophets: section

Notable vocabulary

The rarest word here is וִֽילָד֑וֹת girl H3207 — appearing just 3 times in the whole Hebrew Bible.

Shared distinctive vocabulary

וִֽילָד֑וֹת girl H3207 occurs in 3 verses of the Hebrew Bible. Also found in:

Grammatical profile

2 verbs
5 nouns

Verb forms

יִמָּ֣לְא֔וּ Niphal · Imperfect
מְשַׂחֲקִ֖ים Piel · Participle Active

Repetition

A word recurs within this verse — often emphatic in Hebrew:

וּרְחֹב֤וֹת plaza H7339 ×2

Hebrew & Septuagint length

In English translation the verse runs 16 words from the Hebrew and 19 from the Septuagint (LXX English) — closely comparable.

A rough comparison of the two English renderings, which tokenize alike — not a word-level alignment.

Word counts can differ between the Hebrew and the Greek without any difference in meaning — e.g. the Hebrew direct-object marker אֵת has no separate Greek word, and Greek often adds the article ὁ.

Cross-references

Topical passages linked to Zechariah 8:5 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge — connected by theme and wording, ordered by reader-vote popularity; previews shown in the World English Bible.

Jeremiah 31:13 Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old together; for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
Psalms 128:3–4 Your wife will be as a fruitful vine, In the innermost parts of your house; Your children like olive plants, Around your table.
Psalms 144:12–15 Then our sons will be like well-nurtured plants, Our daughters like pillars carved to adorn a palace.
Jeremiah 30:19–20 Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.
Jeremiah 31:27 Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will sow the house of Israel and the house of Judah with the seed of man, and with the seed of animal.
Jeremiah 33:11 the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, the voice of those who say, Give thanks to Yahweh of Hosts, for Yahweh is good, for his loving kindness endures forever; [and of them] who bring [sacrifices of] thanksgiving into the house of Yahweh. For I will cause the captivity of the land to return as at the first, says Yahweh.
Lamentations 2:19 Arise, cry out in the night, at the beginning of the watches; Pour out your heart like water before the face of the Lord: Lift up your hands toward him for the life of your young children, that faint for hunger at the head of every street.
Zechariah 2:4 and said to him, "Run, speak to this young man, saying, 'Jerusalem will be inhabited as villages without walls, because of the multitude of men and cattle in it.

Matthew 11:16–17 "But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces, who call to their companions

Cross-references courtesy of OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0).

Hebrew and Greek witnesses Masoretic Hebrew ↔ Greek Septuagint

The same verse in the two great witnesses to the Old Testament, shown verse-for-verse.

These are two independent witnesses, not word-aligned to each other, and the Septuagint is shown in lemma (dictionary) form.

Hebrew Zechariah 8:5 Masoretic · Westminster Leningrad Codex

וּרְחֹב֤וֹת הָעִיר֙ יִמָּ֣לְא֔וּ יְלָדִ֖ים וִֽילָד֑וֹת מְשַׂחֲקִ֖ים בִּרְחֹֽבֹתֶֽיהָ

The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets."

World English Bible · Public Domain

Greek LXX Zechariah 8:5 Septuagint · lemma form

καί ὁ πλατύς ὁ πόλις πίμπλημι παιδάριον καί κοράσιον παίζω ἐν ὁ πλατύς αὐτός

And the broad places of the city shall be filled with boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.

LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) · Public Domain

Hebrew: Westminster Leningrad Codex (CC BY 4.0). Greek: Septuagint (public domain); English from LXX2012 (modern English Septuagint) (Public Domain). How the Septuagint differs from the Hebrew →

Targum (Aramaic paraphrase)

The Targum is the ancient Jewish Aramaic paraphrase of the Hebrew Scriptures — an interpretive translation, not the Hebrew text itself. Onkelos (literal) and Pseudo-Jonathan (expansive) render the Torah, and Jonathan the Prophets. Coverage is partial: where no permissively-licensed English translation exists for a verse, only the Aramaic is shown. This is verse-level text, not a word-by-word alignment to the Hebrew.

Targum Jonathan Prophets (Joshua–Malachi)

וּרְחוֹבֵי קַרְתָּא יְרוּשְׁלֵם יִתְמְלוּן עוּלֵמִין וְעוּלֵימָן מְשַׁבְּחִין בְּפָתָהָא:

(no public-domain English translation for this verse)

Targum Jonathan — Aramaic: “Mikraot Gedolot” (public domain). English: “Sefaria Community Translation” (CC0 1.0 (public-domain dedication)); “London "Chaldee Paraphrase," 1871” (public domain). Text via Sefaria.

Commentary

Notes on Zechariah 8:5 from classic Christian and Jewish commentators (each source and its license shown beneath its notes). The classic Christian expositions comment on the surrounding passage and are grouped to its opening verse, so a note may address several verses; the Jewish commentaries on the Tanakh (Rashi and others) are per-verse, so they appear only where the commentator wrote on this verse.

Lemma curates 59 commentaries, every one of them public domain or Creative Commons licensed, each selected and text-cleaned for this edition rather than reprinted as found. About our sources →

Trapp's Complete Commentary

John Trapp

Zec 8:5 And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in the streets thereof.

Ver. 5. And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls] Lads and lasses (as the Hebrew seems to sound), that mind little else but play as if, with leviathan, they had been made to sport, or as those people of Tombutum, in Africa, who are said to spend their whole time in singing and dancing. But this they could not do if the times were troublesome, and the soldier at his bloody play, according to that of Abner, 2Sa 2:14 "Let the young men now arise and play before us," that is, thrust their swords in their fellows’ sides, 2Sa 2:16.

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.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown

boys and girls playing--implying security and a numerous progeny, accounted a leading blessing among the Jews. Contrast Jer 6:11; Jer 9:21.

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

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Verse 5. The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls] The progeny shall be numerous, healthy, and happy. Their innocent gambols and useful exercises shall be a means of health, and a proof of happiness. To be healthy, children must have exercise. But they cannot take exercise, except in the way of play and diversion: ergo, such playfulness cannot be sinful. Let them be kept from evil words, lying, swearing, and scurrility; and all the rest may be innocent.

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

John Calvin's Commentaries

He repeats and confirms the same thing by another representation — that boys and girls would play in the streets and on the public roads, which could not be during the troublous time of war; for when arms clatter, the sound of trumpets is heard, and assaults of enemies are dreaded, every one keeps his children at home, and in public there is sad confusion, and few are found abroad; in short there is no cheerfulness even in children when fear is hanging over them. We hence see, that what is here promised is a state of quietness to Jerusalem; for God would keep off the onsets of enemies — not that Jerusalem was ever exempt from all evils, but that God’s defense was so effectual as to render them safe amidst many and various dangers.

It is not needful here anxiously to raise the questions — Whether it is lawful to play during times of peace? for the Prophet here took his language from the common habits of men, and even from the very nature of things; for we know that men give way to cheerfulness when no fear lays hold on their minds, and that play and sport are allowed to children. The Prophet meant only this, that though the Jews might then have something to do with various enemies, they would yet be in a state of peace and safety. He afterwards adds —

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.

John Gill's Exposition

Thus saith the Lord of hosts,.... This is repeated for the same end as before; See Gill on Zac 8:4,

If it be marvellous in the eyes of the remnant of this people in these days; either in the then present days and time; and the sense is, if it should seem wonderful, incredible, and scarcely possible to the small number of the Jews in Judea, that all the great and good things before promised should be fulfilled; or in the times of the Gospel, when the remnant, according to the election of grace, would wonder at the marvellous loving kindness of the Lord, in doing each great things for his church and people:

should it also be marvellous in mine eyes? saith the Lord of hosts; no, not as if it was impossible to be done; it shall be done, as marvellous as it may seem to be. Aben Ezra understands these words, not as spoken by way of interrogation and admiration, but as an affirmation; that God would do that which was marvellous, and such as he had never done the like, even as follows:

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

Matthew Poole's English Annotations

The streets; every street.

Shall be full of boys and girls; have many young ones healthful, strong, brisk, and lively, the present joy and future hope of all; so will I fulfil the promise of multiplying your children.

Playing in the streets: Jerusalem shall be in that peace, health, and plenty, that parents shall neither fear danger to their children abroad, nor need their labour at home. So shall that Psa 128 be fulfilled to them.

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

The Pulpit Commentary

Full of boys and girls. Jerusalem and the other cities had long been strangers to any such happy sight. Large increase of population is a blessing often promised in the latter days. (Hos_1:10 Mic_2:12) Perowne remarks that our Lord alludes to the games of children the marketplaces as a familiar incident his days. (Mat_11:16, Mat_11:17; comp. Jer 11)

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

Lesson kit

Teaching starters — assembled from the data on this page, not authored interpretation. Every prompt links to the verse data it draws on. Edit before teaching.

Zechariah, in the Prophets, opens this verse with 7 words (6 distinct Hebrew lemmas). Its most distinctive word is yaldâh (“girl”). A historical commentator’s framing appears above. Read the whole chapter for the surrounding context.

Discussion questions

How does “girl” (yaldâh) shape what this verse is saying?
Genesis 34:4 shares the word «girl» with this verse. How do the two illuminate each other?
“plaza” occurs 2× in this one verse. What is the effect of the repetition?
These translations render this verse differently; the difference is in the English rendering, not the original. What questions does that raise?
The verb «יִמָּ֣לְא֔וּ» is Niphal Imperfect. How does its form color the action?
Reading how Trapp's Complete Commentary and Jamieson, Fausset & Brown read this verse, where do the two commentators agree and where do they part?

Things to notice

These translations choose different wording for 3 words in this verse.
“plaza” occurs 2× in this single verse.
6 distinct Hebrew lemmas span 7 words in this verse.