because on that day the Chaldeans began to besiege Jerusalem, 4
Kings 25.1. All these fasts, if they will be obedient for the future,
shall be changed, as is here promised, into joyful solemnities.

8:20. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, until people come and dwell in many
cities,

8:21. And the inhabitants go one to another, saying: Let us go, and
entreat the face of the Lord, and let us seek the Lord of hosts: I also
will go.

8:22. And many peoples, and strong nations shall come to seek the Lord
of hosts in Jerusalem, and to entreat the face of the Lord.

8:23. Thus saith the Lord of hosts: In those days, wherein ten men of
all languages of the Gentiles shall take hold, and shall hold fast the
skirt of one that is a Jew, saying: We will go with you: for we have
heard that God is with you.

Ten men, etc... Many of the Gentiles became proselytes to the Jewish
religion before Christ: but many more were converted to Christ by the
apostles and other preachers of the Jewish nation.

Zacharias Chapter 9

God will defend his church, and bring over even her enemies to the
faith. The meek coming of Christ, to bring peace, to deliver the
captives by his blood, and to give us all good things.

9:1. The burden of the word of the Lord in the land of Hadrach, and of
Damascus the rest thereof: for the eye of man, and of all the tribes of
Israel is the Lord's.

Hadrach... Syria.

9:2. Emath also in the borders thereof, and Tyre, and Sidon: for they
have taken to themselves to be exceeding wise.

9:3. And Tyre hath built herself a strong hold, and heaped together
silver as earth, and gold as the mire of the streets.

9:4. Behold the Lord shall possess her, and shall strike her strength in
the sea, and she shall be devoured with fire.

9:5. Ascalon shall see, and shall fear, and Gaza, and shall be very
sorrowful: and Accaron, because her hope is confounded: and the king
shall perish from Gaza, and Ascalon shall not be inhabited.

9:6. And the divider shall sit in Azotus, and I will destroy the pride
of the Philistines.

9:7. And I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his
abominations from between his teeth: and even he shall be left to our
God, and he shall be as a governor in Juda, and Accaron as a Jebusite.

His blood... It is spoken of the Philistines, and particularly of
Azotus, (where the temple of Dagon was,) and contains a prophecy of the
conversion of that people from their bloody sacrifices and abomi