Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary

The ground upon which this promise rests is given in Zac 8:14 and Zac 8:15, and it is closed in Zac 8:16 and Zac 8:17 by the addition of the condition upon which it is to be fulfilled. Zac 8:14. "For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: As I thought to do evil to you, when your fathers were angry with me, saith Jehovah of hosts, and repented not; Zac 8:15. So have I purposed again in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear ye not. Zac 8:16. These are the words that ye are to do: speak truth every one to his neighbour; truth and judgment of peace judge ye in your gates. Zac 8:17. And let not one devise the evil of his neighbour, and love not the oath of deceit: for all this, I hate it, is the saying of Jehovah." As the time of punishment by exile came upon Israel through the decree of God, so is it now a decree of the Lord to show good to Judah. In שׁבתּי זממתּי the שׁבתּי takes the place of the adverbial idea "again." The people have therefore no need to fear, if they are only diligent in practising truth, righteousness, and love to their neighbour. God required the same of the fathers (Zac 7:9-10). Mishpat shâlōm is such an administration of justice as tends to promote peace and establish concord between those who are at strife. "In your gates," where courts of justice were held (cf. Deu 21:19; Deu 22:15, etc.). The את before כּל־אלּה in Zac 8:17 may be accounted for from a kind of attraction, inasmuch as by the insertion of אשׁר the object "all this" is separated from the verb, to bring it out with emphasis: "As for all this, it is what I hate." Compare the similar use of 'ēth in Hag 2:5, and Ewald, 277, d.