Today’s word present a rare occasion when God, speaking through prophets, is using a term of endearment regarding Israel. We know from several versus in the Bible that God relates metaphorically to Israel as to a woman (in several cases, also as to His bride):
‘You seem, O daughter of Zion, a handsome and delicate woman’.
The name Zion is a reference to Jerusalem and particularly, to the dwelling place of the Lord. The word ‘bat’ means ‘daughter’.
‘This very day he will halt at Nob; he shall shake his hand against the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem’.
Another example of calling Israel in the nickname ‘daughter of Zion:
‘Send the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, to the mount of the daughter of Zion’.
The strong commitment of God to Israel is demonstrated in the amazing comparison:
‘But Zion says, The Lord has forsaken me, and my Lord has forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yes, even they may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have engraved you upon the palms of my hands; your walls are continually before me’.
Here’s the promise of salvation to Israel, mentioned as a woman nicknamed bat-Zion:
‘Behold, the Lord has proclaimed to the end of the world, Say to the daughter of Zion, Behold, your salvation comes; behold, his reward is with him, and his wages before him’.
Compassion is promised to the daughter of Zion by the prophet Micah:
‘Be in pain, and labor to bring forth, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in labor; for now shall you go out of the city, and you shall dwell in the field, and you shall go to Babylon; there shall you be rescued; there the Lord shall redeem you from the hand of your enemies’.
We end this term of endearment with a call for joy:
‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion; for, behold, I come, and I will dwell in your midst, says the Lord’.
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