I leaned back in the hot tub, bubbles churning like the thoughts in my head, staring at the stars that had started this whole chain. The comet was gone now, but its echo lingered—the wild ride it kicked off. That’s when I revisited Zechariah 9:9-10, verses I’d heard twisted a hundred times in my Christian days.
Rejoice, Jerusalem, The End Of Days
“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your King is coming to you; He is just and having salvation, Lowly and riding on a donkey, A colt, the foal of a donkey. He shall cut off the chariot from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem; The battle bow shall be cut off. He shall speak peace to the nations; His dominion shall be ‘from sea to sea, And from the River to the ends of the earth.'”
A king on a donkey? Humble, yes. But then the punch: no more chariots, no more war horses, no more bows. Peace to the nations. Global rule. Christians pointed to Jesus’ Palm Sunday entry—branches waving, donkey plodding into Jerusalem. “Fulfilled!” they’d say.
But where’s the rest? Rome’s chariots kept rolling. Wars raged on. No sea-to-sea dominion. They split it: verse 9 first coming, verse 10 second. Convenient, but the text doesn’t break that way. It’s one event, one king, one unbroken flow. And it’s end-times, not ancient history.
His Hand Will Be Against His Neighbor
Jewish tradition sees it clearly: this is Messiah ben David, arriving after the upheavals, conquering not with might but with humility. The donkey symbolizes meekness and submission to God—contrasting sharply with Ishmael’s “wild donkey of a man” in Genesis 16:12. Hagar’s son, promised to be untamed —”his hand against everyone, and everyone’s hand against him.” In the midrash and the Zohar, Ishmael represents the Arab/Muslim nations, their wild strength dominating until the end.
But the Zohar (III 212b) marks the Star of Jacob as the turning point: the comet blazes for seventy days, Ishmael’s power wanes, nations fall, blood flows. “After the star vanishes,” it says, “the Holy Land trembles,” leading to kings fighting and structures crumbling. Rabbi Palvanov, in his Damascus video, ties it directly to Ishmael’s grip slipping after the comet, paving the way for the humble king’s arrival. No wild rampage anymore—just tamed peace.
Look at the fulfillment unfolding now. Hezbollah—once Ishmael’s wild arm in Lebanon—was injured since Nasrallah’s death on September 27, 2024, the comet’s peak. Over 3,000 fighters gone, leadership decapitated, tunnels blown. By early 2026, Israel’s ops had degraded 70% of their missile arsenal, per IDF reports.
Iran In Prophecy
Iran, the Persian backer, reeling: direct attacks on Israel in April 2024, then Israeli strikes in June 2025, hitting nuclear sites and degrading 40% of their centrifuges. Protests rage in Tehran, economy tanking under Trump’s renewed tariffs and deadlines—January 2025 inauguration, immediate pressure: “Deal or face war.” Netanyahu’s February 2026 White House meeting?
Hammering Iran negotiations, with Israel pushing for preemptive strikes. Ishmael’s “hand against everyone”? Weakening daily. Yemen’s Houthis were silenced after Red Sea ops, Syria’s remnants flipped with Assad’s fall. The wild donkey’s legs buckle—chariots (missiles) cut off, war horses (armies) grounded.
The Vilna Gaon adds depth: Gog and Magog’s war, sparked around Sukkot (as we saw on October 7), culminates in Ishmael’s defeat. He draws on Kabbalah, seeing the northern coalition (Iran-Russia ties) invading during a time of security, only to be shattered by divine intervention.
The Donkey is The Ishmalim
Zechariah 9 fits: the king rides in after the battles, ending the cycle. No more Ephraim’s chariots (northern threats like Syria/Lebanon), no Jerusalem war horses (defenses dismantled in peace). The Zohar echoes: post-star, “twelve days of chaos,” then broader turmoil, Ishmael fading as Edom (the West/Christianity) watches.
Palvanov speculates that Trump will be the fiery leader during the comet window—reelected in November 2024, stirring global tensions with Iran threats, tariff wars, and Israel backing. Like Cyrus in Isaiah 45:1-3, called “My anointed” (mashiach) despite being Persian—a tool, not the king. God uses non-Jews to shake nations for Israel’s sake. Cyrus freed the exiles; Trump pressures Ishmael. But the humble donkey? That’s the final reveal, after the wild one falls.
The Wrong Donkey and The Wrong Time
Christians claim Palm Sunday nails Zechariah 9:9. Matthew 21: Jesus enters on a donkey, crowds shouting “Hosanna!” Fulfilled, they say. But verse 10? Crickets. There are no chariots cut off—Rome crushed Judea in 70 CE. No peace to nations—centuries of war followed. No dominion from sea to sea. They defer it to the second coming, but why split the prophecy?
The text flows seamlessly: donkey entry, then immediate disarmament and rule. Messianics add a twist: Yeshua first as the suffering servant, then as the warrior king. But where’s the Zohar’s comet warning? The seventy-day timeline? The Ishmael contrast? In Genesis 16:12, the wild donkey isn’t tamed in their framework; it’s ignored or allegorized. Perry Stone or Charisma pieces talk about Zechariah as tribulation signs but miss the Jewish layers—the donkey as meekness conquering wildness, tied to the end-times shaking we see now.
The Return
On my return to Judaism, this prophecy unlocked everything. Deuteronomy 4:9 and 13:1-5 commanded: ask your elders, your family. Don’t follow signs that lead away from Torah. I did. They opened Zechariah, showed the context: chapter 9 starts with judgments on Syria (Damascus, verse 1), Tyre (Lebanon, verse 3), Philistia (Gaza, verse 5). All fall before the king arrives. We saw it—Damascus heap, Lebanon cedars broken (Isaiah 10:34), Gaza ops ongoing. No resurrection typology here. Just sequence: enemies down, humble king up. The elders reminded me of Ezekiel 16:3—our Hittite/Amorite origins. Chosen by grace, not merit. Humility is like the donkey.
My Christian friend, my Messianic brother: The wild donkey falls before your eyes—Iran on edge, proxies shattered—just as Genesis said. But how do you square Zechariah 9:10’s peace without the Zohar’s Ishmael fade first? Where’s the prophecy flagging comet to comet’s end, wild power crumbling? Yours splits verses; ours connects the dots. Real-time video: strikes on Iran, Trump-Netanyahu talks. This is the exact history. This is the call—come see the album we didn’t lend.
Next chapter: Urim and Thummim—our codes speak, yours don’t. Exodus 28 glows.
Hazan Gavriel ben David