Then there are prophecies like those of Zechariah. Now Zechariah was from the first return from captivity. He is listed in the book of Ezra concerning a return to fuller devotion to the Lord and completing the rebuilding of the temple Zerubbabel had been working on, Ezra 5:1 and 6:14. Zechariah said in Zech 1:1 that his prophesying had been begun “In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, ” which would be about the year 520 BC, well after the beginning of the first return from captivity. Zechariah talked about many things in his much neglected fourteen chapters, including the following.

I will scatter them among the peoples;
And they will remember me in far countries;
And they will live with their children, and will return.
Zech 10:9 nf

So at a time when the Jews have barely just begun their gathering from captivity, Yahweh, the Lord of Hosts is announcing through Zechariah that God is going to scatter the Jews a second time.

The Lord says that He will scatter them. The KJV is “sow them,” and they will be scattered as seed are scattered for sowing, but it does not seem to be describing any blessing that is being talked about in their being forced again into all the nations.

And when did the second scattering of Israel begin, the second sowing of them in foreign countries? No time fits this but the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD! Jesus says of those time,

“23 Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who nurse infants in those days! For there will be great distress in the land, and wrath to this people. 24 They will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations. Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” Lk 21:23-24

But then God says, He will not only scatter them a second time, but that He will also gather them a second time!

I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt,
And gather them out of Assyria;
And I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; And there won’t be room enough for them.
Zech 10:10 WEB

And a second return of the Jews when they will be so properous that “there won’t be room enough for them. ”

Isaiah writes before the first scattering of the Jews, and says,

“It shall happen in that day, that the Lord will set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, who shall remain, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.”

But this is written before even the first return of the Jews after first scattering.

So a second scattering, and a second return of the Jews is forecast in the Old Testament. You tell me when the second return starts!

WEB is the World English Bible, is a copyright free revision of the original ASV American Standard Version 1901

nf is my own translation of a passage, based on the WEB