Zechariah 13

Zechariah 13:1-6

Chap. Zechariah 13:1-6. Worthy fruits of Repentance The mourning for sin thus produced and exhibited (Zechariah 12:10-14) shall be the precursor of cleansing from sin, for which ample and lasting provision shall be made, Zechariah 13:1; and of amendment of life. Idolatry and superstition shall be banished and forgotten, Zechariah 13:2. If any one shall venture to play the false prophet, his own parents shall be the first to inflict on him the prescribed penalty of death, Zechariah 13:3. So dangerous and suspected will the prophetic office become, that the false prophets will be ashamed and afraid to avow their calling and assume their garb, Zechariah 13:4. They will profess themselves, when questioned, to have been simple hinds from their youth, Zechariah 13:5; and if the charge against them be enforced by an appeal to the wounds on their bodies, as proofs of the idolatrous rites which they have practised, or of the punishment which has already overtaken them as false prophets, they will seek to meet it by an evasive and misleading reply, Zechariah 13:6.

Zechariah 13:2

2. I will cut off] Forgiveness (Zechariah 13:1) is the middle term between godly sorrow (Zechariah 12:10-14) and amendment (Zechariah 13:2-6). It has been argued that the sins which are here said to be abandoned were not the prevalent sins of the Jews after the captivity, and that therefore the prophecy must be assigned to an earlier date. But the fact that this was the case, so far as it is a fact, may be claimed as completing the then present and historical basis, on which Zechariah, writing after the captivity, grounded, as is the wont of the O. T. prophets, the greater future which he was commissioned to reveal. Jerusalem had already proved and should presently prove again to be a “bowl of reeling,” and a “burdensome stone” (Zechariah 13:2-3) to the enemies who sought to hinder the re-building of the Temple and city. (Ezra 6:6-7; Ezra 6:11-12; Nehemiah 4, 6) Already “the spirit of grace and of supplications” had been poured upon the people and had moved them to penitent sorrow for their sins (Jeremiah 50:4-5), and throughout the era of the return it should in like manner be poured upon them. (Ezra 9; Ezra 10:1; Nehemiah 8:9; Nehemiah 8:9) Already had they set themselves to “cut off the names of the idols,” and to “cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.” (Ezra 6:21; Ezra 10:2-44; Nehemiah 9:38; Nehemiah 10:28-30; Nehemiah 13:1-9; Nehemiah 13:23-31.) But all these things, the prophet assures them, are but as the scanty drops, the harbingers of the abundant shower, or the few ripe ears, the firstfruits of the plentiful harvest.

In the coming age of Messiah, the King (chap. 9) and Shepherd (chap. 11) of Israel, when the Spirit shall indeed be poured from on high, and the true Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, the spiritual counterparts of deliverance, of penitence, of amendment shall flourish in the Church of Christ. (Comp. as regards the terms of this verse, “idols,” “prophets,” “unclean spirit,” 1 John 5:21; 1 John 4:1). But beyond that is another age, in which in all its particulars, and with a completeness, it may be, and exactness of detail which it had never before attained to, the whole prediction shall be fulfilled. the unclean spirit] Comp. 1 Kings 22:22.

Zechariah 13:3

3. his father and his mother] In holy zeal they would carry out the law, “thine hand shall be first upon him to put him to death.” Deuteronomy 13:6; Deuteronomy 13:9.

Zechariah 13:4

4. shall be ashamed] Pusey compares Acts 19:18-20. hath prophesied] Rather, prophesieth, as R. V. a rough garment] Lit. a cloak of hair: a hairy mantle, R. V. The word for cloak, or cape, is that used for the mantle of Elijah (1 Kings 19:13; 1 Kings 19:19; 2 Kings 2:13-14), “the cape or wrapper, which, with the exception of a strip of skin or leather round his loins, formed, as we have every reason to believe, his sole garment.” Bibl. Dict., Art. Mantle. This cloak or cape was either woven of camels’ hair or was perhaps a sheep’s skin (μηλωτής LXX. Comp. 2 Kings 1:8; Genesis 25:25; Matthew 3:4). It would seem from this passage that it had been worn by succeeding prophets in imitation of Elijah, and so had come to be regarded as the badge of a prophet.

Zechariah 13:5

5. a husbandman] Lit. one tilling the ground, as Genesis 4:2. Comp. Amos 7:14, where however there is no repudiation as here of the prophetical office. taught me to keep cattle] or possessed me as a serf, or chattel: adscriptus glebœ. I have been made a bondman, R. V.

Zechariah 13:6

6. wounds in thine hands] Lit. between thy hands; i.e. probably, on thy breast: between thine arms, R. V. Comp. “between his arms,” i.e. in his back, 2 Kings 9:24; “between your eyes,” i.e. on your foreheads, Deuteronomy 11:18. The interrogator, in his zeal against false prophets, is still unsatisfied, and detecting wounds, or scars, on the breast of the quondam false prophet, charges them upon him as proofs of his guilt, because he regards them either as self-inflicted in the service of idols (1 Kings 18:28), or as given him by his parents, from whose righteous indignation he had escaped wounded, when they went about to kill him (Zechariah 13:3). in the house of my friends] If this be a confession of guilt, we must understand it to mean that the accused person now admits the charge brought against him in the second of the two forms suggested in the last note: “Yes, it is true that I did play the false prophet, and this is the merited punishment which those who loved me inflicted on me.” “Hæc vulnera et has accepi plagas parentum meorum judicio condemnatus, et eorum qui me non oderant sed amabant. Et in tantum, fugato mendacio, veritas obtinebit, ut etiam ipse, qui suo punitus est vitio, recte perpessum se esse fateatur.” Hieron. The “lovers” cannot mean the false gods or idols, in whose service it might have been supposed that he had been wounded. Such gods or idols are indeed appropriately called the “lovers,” or paramours, of the Jewish Church as a whole, which is regarded as the bride or spouse of Jehovah (Hosea 2:7; Hosea 2:10; Hosea 2:12; Ezekiel 16:33; Ezekiel 16:36-37); but the figure is quite inadmissible in the case of an individual prophet. Those who do not regard this clause of the verse as a confession of guilt see in it either an allusion to the loving though severe discipline of youth, or an evasive answer which is purposely indefinite and obscure. The reference which Dr Pusey and others have seen in this verse to our Lord and to the prints of the nails in His hands is in a high degree forced and arbitrary. It cannot possibly be reconciled with the preceding context, with which the verse intimately coheres. “Quidam hoc traxerunt ad Christum,” writes Calvin, “quia dicit Zacharias manibus inflicta esse vulnera; sed illud est nimis frivolum, quia satis constat sermonem prosequi de falsis doctoribus, qui abusi fuerant Dei nomine ad tempus.”

Zechariah 13:7-14

The Second Section. Zechariah 13:7 to Zechariah 14:21 The purification and final glory of Israel This Second Section of the Second Burden and conclusion of the whole Book describes the purifying chastisement that shall come upon the people, Zechariah 13:7-9; the great final conflict and deliverance of Jerusalem, Zechariah 14:1-7; the prosperity of the transformed and renovated city and land, Jehovah being King, 8–11; the destruction of the hostile nations, 12–15, and homage of the residue, 16–19; and the perfect holiness of Jerusalem, as the crown of all, 20, 21.

Zechariah 13:8

8. in all the land] i.e. of Palestine, which agrees with the view taken above that “the flock” is the Jewish church and people. two parts] Comp. 2 Samuel 8:2. This was terribly fulfilled in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans.

Zechariah 13:9

9. the third part] Comp. Romans 11:5.