Zechariah 12

Text

Textual witnesses

Structure

• = The Coming Deliverance of Judah
• = Mourning for the Pierced One

  The Coming Deliverance of Judah (12:1–9)

Verse 1

• "Burden": here means "oracle" or "prophecy".

Mourning for the Pierced One (12:10–14)

Verse 10

• "They shall look upon me whom they have pierced" The speaker in first person is Yahweh. To "look upon or unto" implies trust, longing, and reverence. For New Testament writers, the literal fulfilment of this piercing, i.e. slaying happened when the Romans crucified Jesus, such as Paul wrote about the crucifixion of "the Lord of glory", and requested the Ephesian elders to "feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" ; also John links these words to the same event. The Greek Septuagint renders Ἐπιβλέψονται πρὸς μὲ ἀνθ ῶν κατωχρήσαντο, "They shall look to me because they insulted," whereas Vulgate has Aspicient ad me quem confixerunt. A suffering Messiah was described earlier in Zechariah as a despised and ill-treated shepherd, and a little further on that he is stricken with the sword. The prophecies of Isaiah have as well the same notion. With this notion the prophet, by inspiration, acknowledges the two natures in the one Person of Messiah, as Isaiah called him the "Mighty God," and the psalmists often speak to the same effect. The "looking to" the stricken Messiah is signified when those watching the crucifixion beat their breasts.
• "Me … him": The change of person is due to Yahweh-Messiah speaking in His own person first, then the prophet speaking of "him". Later Jewish literature refers the "pierced" one to be Messiah Ben Joseph, who was to suffer in the battle with Gog, before Messiah Ben David should come to reign. Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic versions oppose this; and the ancient Jews interpreted it of Messiah. also refers to His being "pierced", just as in and, representing the act of the people, and is so accounted here in Zechariah. The Hebrew word is always used of a literal piercing.
• "As one mourneth for his only son... for his firstborn": The depth and poignancy of this mourning are expressed by a double comparison, the grief felt at the loss of an only son, and of the firstborn. Among the Hebrews the preservation of the family was deemed of vast importance, and its extinction regarded as a punishment and a curse, so that the death of an only son would be the heaviest blow that could happen. Peculiar privileges belonged to the firstborn, and his loss would be estimated accordingly. The mention of "piercing," just above, seems to connect the passage with the Passover solemnities and the destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians.
• "In bitterness for him": as one that is "in bitterness for his firstborn".

  Verse 11

• "The mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon": This is generally supposed to refer to the death of King Josiah of a wound received at Megiddo, in the battle with Pharaoh-Necho, and to the national lamentation made for him, long observed on the anniversary of the calamity. Jerome identified Hadadrimmon with a place in the Plain of Megiddo, near Jezreel, and known in his day by the name of Maximianopolis, now Rummaneh, seven miles northwest of Jezreel, on the southern edge of the Plain of Esdraelon, but the identification is far from certain.

  Verse 12

• "David... Nathan" First the royal family is mentioned generally, to show that no one, however, high in station, is exempted from this mourning; and then a particular branch is named to individualize the lamentation. Nathan is that son of David from whom descended Zerubbabel.
• "Nathan": A branch from Nathan, a son of David and whole brother of Solomon, in the ancestral line of Jesus.
• "Their wives apart." In private life the females of a household dwelt in apartments separate from the males, and in public functions the genders were equally kept distinct.

  Verse 13

• "Levi... Shimei": The priestly family is generally mentioned first, and then individualized by naming Shimei, the son of Gershon, and grandson of Levi. The LXX, Syriac Peshitta, and Arabic versions, read "the family of Simeon" or "the tribe of Simeon," instead of "the family of Shimei," but there is no known reason to mention this tribe. In one sense, this prophecy began to be fulfilled when a great company of priests were converted by the preaching of the apostles. These names are also found in a branch from Nathan, a son of David and whole brother of Solomon, which was in the ancestral line of Jesus Jesus... the son of Joseph,... ... the son of Levi,... ...the son of Semei,...... the son of Levi,... ... the son of Simeon,....

  Jewish

• Christian