1. In that day] The day, or period, so often mentioned before (Zechariah 12:3-4; Zechariah 12:6; Zechariah 12:8-9; Zechariah 12:11), in which this whole prophecy shall be fulfilled.

a fountain opened … for sin and for uncleanness] The form of the promise is Jewish, the substance Christian. For the lustral waters of the Law, the “water of sin” (Numbers 8:7) and the “water of uncleanness” (Numbers 19:9, where the word is the same as here, though rendered, “water of separation,” A. V. and R. V.), which were contained and renewed in bowl or laver, and which did but “sanctify to the purifying of the flesh,” shall be substituted the living fountain of the Gospel, opened once but remaining open ever (comp. θύρα ἠνεῳγμένη Revelation 4:1), which “purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Hebrews 9:13-14; 1 John 1:7.)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.”

7. Awake, O sword] We have a similar apostrophe in Jeremiah 47:6.

my shepherd] This may refer primarily to any Jewish king or ruler, for even a heathen king raised up by God to befriend His people is called by Him “My shepherd,” Isaiah 44:28. But it is at the same time a distinct prophecy of Christ. See chap. Zechariah 11:4, note.

my fellow] The word occurs only here and in Leviticus, where it is frequently found (e.g. Leviticus 6:2 [Heb., 5:21]; Leviticus 19:15; Leviticus 19:17), and is usually rendered, “neighbour,” ὁ πλησίον, LXX. In its highest sense it belongs exclusively to the Shepherd who could say, “I and my Father are one.” John 10:26-30.

True to the sound canon of interpretation which he always adopts, Calvin, while fully acknowledging the reference of this passage to Christ and its complete fulfilment in Him, contends that just as the prediction of “a prophet” in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 18:15) embraces the whole prophetical order, as well as “the Prophet” to whom they all gave witness, so here, while the Chief Shepherd is distinctly pointed at, the shepherds of God’s people generally are included, and called His “fellows,” because they are associated with Him in the work of government. “Sicuti ergo Christus primatum obtinet inter prophetas, et ideo bene aptatur ad illum locus Mosis; ita etiam quoniam pastorum est princeps et caput, merito hoc competit in ejus personam. Sed generalis tamen est prophetæ doctrina.… Hæc ratio est cur vocentur socii Dei, propter conjunctionem scilicet, quia sunt co-operarii Dei, quemadmodum Paulus etiam docet (1 Corinthians 3:9). Denique eodem sensu vocat propheta pastores Dei socios, quo Paulus vocat ipsos συνεργούς.” In applying this canon, however, to the prophecies of the O. T. it must be borne in mind that, as the stars grow pale before the rising sun, so as the coming of Christ draws near, typical persons and offices fade more and more out of sight, and the terms and reference of the promises belong more immediately and exclusively to Him.

the sheep shall be scattered] In interpreting this prophecy of His own death and its consequences, our Lord seems to restrict the “sheep” here to the Apostles, of whom we are told that, when He was apprehended, they all “forsook Him and fled” (Matthew 26:31; Matthew 26:56). We may say, with Bengel, that “the disciples were the representatives of the whole flock (instar totius gregis) which should afterwards be gathered by them.” But with Zechariah the flock is the Jewish Church, and it is better therefore to regard our Lord’s words as intimating the completeness of the dispersion which the prophet had foretold. Not only the flock at large, which had rejected Him as their shepherd, but even His own sheep, the faithful poor (“the poor of the flock,” chap. Zechariah 11:11; the “little ones” of this verse) shall be scandalized at first and flee away from the Cross.

I will turn mine hand upon] For correction, but in mercy, Zechariah 13:8-9. Comp. Isaiah 1:25, where the phrase is used in the same sense. Stier has some interesting remarks on the reference to this part of the prophecy in our Lord’s promise to His disciples in Matthew 26:32. “The hand and power of God in the risen Shepherd returned from death is turned upon them and gathers them together.”

Zechariah 13:7-9. The purifying chastisement

The smiting of the Shepherd shall lead to the dispersion of the flock, which shall not, however, be universal, Zechariah 13:7; for while two-thirds of it shall perish, one-third shall be spared, Zechariah 13:8, and shall be brought by the refining process of affliction into happy and intimate relationship with God, Zechariah 13:9.

The opening of the section is apparently abrupt, and Ewald and other critics would accordingly transfer these verses to the end of chap. 11. The difficulty cannot satisfactorily be removed by the view (adopted by Mr Wright) that in the preceding verses (2–6) “much more is described than a sound reaction against the pretences of false prophets,” and that “the age is represented as impatient of any such supernatural claims,” a temper of mind, which is held to have been precisely that which led the Jews of that day to reject the claims of Jesus of Nazareth, and so to become the authors of the smiting of the Shepherd. Such a view mars the sequence of the foregoing prophecy, the deliverance, the penitence, the cleansing, the amendment, and moreover it was not because He claimed to be a prophet, nor because they were impatient of any such claim (for they both expected and recognised it, John 1:21; John 6:14; John 9:17; Luke 7:16; Luke 24:19; Matthew 21:4; Matthew 21:6; comp. Matthew 14:5), but because “He made Himself the Son of God” (John 19:7), that the Jews took their part in the smiting of the Shepherd. The true explanation of the apparently abrupt transition is to be found in the fact that this section is rather parallel with, than consecutive upon the earlier section of this burden. (Comp. the parallel series of visions, the seals, the trumpets, the vials, in the Apocalypse.) Having opened the future in the first section up to the great moral reformation of the end, the prophet now turns back again to a point even earlier than that with which that section commenced, and opens it again by a new vista from the smiting of the Shepherd to the same goal of perfect holiness which he had reached before. At the same time he guards against the mistake, which the promises of the earlier section might have fostered, that the goal was to be reached without discipline. “Adhuc bona et jucunda prædixit vates. Ne autem qui hæc legerent in hanc inducerentur opinionem, populi Judaici conditionem futuris temporibus fore immunem ab omni molestia et calamitate, jam annunciat priusquam Jova populum suum repurget atque revocat in perfectum ordinem, gravissimas clades fore intermedias.” Rosenm. At the same time, there may possibly be such a connection of thought between Zechariah 13:6-7, as is suggested by Stier (Reden Jesu, Matthew 26:31). “There is a transition in the parallel of ‘wounds’ and ‘wounded’ of Zechariah 13:6, with the ‘wound’ (‘smite,’ the same root) of Zechariah 13:7, which signifies—In a quite different sense ‘will the true Prophet and Shepherd suffer for the guilt of others: let Himself be smitten by them who hate Him, because He loves them.’ ”

The Second Section. Zechariah 13:7 to Zechariah 14:21The 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.

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.

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