Zechariah 13

Zechariah 13:1

F. Provision Will Be Made for Cleansing from Sin (13:1)The first verse of chapter 13 is closely connected with the preceding chapter. After the people of Judah and Israel have been brought to the place of repentance for their rejection of the Messiah, then will follow a great national day of atonement. The fountain for cleansing was opened at Calvary, but Israel nationally will not enter into the good of it until the Second Advent.

Zechariah 13:2

G. Idols and False Prophets Will Be Banished (13:2-6)13:2 The land will be purged of idols, and false prophets and unclean spirits will be banished. 13:3-5 These verses apparently describe the wrath which will come upon false prophets in the day of Israel’s restoration. If a man falsely poses as a prophet, his own parents will threaten him and stab him. Men will not lightly claim to be prophets if they are not truly sent by God but will rather identify themselves as farmers, or whatever occupation they actually hold. 13:6 If a false prophet has been stabbed or if he has wounds which were self-inflicted as part of the cultic practices of the false prophets, he will not give the real reason when asked about them. Rather, he will give some ambiguous answer, such as, “Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.“Many devout preachers have used verse 6 to refer to our Lord Jesus Christ and to the nail wounds which He received at Calvary. However, it seems difficult to fit such a meaning into the context when a false prophet is clearly in view. In our zeal to protect messianic OT passages from the unbelief of rationalistic critics we must be careful not to press a verse out of its setting. Such a conservative Bible teacher as G. Coleman Luck agrees with the non-messianic interpretation: The man being questioned has denied that he ever was a false prophet. His questioner, however, is suspicious and persists in the examination. It was customary for false prophets to inflict cuttings or wounds on themselves (see 1Ki_18:28; Jer_16:6, etc.). Further details in the verse itself fit the false prophet better. In Hebrew the word for hands (KJV) refers to the forearms. These wounds between your arms, as the NKJV more precisely translates it, could refer to any wounds on one’s torso, front or back, such as could be administered in cultic cuttings (or by one’s “friends,” if the false prophet was telling the truth). Also, our Lord was not wounded in the house of His friends, but in that of His cruelest enemies.

Zechariah 13:7

H. Messiah Will Be Slain and Israel Scattered (13:7)Verse 7 starts a section that all believing Bible students consider messianic. Jehovah orders His sword to awake . . . against the Lord Jesus. The Shepherd was struck at Calvary, and the Jewish sheep have been scattered ever since.

Zechariah 13:8

I. A Remnant of the Nation Will Return to the Lord (13:8, 9)Because of their rejection of the Lord Jesus, two-thirds of the nation will die during the Great Tribulation, yet a remnant of one-third will be preserved. This remnant will be refined like silver and gold. They will acknowledge God, and He will acknowledge them as “My people.”