Zechariah 12


Zechariah 12 is the twelfth of the 14 chapters in the Book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Zechariah. In the Hebrew Bible, it is part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter is a part of a section consisting of Zechariah 9–14. The New Testament allusion to "the one whom they have pierced" is drawn from this chapter.

Text

The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 14 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis. Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including 4Q80 with extant verses 7–12. and 4Q82 with extant verses 1–3.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Structure

This chapter and chapter 13 verses 1–6 are a section, forming a three-section "entity" with 13:7–9 and 14:1-21. The New King James Version divides this chapter into two parts:
  • = The Coming Deliverance of Judah
  • = Mourning for the Pierced One.

    The Coming Deliverance of Judah (verses 1–9)

This section contains an oracle or prophecy "concerning Israel", focusing on "the final onslaught of all nations on Jerusalem".

Verse 1

"Burden" here means "oracle" or "prophecy", similarly in Zechariah 9:1 and Malachi 1:1. This verse contains the heading of the oracle which, to biblical writer Katrina Larkin, "seems to cover the whole of the rest of the book", with a "doxology on creation" bringing ideas about "creation and origins" projected forwards onto the "end of time".

Verse 2

There is a similar image in Isaiah 51:17: You... have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs, the bowl, the cup of staggering. Theologian Albert Barnes comments that "the image of the 'cup' is mostly of God's displeasure, which is given to His own people, and then, His judgment of chastisement being exceeded, given in turn to those who had been the instruments of giving it".

Mourning for the Pierced One (verses 10–14)

The mourning in this section is based on the piercing of the, who is the only one speaking in the first person throughout chapters 12 to 14; first compared to the loss of an only son, then to the death of king Josiah in the "plain of Megiddo" ; and the mourning spreading from Jerusalem to the entire land following by the references to particular subgroups or clans in the community even further according to the gender.

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 some preterist interpreters of the New Testament, 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.
  • "Me … him": The change of person is due to Yahweh 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.
  • "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.

    Jewish

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