This chapter is closely related to the previous one and the people are comforted because they will be renewed and cleansed from sin and idolatry will be abolished. This chapter also deals with the shepherd who is killed and the people scattered, with a third of them purified by trials. This chapter will have allusions to Yom Kippur.
v 1…”In that day (when Messiah comes) a fountain (a “makor”) will be opened (to provide the people with the means for purification from their sin because the eyes of the people are opened first) for the house of David (Israel) and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin ( Hebrew “Chata’at” meaning judicial guilt) and impurity (Hebrew “niddah” which is something unclean-this is why John the Baptist was asked “Why are you immersing” in John 1.21-25. They believed that when Messiah comes there will be an eschatological washing-Jer 17.12-13).
v 2…And it will come about in that day (when Messiah comes), declares the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off (karet) the names of the idols (their names were not even to be mentioned) from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will remove the prophets (the false ones) and the spirit of uncleanness (one who thinks they are divinely inspired but are not) from the land.
v 3…And it will come about that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you have spoken falsely in the name of the Lord’; and his father and mother who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies (there will be such an aversion and intolerance to idolatry that a man’s own parents will slay him).
v 4…Also it will come about in that day (when Messiah comes) that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision (not pretend to be prophets anymore, and they will be ashamed of the false prophecies they have given. This isn’t the case today, many false prophets keep right on going and have huge followings) when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy robe (to look holy and spiritual, the mark of a prophet like Elijah) in order to deceive
v 5… but he will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I am a tiller of the ground, for a man sold me as a slave in my youth (when detected as a false prophet, they will deny it and say they what they do for a living proves they are not false prophets).’
v 6…And one will say to him (the false prophet), ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will say, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my loves (he was wounded when prophesying in pagan temples, which he followed with an adulterous love; also an idolatrous practice as seen in 1 Kings 18.28; but will avoid the truth and say the scars were caused by the chastisement he received when he was a youth by his parents or some other loving relative).
v 7… ‘Awake O sword (the call comes from Yehovah-Isa 53.10), against my shepherd (Messiah), and against the man, my associate (literally ‘the mighty man of my union” or nearest one, equal, kinsman-John 10.30; 14.10-11; Phil 2.6),’ declares the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep might be scattered (realized in part in the case of the talmidim when Yeshua was arrested and they all fled-Matt 26.31-32 and Mark 14.27; it is also alluding to the dispersion of the Jewish people, but they continue to be his sheep-Isa 40.9-11; Rom 9 through 11); and I will turn my hand (bring back his hand) upon the little ones (show favor to the righteous in the nation-Isa 1.25; save and comfort the elect remnant of believing Jews-John 20.17-20).
v 8…And it will come about in all the land, declares the Lord, that two parts in it (the people in the land of Israel) will be cut off and perish (this was partially fulfilled in 70 AD, but from the context of Zech 14.2-9, this will go on over the centuries, waiting to be fulfilled under the false messiah); but the third will be left in it (refined through persecution and made into a holy nation).
v 9…And I will bring the third part (the remnant) through the fire (persecution, and ultimately the Birth-pains), refine them as silver is refined (Psa 66.10-12), and test them as gold is tested (Ezek 22.20-22). They will call on my name (Yehovah-Hos. 5.15; 6.1-3; Isa 13.9; Joel 2.17; Isa 11.1-12; 63.1-6; 66.19) and I will answer them; I will say, ‘They are my people (Hos 2.23),’ and they will say, ‘The Lord (Yehovah) is my God (Ezek 39.22).'”
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