Zechariah 12
Jerusalem Protected from All Nations 1–9
The Spirit of Grace and National Repentance 10–14
Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain
Study Notes for Zechariah 12
Verse 1
The burden of the word of the LORD — Massa, a load, the word the KJV renders ‘burden’ for a weighty oracle, as at 9:1 and Mal 1:1. The LORD is named by what he does: he ‘stretched’ out the heavens (Isa 42:5), lays the earth’s foundation, and ‘formeth’ the spirit of man within him. Yatsar, to form, is the potter’s verb of 11:13 and of man formed from the dust (Gen 2:7).
Verse 2
a cup of trembling — Jerusalem had drunk ‘the cup of trembling’ at the LORD’s hand (Isa 51:17), which he took from her and ‘put… into the hand of them that afflict thee’ (Isa 51:22–23). Here Jerusalem herself is the cup (saph, a basin) that sets those around her reeling. The siege is ‘both against Judah and against Jerusalem’.
Verse 3
a burdensome stone — The stone (eben) is ‘burdensome’ (maamasah), from the verb to load, and those who ‘burden themselves’ with it are the nations. ‘Cut in pieces’ is sarat, to gash, the verb of the ‘cuttings in their flesh’ forbidden in Lev 21:5, here doubled. The gathering of ‘all the people of the earth’ is that of 14:2, ‘I will gather all nations against Jerusalem’.
Verse 4
astonishment… madness… blindness — These are the covenant curses of Deut 28:28, ‘madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart’, now laid on the horse and rider of the attackers. ‘Open mine eyes’ is paqach, the verb of ‘open, LORD, thine eyes, and see’ (2 Kgs 19:16): the LORD turns his sight on the house of Judah.
Verse 6
like an hearth of fire among the wood — The governors (alluph, chiefs, the word rendered ‘dukes’ of Edom in Gen 36:15) become a pan of fire among wood and a torch among sheaves. It is the picture of Obad 1:18, ‘the house of Jacob shall be a fire… and the house of Esau for stubble’.
Verse 7
the tents of Judah first — Ohel, a tent, the dwelling of the open country as against the walled city. The LORD saves these first, ‘that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah’, the principle of ‘that no flesh should glory in his presence’ (1 Cor 1:29).
Verse 8
as David… as God — ‘Defend’ is ganan, to cover, as in ‘so will the LORD of hosts defend Jerusalem’ (Isa 31:5). The one who stumbles (kashal) ‘shall be as David’, and the house of David ‘as God, as the angel of the LORD before them’, recalling the promise ‘I send an Angel before thee’ (Ex 23:20).
Verse 10
they shall look upon me whom they have pierced — ‘Pierced’ is daqar, to thrust through. John records the spear (John 19:34) and cites ‘They shall look on him whom they pierced’ (John 19:37); Rev 1:7 has ‘they also which pierced him’. The ‘me’ becomes ‘him’ within the verse. The Spirit of ‘grace’ (chen) and ‘supplications’ (tachanunim) is ‘poured’, as in Joel 2:28.
Verse 11
the mourning of Hadadrimmon — In ‘the valley of Megiddo’ Josiah was wounded in battle with Necho (2 Chr 35:22–23); he died and ‘all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah’ (2 Chr 35:24), and Jeremiah’s lament for him was kept by the singers (2 Chr 35:25). The verse names Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon as the pattern of mourning.
Verse 12
the family of the house of Nathan apart — Each family mourns by itself, ‘and their wives apart’. ‘Mourn’ is saphad, the verb of 7:5. Nathan is a son of David born in Jerusalem (2 Sam 5:14), and Luke’s genealogy passes through him (Luke 3:31).
Verse 13
the family of the house of Levi… Shimei — Beside the house of David, the throne, stands Levi, the priesthood, the two offices of 6:13. Shimei is a son of Gershon (Num 3:18), one of Levi’s three sons (Num 3:17), so the family named belongs within Levi.