Zechariah 12
Big idea: Jerusalem becomes dangerous to handle — a cup that makes the drinker stagger, a stone that injures whoever tries to lift it — and then, at the chapter's centre, the mood breaks completely: a spirit of grace is poured out and the city mourns for someone it pierced, family by family, husbands and wives apart.
The mourning here is answered in the first verse of chapter 13 by a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. The chapter division cuts through one movement.
12:1–9 — A cup of reeling, a burdensome stone
The oracle opens with credentials — the one who stretches out the heavens, lays the earth's foundation, and forms the spirit within a person — which sets the scale before the siege begins. Then two images for what Jerusalem becomes to the nations attacking it: a cup that makes those who drink it stagger, and a stone so heavy that everyone who lifts it injures themselves.
1 A revelation of Yahweh’s word concerning Israel: Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says: 2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. 3 It will happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it. 4 In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with terror and his rider with madness. I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. 5 The chieftains of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Yahweh of Armies their God.’ 6 In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem. 7 Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah. 8 In that day Yahweh will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like Yahweh’s angel before them. 9 It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
12:10–14 — They will look to me whom they have pierced
The turn is a poured-out spirit of grace and supplication, and what it produces is grief rather than triumph. The Hebrew is famously difficult: they will look to ME whom THEY pierced, then mourn for HIM — the shift from first person to third has generated centuries of discussion, and some manuscripts and versions smooth it in different ways. What is not in doubt is that the mourning is for a person, and that it is compared to grief for an only child and a firstborn.
10 I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn. 11 In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo. 12 The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; 13 the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; 14 all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).