Zechariah 13
Big idea: A fountain opens for sin and uncleanness, and then two things are removed that a modern reader does not expect to see in the same list: idols, and prophets. The chapter ends with a sword called against a shepherd described as the man who stands next to God.
The struck shepherd and the scattered sheep are quoted by Jesus in Gethsemane. Chapter 14 takes the scattering to its furthest point and then reverses it.
13:1–6 — A fountain opened
The fountain is the answer to the mourning that just ended — opened for sin and for uncleanness, and continuously flowing rather than a basin that has to be refilled. Then the cleanup, and the second item is startling: not only the names of the idols but the prophets and the unclean spirit are removed from the land.
1 “In that day there will be a fountain opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. 2 It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land. 3 It will happen that when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, ‘You must die, because you speak lies in Yahweh’s name;’ and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies. 4 It will happen in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they won’t wear a hairy mantle to deceive, 5 but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’ 6 One will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’
13:7–9 — Strike the shepherd
The sword is summoned against 'my shepherd, the man who is close to me' — and the description is what makes the verse extraordinary, since it is God's own shepherd and God's own associate. Jesus quotes it on the way to Gethsemane and applies it to himself and to the disciples about to scatter, which is one of the clearest instances in the Gospels of a passage used to interpret an event in advance.
7 “Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones. 8 It shall happen that in all the land,” says Yahweh, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it. 9 I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”
Scripture text: World English Bible (public domain).