Zechariah 13

On that day a fountain will be opened for the family of David and for the people living in Jerusalem, to wash them clean from sin and from all that makes them unclean.

1In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.

Note"In that day" is a set phrase running through these chapters. It does not point to a dated event on a calendar; it marks a future moment when God acts decisively, and it links all the passages that use it into one stretch of expected time. A "fountain" here is a spring of naturally flowing water, not an ornamental jet. Israelite purification law required running water, literally "living water", rather than water standing in a jar or basin, so a permanent spring is an image of cleansing always available. "Unclean" and "uncleanness" are technical terms of Israelite ritual law, not comments on hygiene or character. A person became unclean through ordinary and often unavoidable contact (with a corpse, with certain bodily discharges, with particular animals) and while unclean could not take part in worship until washing and time had passed. The word covers a status, not a moral judgment. "The house of David" means the royal family descended from King David, still the recognized ruling line even in Zechariah's day, when the people had returned from exile in Babylon and had no king of their own.

2On that day, says the LORD of Hosts, the commander of heaven's armies, I will wipe the names of the idols out of the land, and no one will remember them anymore. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land.

2And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land.

NoteLORD printed in capitals stands in for the personal name of Israel's God, written in Hebrew with four letters (YHWH). Jewish readers came to avoid saying it aloud and substituted the ordinary word for "Lord," and English translations have followed that practice by using capitals instead of attempting the name itself. "LORD of Hosts" is a title: the "hosts" are armies, understood as the massed heavenly forces at God's command. Wiping out "the names" of the idols is not just erasing an inscription. In Hebrew usage a name carried a thing's identity and continued existence, so to blot out a name was to end the thing itself and any memory of it. "The prophets" here does not mean prophets in general. Zechariah is speaking of the professional prophets who claimed messages they had not received; they are paired with "the spirit of impurity" as two things to be swept out together.

3And if anyone still claims to speak for God, his own father and mother, the ones who gave him life, will say to him, "You will not stay alive, because you have told lies in the LORD's name." When he speaks his message, his own father and mother will stab him through.

3And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.

NoteThis scene assumes a law the first hearers knew: a prophet who spoke in the LORD's name a message the LORD had not given was to be put to death, and where the offender was a family member the family itself had to act first rather than shield him (Deuteronomy 13 and 18). The shock in the picture is not that parents may act but that they do, the loyalty owed to God outweighs the loyalty owed to a son. "The ones who gave him life" translates a phrase meaning simply his biological parents; it is repeated in the verse for weight, the way a legal document repeats a term.

4On that day every prophet will be ashamed of his vision. He will not put on a hairy cloak in order to fool people.

4And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:

NoteThe "hairy cloak" was a rough garment of animal hair or hide that worked as a prophet's uniform, recognisable on sight. Elijah was identified by strangers from that description alone (2 Kings 1:8). The point is that the false prophet will stop dressing for the part.

5Instead he will say, "I am not a prophet. I work the land, because a man bought me as a servant when I was young."

5But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.

NoteIn the King James wording, a "husbandman" is a farmer, a man who works the soil. It has nothing to do with being a husband in the marriage sense. The second half of the man's answer is genuinely uncertain in Hebrew. The words can be read as "a man bought me" (that is, he was acquired as a slave or bonded servant in his youth, which would explain his farm work) or, following the King James, as "a man taught me to keep cattle," or even as "the land has been my possession since my youth." The consonants allow all three; nothing in the sentence settles it.

6And if someone says to him, "Then what are these wounds on your body?" he will answer, "These are the wounds I got in the house of my friends."

6And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

NoteThe Hebrew reads literally "between your hands," an idiom for the front of the body, the chest, rather than the palms. The wounds would be recognisable to the first hearers. Ecstatic prophets of Baal and similar cults gashed themselves with blades to work themselves into a trance and force their god's attention; 1 Kings 18:28 describes the practice. Such scars would give a man away as a prophet of that kind, which is why he is asked about them. His answer is evasive and its sense is disputed. "The house of my friends" (or "of my lovers," or "of those who love me") may be a claim that he got the marks in an ordinary brawl or accident among people close to him, or it may be a half-admission that he received them in a shrine belonging to the gods he served. The Hebrew does not decide between them.

7Wake up, sword, and strike my shepherd, the man who stands close beside me, says the LORD of Hosts. Strike the shepherd down, and the sheep will scatter, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

7Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

Note"Shepherd" was standard ancient Near Eastern language for a ruler (a king, governor or leader responsible for a people. It carried no rural or sentimental flavor; it was as ordinary a political word as "head of state." The man is called God's "fellow" in the King James, translating a rare Hebrew word used elsewhere only in Leviticus, where it means a fellow member of one's own community) an associate, someone on the same footing as you. Applied here to God, it says the shepherd stands unusually close to him. "Turn my hand upon the little ones" is deliberately open. The Hebrew idiom of turning the hand toward someone is normally hostile, bringing a blow down on them, but the same phrase can mean turning the hand back over someone in protection. The "little ones" are the small and defenseless of the flock, and the sentence can be heard either as a threat against them or as a promise to shield them.

8And in the whole land, says the LORD, two parts out of three will be cut off and die, but a third will be left alive in it.

8And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.

Note"Cut off" is a standing Hebrew idiom for being destroyed or removed from the community, not a description of the manner of death. The word rendered "land" can equally mean "the earth" as a whole. Whether the disaster is confined to the territory of Judah or is wider is not settled by the wording.

9I will bring that third part through the fire. I will refine them the way silver is refined, and test them the way gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, "They are my people," and they will say, "The LORD is my God."

9And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God.

NoteRefining is a description of metalwork. Silver ore was melted so that the impurities rose to the surface as dross and could be skimmed off; the refiner judged when the work was done by the metal's appearance. "Test" is the assayer's word for checking gold's purity by fire. Both images are about separating what is genuine from what is not, not about punishment. The closing exchange ("They are my people" answered by "The LORD is my God") is a fixed formula in the Hebrew Bible, the two halves of a formal declaration of belonging, spoken by each side in turn the way parties to a binding agreement each state their part aloud.