Zechariah 13 King James Version (KJV)
13 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
2 And 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.
3 And 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.
4 And 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:
5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.
6 And 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.
7 Awake, 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.
8 And 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.
9 And 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.
Commentary
False prophets and true shepherd (13:2-9)
Having introduced the subject of forgiveness and cleansing, Zechariah goes on to deal with those evils that had to be removed from the land. One of Israel’s chief sins was idolatry, and this had been encouraged by the false prophets. Therefore, all false prophets must be killed (2-3).
If a false prophet escapes, he might try to preserve his life by throwing away his prophet’s cloak and disguising himself as a farmer. But he will not be able to remove the scars on his back. (Such scars were a characteristic of sorcerers and false prophets. They were made by cutting ‘magic’ marks in the skin; see Lev 19:28; 1 Kings 18:28.) If someone notices the scars, the false prophet will lie to protect himself, saying that he received the scars through a fight or an accident in a friend’s house (4-6).
Zechariah returns to the subject of leadership, using again the illustration of the shepherd. (The leader referred to here may be the person of 12:10 who was killed by his own countrymen.) The leader of God’s choice is one who is close to God and who truly cares for God’s people. But the people kill him and persecute his followers. As a result of this shepherd’s death, the majority of his people fall under divine judgment. The minority who are left go through a time of suffering, but through this they become better people and come into closer fellowship with the God in whom they have trusted. These are God’s true people (7-9).
No doubt this true shepherd was Jesus the Messiah (Matt 26:31; John 19:37). His own people killed him, and with his death the majority of Israel fell under God’s judgment. Some, however, were saved. These became God’s true people, though they suffered persecution at the hands of the rebellious (Rom 9:6-8; 11:5-7; Gal 4:28-29).