The cleansing of Israel
13
📚“On that day 📖 a fountain will be opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness 📖. 2 📚“And it will come about on that day, says the LORD of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols 📖 from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. And I will also cause the prophets 📖 and the spirit of uncleanness to depart from the land. 3 📚And it will come about that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who begot him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you are speaking lies in the name of the LORD.’ And his father and his mother who gave him birth will pierce him through 📖 when he prophesies. 4 📚“And in that day it will happen that every one of the prophets will be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; nor will they wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive. 5 📚But he will say, ‘I am no prophet. I am a farmer. For from my youth a man taught me to keep cattle.’
Wounds in the hands
6 📚And someone will say to him, ‘What are these wounds in your hands?’ Then he will answer, ‘The wounds I received in the house of my friends.’
13:4-6 False prophets, or those who think they are prophets, will try to hide the fact. Verse 6 is obscure. If it is joined with vs 4,5 the person here seems to be the prophet of vs 4,5 who is ashamed to say so; but if it is separated from those verses and joined with v 7 it could refer to Christ.⚜
7 📚“Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
and against the man who is
my companion,
says the LORD of hosts.
Strike the shepherd,
and the sheep will be scattered,
13:7 See Matt 26:31. The Shepherd is the Lord Jesus. The sheep were His disciples. The sword was God’s judgment against sin and the punishment for it Jesus bore in our place – Isa 53:5; 1 Pet 2:24; 3:18. But the words “I will turn my hand against” and vs 8,9 indicate that the nation of Israel as a whole is also in view. A partial fulfillment in the case of Christ’s disciples does not exhaust the full meaning of this verse.⚜
and I will turn my hand against
the little ones.
The refining of the remnant of Israel
8 📚And this will take place throughout
the land, says the LORD:
Two-thirds in it will be cut off
and die, but a third
will be left in it.
9 📚And I will bring that third through
the fire 📖, and will refine them
as silver 📖 is refined,
and will test them as gold is tested.
They will call on my name,
and I will hear them 📖.
I will say, ‘This is my people’,
and they will say,
‘The LORD is my God 📖.’
13:8-9 These verses probably refer to the end of this age. Compare Zech 14:2-3. In the future there will be a time of terrible trouble for Israel – Dan 12:1; Matt 24:15-22; Jer 30:7. But God will bring a remnant through that trouble and they will be a redeemed people in the land of Israel.⚜