Zechariah 12:10 - Exposition

I will pour. The word implies abundance (comp. Ezekiel 39:29 ; Joel 2:28 ). The house of David, etc . The leaders and the people alike, all orders and degrees in the theocracy. Jerusalem is named as the capital and representative of the nation. The spirit of grace and of supplications. The spirit which bestows grace and leads to prayer. "Grace" here means the effects produced in man by God's favour, that which makes the recipient pleasing to God and delighting in his commandments ( Hebrews 10:29 ). They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. The Speaker is Jehovah. To "look upon or unto" implies trust, longing, and reverence (comp. Numbers 21:9 ; 2 Kings 3:14 ; Psalms 34:5 ; Isaiah 22:11 ). We may say generally that the clause intimates that the people, who had grieved and offended God by their sins and ingratitude, should repent and turn to him in faith. But there was a literal fulfilment of this piercing, i.e. slaying ( Zechariah 13:3 ; Lamentations 4:9 ), when the Jews crucified the Messiah, him who was God and Man, and of whom, as a result of the hypostatic union, the properties of one nature are often predicated of the other. Thus St. Paul says that the Jews crucified "the Lord of glory" ( 1 Corinthians 2:8 ), and bids the Ephesian elders "feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood" ( Acts 20:28 ; for the reading θεοῦ , see the critics). St. John ( John 19:37 ) refers to these words of Zechariah as a prophecy of the Crucifixion (camp. Revelation 1:7 ). The LXX . renders, ἐπιβλέψονται πρὸς μὲ ἀνθ ὧν κατωχρήσαντο , "They shall look to me because they insulted," either reading the last verb differently, or understanding it figuratively in the sense of assailing with cutting words; but there is no doubt about the true reading and interpretation. Vulgate, Aspicient ad me quem confixerunt. "Me" has been altered in some manuscripts into "him:" but this is an evident gloss received into the text for controversial purposes, or to obviate the supposed impropriety of representing Jehovah as slain by the impious. That St. John seems to sanction this reading is of no critical importance, as he is merely referring to the prophecy historically, and does not profess to give the very wording of the prophet. A suffering Messiah was not an unknown idea in Zechariah's time. He has already spoken of the Shepherd as despised and ill-treated, and a little further on ( Zechariah 13:7 ) he intimates that he is stricken with the sword. The prophecies of Isaiah had familiarized him with the same notion ( Isaiah 53:1-12 ; etc.). And when he represents Jehovah as saying, "Me whom they pierced," it is not merely that in killing his messenger and representative they may be said to have killed him, but the prophet, by inspiration, acknowledges the two natures in the one Person of Messiah, even as Isaiah ( Isaiah 9:6 ) called him the "Mighty God," and the psalmists often speak to the same effect ( Psalms 2:7 ; Psalms 45:6 , Psalms 45:7 ; Psalms 110:1 , etc.; comp. Micah 5:2 ). The "looking to" the stricken Messiah began when they who saw that woeful sight smote their breasts ( Luke 23:48 ); it was carried on by the preaching of the apostles; it shall continue till all Israel is converted; it is re-enacted whenever penitent sinners turn to him whom they have crucified by their sins. Critics have supposed that the person whose murder is deplored is Isaiah, or Urijah, or Jeremiah; but none of these fulfill the prediction in the text. They shall mourn for him. There is a change of persons here. Jehovah speaks of the Messiah as distinct in Person from himself. As one mourneth for his only son … for his firstborn. The depth and poignancy of this mourning are expressed by a double comparison, the grief felt at the loss of an only son, and of the firstborn. Among the Hebrews the preservation of the family was deemed of vast importance, and its extinction regarded as a punishment and a curse, so that the death of an only son would be the heaviest blow that could happen (see Isaiah 47:9 ; Jeremiah 6:26 ; Amos 8:10 ). Peculiar privileges belonged to the firstborn, and his loss would be estimated accordingly (see Genesis 49:3 ; Exodus 4:22 ; Deuteronomy 21:17 ; Micah 6:7 ). The mention of "piercing," just above, seems to connect the passage with the Passover solemnities and the destruction of the firstborn of the Egyptians.