Zechariah 13:7-9

A short fragment, parallel partly to Zechariah 11:15 and partly to Zechariah 14. The man of the Lord's fellow ship can scarcely be anyone but a High Priest. For smite read as in Mark 14:27, I will smite. There is no actual condemnation of the shepherd, and it is difficult to say whether Onias or Menelaus is referred to. In Zechariah 13:8 f. the harrying of the Jewish population in the Maccabæ an struggle is described. The writer esti mates that two-thirds perished. The survivors had indeed passed through the fire, and their fiery trial had not been in vain. From 141 B.C. onward there was no fear of Judah's lapsing into idolatry.