Zechariah 13:7-9

Zechariah 13:7-9. The purifying chastisement

The smiting of the Shepherd shall lead to the dispersion of the flock, which shall not, however, be universal, Zechariah 13:7; for while two-thirds of it shall perish, one-third shall be spared, Zechariah 13:8, and shall be brought by the refining process of affliction into happy and intimate relationship with God, Zechariah 13:9.

The opening of the section is apparently abrupt, and Ewald and other critics would accordingly transfer these verses to the end of chap. 11. The difficulty cannot satisfactorily be removed by the view (adopted by Mr Wright) that in the preceding verses (2 6) "much more is described than a sound reaction against the pretences of false prophets," and that "the age is represented as impatient of any such supernatural claims," a temper of mind, which is held to have been precisely that which led the Jews of that day to reject the claims of Jesus of Nazareth, and so to become the authors of the smiting of the Shepherd. Such a view mars the sequence of the foregoing prophecy, the deliverance, the penitence, the cleansing, the amendment, and moreover it was not because He claimed to be a prophet, nor because they were impatient of any such claim (for they both expected and recognised it, John 1:21; John 6:14; John 9:17; Luke 7:16; Luke 24:19; Matthew 21:4; Matthew 21:6; comp. Matthew 14:5), but because "He made Himself the Son of God" (John 19:7), that the Jews took their part in the smiting of the Shepherd. The true explanation of the apparently abrupt transition is to be found in the fact that this section is rather parallel with, than consecutive upon the earlier section of this burden. (Comp. the parallel series of visions, the seals, the trumpets, the vials, in the Apocalypse.) Having opened the future in the first section up to the great moral reformation of the end, the prophet now turns back again to a point even earlier than that with which that section commenced, and opens it again by a new vista from the smiting of the Shepherd to the same goal of perfect holiness which he had reached before. At the same time he guards against the mistake, which the promises of the earlier section might have fostered, that the goal was to be reached without discipline. "Adhuc bona et jucunda prædixit vates. Ne autem qui hæc legerent in hanc inducerentur opinionem, populi Judaici conditionem futuris temporibus fore immunem ab omni molestia et calamitate, jam annunciat priusquam Jova populum suum repurget atque revocat in perfectum ordinem, gravissimas clades fore intermedias." Rosenm. At the same time, there may possibly be such a connection of thought between Zechariah 13:6-7, as is suggested by Stier (Reden Jesu, Matthew 26:31). "There is a transitionin the parallel of -wounds" and -wounded" of Zechariah 13:6, with the -wound" (-smite," the same root) of Zechariah 13:7, which signifies In a quite different sense -will the trueProphet and Shepherd sufferfor the guilt of others: let Himself be smitten by them who hate Him, because He loves them." "