Zechariah 13:7-9

(7-9) It has been objected that “The mention of the ‘house of David’ (Zechariah 12:7; Zechariah 13:1) is inconsistent with the supposition of the authorship of Zechariah.” The answer is obvious, viz., that the house of David had not ceased with the captivity; on the contrary, Zerubbabel was its representative on the return. There is, too (not to mention cases more generally known), a family living to this day at Aleppo, the members of which, on account of its claim to be descended from the “house of David,” are, in accordance with Genesis 49:10, always allowed to take precedence of all others in exercising the functions of dayyânîm, “judges”; the famous Abarbanel also laid claim to be a descendant of David. Moreover, the thought expressed by the prophet in Zechariah 12:7, that the glory of the house of David, and that of the inhabitants of Jerusalem, should not magnify itself over Judah, is one which could never have entered into the conceptions of a prophet writing before the exile.