Zechariah 13:6

But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. BUT HE SHALL SAY, I AM NO PROPHET, I AM AN FARMER - the detection of one of the false prophets dramatically represented. He is seized by some zealous vindicator of the law, and in fear cries out "I am no prophet." FOR Man_1:-1 :e., one. The Hebrew may mean Adam - i:e., our first parent was my pattern from my youth; I followed his agricultural (or pastoral, or both) occupations. TAUGHT ME TO KEEP CATTLE FROM MY YOUTH. As "keeping cattle" is not the same as to be "an farmer," and it would be no proof that a man was "an farmer" to say, "I was taught to keep cattle from my youth;" translate [ hiqnaniy (H7069)], rather, 'Has used (or 'appropriated') me as a servant'-namely, in husbandry. ...

Here the Prophet, in order to finish what we explained yesterday, says that such would be the discipline among the new people after having repented, that each in his own house would chastise his sons and relatives: and it is an evidence of perfect zeal, when not only judges perform their office in correcting wickedness, but when also private individuals assist to preserve public order, each according to his power. It is indeed true that the use of the sword is not allowed us, so that the offender may be punished by his neighbor: but as it was always allowed by the law of God, that when the matter did not come before a public tribunal, friends might inflict punishment, Zechariah, alluding to this custom, says, that though they who unjustly claimed the prophetic office and spread abroad false and impious errors, should not be visited with capital punishment, yet such would be their zeal fo...

1-6 In the time mentioned at the close of the foregoing chapter, a fountain would be opened to the rulers and people of the Jews, in which to wash away their sins. Even the atoning blood of Christ, united with his sanctifying grace. It has hitherto been closed to the unbelieving nation of Israel; but when the Spirit of grace shall humble and soften their hearts, he will open it to them also. This fountain opened is the pierced side of Christ. We are all as an unclean thing. Behold a fountain opened for us to wash in, and streams flowing to us from that fountain. The blood of Christ, and God's pardoning mercy in that blood, made known in the new covenant, are a fountain always flowing, that never can be emptied. It is opened for all believers, who as the spiritual seed of Christ, are of the house of David, and, as living members of the church, are inhabitants of Jerusalem. Christ, by the...

Verse Zechariah 13:6. _WHAT_ ARE _THESE WOUNDS IN THINE HANDS?_] _Marks_ which he had received in honour of his idols. But he shall excuse himself by stating that he had received these marks in his _own family_; when, most probably, they had been dedicated to some of those idols. Isaiah 44:5. I do not think that these words are spoken at all concerning Jesus Christ. I have heard them quoted in this way; but I cannot hear such an application of them without horror. In quoting from the Old Testament in reference to the New, we cannot be too cautious. We may wound the truth instead of honouring it....

AND ONE SHALL SAY UNTO HIM, WHAT ARE THOSE WOUNDS IN THY HANDS? - The words are simple; the meaning different , according as they are united with what immediately precedes, or the main subject, Him whom they pierced, for whom they were to mourn, and, on their mourning, to be cleansed, and of whom it is said in the next verse, “Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd.” Jerome and others explain it of the punishment inflicted by parents. “These wounds and bruises I received, condemned by the judgment of my parents, and of those who did not hate but loved me. And so will truth prevail dissipating falsehood, that he too, who was punished for his own fault, will own that he suffered rightly.” But wounds of chastisement are not inflicted on the hands, and the punishment of false prophecy was not such wounds, but death. Wounds in the hands were no punishment, which parents would inflict. They were...

EXPOSITION ZECHARIAH 13:1 § 3._ This repentance will lead to purification from past defilement, and a reaction against idolatry and false prophet._ ZECHARIAH 13:1 IN THAT DAY. At the time when the great mourning (Zechariah 12:1.) takes place, or, more generally, in the Messianic period, when all these things shall be fulfilled. SHALL BE A FOUNTAIN OPENED, etc. Shah be opened and continue open. The allusion is to the lustral rites practised in the consecration of the Levites, who were to have "water of sin" sprinkled on them, and to "the water of separation," or "water of uncleanness" (the word found i

AND [ONE] SHALL SAY UNTO HIM, WHAT [ARE] THESE WOUNDS IN THINE HANDS?.... That is, if thou art not a prophet, what is the meaning of these wounds in thine hands? which design either those his father and mother had given him, when they thrust him through for being a false prophet, Zechariah 13:3 or the mark of the beast he received in his right hand, which he was obliged to take when he entered into holy orders, Revelation 13:9, or the wounds and stripes he gave himself, in the exercise of his superstition and will worship: THEN HE SHALL ANSWER, [THOSE] WITH WHICH I WAS WOUNDED [IN] THE HOUSE OF MY FRIENDS; he will pretend that these were wounds he had privately in his father's family, by way of correction, for not doing his civil and secular business as he ought to have done; or

Zechariah 12:10. _And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart._...

CHAPTER 13 _ 1. The cleansing (Zechariah 13:1) _ 2. The blessed results of the cleansing (Zechariah 13:2) 3. The smitten Shepherd (Zechariah 13:7) 4. Salvation and condemnation (Zechariah 13:8) Zechariah 13:1. This verse is misplaced; it belongs to the preceding chapter. It is a prophecy of the cleansing of the repenting portion of God's earthly people. The fountain of cleansing, so beautifully expressed by Cowper: There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins, And sin

The result of the national repentance is the removal of guilt. The figure of the fountain is perhaps suggested by Ezekiel 47. The first sign of Judah's true restoration will be the abolition of all idolatry and of the spirit of uncleanness, _i.e._ Greek disregard of Hebrew laws of purity. There will also be a total abolition of all the professional prophets who, like modern fortune-tellers and palmists, traded upon the credulity of the foolish. The utter disrepute into which the prophetic order had fallen was due to the abandonment by the better teachers since Ezra's time of the older forms of prophecy for the exposition of the written Scripture. In other words, the true prophets had become scribes, while those who merely prophesied for a livelihood still carned on the calling which they had brought into disrepute. Some of the scribes were no doubt in the highest sense of the word prophe...