Zechariah
Chapter 13

1

¹ On that day there shall be open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a fountain to purify from sin and uncleanness.

2

On that day, says the LORD of hosts, I will destroy the names of the idols from the land, so that they shall be mentioned no more; I will also take away the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness from the land.

3

If a man still prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of the LORD." When he prophesies, his parents, father and mother, shall thrust him through.

4

² On that day, every prophet shall be ashamed to prophesy his vision, neither shall he assume the hairy mantle to mislead,

5

but he shall say, "I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the soil, for I have owned land since my youth."

6

³ And if anyone asks him, "What are these wounds on your chest?" he shall answer, "With these I was wounded in the house of my dear ones."

7

⁴ Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate, says the LORD of hosts. Strike the shepherd that the sheep may be dispersed, and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

8

In all the land, says the LORD, two thirds of them shall be cut off and perish, and one third shall be left.

9

I will bring the one third through fire, and I will refine them as silver is refined, and I will test them as gold is tested. They shall call upon my name, and I will hear them. I will say, "They are my people," and they shall say, "The LORD is my God."

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Footnotes

¹ [1] A fountain to purify from sin: in contrast to the lustral water used in ritual purification; cf Numbers 19:9, 13, 20; 31:23. The Lord himself is the fountain of living water (Jeremiah 2:13); cf Isaiah 12:2-4.

² [4] Hairy mantle: worn by prophets as a mark of their calling; cf 2 Kings 1:8; Matthew 3:4.

³ [6] Wounds on your chest: literally, "wounds between your hands." The false prophets, like the prophet of Baal (1 Kings 18:28), apparently inflicted wounds on themselves; to defend himself against the accusation of being a false prophet, a man will deny having inflicted wounds on himself and say instead that he received them at home, "in the house of my dear ones." In the liturgy this test is applied to Christ in an accommodated sense.

⁴ [7] When the shepherd is killed, the sheep are scattered. In Matthew 26:31 the Evangelist quotes from this verse, in somewhat different form, the words, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered, as said by Christ shortly before his arrest in the Garden of Olives and the flight of the Apostles.

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