Zechariah 13 WEB
Summary: Continuing directly from chapter 12's mourning, a fountain is opened for the house of David and Jerusalem's inhabitants "to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness" (v. 1). God vows to cut idols' names out of the land and remove the very prophets and "unclean spirit" associated with false prophecy, to the point that a true parent would stab their own child for prophesying falsely, and any remaining false prophet will deny the title and claim to be only a farmer. The chapter's turning point commands, "Awake, O sword, against my shepherd... strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered" (v. 7), after which two-thirds of the land perish but the remaining third is refined like silver and gold through fire, becoming a people who call on God's name and are called his own.
1“In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.
2It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land.
3It will happen that, when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, ‘You must die, because you speak lies in Yahweh’s name;’ and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies.
4It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive:
5but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’
6One will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’
7“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says Yahweh of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.
8It shall happen that in all the land,” says Yahweh, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it.
9I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’ ”
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