Zechariah 13:7

5 ^aBut he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.’

6 And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your¹ arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’

The Shepherd Savior

7 “Awake, O sword, against ^aMy Shepherd,
Against the Man ^bwho is My Companion,”
Says the Lord of hosts.
^c“Strike the Shepherd,
And the sheep will be scattered;
Then I will turn My hand against ^dthe little ones.

8 And it shall come to pass in all the land,”
Says the Lord,
“That ^atwo-thirds in it shall be cut off and die,
^bBut one–third shall be left in it:

9 I will bring the one–third ^athrough the fire,
Will ^brefine them as silver is refined,
And test them as gold is tested.
^cThey will call on My name,
And I will answer them.
^dI will say, ‘This is My people’;
And each one will say, ‘The Lord is my God.’ ”

Commentaries:

Adam Clarke

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Zechariah 13:8 >>

Zechariah 13:7

Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd - This is generally understood of Jesus Christ. The sword is that of Divine justice which seemed to have been long asleep, and should long ago have struck either Man, or his Substitute, the Messiah. Jesus is here called God' s Shepherd, because he had appointed him to feed and govern, as well as to save, the whole lost world. This is a prosopopoeia, and the address to the sword is very poetic. There is a fine passage in Aeschylus to the same effect: -

ͅ,

, ,

̔ ,

Aeschyl. Sept. cont. Hebrews 733.

"The rude barbarian, from the mines

Of Scythia, o' er the lots presides;

Ruthless to each his share assigns,

And the contested realm divides:

To each allots no wider a domain

Than, on the cold earth as they lie,

Their breathless bodies occupy,

Regardless of an ampler reign:

Such narrow compass does the sword -

A cruel umpire - their high claims afford."

Potter.

The man that is my Fellow - veal geber amithi , "upon the strong man," or "the hero that is with Me;" my neighbor. "The Word was God, and the Word was With God;" John 1:1. "I and my Father are One;" John 10:30.

Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered - This is quoted by our Lord, Matthew 26:31, in relation to his disciples, who should be scattered on his crucifixion: and they were so; for every one, giving up all for lost, went to his own house.

And I will turn mine hand upon the little ones - I will take care of the little flock, and preserve them from Jewish malice and Gentile persecution. And so this little flock was most wondrously preserved, and has been increasing from year to year from that time to the present day.

Other Adam Clarke entries containing Zechariah 13:7:

Zechariah 9:1
Matthew 16:22
Hebrews 13:20

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