Zechariah 13:2

I will cut off Forgiveness (Zechariah 13:1) is the middle term between godly sorrow (Zechariah 12:10-14) and amendment (Zechariah 13:2-6). It has been argued that the sins which are here said to be abandoned were not the prevalent sins of the Jews after the captivity, and that therefore the prophecy must be assigned to an earlier date. But the fact that this was the case, so far as it is a fact, may be claimed as completing the then present and historical basis, on which Zechariah, writing after the captivity, grounded, as is the wont of the O. T. prophets, the greater future which he was commissioned to reveal. Jerusalem had already proved and should presently prove again to be a "bowl of reeling," and a "burdensome stone" (Zechariah 13:2-3) to the enemies who sought to hinder the re-building of the Temple and city. (Ezra 6:6-7; Ezra 6:11-12; Nehemiah 4:6) Already "the spirit of grace and of supplications" had been poured upon the people and had moved them to penitent sorrow for their sins (Jeremiah 50:4-5), and throughout the era of the return it should in like manner be poured upon them. (Ezra 9; Ezra 10:1; Nehemiah 8:9; Nehemiah 8:9) Already had they set themselves to "cut off the names of the idols," and to "cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land." (Ezra 6:21; Ezra 10:2-44; Nehemiah 9:38; Nehemiah 10:28-30; Nehemiah 13:1-9; Nehemiah 13:23-31.) But all these things, the prophet assures them, are but as the scanty drops, the harbingers of the abundant shower, or the few ripe ears, the firstfruits of the plentiful harvest. In the coming age of Messiah, the King (chap. 9) and Shepherd (chap. 11) of Israel, when the Spirit shall indeed be poured from on high, and the true Fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness, the spiritual counterparts of deliverance, of penitence, of amendment shall flourish in the Church of Christ. (Comp. as regards the terms of this verse, "idols," "prophets," "unclean spirit," 1 John 5:21; 1 John 4:1). But beyond that is another age, in which in all its particulars, and with a completeness, it may be, and exactness of detail which it had never before attained to, the whole prediction shall be fulfilled.

the unclean spirit Comp. 1 Kings 22:22.