Zechariah 12:10-14

(10-14) These are verses of almost unprecedented difficulty. If the words “and they shall look on me whom they pierced” stood alone, they might possibly be taken in a figurative sense, as denoting that they shall look to the Lord whom they had so grievously contemned (see Notes on John 19:37). Such is the view of the passage taken by Calvin, Rosenmüller, Gesenius, &c., and apparently by the LXX.; but this figurative sense of the word cannot be supported by usage; it always means “to thrust through” (see my Hebrew Student’s Commentary on Zechariah, pp. 111, 112). Moreover, the words which follow, “and they shall mourn for him,” can only mean, according to the said interpretation, that they shall mourn over the slain Jehovah — a notion grotesque, if not blasphemous. We might, indeed, get somewhat over this difficulty by rendering the words and they shall mourn over it — viz., the matter; but such an explanation would be forced, and greatly destroy the effect of the following words, “as for his only son and for his firstborn.” Neither can we, reading on Him for “on me,” understand the words “and they shall look on him whom they pierced” as referring to some unknown martyr, or to the Messiah directly, since such a reference would be so abrupt as to have presented no meaning to the prophet’s original hearers. We are compelled, therefore, to propound a theory, which we believe to be new, and which will obviate most of the difficulties of the passage. We consider these verses to be misplaced, and propose to place them after Zechariah 13:3, and will comment further on them there.