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Messianic Prophecies

Zechariah 12:10

Eschatological

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Zechariah 12:10

I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.

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A revelation, Yahweh’s word concerning Israel. Yahweh, who stretches out the heavens, and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says: “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. It will happen in that day, that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it. In that day,” says Yahweh, “I will strike every horse with terror, and his rider with madness; and I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. The chieftains of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in Yahweh of Armies their God.’ In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves; and they will devour all the surrounding peoples, on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem. Yahweh also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah. In that day Yahweh will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like Yahweh’s angel before them. It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

The counter-reading

How this passage is read within its own context.

On the critical reading, the Messiah ben Joseph tradition is post-Christian in its developed form (the Talmud was compiled in the 5th-6th century CE), and its relationship to earlier tradition is debated. This reading takes the pierced figure in Zechariah 12:10 to be ambiguous — "pierced" (daqar) could refer to any slain figure in Jerusalem's conflicts, and the mourning is compared to mourning for "an only child" and "a firstborn" (v. 10b), which reads as communal grief over a national tragedy. The textual shift between "me" and "him" within the same verse is taken as likely a scribal issue rather than a theological clue about incarnation. On this account the Johannine author selected this verse for its piercing imagery to interpret the crucifixion theologically — the interpretive direction running from event to text rather than text to event.

The fulfillment reading

How this passage is read as pointing to the Messiah.

On the fulfillment reading, the piercing imagery and communal mourning describe a specific event — the death of an important figure later recognized by those who caused his death. The reading takes the Talmudic identification with Messiah ben Joseph to show Jewish recognition that a messianic figure could be killed. The textual variant between "me" and "him" is taken as theologically significant: if the original reads "me" (God speaking), then God identifies with the pierced one, which this reading sees as hinting at incarnation. John's application to the crucifixion and the soldiers' piercing of Jesus' side is read as a specific rather than generic fulfillment.

The fulfillment reading has two provenance panels and the counter-reading one. The extra panel records how the New Testament takes up these passages — including where it does not — because it is a canon that cites them, the fulfillment reading's own textual basis. The counter-reading engages the same passages through the Jewish exegetical and translational tradition — the Targums, the Talmud, the rabbinic commentators, and the medieval exegetes — with no parallel canon that cites them as its own textual basis. That difference is about which sources exist, not a judgment reached here.

In the Jewish exegetical tradition

How the passage is read in the Jewish interpretive tradition — the Targums, the Talmud, the rabbinic commentators, and the medieval exegetes, named and dated in order from earliest to latest; a direct quotation is shown where a public-domain translation of the work survives.

  • Babylonian Talmud Talmudic · 3rd-6th c.

    Identifies the pierced and mourned one as the Messiah son of Joseph, who was killed.

    “What was the mourning for? R. Dosa and the rabbis differ: One holds that it was for the Messiah the son of Joseph, who was killed; and one holds that it was for the evil angel, who was killed.” Sukkah 52a — tr. Michael L. Rodkinson, New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, Tract Succah (New York, 1903), p. 79

    Sukkah 52a

  • Radak Rabbi David Kimchi Provencal · 12th-13th c.

    Discusses both the Messiah ben Joseph reading and alternative interpretations.

    “Our rabbies, of blessed memory, have interpreted this of Messiah, the son of Joseph, who shall be killed in the war. But I wonder, according to their interpretation, how he is here spoken of unconnectedly, without any previous mention at all.” On Zechariah 12:10 — tr. Alexander McCaul, Rabbi David Kimchi's Commentary upon the Prophecies of Zechariah (London: James Duncan, 1837), p. 155

How the New Testament uses this passage

Each entry names how the New Testament author draws on the passage — a direct quotation, an allusion, an echo, or a typological reading. An echo or an allusion is not the same as a prediction; the label says which is which.

  • John 19:37 Direct quotation

    Applied to Jesus' crucifixion and piercing

  • Revelation 1:7 Allusion

    Alludes to the pierced one and universal mourning

In the Christian exegetical tradition

How the passage is read as messianic in the Christian interpretive tradition — the patristic writers, the Reformers, and later confessional commentators, named and dated in order from earliest to latest; a direct quotation is shown where a public-domain translation of the work survives.

  • Justin Martyr Greek Apologist (Ante-Nicene) · c. 100 – c. 165

    Justin cites the pierced-one passage together with the tribe-by-tribe mourning (vv. 10-12) to distinguish two advents of the Messiah: at the first coming Christ was pierced and crucified in humility, and at the second coming the tribes of Israel will look upon the one they pierced and mourn. In the Dialogue he presses this on his Jewish interlocutor Trypho as scriptural proof that a suffering, wounded Messiah was foretold before the coming in glory.

    First Apology 52; Dialogue with Trypho (esp. chs. 14, 32, 64, 118)

  • Tertullian Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus Latin (Ante-Nicene) · c. 155 – c. 220

    Tertullian likewise reads the passage through the two-advents scheme: the pierced figure is Christ crucified at the first, lowly coming, while the mourning belongs to the second coming when Israel recognizes the one it wounded. He deploys the text both against Marcion, to show the one Christ fulfills the Creator's prophets, and against Jewish objectors, to argue the Messiah's humiliation and piercing were predicted.

    Against Marcion, Book III (ch. 7); An Answer to the Jews (Adversus Judaeos, ch. 14)

  • Jerome Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus Latin patristic · c. 347 – 420

    In his verse-by-verse commentary Jerome takes the first-person Hebrew ("me whom they pierced") seriously, referring the divine speaker to the incarnate Word so that God can be said to be pierced in the flesh of Christ. He connects the prophecy directly to the crucifixion and to the Fourth Gospel's citation, reading the promised mourning as the future repentance of those who inflicted the wound.

    Commentary on Zechariah (Commentariorum in Zachariam libri tres)

  • John Calvin Jean Calvin Reformed · 1509 – 1564

    Calvin identifies the pierced one with Christ and treats God as the speaker, holding that God speaks of himself as pierced because the offense against the Mediator is an offense against God; he thus finds in the verse a hint of Christ's divinity. He stresses that the resulting mourning is not mere grief but genuine, evangelical repentance, and ties the fulfillment to John's report of the crucifixion.

    “John says that this prophecy was fulfilled in Christ, when his side was pierced by a spear, (John 19:37;) and this is most true: for it was necessary that the visible symbol should be exhibited in the person of Christ, in order that the Jews might know that he was the God who had spoken by the Prophets.” on Zech. 12:10, Lecture 162 — Calvin's Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets, Vol. 5 (Zechariah–Malachi), tr. John Owen, Calvin Translation Society, Edinburgh, 1849

    Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets (Zechariah)

Where this stands

Zechariah 12:10 describes a future mourning in Jerusalem: "when they look on the one whom they have pierced, they shall mourn for him." The passage is textually complex — the Masoretic Text's Hebrew reads literally "look on me whom they have pierced" (first person, God speaking, as the NRSVUE footnote notes), while a minority of manuscripts have "him." The Talmud (Sukkah 52a) applies this to "Messiah ben Joseph" — a secondary messianic figure who dies in battle, distinct from the victorious "Messiah ben David." This dual-messiah tradition is an important but often overlooked strand in Jewish eschatology. John 19:37 applies the passage to Jesus' crucifixion, and Revelation 1:7 alludes to it.

A difference in the manuscripts

Zechariah 12:10

Masoretic
"look on … the one whom they have pierced" with the Hebrew footnoted as "on me" (1st person, God speaking)
Alternative
"look on him whom they have pierced" (3rd person) (A minority of Hebrew manuscripts and versions)

NRSVUE reads "when they look on the one whom they have pierced," footnoting the Hebrew as literally "on me." The shift between "me" (the majority MT) and "him" (a minority reading) is best explained as a scribal issue. Some argue the first-person "me" (God speaking) hints at incarnation, but this imports theological meaning into a textual problem.