“In that day there will be a spring opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. It 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. It 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. It 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: but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’
One 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.’
“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.
It 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.
I 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.’ ”
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv1–9 From this verse we again learn, that Zechariah promised…
From this verse we again learn, that Zechariah promised the spirit of repentance to the Jews, so that they would find God still propitious to them, when their circumstances were brought to the verge of despair: for it would not have been enough for them to feel sorrow, except God himself became propitious and merciful to them. He had said indeed that the Spirit of grace and of commiserations would be poured forth; but he had not as yet taught clearly what he now adds respecting remission and pardon. After having then declared that there would be felt by the Jews the bitterest sorrow, because they had as it were pierced God, he now mentions the fruit of this repentance. And hence also appears what Paul means by sorrow not to be repented of; for it generates repentance unto salvation. When then our sorrow is blessed by the Lord, the end is to be regarded; for our hearts are thereby raised up to joy. But the issue of repentance, as Zechariah declares here, is ablution: and he alludes to the legal rites when he says,
A fountain shall be opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. We know that formerly under the law many washings were prescribed to the Jews; and when any one had become defiled, to wash himself was the remedy. It is certain that water was of no value to cleanse the heart; but the sins of men, we know, are expiated by the death of Christ, so that true ablution is by the blood which he shed for us. Hence the types of the law ought no doubt to be referred to this blood. The meaning is that God would be reconciled to the Jews when they became touched with sincere sorrow, and that reconciliation would be ready for them, for the Lord would cleanse them from every defilement.
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He speaks of a fountain opened; and he no doubt intimates here a difference between the law and the gospel. Water was brought daily to the temple; but it was, we know, for private washings. But Zechariah promises here a perpetual stream of cleansing water; as though he had said, “Ablution will be free to all, when God shall again receive his people into favor.” Though remission of sins was formerly offered under the law, yet it is now much more easily obtained by us; not that God grants a license to sin, but that the way in which our filth is cleansed, has become more evident since the coming of Christ. For the fathers under the law were indeed fully assured that God was so propitious as not to impute sins; but where was the pledge of ablution? In the sprinkling of blood, and that blood was the blood of a calf or a lamb. Now since we know that we have been redeemed by Christ, and that our souls are sprinkled with his blood by the hidden power of the Holy Spirit, it is doubtless the same as though God had not only set before our eyes our ablution, but also placed it as it were in our hands, while to the fathers it was more obscure or shown to them at a distance.
And he says, To the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He had before restricted God’s favor to that city, that he might goad the Jews, who had preferred their outward gratifications to so great a happiness; for they thought themselves happy in their exile, because they inhabited a pleasant and fruitful country, and enjoyed quietness and peace; and thus it happened that they despised the deliverance offered to them. Hence the Prophet promises here to the citizens of Jerusalem and to the royal family a fountain in which they might wash away their filth; for from Sion was the law to go forth, and from Jerusalem the word of the Lord. (Isaiah 2:2.) And we know that from thence were taken the first-fruits of the new Church. What we have before seen respecting God’s favor being extended farther, is no objection; for both events were in their due order fulfilled, as God blessed the tribe of Judah, who trusted in his promises and returned to their own country, and afterwards extended wider his favor, and gathered into one body those who had been dispersed through distant parts of the world.
He adds, For sin and for uncleanness, or as some read, “for sprinkling,” which is by no means suitable, except the word “sin” be taken for expiation. The word is derived from נדד, nedad, but it often means sprinkling, sometimes uncleanness, and sometimes the uncleanness of women, and so some render it here. The verb signifies to remove or to separate; and hence נדה, nede, is the removal of a woman from her husband during her uncleanness, but it is applied to designate any uncleanness. It might indeed be taken here for the uncleanness of women, as an instance of a part for the whole; but I am led by the context to render it uncleanness. Now if we translate חטאת, chathat, sin, then נדה, nede, must be rendered uncleanness; but if the first be expiation, then the second may be sprinkling: and this meaning I am disposed to take, for under the law sins were cleansed by sacrifices as well as by washings.
The import of the whole then is — that though the Jews had in various ways defiled themselves, so that they were become filthy before God, and their uncleanness was abominable, yet a fountain would be prepared for them, by which they might cleanse themselves, so as to come before God pure and clean. We hence see that it was the Prophet’s object to show, that the repentance of which he had spoken would not be useless, for there would be a sure issue, when God favored the Jews, and showed himself propitious to them, and already pacified, and even provided for them a cleansing by the blood of his only-begotten Son, so that no filth might prevent them to call on him boldly and in confidence; for instead of the legal rites there would be the reality, as their hearts would be sprinkled by the Spirit, so that they would be purified by faith, and would thus cast away all their filth.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1–8 He showeth what shall be the fruit of their…
He showeth what shall be the fruit of their repentance, to wit, remission of sins by the blood of Christ, which shall be a continual running fountain, and purge them from all uncleanness.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1–9 Zec 13:1 In that day there shall be a…
Zec 13:1 In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness.
Ver. 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened] Nunc fructum poenitentiae adiungit, saith Calvin here. This is the fruit of their repentance. No sooner mourn they over Christ, but they are received to mercy. "I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord: and" (or ever I can do it) "thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin," Psa 32:5; that is, both the sting and stain of it, the guilt and the filth, the crime and the curse. Repent, and your sins shall be blotted out, saith Peter to those nefarious kill-Christs, Act 3:19. God will cross the black lines of your sins with the red lines of his Son’s blood, 1Jn 1:6. A fountain shall be opened; not a cistern, but a spring; a pool better than that of Siloam, which is by interpretation, Sent, Joh 9:7, and so a type of Christ, who "loved us, and washed us from our sins with his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen," Rev 1:5-6. To seal up this matchless mercy to us, he sent first, by the hand of his forerunner, and baptized those that repented for the remission of sins, Mat 3:2 Act 2:38, and afterwards he set wide open this blessed fountain, this laver of "regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost," Tit 3:5. Saying by his ministers to every believer, as once to Paul, "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord," Act 22:16; whereunto salvation is promised, Rom 10:18 Joe 2:22. Baptism also is said to save us, 1Pe 3:21, sc. sacramentally, for it sealeth up salvation to the believer, Mar 16:16, and is of perpetual and permanent use to him, for that purpose, his whole life throughout, ut scaturigo semper ebulliens, as a fountain bubbling up to eternal life. Here then the sacrament of baptism is prophesied and promised. And hence, haply, the baptism of John is said to have been from heaven, Mat 21:25. All the Levitical purifications pointed to this king’s bath of Christ’s meritorious blood, this everflowing and overflowing fountain, for the grace of our Lord Jesus hath abounded to flowing over (as St Panl’s expression is) with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. Neither can it ever be dried up, as was the river Cherith, the brooks of Tema, &c., but is an inexhausted fountain, a fresh running spring, for all that have but a mind to make toward it. Tam recens mihi nunc Christus est, ac si hac hora fudisset sanguinem, saith Luther; Christ is still as fresh and sovereign to me as if this very hour he had shed his blood. He was the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world; and shall be so to the end thereof. Cruci haeremus, sanguinem sugimus, et intra ipsa Redempteris nostri vulnera figimus linguam, saith Cyprian of the Lord’s Supper; i.e. We cleave to the cross at this holy ordinance; we suck Christ’s blood, we thrust our tongues into the very wounds of our Redeemer, and are hereby purged from all pollutions of flesh and spirit.
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To the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem] i.e. To all sorts and sexes of penitents, be they noble or ignoble, strong Christians or weak, {Zec 12:8} none shall be secluded from this fountain, thus opened or exposed to all, not sealed and shut up, as that Son 4:12 "God is no respecter of persons: but in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him," Act 10:34-35.
For sin and for uncleanness] i.e. For all sorts of sins, though they be such as in their desert do separate us from communion with God and company of men, {Lev 12:1-8 Lev 15:1-33} render us worthy to be excommunicated, proscribed, and banished out of the world, as pests and botches of human society, by a common consent of nations; as the obstinate Jews are at this day for their inexpiable guilt in crucifying Christ. The Vulgate here hath it, Ad ablutionem peccatoris et menstruatae, For washing clean the sinner and the menstruous woman; alluding (as doth also the Chaldee) to the waters of expiation made of the ashes of a red cow, Num 19:11; Num 19:17; see the note there; and importing the purging both of he-sinners and she-sinners; or, as some will have it, both of actual and original sin. Lo, this is the virtue of Christ’s merit and spirit, 1Co 6:10-11, far beyond that of Abanah and Pharpar, of Jordan and Siloam, which yet are said not only to wash and scour, but also to heal and cure. The Saracens naturally stink like goats; but by washing themselves and their children in the pool of Siloam they become sweeter. The Turks make use of it to sharpen their eyesight. At Cyzicum there is a well called Cupid’s well, the water whereof is said to quench the fire of lust. This is better yet than those baths of Rome, concerning which Seneca no less wittily than truly complained, Postquam munda balnea inventa sunt, spurciores sunt qui lavant; or those wanton baths of upper Baden, in Helvetia, much frequented, yet not so much for health as filthy pleasure. "They that are in Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts," Gal 5:24; they are not only washed from their wickedness, Jer 4:14, but bereft of their swinish natures, ne tanquam sus ad volutabrum, not as a pig returning to his watering hole. 2Pe 2:22.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv1–9 In that day; when the Lamb of God shall…
In that day; when the Lamb of God shall be offered up a sacrifice for mankind, and the gospel shall be preached in which the glad tidings of our redemption are published.
A fountain: by water and ceremonial washings was legal pollution in many cases purged away, and much of the legal service stood in divers washings; but all these were shadows and types; here is that they typified, the matchless healing and purging fountain, i.e. the blood of Christ; here is the true Siloam, which never failed to heal any that rightly used it; it is Christ.
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Opened: the spouse is to Christ a fountain sealed, but Christ is to sinners a fountain opened: under the law he was as the waters of the temple, for the Jew; but now he is opened to us Gentiles, free to all, and of easy access, and of sovereign virtue to heal.
To the house of David; he was every where nearest to them, and though his own kindred did some of them slight him, and not believe in him, yet some others did, and it may intimate to us the first tender of grace made to his own, to whom he came, though they received him not; or the royal family some of them will be benefited by it, and all of them need it; no outward privilege can secure us against the poison of sin, grace alone, this fountain only, can purge it away in great and noble, or mean and base.
To the inhabitants of Jerusalem; to all the Jews before the Gentiles,
To you first, saith the apostle,
God hath sent his Son; but in that it is opened, it is to us Gentiles also. Jerusalem, as image of the whole church, takes in the Gentiles; so inhabitants of Jerusalem are all to whom the gospel is preached, all penitents.
For sin and for uncleanness; for purging away of all manner of sins and uncleannesses, of which men repent, and from which they depart, according to that Pro 20:9; 1Jo 1:9.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 7 Behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin…
Behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, the sin of the church; for therefore was the Son of God manifested, to take away our sin, Jo1 3:5.
I. He takes away the guilt of sin by the blood of his cross (Zac 13:1): In that day, in the gospel-day, there shall be a fountain opened, that is, provision made for the cleansing of all those from the pollutions of sin who truly repent and are sorry for them. In that day, when the Spirit of grace is poured out to set them a mourning for their sins, they shall not mourn as those who have no hope, but they shall have their sins pardoned, and the comfort of their pardon in their bosoms. Their consciences shall be purified and pacified by the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin, Jo1 1:7. For Christ is exalted to give both repentance and remission of sins; and where he gives the one no doubt he gives the other. This fountain opened is the pierced side of Jesus Christ, spoken of just before (Zac 12:10), for thence came there out blood and water, and both for cleansing. And those who look upon Christ pierced, and mourn for their sins that pierced him, and are therefore in bitterness for him, may look again upon Christ pierced and rejoice in him, because it pleased the Lord thus to smite this rock, that it might be to us a fountain of living waters. See here, 1. How we are polluted; we are all so; we have sinned, and sin is uncleanness; it defiles the mind and conscience, renders us odious to God and uneasy in ourselves, unfit to be employed in the service of God and admitted into communion with him, as those who were ceremonially unclean were shut out of the sanctuary. The house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem are under sin, which is uncleanness. The truth is, we are all as an unclean thing, and deserve to have our portion with the unclean. 2. How we may be purged. Behold, there is fountain opened for us to wash in, and there are streams flowing to us from that fountain, so that, if we be not made clean, it is our own fault. The blood of Christ, and God's pardoning mercy in that blood, revealed in the new covenant, are, (1.) A fountain; for there is in them an inexhaustible fulness. There is mercy enough in God, and merit enough in Christ, for the forgiving of the greatest sins and sinners, upon gospel-terms. Such were some of you, but you are washed, Co1 6:11. Under the law there were a brazen laver and a brazen sea to wash in; those were but vessels, but we have a fountain to ourselves, overflowing, ever-flowing. (2.) A fountain opened; for, whoever will, may come and take the benefit of it; it is opened, not only to the house of David, but to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the poor and mean as well as to the rich and great; or it is opened for all believers, who, as the spiritual seed of Christ, are of the house of David, and, as living members of the church, are inhabitants of Jerusalem. Through Christ all that believe are justified, are washed from their sins in his blood, that they may be made to our God kings and priests, Rev 1:5, Rev 1:6.
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II. He takes away the dominion of sin by the power of his grace, even of beloved sins. This evermore accompanies the former; those that are washed in the fountain opened, as they are justified, so they are sanctified; the water came with the blood out of the pierced side of Christ. It is here promised that in that day, 1. Idolatry shall be quite abolished and the people of the Jews shall be effectually cured of their inclination to it (Zac 13:2): I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land. The worship of the idols of their fathers shall be so perfectly rooted out that in one generation or two it shall be forgotten that ever there were such idols among them; they shall either not be named at all or not with any respect; they shall no more be remembered, as was promised, Hos 2:17. This was fulfilled in the rooted aversion which the Jews had, after the captivity, to idols and idolatry, and still retain to this day; it was fulfilled also in the ready conversion of many to the faith of Christ, by which they were taken off from making an idol of the ceremonial law, as the unbelieving Jews did; and it is still in the fulfilling when souls are brought off from the world and the flesh, those two great idols, that they may cleave to God only. 2. False prophecy shall also be brought to an end: I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit, the prophets that are under the influence of the unclean spirit, to pass out of the land. The devil is an unclean spirit; sin and uncleanness are from him; he has his prophets, that serve his interests and receive their instructions from him. Take away the unclean spirit, and the prophets would not deceive as they do; take away the false prophets that produce sham commissions, and the unclean spirit could not do the mischief he does. When God designs the silencing of the false prophets he banishes the unclean spirit out of the land, that wrought in them, and was a rival with him for the throne in the heart. The church of the Jews, when they were addicted to idols, did also dote much upon false prophets, who flattered them in their sins with promises of impunity and peace; but here it is promised, as a blessed effect of the promised reformation, that they should be very much set against false prophets, and zealous to clear the land of them; they were so after the captivity, till, through the blindness of their zeal against false prophets, they had put Christ to death under that character, and, after that, there arose many false Christs and false prophets, and deceived many, Mat 24:11. It is here foretold, (1.) That false prophets, instead of being indulged and favoured, should be brought to condign punishment even by their nearest relations, which would be as great an instance as any of flagrant zeal against those deceivers (Zac 13:3): When any shall set up for a prophet, and shall speak lies in the name of the Lord, shall preach that which tends to draw people from God and to confirm them in sin, his own parents shall be the first and most forward to prosecute him for it, according to the law. Deu 13:6-11, "If thy son entice thee secretly from God, thou shalt surely kill him. Show thy indignation against him, and prevent any further temptation from him." His father and his mother shall thrust him through when he prophesies. Note, We ought to conceive, and always to retain, a very great detestation and dread of every thing that would draw us out of the way of our duty into by-paths, as those who cannot bear that which is evil, Rev 2:2. And holy zeal for God and godliness will make us hate sin, and dread temptation, most in those whom naturally we love best, and who are nearest to us; there our danger is greatest, as Adam's from Eve, Job's from his wife; and there it will be the most praiseworthy to show our zeal, as Levi, who, in the cause of God, did not acknowledge his brethren, nor know his own children, Deu 33:9. Thus we must hate and forsake our nearest relations when they come in competition with our duty to God, Luk 14:26. Natural affections, even the strongest, must be over-ruled by gracious affections. (2.) That false prophets should be themselves convinced of their sin and folly, and let fall their pretensions (Zac 13:4): "The prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision; they shall not repeat it, or insist upon it, but desire that it may be forgotten and no more said of it, being ready themselves to own it was a sham, because God has by his grace awakened their consciences and shown them their error, or because the event disproves their predictions, and gives them the lie, or because their prophecies do not meet with such a favourable reception as they used to meet with, but are generally despised and distasted; they perceive the people ashamed of them, which makes them begin to be ashamed of themselves. And therefore they shall no longer wear a rough garment, or garment of hair, as the true prophets used to do, in imitation of Elijah, and in token of their being mortified to the pleasures and delights of sense." The pretenders had appeared in the habit of true prophets; but, their folly being now made manifest, they shall lay it aside, no more to deceive and impose upon unthinking unwary people by it. A modest dress is a very good thing, if it be the genuine indication of a humble heart, and is to instruct; but it is a bad thing if it be the hypocritical disguise of a proud ambitious heart, and is to deceive. Let men be really as good as they seem to be, but not seem to be better than really they are. This pretender, as a true penitent, [1.] Shall undeceive those whom he had imposed upon: He shall say, "I am no prophet, as I have pretended to be, was never designed nor set apart to the office, never educated nor brought up for it, never conversant among the sons of the prophets. I am a husbandman, and was bred to that business; I was never taught of God to prophesy, but taught of man to keep cattle" Amos was originally such a one too, and yet was afterwards called to be a prophet, Amo 7:14, Amo 7:15. But this deceiver never had any such call. Note, Those who sorrow after a godly sort for their having deceived others will be forward to confess their sin, and will be so just as to rectify the mistakes which they have been the cause of. Thus those who had used curious arts, when they were converted showed their deeds, and by what fallacies they had cheated the people, Act 19:18. [2.] He shall return to his own proper employment, which is the fittest for him: I will be a husbandman (so it may be read); "I will apply myself to my calling again, and meddle no more with things that belong not to me; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth, and cattle I will again keep, and never set up for a preacher any more." Note, When we are convinced that we have gone out of the way of our duty we must evince the truth of our repentance by returning to it again, though it be the severest mortification to us. [3.] He shall acknowledge those to be his friends who by a severe discipline were instrumental to bring him to a sight of his error, Zac 13:6. When he who with the greatest assurance had asserted himself so lately to be a prophet suddenly drops his claims, and says, I am no prophet, every body will be surprised at it, and some will ask, "What are these wounds, or marks of stripes, in thy hands? how camest thou by them? Hast thou not been examined by scourging? And is not that it that has brought thee to thyself?" (Vexatio dat intellectum - Vexation sharpens the intellect.) "Hast thou not been beaten into this acknowledgment? Was it not the rod and reproof that gave thee this wisdom?" And he shall own, "Yes, it was; these are the wounds with which I was wounded in the house of my friends, who bound me, and used me hardly and severely, as a distracted man, and so brought me to my senses." By this it appears that those parents of the false prophet that thrust him through (Zac 13:3) did not do it till they had first tried to reclaim him by correction, and he would not be reclaimed; for so was the law concerning a disobedient son - his parents must first have chastened him in vain before they were allowed to bring him forth to be stoned, Deu 21:18, Deu 21:19. But here is another who was reduced by stripes, and so prevented the capital punishment; and he had the sense and honesty to own that they were his friends, his real friends, who thus wounded him, that they might reclaim him; for faithful are the wounds of a friend, Pro 27:6. Some good interpreters, observing how soon this comes after the mention of Christ's being pierced, think that these are the words of that great prophet, not of the false prophet spoken of before. Christ was wounded in his hands, when they were nailed to the cross, and, after his resurrection, he had the marks of these wounds; and here he tells how he came by them; he received them as a false prophet, for the chief priests called him a deceiver, and upon that account would have him crucified; but he received them in the house of his friends - the Jews, who should have been his friends; for he came to his own, and, though they were his bitter enemies, yet he was pleased to call them his friends, as he did Judas (Friend, wherefore hast thou come?) because they forwarded his sufferings for him; as he called Peter Satan - an adversary, because he dissuaded him from them.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv1–9 In that day there shall be a fountain opened,....…
In that day there shall be a fountain opened,.... Which Aben Ezra and Kimchi understand literally; but R. Moses the priest figuratively; and so the Targum, which interprets it of the doctrine of the law being open as a fountain of water; and so Abendana, who compares it with Isa 2:3 but rather it should be understood of the preaching of the Gospel, and the administration of Gospel ordinances; though better of Christ himself, the fountain of gardens, and of living waters, from whose pierced side, of whom mention is made as pierced in the preceding chapter Zac 12:10, sprung blood and water; blood for justification, remission, and cleansing, and water for sanctification: and best of all of his blood particularly, called a "fountain", not so much for the quantity of blood shed, as for its full virtue and efficacy to answer the purposes for which it was shed; it being the blood not only of man, and of an innocent man, but of the Son of God; and may be said to be "opened", because of its continued virtue to cleanse from sin; it is not sealed, but opened, and always stands open; there is no hinderance or obstruction in coming to it; not the meanness or poverty of persons, they that have no money may come to these waters; nor their sinfulness, even though they are the chief of sinners; nor their being of this and the other nation, it is exposed to all; to all that the Father has given to Christ; to all sensible sinners: though it follows,
to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem; for this, as it may be literally understood of the Jews in the latter day, including their great men and common people, high and low, rich and poor; so mystically of all the family of Christ the son of David, and of all that belong to the heavenly Jerusalem, even the whole church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven:
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for sin, and for uncleanness; that is, for sin, which is uncleanness; sin is an unclean thing, and has defiled all human nature, and nothing can remove the pollution of it; but the blood of Christ can remove it, and that being shed makes atonement for it, procures the pardon of it, and justifies from it in the sight of God; and being sprinkled on the conscience, removes it from that. The Targum interprets it mystically of the forgiveness of sins, paraphrasing it thus,
"I will forgive their iniquities, as they are cleansed with the water of sprinkling, and the ashes of the heifer, which is for sin.''
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8 A promise of pardon, of reformation, and of the…
A promise of pardon, of reformation, and of the conviction and silencing of false prophets, ver. 1-6. A clear prediction of the sufferings of Christ, the destruction of the Jews, and the purifying of a remnant, ver. 7-9.
A fountain - The blood of Christ. Opened - The spouse is to Christ a fountain sealed, but Christ is to sinners a fountain opened. Inhabitants of Jerusalem - The inhabitants of Jerusalem are all to whom the gospel is preached. For uncleanness - For purging away all manner of sins and uncleannesses.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1–9 After the humiliation and conversion of the Jews, foretold…
CHAPTER XIII
After the humiliation and conversion of the Jews, foretold in
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the preceding chapter, they are here promised the full pardon
of their sins, and a deliverance from idolatry and false
prophets, 1-6.
Prophecy concerning the death of the Messiah, and the
persecution of his disciples, 7.
The remaining verses may refer to those Jewish converts to
Christianity who survived the calamities which their country
suffered from the Romans, 8, 9.
NOTES ON CHAP. XIII
Verse 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened] This chapter is a continuation of the preceding, and should not have been separated from it.
A fountain] The source of mercy in Christ Jesus; perhaps referring to the death he should die, and the piercing of his side, when blood and water issued out.
To the house of David] To David's family, and such like persons as it included. See the history of David and his sons, and then learn for whom Christ shed his blood.
Inhabitants of Jerusalem] Such like persons as the Jews were in every part of their history, and in their last times, when they clamoured for the blood of Christ, and pursued him unto death! Learn from this also for whom Christ died! These were the worst of the human race; and if he died for them, none need despair. They rejected, betrayed, crucified, slew, and blasphemed Christ, and afterwards persecuted his followers. For these he died! Yes: and he tasted death for EVERY MAN.
For sin and for uncleanness.] For the removal of the guilt of sin, and for the purification of the soul from the uncleanness or pollution of sin.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 Zec 13:1. In that day — When the Lamb…
Zec 13:1. In that day — When the Lamb of God shall be offered up a sacrifice for mankind, and the gospel shall be preached, in which the glad tidings of our redemption are published. This seems to be a continuation of the prophecy begun at the ninth verse of the preceding chapter; and the meaning to be that, through the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah, the repentance and humiliation there described should be accepted of God, and followed with a full pardon and gracious communication of sanctifying grace to the penitent. There shall be a fountain opened — “The blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin, (1Jn 1:7,) is manifestly here intended, the Jews being, upon their repentance and conversion, to be admitted to all the privileges of the Christian covenant.” Probably there may be an allusion in the words “to the one great spring at Jerusalem, (mentioned Isa 7:3,) which served the uses of king and people.” See Vitringa. The spouse of Christ, his church, is a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, Son 4:12; but Christ is to sinners a fountain opened: under the law, he was as the waters of the temple for the Jews; but now his merits are opened to us Gentiles, free for all, and of easy access, and of sovereign virtue to heal. For sin and for uncleanness — The original words here used, חשׂאתand נדה, are “legal terms; the former denotes sin generally, or any transgression of the law which required atonement, and is sometimes put for the means of purification from it, Num 19:9-17; the latter is used for that uncleanness, or legal defilement, which secluded a man from all intercourse with God, and holy things. Now whatever efficacy the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on the unclean, had to purify from legal sin and defilement, the same is ascribed to the blood of Christ in the Christian dispensation, for purging the conscience of a sinner from the guilt of dead works, or moral pollution.” — Blayney. The legal washings were but shadows and types of this matchless, healing, purifying fountain, which never fails to heal all those that apply to it. It must be observed, likewise, that spiritual graces and influences, communicated by the Holy Spirit, are also compared to a fountain, Joe 3:17; and by these sinners are represented as being washed and cleansed, Eze 36:25; Tit 3:5.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv1–9 In that day there shall be a fountain opened…
In that day there shall be a fountain opened - Zechariah often repeats, “in that day” Zec 12:3-4, Zec 12:6, Zec 12:8-9, Zec 12:11; Zec 13:1-2, Zec 13:4; Zec 14:6, Zec 14:8, Zec 14:13, Zec 14:20, resuming his subject again and again, as a time not proximate, but fixed and known of God, of which he declared somewhat. It is “that day” which “Abraham desired to see, and saw it” Joh 8:56, whether by direct revelation, or in the typical sacrifice of Isaac, “and was glad:” it was “that day” which “many prophets and kings and righteous men desired to see” Mat 13:17; Luk 10:24, and in patience waited for it,: “the” one “day of salvation” of the Gospel. He had spoken of repentance, in contemplation of Christ crucified; he now speaks of forgiveness and cleansing, of sanctification and consequent obedience. The “fountain shall be” not simply “opened,” but shall remain open. Isaiah had already prophesied of the refreshment of the Gospel. “When the poor and needy seek water and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst, I, the Lord, will hear them, I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys” Isa 41:17-18; here it is added, “for sin. and for uncleanness.”
There were “divers” Heb 9:10 symbolical “washings” under the law; the Levites were “sprinkled with the water of purifying” Num 8:7, literally, “the water of taking away of sin: living waters” Num 19:17, put to the ashes of an heifer, were appointed as a “water for” (removing) “defilements” (Num 19:9, Num 19:13, Num 19:20-21 bis; Num 31:23); “a cleansing of sin” Num 19:9. Now, there should be one ever-open fountain for all “the house of David.” Theodoret: “Who that fountain is, the Lord Himself teacheth through Jeremiah, ‘they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters’ Jer 2:13; and in the Gospel He says, ‘If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink’ Joh 7:37; and ‘The water which I shall give him, is a fountain of living water, gushing up to everlasting life’ Joh 4:14. This was ‘open to the house of David;’ for of that kindred He took human nature. It was opened also ‘for the dwellers of Jerusalem,’ for the sprinkling of holy baptism; through which we have received remission of sins.” Cyril: “That, receiving divine and holy baptism, we are sprinkled with the Blood of Christ to the remission of sins, who can doubt?” Dionysius: “Of this fountain much was foretold by Ezekiel, ‘that a fountain should issue forth from the temple of the Lord, and ‘go down into the desert’ Eze 47:1, Eze 47:8-9, and ‘every soul, to whom it shall come, shall live;’ and Joel, ‘A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and water the valley of Shillim’ Joe 3:18. Of this fountain Peter said to the Jews, when ‘pricked in the heart’ and seeking forgiveness, ‘Let everyone of you be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins’” Act 2:37-38.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv1–9 Fountain. In the New Testament Christ is made an…
Fountain. In the New Testament Christ is made an open fountain by his incarnation, John iv. 13. (St. Gregory, xx. in Ezechiel i. 6. ep. 186.) (Worthington) --- His baptism and other sacraments have the most surprising effects, to which the prophet refers more than to those waters which were brought by pipes into the temple to cleanse the victims, Ezechiel xlvii. 1. (Calmet) --- The washing. Septuagint, "change and sprinkling." Grabe substitutes Greek: chorismon, "separation," and marks the verse with an asterisk. The legal impurities shall be effaced. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On vv2, 7 A. The Extinction of Idols and False Prophets (Zec_13:2).…
3. FRUITS OF PENITENCE.
Zec_13:2-6.
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A. The Extinction of Idols and False Prophets (Zec_13:2). B. The Latter to be slain by their own Parents (Zec_13:3). C. Other such Prophets shall be ashamed of their Calling (Zec_13:4). D. And even deny it when charged upon them (Zec_13:5-6.)
2 And it shall be in that day, saith Jehovah of Hosts,
I will cut off the names of the idols from the land,23
And they shall be remembered no more;
And also the prophets and the spirit of uncleanness,
Will I cause to pass out of the land.
3 And it shall be, if a man still prophesy,
His father and his mother, who begat him, shall say to him,
Thou shalt not live,
For thou hast spoken a lie in the name of Jehovah;
And his father and his mother, who begat him,
Shall pierce24 him through in his prophesying.
4 And it shall be in that day the prophets shall be ashamed25
Each of his vision in his prophesying;
And shall no more put on a hairy mantle to lie;
5 And [one] shall say,26 I am not a prophet, I am a husbandman,
For a man has sold27 me from my youth.
6 And [the other] shall say28 to him,
What then are these wounds between thy hands?
And he shall say, Those with which I was wounded
In the house of my lovers.29
EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL
This portion announces the complete extirpation of idolatry and false prophecy, which are here taken to represent all forms of ungodliness and immorality, which they could very properly do, since they had been the chief and most dangerous sins of the covenant people in all their previous history. We have then a vivid presentation of the fruits of the penitence mentioned in the previous chapter, and of the conversion and renovation announced in the opening verse of this chapter. The passage is not to be restricted to any particular period, but describes under local and temporary forms the removal of whatever is offensive to a God of holiness and truth. It will therefore apply to every instance in which the Gospel in its leading elements, repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, is truly received.
Zec_13:2. I will cut off the names of the idols. The expressions, “to cut off the names,” and “that they be remembered no more,” denote the total extinction of idolatry (cf. Hos_2:17). Of the latter Calvin says, “his meaning is that the hatred of superstition will be so great that the people will shudder at the very name.” Inasmuch as the Jews notoriously after the Captivity shrank from any approach to idol-worship, it has been claimed that this passage shows that the portion of the book to which it belongs was composed prior to the Exile. But the conclusion is not legitimate. Zechariah simply uses the forms of the past in which to depict the future. Idolatry was the common expression of ungodliness in the earlier days of the nation; how could even a post-exilium prophet better set forth the overthrow of false religion in the future than by predicting the oblivion of idols and their names? Köhler indeed deems it possible, on the basis of Rev_9:20; Rev_13:4; Rev_13:15, that gross actual idol-worship may again return, but this would be to interpret an obscure book by one yet obscurer. Possibly the reference may be to that refined idolatry which consists in regarding and serving the creature more than the Creator, and which the New Testament has in view when it declares covetousness to be idolatry (Col_3:5). The prophets must of course be false prophets who spoke without authority, as appears from their association not only with idols but also with the spirit of uncleanness. This latter phrase denotes not merely a pervading principle, but an active, conscious agency, standing in direct contrast with the Spirit of grace (Zec_12:10), which works in its human instruments and leads them to their lying utterances. The false prophets as well as the true were subject to an influence from without (cf. 1Ki_22:21-23, Rev_16:14 with 2Th_2:9-10 and 1Ti_4:2). The completeness of the removal of this form of ungodliness is expressed very energetically in the following verses.
Zec_13:3. If a man still prophesy.… pierce him through. Some infer from the opening words that the mere fact of prophesying will be proof that the man attempting it is a deceiver, since there will be no more prophets (Keil, Köhler), and they refer to Jer_31:33-34, Isa_54:13; but this is an extravagant and needless assumption, for the connection shows plainly enough that Zechariah has in view simply false pretenders to divine inspiration, and the passages quoted by no means imply the final cessation of the spirit of prophecy either in its broad or its narrow sense, as the New Testament plainly shows. The statement in the text rests on Deu_18:20, compared with Zec_13:6-9. The offender shall die, and the first to inflict the sentence shall be his father and his mother, here made more emphatic by the addition, who begat him. Cf. 2Sa_16:11. Several expositors modify the meaning of דָקַר so as to make it=to bind or scourge (LXX., Peshito, Calmet), but there is no ground whatever for this in the origin or usage of the word, nor does it suit the context.
Zec_13:4. Prophets shall be ashamed.… to lie. The revolution will be so great that these pretenders shall become ashamed of their claims, and strip off the outward token of their occupation. The hairy mantle worn by the prophets (2Ki_1:8) was not a form of ascetic discipline, but a sermo propheticus realis, a symbol of the prophet’s grief for the sins which he was commissioned to reprove. It was an acted parable of repentance. The same remark is true of John the Baptist’s “raiment of camel’s hair and leathern girdle” (Mat_3:4). To lie, i. e., to give themselves the appearance of prophets, and thus impose upon the people. Thus far Zechariah has spoken of those who spoke falsely in the name of the Lord, and Hengstenberg supposes that he now turns to another class of pretenders who spoke in the name of strange gods,—a view which seems required by his interpretation of the last word of Zec_13:6. But no break or transition is apparent in the passage, and there is no necessity for violently introducing a new subject.
Zec_13:5-6. I am not a prophet.… lovers. A dramatic representation of the means by which one of these deceivers endeavors to escape detection. Charged with his crime, he denies it, and claims to have been nothing more than a common tiller of the soil. In support of this claim he asserts that this is no recent circumstance, but that he has been sold from his youth. קָנִה=to acquire, h. buy (Isa_24:2), in Hiphil would naturally=to cause to buy, i. e., to sell. Fürst and others make Hiphil the same as Kal. The sense is the same according to either rendering. There seems to be no reason for considering the verb a denominative from מִקְנֶה, servum facere (Maurer, Köhler). To this denial is opposed the question as to the origin of the scars the accused person bears,—wounds between thy hands, i. e., upon the breast. Cf. 2Ki_9:24, where “between the arms” evidently has this meaning. (In Arabic the cognate phrase, ׀َםْהَ םَבَ םْו, occurs frequently, in the sense coram eo.) The questioner considers these gashes upon the person as palpable evidences that the man has wounded himself in connection with idolatrous worship (1Ki_18:28; Tibullus, 1:1:43, respecting the worship of Cybele), and asks an explanation. The reply is that lie received them in the house of his lovers, which some explain as=impure, sinful lovers, i. e., idols (Hengstenberg), in which sense they say that the Piel of אָהַב is always used (which, however, cannot be affirmed of Jer_22:20; Jer_22:22, Lam_1:19); but as the form necessarily signifies only intense affection without regard to quality, I prefer the opinion of those who explain it as=loving friends, and understand the accused person as maintaining that the scars are simply the result of chastisements which he had formerly received when in the house of his relatives. It seems more likely that such a man would resort to an evasion of this kind than that he would make the frank confession involved in the former view.
This verse is commonly applied to the sufferings of Christ, but without any further ground than its mere proximity to that which follows, in which He and his sufferings are clearly predicted” (Henderson). It is quite impossible on any critical ground to vindicate such an application, although Henderson is far astray when he assigns as a reason that “in no tolerable sense could the Jews be called Christ’s lovers or friends,” for it is written (Joh_1:11), “He came unto his own, and his own (οἱ ί̈διοι) received Him not,” and the Apostle (Rom_9:5) speaks of his kinsmen as those "of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came.”
THEOLOGICAL AND MORAL.
1. Idolatry and divination are mentioned by Zechariah, as has been said, only as typical forms of error and sin. But it is singular how well they express the prevailing evils with which the Church is called to contend in modern times. The gross idolatry of the heathen has disappeared from Christendom never to return; but its place is taken by a more refined and more dangerous error of the same sort. There is a devotion rendered to wealth, to pleasure, to position, to genius, which is wholly inconsistent with the just claims of our Maker. There is a materialism which, although glozed over with high sounding names, is as repulsive to the true honor of God as the worship of Baal or Astarte. It dwells on great physical achievements, discoveries in nature or inventions in art, scientific triumphs, or even the multiplication of social conveniences, as if these were the all in all of life and of man. The next world is ignored. God is turned into a mere name. He is not enough thought of to be actively opposed; and men say in Gibbon’s famous formula, all religions are equally true in the eyes of the people, equally false in the eyes of the philosopher, and equally useful in the eyes of the statesman. Now this cool indifference, this pervading earthliness of character and pursuit, is not simply the rejection of God, but the enthronement of something else in his place, i. e., idolatry. And it needs all the energy of a true spiritual faith to overcome it. If the Church is ever to fulfill her function, she must insist that the life is more than meat and the body than raiment; that means are not ends; that man is not merely an animal of the better class, more highly organized and of larger intelligence; but that he is a spiritual being, allied to the infinite Spirit and able to reach the true goal of his existence only in willing obedience to that supreme Spirit. Anything else than this, whether it he the worship of wealth, or the worship of science, is treason to God. It puts the creature in the place of the Creator, and so prepares the way for all ungodliness and unrighteousness. A religious basis is essential to a permanent morality, and although the late Mr. John Stuart Mill held that there could be a religion without a personal God, all experience is against his crude notion. Men who begin by denying the rights of their Maker will sooner or later end by denying the rights of their fellow men.
2. The world has often flattered itself that “the false prophet and the unclean spirit” have completely passed away, that science has effectually disposed of superstition, that the progress of education and intelligence has put an end to soothsaying and necromancy. Yet our own generation has completely exploded this flattering dream. The heart of our own enlightened land where the schoolmaster has been abroad for generations, has witnessed the resurrection and diffusion of errors which are usually considered as belonging only to the twilight of civilization. The miserable first king of Israel resorted to the witch of Endor, only after every other door of knowledge had been hopelessly closed against him; but now under the blaze of a completed revelation, with Christ at the right hand of God, and the Holy Spirit promised to all who seek aright, men revive an antiquated delusion and seek for the living to the dead. Nay, many who reject and scoff at the Scriptures, receive with implicit faith what purport to be communications from the ghosts of the departed. It is a fulfillment of the Apostolic declaration (2Ti_4:4), “They who turn away their ears from the truth shall be turned unto fables.” Man stands too close to the unseen world to deny or ignore its existence; his own condition here with its dependence and exposure makes him look wistfully for something higher and better. If that craving is not satisfied legitimately, it will be illegitimately. The alternative to Faith is not unbelief but misbelief. Men must believe something. If they obey the laws of evidence, they will receive the only proven revelation from the invisible world; if not, then all that remains is belief without evidence, that is, superstition. Nor will this be altered if there be a common school, and a printing press, and a scientific association in every hamlet of the land. No culture of the intellect can destroy or smother man’s moral and spiritual nature. The heart, the conscience, the sense of responsibility, will still survive and demand some appropriate nutriment. To offer to these the latest discoveries in physics, is to offer stones instead of bread, or a scorpion instead of a fish. If they do not receive the living oracles of the Spirit of holiness, they fall into the hands of “the spirit of uncleanness,” whose working is with lying wonders and all deceivableuess of unrighteousness in them that perish, because they received not the love of the truth that they might be saved (2Th_2:9-10).
3. The energy of moral rebuke in a healthy state of Zion, is well shown in the pictorial representation of the Prophet. In the fifth Book of Moses provision is made for the prompt and severe punishment of any one who should introduce the worship of a false god (Deu_13:6-9). The Jewish commonwealth, being an actual theocracy, idolatry was simply and literally high treason, a blow at the life of the state, and as such a capital crime. Hence no degree of kindred or affection was allowed to exempt any one from denouncing such a criminal. Even a man’s nearest relatives were to be the first to put their hands to his execution when he was found judicially obnoxious to the penalty. Even so, declares Zechariah, in days to come will the parents who naturally cling to a prodigal boy, even when he may be hated and despised by all the world, yet overcome their affection, and themselves thrust through the child who is a lying prophet. The representation is strong, but not exaggerated. Literally understood it is of course impossible. Under the Gospel civil punishments for religious errors have and can have no place. But the underlying thought—intense and absolute loyalty to God—is as appropriate now as it ever was. The religious element in man’s nature is to become dominant, nay supreme. Love to God, like Aaron’s rod, is to swallow up all other affections. Nothing is to come into competition with allegiance to truth and holiness. Our Lord presented the duty with all plainness: “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Mat_10:37). It often happens that the claims of relatives and the claims of Christ come into collision; and when they do, the former must give way. We must choose to displease those whom we most love on earth rather than displease Him who died for us on the cross. This doctrine is quite repulsive to the sentimentalists who exalt the domestic affections to the highest place in human esteem, but it is none the less true, being indeed a simple corollary from the first principle of all religion, that the object of worship is to be loved supremely, and all other beings, however near or dear, subordinately.
4. But this is a very different thing from the self inflicted tortures of the heathen and of all false religionists. The man in the text with “wounds between his hands,” represents a class found in all ages and lands. Clear references to these are found in the Scripture (Deu_14:1; Jer_16:6; Jer_41:5), and an actual instance is seen in the priests of Baal in their contest with Elijah (1Ki_18:28). The custom originated in the uneasy consciousness of guilt and of the necessity for expiation. Men in their blindness conceived that by the merciless punishment of their own bodies they would render a species of satisfaction, and so regain the favor of the offended deities. The folly of this form of worship is well exposed by Seneca (quoted by Augustine, Civ. Dei, vi. 10), and yet it is not so absurd as it would seem. For if a man believes that the gods will exact some suffering for sins, and that by inflicting it upon himself he may forestall their action and get off on cheaper terms, it is not easy to refute him on rationalistic grounds. The difficulty in his case is that conscience is aroused, and yet there is no knowledge of the doctrine of substitution or atonement. Hence even in Christian lands, whenever that doctrine is not understood in its simplicity and fullness, the same thing occurs in a less aggravated form. Fastings and mortifications and penances of various kinds are cheerfully endured as compensations for guilt. It is hard for poor human nature to learn that “the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth from all sin.” Yet nothing is clearer in the Scripture than that the will worship which consists in pains and privations, inflicted and endured for their own sake, is most offensive to the Most High. He Himself never sends afflictions unless there is a needs be, and He does not ask us to be other than Himself, Self denial is indeed a large part of the Christian life, but it is self-denial for an object beyond itself—not as satisfaction for sin or a price paid for heaven, but out of love for Christ, as a means of cultivating holiness or of winning souls for the kingdom. Privation borne with such views is indeed an honor and a blessing; but if inflicted for its own sake, it puts even such a transcendent genius as Pascal with his hair shirt and iron pointed girdle, on the same level with the self gashed devotees of Baal, or the forsworn diviner whom Zechariah describes.
HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL.
Moore: Zec_13:3. Love to God must be paramount to all other affections, even the most tender. It is in our present imperfect sanctification inconceivable how we could acquiesce in the perdition of our children without a pang that would poison all the bliss of heaven, and yet it shall be so. Much as we love them, we shall love God and his law immeasurably more.
Zec_13:4-6 : Sinners shall at last be made to confess their sins and the justice of their punishment; and the bitterest drop in the cup of their agony will be that they have wrung it out for themselves, and that it is all just.
Calvin: Falsehood hast thou spoken in the name of Jehovah. If we rightly consider what this is, it will certainly appear to us more detestable than to kill an innocent man, or to destroy a guest with poison, or to lay violent hands upon one’s own father. The greatest of all crimes does not come up to this horrible and monstrous wickedness.
Jay: Wounded in the house of my friends. There are four kinds of such wounds. (1.) Those arising from their just reprehensions. (2.) Those that result from their sufferings. (3.) Those produced by our being bereaved of them. (4.) Those inflicted by their improper conduct. Again. If the Lord Jesus be the sufferer, He is wounded in the house of his friends, by their negligent conduct—by their selfishness—by their distrust—by their timidity—by their gloomy conduct—by their unholiness. His question is, Is this thy kindness to thy friend?
Footnotes:
[23]Zec_13:2.—הָאָרֶץ. Henderson in both cases renders earth, but needlessly. The statement is a general one, but with a local coloring.
[24]Zec_13:3.—דקר is rendered pierce, in order to show that it is the same word which is used in the famous passage Zec_12:10.
[25]Zec_13:4.—Heng. renders בוֹשׁ מִן, to desist with shame, but the established meaning of the phrase is simply, to be ashamed of. The fem. suffix in הִנָבְאֹתוֹ is a peculiarity of this class of verbs (Green, Heb. Gr., 166, 2).
[26]Zec_13:5.—The singular verb here, following the previous plurals, indicates that one case is selected as an example Noyes renders, “each shall say,” but the prophet can scarcely mean that every one of the false prophets is to make the same form of denial.
[27]Zec_13:5.—הִקְנַנִי has been strangely misconceived. LXX. make it ἐγέννησεν; Vulg., Adam meum exemplum; Pesch. renders as if it came from קָנָא. The E. V. followed Kimchi in deriving the verbal form from מִקְנֶה=small cattle.
[28]Zec_13:6.—The implied subject of “shall say” is, of course, the other interlocutor in the dialogue.
[29]Zec_13:6.—מְאַהֲבַי should be rendered lovers, just as it is in all the other places where it occurs: Lam_1:19, Hos_2:7; Hos_2:9; Hos_2:12, etc.; friends is too weak.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv2–9 Consequences of pardon; not indolence, but the extirpation of…
Consequences of pardon; not indolence, but the extirpation of sin.
names of . . . idols--Their very names were not to be mentioned; thus the Jews, instead of Mephibaal, said Mephibosheth (Bosheth meaning a contemptible thing) (Exo 23:13; Deu 12:3; Psa 16:4).
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out of the land--Judea's two great sins, idolatry and false prophecy, have long since ceased. But these are types of all sin (for example, covetousness, Eph 5:5, a besetting sin of the Jews now). Idolatry, combined with the "spirit" of "Satan," is again to be incarnated in "the man of sin," who is to arise in Judea (Th2 2:3-12), and is to be "consumed with the Spirit of the Lord's mouth." Compare as to Antichrist's papal precursor, "seducing spirits . . . doctrines of devils," &c., Ti1 4:1-3; Pe2 2:1.
the unclean spirit--Hebrew, spirit of uncleanness (compare Rev 16:13); opposed to "the Spirit of holiness" (Rom 1:4), "spirit of error" (Jo1 4:6). One assuming to be divinely inspired, but in league with Satan.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 5, 7 PURIFICATION OF JERUSALEM; REMOVAL OF ALL HINDRANCES TO DIRECT…
PURIFICATION OF JERUSALEM; REMOVAL OF ALL HINDRANCES TO DIRECT COMMUNION WITH JEHOVAH, Zec_13:1-6.
The penitential mourning and supplication will not be in vain. Jehovah will be merciful, remove all sin, and bring about a complete moral transformation in the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Intimate fellowship with Jehovah will be restored, and everything that in any way might hinder direct communion will be swept away.
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1. In that day — When the mourning described in Zec_12:10-14, will be held.
Shall be a fountain opened — Zec_12:10, ascribes the penitential mourning to the influence of a divinely sent spirit, which creates repentance for sin and leads the people to make penitential supplication; but Jehovah will provide also the means of purification. The figure is adopted in part from the “water of expiation” (Num_8:7), and in part from the “water of impurity” (Num_19:9; compare Eze_36:25; Psa_51:9). The water is only the symbol, the power that will remove the sin is divine.
To the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem — See on Zec_12:10. High and low will be benefited by the provision.
Sin… uncleanness — It is doubtful that the prophet means to distinguish here between inward sin and outward uncleanness which results from the former. The two terms are practically identical in meaning. Every kind of sin and uncleanness will be washed away. 2.
The names of the idols — See on Hos_2:17. Idolatry will be blotted out so completely that even the names of the idols will be forgotten.
The prophets — Since they are to be removed, the author evidently thinks that in the new era they will prove a hindrance. Since the prophet played a very prominent part throughout the entire religious history of Israel, many hesitate to believe that this passage means to announce a complete cessation of all prophetic activity, and they see here only a condemnation of the so-called false prophets (see on Mic_3:7); for this view they find support in the fact that the prophets are mentioned here in close connection with idols and with the unclean spirit. But this fact by no means proves the point; at the most it proves that all prophecy deserves to be abolished like idols. The entire context makes it exceedingly probable that the prophet means to announce the removal of the entire prophetic order. This announcement might be made for one or the other of two reasons, either the entire prophetic order was expected to become so corrupt that it would need to be cut off, or the people as a whole were expected to reach such a perfect knowledge of Jehovah that the prophetic order would be no longer needed. That the author has in mind the prophetic order, and not individuals who might possess a prophetic experience, is clear from Zec_13:4-5. There is no reason to suppose that as long as prophecy existed the entire prophetic order became corrupt or was expected to become corrupt; at any rate, the utterances of the author of this section prove that in his days there were still men with sublime spiritual visions. On the other hand, Joe_2:28-30 (compare Jer_31:34), expresses the expectation that in the Messianic age all flesh would have prophetic experiences, so that there would be no need of a distinct prophetic order. This hope of Joel, far from contradicting the teaching of this passage, interprets it. When all the people are blessed with prophetic visions there will be no need of a prophetic order, hence it will be removed.
Unclean spirit — Literally, the spirit of uncleanness; that is, the spirit, or invisible inner power, which leads to unclean actions (see on Joe_2:28; compare 1Ki_22:22).
With Zec_13:3 may be compared Deu_18:20, where the death sentence is pronounced upon the prophet who claims to speak in the name of Jehovah when in reality he utters his own words.
Father… mother — In that age the obligations to Jehovah will be more sacred than those arising from the most intimate blood relationship.
Speakest lies… prophesieth — If in that age anyone claims special prophetic gifts, that claim itself proves him to be a liar and impostor, and so worthy of death.
Thrust him through — Bring to a violent death (compare Zec_12:10).
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–9 1. In that day] The day, or period, so…
1. In that day] The day, or period, so often mentioned before (Zec_12:3-4; Zec_12:6; Zec_12:8-9; Zec_12:11), in which this whole prophecy shall be fulfilled.
a fountain opened … for sin and for uncleanness] The form of the promise is Jewish, the substance Christian. For the lustral waters of the Law, the “water of sin” (Num_8:7) and the “water of uncleanness” (Num_19:9, where the word is the same as here, though rendered, “water of separation,” A. V. and R. V.), which were contained and renewed in bowl or laver, and which did but “sanctify to the purifying of the flesh,” shall be substituted the living fountain of the Gospel, opened once but remaining open ever (comp. θύρα ἠνεῳγμένη Rev_4:1), which “purges the conscience from dead works to serve the living God.” (Heb_9:13-14; 1Jn_1:7.)
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Chap. Zec_13:1-6. Worthy fruits of Repentance
The mourning for sin thus produced and exhibited (Zec_12:10-14) shall be the precursor of cleansing from sin, for which ample and lasting provision shall be made, Zec_13:1; and of amendment of life. Idolatry and superstition shall be banished and forgotten, Zec_13:2. If any one shall venture to play the false prophet, his own parents shall be the first to inflict on him the prescribed penalty of death, Zec_13:3. So dangerous and suspected will the prophetic office become, that the false prophets will be ashamed and afraid to avow their calling and assume their garb, Zec_13:4. They will profess themselves, when questioned, to have been simple hinds from their youth, Zec_13:5; and if the charge against them be enforced by an appeal to the wounds on their bodies, as proofs of the idolatrous rites which they have practised, or of the punishment which has already overtaken them as false prophets, they will seek to meet it by an evasive and misleading reply, Zec_13:6.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv1–9 (1) The meaning of this verse seems to be…
(1) The meaning of this verse seems to be that the people would keep the law with more heartfelt earnestness, and consequently acceptably. There seems to be a reference to Num_8:7; Num_19:9, et seq.
XIII.
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(1-3) Some critics consider that Zechariah 12, Zec_13:1-6, and Zechariah 14 were composed in the time of Jehoiakim (cir. 600), or that Zechariah 14 was written a little later, when the confidence of victory expressed in the earlier chapters was considerably lessened on account of the more threatening position of political affairs. To this we can only reply that, if so, the prophet was a false prophet, and proclaimed “Peace, peace, when there was no peace;” and we, at least, are not inclined to undertake the responsibility of making such a statement concerning the author of these chapters. We suggest that these verses should be placed between Zec_12:9-10.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv1–9 Vers. 1-6. This repentance will lead to purification from…
Vers. 1-6. This repentance will lead to purification from past defilement, and a reaction against idolatry and false prophet.
In that day. At the time when the great mourning (Zec 12) takes place, or, more generally, in the Messianic period, when all these things shall be fulfilled. Shall be a fountain opened, etc. Shah be opened and continue open. The allusion is to the lustral rites practised in the consecration of the Levites, who were to have "water of sin" sprinkled on them, and to "the water of separation," or "water of uncleanness" (the word found in our passage), used for purposes of legal purification. (see Num_8:7 Num_19:9) Instead of this merely ceremonial cleansing, there should be in the Christian Church the cleansing of the soul by the blood of Christ. (1Pe_1:2 1Jn_1:7) Septuagint, Estai pav topov dianoigomenov , "Every place shall he opened." The house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem represent the whole nation, as in Zec_12:10; the cleansing is as universal as the sin. (see the announcement in Eze_36:25 Eze_47:1-12Jo Eze_3:18) For sin and for uncleanness. The latter word is used for the separation on account of uncleanness; (Lev_15:20, etc.) and the two terms together comprise all guilt and pollution.
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The end of sin.
"In that day there shall be a fountain opened," etc. The close of the last chapter described certain persons as pouring forth "a fountain of tears". (Jer_9:1) This opens by describing a "fountain" of a different kind a fountain opened for the especial benefit of those who thus mourned. (comp. Zec_12:10) In this last-mentioned verse their grief is attributed to their looking on him "whom they had pierced." Remembering how distinctly this expression is applied, in Joh_19:37, to the death of Christ Jesus, we seem justified in concluding that there is a similar reference here. According to this, therefore, the "fountain" of ver. 1 is a figurative description of that flow of blessings which comes from Christ"s cross; and its "opening in that day" to the people described is a similar description of their being then at last enabled to discover and partake of that flow. So "opened," what will be its results? Two principally, both of chief importance, viz, an end of sin
(1) in regard to its guilt; and an end of sin
(2) in regard to its pollution.
I THE END OF ITS GUILT. Sin, as being the transgression of Law, (1Jn_3:4 1Jn_5:17 Rom_4:15 Rom_5:13) involves the displeasure, and that inevitably, of the Lawgiver. If the Law is worth enacting, it is worth enforcing. If not meant, indeed, to be enforced, why was it ever proclaimed? The wiser, also the better, the holier, the higher the Lawgiver, the more this reasoning holds. The greater also, such being the case, and that both in itself and also before him, is the offence of rebelling against him. And it is this "offence," this deadly "offence," that the mystical fountain here described in the first place providing, as it does, "a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world so entirely brings to an end. See how emphatically this is taught generally in Rom_8:1 Rom_3:25. And see how the same appears to be taught specially concerning Jerusalem and its inhabitants in the future in such passages as Isa_40:2 Isa_43:25 Jer 1. (see also Dan_9:24) Now their "iniquities have separated," as described in Isa_59:2, "between them and their God, and their sins have made him margin hide his face from them, that he will not hear." Then, through that "opened fountain," this will all be reversed. No longer separated or concealed from them, he will accept their prayers with "delight". (see Joh_4:23, end; Pro_15:8)
II THE END OF ITS POLLUTION. Besides being an offence to God, sin is an injury to ourselves. Being altogether unworthy of us in every respect, it brings about, and that immediately, our own degradation and shame. It involves pollution, that is to say, as well as guilt. And it further involves, such being the case, in addition to the before-mentioned separation or alienation of God"s favour from us, the separation or alienation of our nature from him. This second evil would seem to be described in our text (see margin) as "separation" for or by means of "uncleanness." How such alienation on man"s part through the pollution of sin is evidenced, we may see in Gen_3:8 Luk_5:8 Isa_30:11 Rom_1:28, beginning; and also in that which is assumed respecting us in the gracious appeal of 2Co_5:20. On the other hand, how entirely this second alienation can be overcome by the remedy of our text is seen in 1Jn_1:7, end; Joh_12:32. And how completely both this and the previously mentioned alienation are to be removed in the case of Judah and Israel at the last, as here described, we may perhaps see in Jer_31:31-34, especially as quoted and summarized in Heb_10:16, 17 and elsewhere.
If this interpretation is accepted, we may learn hence for ourselves, in concluding:
1. The necessity of Christ"s death. In all cases we see it is thus that God has appointed as to doing away with our sins. It is only by the "fountain" in this way provided, and not by any fountain of tears on man"s part, however copious, however unexampled, however certainly due even to an influence from above, (Zec_12:10) that the "double cure" of sin can be wrought. "Could my tears forever flow," etc.
2. The necessity of man"s faith. The necessity, we mean, of course, where there is the capacity for faith in existence. Till that capacity for faith is exercised, no matter what the object of faith, what can it do? Till the "fountain" in this way be "opened" win other words, be discovered and used whom can it cleanse? (See Rom_5:1 and Act_15:9 respectively for the two sides of this truth)
3. The abundance of God"s grace whether to pardon or heal. It is not a cistern, not even a well, but a fountain, to which we find it compared. (comp. Jer_2:13Jo Jer_4:12, Jer_4:13) No limitation as to supply. No limitation as to use. (see Deu_11:10, Deu_11:11)
HOMILIES BY W. FORSYTH Ver. 1. The fountain of grace.
Salvation through Christ. The glorious gospel.
I THE EVIL. "Sin and uncleanness." All are sinners. Law, facts of life, testimony of conscience, prove our guilt. Sin defiles all that it touches. Uncleanness, alas how prevalent, and in manifold forms! "Twas sin that brought it all into the world. If there were no sin there would be no uncleanness. Need for grief and prayer.
II THE REMEDY. Fountain, etc.
1. Freedom of access. Open, not shut. None debarred. In the promise of God by the atoning death of Christ through the ministry of grace, the fountain has been opened for all. (Joh_19:34 1Jn_1:7 Heb_9:13)
2. Plenitude of supply, Not a pool or a cistern, but a fountain, with rich and ample supplies for all. Thousands and tens of thousands have already been blessed, and whosoever will may come, and will find that Christ is mighty to save.
3. Perennial virtue. Not like Bethesda, at certain times; but all the year round, and from, generation to generation. After many years" absence, I visited the home of my youth. There were sad changes. Friends were gone. None to know me. But under the shade of firs, in the old place, I found the spring where I had often slaked my thirst. It was still the same the water sweet and refreshing as ever. So Christ is "the Same yesterday, today, and forever. F.
HOMILIES BY D. THOMAS Vers. 1-6. The gospel age.
"In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered," etc. Concerning the preceding chapter and these six verses, Dr. Keil says, "This section forms the first half of the second prophecy of Zechariah concerning the future of Israel and of the world, viz. the prophecy contained in ch. 12-14, which, as a side piece to ch. 9-11, treats of the judgment by which Israel, the nation of God, will be refined, sifted, and led on to perfection through conflict with the nations of the world. This first section announces how the conflict against Jerusalem and Judah will issue in destruction to the nations of the world. (Zec_12:1-4) Jehovah will endow the princes of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem with marvellous strength to overcome all their foes (vers. 5-9), and will pour out his spirit of grace upon them, so that they will bitterly repent the death of the Messiah (vers. 10-14), and purify themselves from all ungodliness." (Zec_13:1-6) "The day" here is generally supposed by expositors to point to the gospel age; and three remarks are here suggested in relation to this day.
I IT IS A "DAY" FOR THE ABOUNDING OF SIN-CLEANSING INFLUENCES. "In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem." This phrase comprehended the whole Jewish nation. To the Jews, washing from sin and ceremonial impurity was an idea with which they were well acquainted. It was enjoined by the Law. (Num_8:7; see also Eze_36:25)
1. That sin and uncleanness are in the world. This is a fact written in all history, patent to every man"s observation and consciousness.
2. The removal of sin is the worlds great necessity. Its existence is the cause of all the miseries of the world, physical, social, political, religious.
3. Provisions for its removal abound. "A fountain opened." Sin and uncleanness are not an essential part of human nature. Men have lived without sin, and men in the other world do now. It is a mere stain on human nature, separable from it, and the means of separation are provided provided in the gospel. In the mediatory life, teaching, works, death, resurrection, and ascension of the Son of God. In all this he has opened to the world a fountain of influence by which sin is to be cleansed. It is a fountain. This implies:
(1) Abundance. It is not a rill, a brook, a lake, but a fountain. What is the fountain? Infinite love.
(2) Freeness. Flowing, ever open to all.
(3) Perpetuity. The hottest sun does not dry up the fountain. It has an under connection with the boundless deep.
II IT IS A "DAY" IN WHICH IDOLATRY SHALL BE UTTERLY ABOLISHED. The spirit of idolatry is giving to any object that love which belongs only to the Supreme; and this sin is perhaps as rife in regions where monotheism is professed as in those lands where polytheism holds its empire. The cutting off the "names of the idols" means their utter destruction. (see Hos_2:17) But you may destroy all the million idols, involving those which are the workmanship of men and these which are the creation of God, before which men have bowed, and yet leave idolatry as rampant as ever. Nothing but the destruction of the spirit will be the destruction of idolatry. Hence we have here suggested a time when men shall give their affection to the Supreme Being, and to him alone, when they shall worship the one true and living God. This is the idolatry the gospel comes to destroy; it is to turn men from idols to. the living God. What a blessed age will that be, when all men on the face of the earth shall have their souls centred in love and devotion on the one great and common Father of us all! "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats". (Isa_2:20)
III IT IS A "DAY" IN WHICH ALL FALSE RELIGIOUS TEACHINGS SHALL CEDE. "And I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land," etc. The words here in relation to false prophets suggest the following thoughts.
1. False religious teachers are great curses to a community. This is implied in the promise here of their destruction. False teachers in any branch of knowledge, be it historic, scientific, philosophic, literary, or artistic, are for many reasons great evils; but in religion the evils they inflict are inconceivably great. They deceive souls on the most vital of all points. False religious teachers are not merely teachers of pantheism, idolatry, or Mohammedanism, but even those who are nominally teachers of the gospel. The man who gives a wrong interpretation of the gospel is a false teacher, and such men are found even in the pulpits of our England. What blasphemous ideas of God and degrading notions of his blessed Son have we in some of the popular sermons of the age! Whosoever teaches the conventional Christ is false to the Christ of the gospel.
2. False religious teachers may become objects of indignation even to their nearest relations. "And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth." It will be, indeed, a blessed time when the people of a country will have a greater love for truth than for their dearest relations, even their very children; when the appearance of a false teacher will awaken such a public indignation as will expose his very life to danger; when men"s moral ears will be so attuned to truth, that the very sound of falsehood will become intolerable. Thank God, there is an age of moral reality coming, an age when men will recoil from shams as from "demons vile.
3. False religious teachers will on this day" be ashamed to exercise their mission. "The prophets shall be ashamed." If any false prophets should continue to exercise their function, they will have to do it:
(1) With secrecy. "Neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive." It is said, when Domitian banished philosophers from Rome, many persons shaved off their beards and flung away their cloaks, that they might not be included in the ban. So now the false prophet will be ashamed of his badge, his rough garment, made perhaps of untanned sheepskin, or a Bedouin blanket made of camel"s hair, like that of John the Baptist.
(2) Disclaiming their profession. "He shall say, I am no prophet, I am a husbandman." If they carry on their work, they will do it under a false character, such as farmers or herdmen. "I belong to that class in society which lies under the least suspicion of aspiring to a function in which knowledge of affairs, dexterity in making use of men"s weaknesses, and some literary faculty are needed. Besides, "men own me from my youth" (for this is the meaning of the words rendered, "men taught me to keep cattle from my youth"); and so if I had had the will I could never have had the chance of setting up as a prophet I have not been my own master. Not quite satisfied with this disclaimer, the supposed examiners ask to be allowed to look at his hands, as you can judge roughly of a man"s calling by the state of his hands at least, you can thus judge whether a man is earning his bread with his hands or his head. They at once detect suspicious marks on this man"s hands, wounds which they evidently suspect to have been self-inflicted in accordance with some idolatrous rite. Self-mutilation and self-laceration have always been common accessories of pagan worship, and common accompaniments of manifestations of pagan fanatical ecstasy. They are far from uncommon still in heathen and in Mohammedan countries. Permanent marks of a distinctive kind were also frequently made upon different parts of the person, and especially upon the arms, in acknowledgment of allegiance to some particular god, (Jer_48:37) where mourning is thus described. "Every head shall be bald, and every beard clipped: upon all the hands shall be cuttings." But the man denies that his wounds have any such significance; they are not, he says, religious marks at all: "they are wounds which I received in the house of friends," in some rustic frolic with his boon companions, or as the slave"s brand in the house of his master" (Dr. Dods). Should their disclaiming be questioned, they will take shelter in falsehood. "And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." "The doubting examiner asks him to show him his hands, that he may ascertain if he has the rough hands of a farmer; those hands he shows, but they have nevertheless marks of a prophet on them, and of these very marks he gives a false account." "I was wounded in the house of my friends.
CONCLUSION. Thank God, we live in this gospel age. The sin-cleansing fountain is here, sending forth its streams in all directions. They flow through all the good books we have, through all the good lives we meet with. Let the streams multiply. The fountain will supply streams equal to the exigencies of all. Let us remove obstructions, cut new channels, and strive to let them into every heart. These will multiply in power, and increase in volume, till all idolatry, false, teaching, and every other form of iniquity that pollutes the heart of the world, be washed clean away, and the whole world be holy in character, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. D.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On vv1, 6, 7, 9 In that day there shall be a fountain opened,…
Zec_13:1
In that day there shall be a fountain opened, etc.
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The Fountain of Life
To what can the prophet refer but the exclamation of John, Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.
I. Explain the promise.
1. The fountain. This image holds forth the Redeemer. In distinction from creatures, which are cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water, He may well call Himself the Fountain of living waters. He shall possess a plenitude Himself. The fulness of the Christian is derived and limited: it is the fulness of a vessel. The vessel is supplied from the fulness of a fountain. This fountain is the Lord Jesus. His fulness is original and boundless. It is the fulness of a spring.
2. The fountain was to be opened. A fountain, sealed would be useless; it would only provoke desire. What would the Saviours excellencies and benefits be to us if unattainable and inaccessible? The fountain was actually opened in His sufferings. The apostles laid it open doctrinally, in their preaching and in their epistles.
3. This fountain is opened for sin and for uncleanness. There had been provisions for ceremonial pollution, under the Mosaic economy. The brazen sea. Ten layers. See also the Pool of Siloam. Sin is uncleanness. Its very nature is contamination. Sin is a pollution the most deep and diffusive. The very conscience is defiled. It is the abominable thing. But there is a fountain that washes out even the stains of the soul,--and of sin. And it was opened for this very purpose.
II. To improve the truth contained in the promise. Five classes have a relation to the truth before us.
1. The ignorant. Such as cry, Peace, peace, when there is no peace.
2. The presumptuous. Antinomian perversion is worse than mere ignorance.
3. The self-righteous, who hope to cleanse themselves in some other way.
4. The fearful. For it is no easy thing to satisfy the conscience of awakened sinners.
5. Those who by faith have applied to the Saviour, and who know by experience that there is indeed a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. (William Jag.)
The fountain for sin
I. What they needed. Two things: deliverance from guilt and condemnation, and deliverance from sins impurity. These are the very blessings for which our text represents provision has been made. The fountain is opened for sin and for uncleanness. The former meaning guilt, the latter pollution. The whole context prohibits our regarding the language as referring to anything ceremonial. The guilt, contracted, and requiring remission, is the guilt of piercing, that is, of putting to death the true, divinely promised. Messiah, and the uncleanness points to those unholy and hellish principles and dispositions in the soul from which the guilt originated, by which the fearful act was prompted. The guilt was deep. The depth of moral debasement and violence was fearful from which they who had been guilty of it required to be purified.
II. How these blessings are provided for them.
1. What is the fountain? It is a twofold figure, comprehending the grace of Christs Spirit as well as the virtue of Christs blood, cleansing as well as forgiveness. Theme blessings are always found in union. Christ died that sinners might be both pardoned and purified; and the two designs were emblematically indicated by the mingling of the blood and water that flowed from His pierced heart. The fountain means at once the blood of Christs atonement and the grace of Christs Spirit; the one required for forgiveness, and the other for regeneration and cleansing: the two, however, being inseparable; the faith which interests in the pardoning virtue of the blood, being the product of the grace of the Spirit, and the grace of the Spirit effecting the renewal and sanctification of the soul by means of the doctrine which makes known the pardoning virtue of the blood: it being the same faith, under the agency of the same Spirit, which at once justifies and sanctifies. And it is thus that the blood is represented as the means of purifying as well as of procuring pardon.
2. When was this fountain opened? When Christ died; when His blood was shed on the cross, for the remission of sins; when the blood and the water flowed in union from His pierced side. While strictly and properly, the fountain was opened then,--it might be said to have been opened from the time when it came first to be needed,--from the time when man sinned. It was then opened by anticipation. The first promise opened it. The moment man became a sinner he needed the two blessings of pardon and sanctification.
3. How is it here said to be opened in that day? The answer is, that although there have now and then, since the judgments of God overtook the Jewish people for their unbelief, been instances of Jews brought to acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah and Saviour, and to obtain salvation by faith in Him; yet to the large mass of that dispersed, and for the time divinely abandoned people, the fountain has not been open. It has been sealed; sealed by themselves, and for their unbelief judicially sealed by God. When the time of mercy arrives the fountain shall, in Gods providence and by Gods grace, be opened for their cleansing from their guilt and their pollution. It is said of them, They shall look on Me whom they have pierced, and shall mourn.
4. For what purpose? Two--the washing away of guilt, and the washing away of moral defilement. Both these purposes were in the mind of God, as to be alike effected by the mediation of the Son. That the guilt of sin might be fully taken away, and thus the sinner escape its punishment, atonement was necessary.
5. For what persons? not simply for the restored of Israel,--but for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. The idea thus conveyed is that of all ranks, from the royal occupants of the palace to the tenants of the meanest dwelling. All shall be stricken through with the conviction and alarm; all shall feel the bitterness of contrition; all shall mourn. And for all, in like manner, the fountain shall be opened. All shall need it. All shall have access to it. All shall avail themselves of it. (Ralph Wardlaw, D. D.)
The best fountain
It is a beautiful thing to see a fountain playing. Fountain in the text is the best fountain. What is meant by this fountain? It means the blood which Jesus shed when He hung upon the cross. It is in consequence of what Jesus then suffered--the blood He shed, and the death He died--that God pardons the sins of men, and saves their souls. It is the best fountain--
1. Because it is easy to get at. No long journey is needed. You may find it everywhere.
2. It never changes. Other fountains are sometimes in full play, and sometimes very feeble. Illustrate by the Pool of Bethesda. This is always the same.
3. Because of its wonderful powers. Some fountains cure diseases and restore health. This is designed for the souls of men. This has a wonderful cleansing power, and a wonderful healing power, and a wonderful preserving power against the worms of pride and selfishness that may imperil our souls, as they do the good ships; a wonderful beautifying power, and a wonderful saving power. (R. Newton, D. D.)
Christ our fountain
I. Wherein is Christ a fountain? When it is said Christ is our fountain, it holds forth two things:
1. Fulness. A fountain is not like a cistern; a cistern may be full, but the fulness of it may be emptied; so may the fulness of a fountain too, but then a fountain, or a spring, fills itself again immediately. So doth not a cistern. A cistern may be full, but it doth not rise up and run over, as a fountain doth, and that continually. For this reason the corrupt nature in us is compared to a fountain (Jer_6:7)--bubbling up in vain thoughts, inordinate desires, corrupt affections. Now, in Jesus Christ there is a fulness, and it is a fountain-fulness (Col_1:19), fulness--all fulness, and all fulness dwelling, and by the good pleasure of the Father. What is He full of? The two things that our poor souls have most need of towards the making of us happy. Merit and righteousness for justification; and spirit and grace for sanctification. He hath merit enough; His merit is of infinite value, sufficient to take away all sin (Heb_7:25)--able to save. He hath Spirit enough, to sanctify us throughout, to break the power of every lust, to strengthen us to every good word and work. He is such a fountain as can open in us a fountain, springing up into eternal life (Joh_4:14; Joh_1:16).
2. Uses--fulness. A fountain is of great use. What striving was there in Abrahams time, and Isaacs time, and Jacobs time, about wells of water (Gen_21:1-34; Gen_26:1-35). When Achsah was to ask a boon of her father Caleb, Give me, said she, springs of water (Jdg_1:15). Were we to ask but one thing of our heavenly Father, there were reason it should be, Lord, give us a fountain. Why, blessed be His name, He hath given us one. Not only springs of water, useful for our outward man, a land of springs, like Canaan but a Christ, a Christ for our souls. A fountain of water is useful for three things--
(1) For quenching of thirst. How glad is the weary traveller, or labourer, of a spring of water; though it be but fair water. Oh, says he, it hath saved my life. The Israelites in the wilderness, when there was no water, what an affliction was it to them. When they had it, it was sweet as honey and oil (1Co_10:4). Now, this fountain is very useful for this purpose. Is thy soul athirst?--athirst for peace, pardon, life, salvation, for grace, strength? Here is a fountain for thee, come and drink (Isa_55:1)--buying frightens; therefore, come freely. Thou art called (Joh_7:37; Rev_22:15). See the discourse of our Lord Jesus with the woman of Samaria (Joh_4:10-14). Alas! the most of men know not what this means--they are sensible of no need, and therefore of no desire, but (Psa_42:1) As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after Thee, O God.
(2) For washing away filth. Water cleanses; we could not tell what to do without it--to make our bodies, our clothes, comfortable. This fountain also is cleansing. Sin defiles, leaves a blot, a stain, upon the soul. It is uncleanness. The guilt of it is so: from that we are washed by the blood of Christ, satisfying Gods justice and making atonement; also purging the conscience (1Jn_1:7; Rev_1:5; Heb_9:14). The corrupt nature, which is the root and principle of it, is so (Psa_14:3). From this the Spirit of Christ washes in the laver of regeneration (Tit_3:4-5; 1Co_6:11).
(3) For watering the earth and making it fruitful. They use to have fountains for that purpose in their gardens, to be ready in a dry season to fetch water to refresh the plants. Herein also Christ is our fountain. Did He not water us every moment, grace in us would languish and die (Isa_27:3; Isa_44:3-4). Now, it is the second of these especially that this text speaks of--Jesus Christ is a cleansing fountain; we have need of Him as such, for we are filthy and defiled.
II. What kind of fountain is the Lord Jesus? As a cleansing fountain He hath these properties.
1. He is full, He hath enough wherewithal to cleanse us; merit enough, spirit enough. Under the law they had cleansing appointments as to ceremonial pollutions, but ours is beyond theirs. They had blood, but it was but the blood of bulls and goats, and that in a bason only; but we have the blood of the Son of God, not in a bason, but a fountain full of it. They had water; one particularly, called the water of purification, made of the ashes of a red heifer. Open and free as to terms. We say--What is freer than a gift? He is the gift of God (Joh_4:10), the free gift (Rom_5:1-21.), the unspeakable gift (2Co_9:15). Though thou hast no worthiness, no matter, He is worthy. Cordial acceptance makes Him ours. He forgives freely (Isa_43:25).
2. The only fountain. Besides Him there is no other (Act_4:12). We may think, perhaps, as Naaman--Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them, and be clean? (2Ki_5:12). But no other fountain will do.
III. The application, in four particulars.
1. Here is matter for thanksgiving to God, who--
(1) Appointed this fountain in the counsel of His will from all eternity (Joh_3:16).
(2) Opened it in the fulness of time, after it had been shut for four thousand years (Gal_4:4).
(3) Opened it to us; to us of this nation, country, neighbourhood, of this present age and generation. We are within hearing of the joyful sound.
(4) And specially, that He hath brought us to it and washed us in it. This is certainly the mercy of mercies,--Unto Him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in His own blood (Rev_1:5). This is more than angels can say. When ten lepers were cleansed, only one returned to give thanks (Luk_17:1-37).
2. Here is matter for conviction. Convincing! Of what? Of your need of this fountain to wash in. That which is unclean doth certainly need washing; but thou art unclean, I mean, thy soul, thy mind, thy conscience; inwardly, spiritually. I am sure thou wast so by nature; born in guilt and filth; like an infant weltering in blood and pollution (Eze_16:1-63). And art thou washed? When, and how? And by whom, and with what? I am sure that every sin thou hast committed hath added to that original pollution, and hath made thee more and more filthy (Psa_106:39; Mat_15:19-20). Even vain thoughts (Jer_4:17). So is the world also (Jam_1:27). Nay, our best duties have their pollutions (Isa_64:6). But there is one particular kind of sins, those against the seventh commandment, that is especially called uncleanness. And have we been in no sort guilty of that, neither in thought, word, nor deed? (Philip Henry.)
The fountain opened
I. A fountain. Water is much valued in the East. We cannot wonder that spiritual blessings are so often exhibited to us in Scripture under images borrowed from water. These images found their way at once to the understandings and feelings of Jewish men. The Lord Jesus is meant by the text. He is represented as a fountain for a particular purpose; not for the thirsty to drink from, but for the unclean to wash in. Here again the text carries us into eastern climes. Bodily ablutions are much more common there than among us. With the Jews, too, they partook sometimes of a sacred character. The prophet mentions two things, sin and uncleanness, but he has only one in his mind--sin under the figure of uncleanness. Does uncleanness degrade whatever it touches? So has sin degraded us. Is uncleanness a disgusting and loathsome thing? If there is anything disgusting in the universe, it is sin. When God calls it by this name, He represents it as some thing which He cannot bear to look upon. In the text is a remedy for this hateful evil. It is a suitable, a real, effectual remedy for it. It is a fountain that can remove uncleanness, and is intended to remove it. This fountain is nothing else than the precious blood of Gods own dear Son. That blood was shed for us. As water removes uncleanness from the body, so does this blood remove the guilt of sin from the soul. It does away with it, frees the soul from it, makes our condition as safe, and in the end as happy, as though we had never sinned. This effectual remedy for sin is here described as an abundant, lasting remedy. Thousands may wash in it, and it will be as everflowing as ever, able to cleanse thousands and thousands more.
II. For whom this fountain is intended. For the Jews first, then for all others.
1. The utter insufficiency of all rites and ordinances to cleanse the soul from sin. Who were these men? The very men to whom pertained the law, with all its sacrifices. When guilt oppressed or conscience disquieted them, they could in a few minutes be in their temple, and sharing in its sacrifices and service. But the text addresses them as if they were the very heathen. All their legal ordinances could not expiate their guilt. I is the same with our Christian sacraments. God has ordained them, not to take away sin, but to keep us mindful of it, and of that blood which can take it away.
2. We are taught here the all-sufficiency of Christs blood to cleanse the soul. There is no guilt too great for the blood of Christ to wash out, no sinner whom He cannot recover and save.
III. The time when this fountain shall be opened to these sinful men. In that day. The day of our Lords crucifixion. They point also to a day yet to come, when the Jews as a nation shall be brought to repentance and the reception of Christ. Learn--
1. There can be no real knowledge of Christ without repentance.
2. Wherever there is real repentance there also will God give in the end a real knowledge of His salvation. Would that we might all learn from this Scripture to seek for ourselves a deeper consciousness of sin, a more heartfelt and abiding sorrow on account of it! (C. Bradley.)
The fountain for sin and uncleanness
The prophet leads us to consider the legal uncleannesses so much and so fully developed in the Old Testament, and leads us through them to look at the great disease of sin--the leprosy of the soul.
I. The great uncleanness--the spiritual leprosy of the soul. This is that that defileth a man. It is not poverty; it is not sickness nor disease--however terrible or however sinful. That which defileth a man. This inward leprosy maketh a man an offence to God. This evil pervadeth the world, and yet men are as insensible of it as if there were no truth in it.
II. A fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. The fountain is the blood of Jesus. A bubbling fountain, ever full, ever abundant.
III. This fountain is said to be opened. Formerly, this fountain exclusively belonged to the priests and to the Jews; now, it is for the whole house of David, and for all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. There it stands, a fountain without cover, open and free for the very vilest. (J. H. Evans.)
The fountain opened
The text contains one important prediction which was fulfilled in Christ. It relates to the consequences of His death, with regard to His people, and shows of what great importance this event was to the whole Christian Church. The accomplishment shows with what confidence and comfort we may rely on the great doctrine of the atonement which it involves.
I. The promise of provision to be made against the effects of sin.
1. The prophet speaks of a fountain to be opened. A fountain is properly the source or spring head of waters. Springs or fountains are called, living, when they never cede or intermit, but are always sending forth their streams.
2. The blood of Christ was shed expressly, by appointment of God, and by covenant with the Son of God, for the expiation of human guilt, and for the cleansing and purifying of sinful men.
3. There is an inexhaustible fulness and sufficiency of merit in this blood of the Redeemer for the complete expiation of human sin. In its atoning and cleansing properties, the blood of Immanuel is as infinite as the mercy of God which it procures for sinners, and for the exercise of which it prepares the way.
4. This blood of Jesus Christ may he appropriated to the case and wants of any sinner that comes. Sinners may apply believingly to this blood, and obtain from it, not only the cleansing they require, but also plenteous forgiveness, substantial peace, and animating hope.
II. The persons for whom this provision against the effects of sin is promised.
1. By this expression the prophet intended primarily Gods ancient people, the Jews. But the Jews, as the peculiar people of God, were a type of Christians, and His people everywhere, It is no presumption in us to conclude, as we have already assumed, that this promised provision is intended for us.
2. The double phrase may denote both rich and poor in Gods Church.
III. The time when the promise was to be verified. The promise was actually fulfilled on the day of the Saviours crucifixion on Calvary. (J. Jaques, M. A.)
The opened fountain
The application of this prophecy to Messiah is beyond all doubt. It contains the announcement of a divinely appointed and effectual remedy for the guilt and misery of man.
1. The certainty of this provision. There shall be a fountain.
2. The perpetuity of this provision.
3. The freeness of this provision.
4. The sufficiency of this provision. (W. G. Barrett.)
The Lord Jesus Christ a fountain
I. In what sense may the Lord Jesus be depicted as the fountain opened? In opposition to those many broken cisterns of human invention to which men are prone to apply. In opposition to those rivulets, those brooks, which are occasionally good, but which soon flow away and are lost. Under the law there were various layers prepared for the purpose of purifying from ceremonial guilt and pollution. Jesus is a fountain in opposition to all these types and images. The Lord Jesus is the fountain, because He Himself in His own power, in His own essence, contains inexhaustible and perpetual fulness.
II. For what purpose the Lord Jesus is this fountain. For sin and for uncleanness. All sin is uncleanness. Repeating the expression gives more enlarged views of the efficacy of faith, and the grace of our Lord. For the purpose of giving comfort and peace to the believer the terms are doubled. This fountain cleanses not only from the guilt of sin, but also from the accusing and terrifying power of sin in the conscience.
III. To whom is it opened? The house of David and inhabitants of Jerusalem. In the East there were often contentions over fountains; this one is free to all. An open fountain, to which all ranks, all stations, all ages, all conditions, may repair. (Archdeacon Law.)
The fountain opened
I. The fountain that is opened.
1. The plenitude of Divine grace. It is not a wasting stream, that soon exhausts its store, but a never-failing fountain, ever flowing in plenteous supplies for every demand. The Lord Jehovah is emphatically styled, The God of all grace. Millions have been refreshed by this fountain, and still it is undiminished. There is enough for all, and enough for evermore.
2. The freeness of Divine grace. It is not a fountain sealed up, and forbidden; but freely opened and accessible to all. None are excluded from participating its richest blessings (Rev_22:17). No personal merit, or moral worthiness, is required in its willing recipients.
II. The period when it was opened. In that day, etc. When this expression occurs in the prophetic writings, it generally refers to the actual appearing, or spiritual reign of the Messiah. But we ought to notice respecting this fountain, that--
1. It was virtually opened in the original scheme of redemption. According to Gods gracious promise to mankind, Christ is called, The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
2. It was actually opened in the mediatorial work of the Redeemer. When the fulness of time was come, Christ was manifested in the flesh, to accomplish the will of God, and procure the salvation of sinners. He then fully opened this fountain, by fulfilling all righteousness in His own person--becoming the propitiation for our sins--rising again for our justification--ascending to heaven to be our Advocate with the Father--and diffusing an enlarged dispensation of the Holy Ghost; it was ministerially opened in the labours and writings of the Apostles, as ambassadors for Christ (1Co_1:23-24; 1Co_1:30); and it still continues open.
III. The people to whom it is opened. The house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It is very evident--
1. This fountain was primarily opened to the Jews. To the Jews Christ was promised, and to them He came as His own people, according to the flesh. His personal ministry was generally confined to them; and He commanded His apostles to open their commission at Jerusalem, and preach the Gospel first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Luk_24:46-47).
2. This fountain is now graciously opened to the Gentiles. The blessings of the Messiah were not to be confined to the Jewish Church, He was sent to be a light of the Gentiles, and for salvation to the ends of the earth. By the grace of God He tasted death for every man.
IV. The purpose for which it is opened. It is for sin and for uncleanness. This implies--
1. A fountain is opened for the expiation of sin. The death of Christ was a perfect sacrifice, by which an atonement was made for the sins of mankind.
2. A fountain is opened for the destruction of sin. It must not only be sacrificially expiated, but personally destroyed. The Son of God effects this destruction by the merit of His death, and the operation of His grace (Tit_2:14). All sin is moral uncleanness, and spreads its infectious disease through every power, both of body and soul. The ceremonial purifications under the law were emblematic of the efficacy of this fountain (Heb_9:13-14). (Skeletons of Sermons.)
The fountain opened
The fulfilment of this prophecy has never yet taken place, and will probably be considerably posterior to our times. Though not fulfilled to the Jews, yet, to us the fountain is opened.
I. What is this fountain? The ancient Jews had their sacrifices, and purifying oblations. They have now been long without a sacrifice and a priesthood. We are not to understand that these Levitical fountains will be opened again, as some have dreamed. The blood of animals might be an instituted means of taking away a ceremonial guilt, which yet left the sinner as he was before, in regard to the Governor of the world; but it had no fitness to take away moral guilt, because it failed in the two great principles of a true atonement,--a manifestation of the evil of sin, and a demonstration of Gods righteous government. These meet in Christ, who is the true fountain.
II. Its efficacy. In the removal of sin and uncleanness.
1. Sin is the transgression of the law. The law is transgressed in three ways,--by a violation of its precepts, by a neglect of its injunctions, and by a defect in its observance. Bringing all under the penalty of death.
2. Uncleanness (margin, separation for uncleanness). Allusion to arrangements in the Levitical system; typical of the manner in which sin separates between the soul and God.
III. The day when the fountain is opened. The day of our Lords crucifixion. The day when the Gospel is first preached in a heathen land. The day when a Spirit of grace and supplication is poured out. Whenever a penitent mourns. In every means of grace, that pardon may be repeated, and our sinful nature cleansed. We need never attend any of the ordinances of religious worship without receiving a renewed application of the blood of Christ, and a fresh communication of sanctifying grace. (R. Watson.)
The fountain opened
In the text the prophet anticipates the personal manifestation of the Messiah, and the unspeakable benefits to mankind from His atoning sacrifice.
I. The fountain that is opened. Fountain is a metaphor. It represents the mediatorial character of Christ. As the source and medium of salvation to the human race. A fountain opened implies--
1. The plenitude of Divine grace. It is a never-failing fountain, ever flowing in plenteous supplies for every demand.
2. The freeness of Divine grace. It is not sealed, but freely opened, and accessible to all.
II. The period when it was opened. In that day. This expression, in the prophetic writings, generally refers to the actual appearing, or spiritual reign of Messiah. It refers to Christs assumption of our nature, and sacrifice for our sins.
1. It was virtually opened in the original scheme of redemption.
2. It was actually opened in the mediatorial work of the Redeemer.
III. The people to whom it is opened.
1. This fountain was primarily opened to the Jews.
2. It is now graciously opened to the Gentiles.
IV. The purpose for which it is opened. It is for sin and for uncleanness. This implies--
1. A fountain is opened for the expiation of sin. The death of Christ was a perfect sacrifice, by which an atonement was made for the sins of mankind.
2. A fountain is opened for the destruction of sin. The ceremonial purifications under the law were emblematic of the efficacy of this fountain. (C. Simeon, M. A.)
The new economy of grace
It is not to the advent of a person, or to the occurrence of any historical event, that the prophecy in the beginning of this section refers: what is announced is the establishment of the economy of grace, the bringing in of the kingdom of God, free access to which should be given to all, small and great. There was provision made for the cleansing from sin and uncleanness of all without respect of persons; the Jew first, but also the Greek. The manifestation of this was by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who came to take away sin by the sacrifice of Himself; but it is the thing done rather than the doer of it that is here announced. It is for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem that this fountain is said to be opened. They seem to err grievously, however, who infer from this that this prophecy refers to the final conversion of the Jewish people. The prophets are wont to describe the new dispensation in language borrowed from the condition and usages of the old, and we interpret them aright when keeping this in view, we understand their descriptions, not as representations of simple historical facts, but as serving as the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, and as finding their fulfilment in crises and conditions of the kingdom of God on earth. They go upon the presumption that the Israel of God was never to be abolished, that its continuity was never to be interrupted, that though the outward national Israel might be cast off, because of their rejection of the Good Shepherd, the true Israel, the reality of which the other was but the symbol, the Israel that was really Israel, should continue forever. This idea our Lord and His Apostles adopted, and in their teaching and administrations carried out. (W. L. Alexander, D. D.)
A fountain for sin
Remission of sins and sanctification, purging away the guilt of sin by the grace of God in forgiving sins through Christs blood, and the virtue of His blood applied by the Spirit, and laid hold upon by faith, for purging all uncleanness of sin; this is compared to a springing fountain made open to all, in opposition to the small measure of water carried into the temple for legal washings. This benefit will be very conspicuous toward converted Israel, when the Redeemer shall turn iniquity from Jacob.
1. The great and chief privilege of the Gospel is remission and purging of sin, which, as they are only attainable through faith laying hold on Christs blood and the grace of God offered through Him in the Gospel, so without these, no other advantages by the Gospel will avail much, or be comfortable.
2. The free grace of God toward lost man, and the virtue of Christs blood is a treasure inexhaustible, and which cannot be overcome, with the greatness and multiplicity of sin in those who flee unto it, for it is a fountain or spring.
3. Pardon and virtue for purging of sin is not only purchased, and the way to it made patent, by the death of Christ, giving access unto God through Him; but is held forth in the offer of the Gospel and ministry of the Word, that none may pretend ignorance, nor any who need it seclude themselves from so free an offer, A fountain opened.
4. As the greatest must be in Christs reverence for this benefit, even those who have greatest gifts and are rulers of others, so the meanest in the Church, however they be not equal to others in gifts, yet have a like interest with them in this saving benefit.
5. When the Lord pours out upon His people the spirit of repentance and humiliation, it is a forerunner of ample manifestations of the grace of God, in opening up the treasures of the Gospel by the ministry of the Word, and in granting of pardon, and growth in purity. For, when the land shall mourn, in that day there shall be a fountain opened. (George Hutcheson.)
A word full of Gospel
The twelfth chapter of Zechariah is principally occupied with the indications of some particular day. Thus, we read again and again: In that day (verse 3); In that day (verse 4); In that day (verse 6); In that day (verse 8); In that day (verse 9); and In that day, in the opening of the thirteenth chapter--In that day there shall be a fountain opened. The reference is not in reality to some particular day; the day was not the same, the calendar was filled with that particular day, and yet the day was singular from all other days round about it. In all the previous instances we find nothing equal to the music that is discoverable in the opening of the thirteenth chapter. We read, In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone; In that day I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness; In that day will I make the governors of Judah like an hearth of fire among the wood, and like a torch of fire in a sheaf; In that day shall there be great mourning in Jerusalem; but now, in the thirteenth chapter, In that day there shall be a fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness--a fountain of water, a living fountain, hidden all the time in the rock; not a new fountain, the fountain was always there, but not always open; its existence was recognised by many a ceremonial action. We read of water in the Book of Numbers that is known in the literal Hebrew as the sin water, that is to say, the water that was applied to the cleansing of moral and spiritual offences, We delight to give an evangelical interpretation to this fountain. We call Jesus Christ the Son of God, the fountain that was opened for sin and for uncleanness. He offered to make men clean, He offered to refresh the souls of men with living water; He is described as the Water of earth, or the Water of heaven. David did not open the fountain, the fountain was opened in his house; the very grammar suggests an external and superintending act. In this living fountain we recognise Gods supreme miracle. For whom is the fountain opened? For a special class, and for that class only. It is not opened for Pharisees, righteous persons, or those who would carve their own way to heaven. This fountain is opened for sin and for uncleanness. Is any man conscious of sin? Here is the fountain. Has any man sat down by rivers of water and taken to him soap and nitre, and tried to cleanse his life of sin stains, and has consciously and pitiably failed in his attempt? Here is the fountain opened for uncleanness. Have we tried this fountain? Until we have tried it we cannot condemn it; until we have gone to it and sat beside it and invoked the spirit of its Creator, we cannot tell what virtue it possesses. (Joseph Parker, D. D.)
The fountain of life
Old mythology tells of one who discovered in his wanderings a fountain of peculiar qualities, and on bathing in it, found himself endowed with immortality. In the Holy Scripture this fiction is turned into solid fact. The Saviours fulness is original and boundless; the fulness of a spring always flowing and never diminished. The whole abundance of Gods free grace is poured unto us from this unfailing source. The fountain of life was opened on the day when the Divine Redeemer suffered and died for us. During the brief period of our Saviours ministry, the fountain flowed in partial streams, but at His death it was fully and forever opened. The Mosaic law had made ample provision for ceremonial pollution, and there were pools, like that of Siloam, where bodily disease might be cured, but the soul must be washed in another fountain. The stains of sin were so deep and so pervading, that even the conscience itself was defiled, and the everlasting benediction of Gods heavenly washing, could alone render the soul meet for His presence and glory. Such provision, accordingly, has been made, and a fountain has been opened for sin and for uncleanness. There are those who hope to cleanse themselves by some methods of their own. Would God have opened this fountain, if any other would have sufficed? The fountain stands open in the means of grace; in the invitations of Gods Word; in the nearness, the power, the grace of our adorable Lord and Saviour. (John N. Norton.)
The gospel age
I. It is a day for the abounding of sin cleansing influences.
To the Jews, washing from sin and ceremonial impurity was an idea with which they were well acquainted. It was enjoined by the law (Num_8:7, see also Eze_36:25). That sin and uncleanness are in the world. This is a fact written in all history, patent to every mans observation and consciousness.
2. The removal of sin is the worlds great necessity. Its existence is the cause of all the miseries of the world, physical, social, political, religious.
3. Provision for its removal abounds. A fountain opened. Sin and uncleanness are not an essential part of human nature. Men have lived without sin, and men in heaven do now. It is a mere stain on human nature, separable from it, and the means of separation are provided, provided in the Gospel. It is a fountain.
This implies--
1. Abundance. It is not a rill, a brook, a lake, but a fountain. What is the fountain? Infinite love. This implies--
2. Freeness. Flowing, ever open to all. This implies--
3. Perpetuity. The hottest sun does not dry up the fountain. It has an under connection with the boundless deep.
II. It is a day in which idolatry shall be utterly abolished. What a blessed age will that be, when all men on the face of the earth shall have their souls centred in love and devotion on the one great and common Father of us all!
III. It is a day in which all false religious teachings shall cease. And I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirits to pass out of the land, etc.
1. False religious teachers are great curses to a community. This is implied in the promise here of their destruction. They deceive souls on the most vital of all points.
2. False religious teachers may become objects of indignation even to their nearest relations. Thank God there is an age of reality coming, an age when men will recoil from shams as from demons vile.
3. False teachers will on this day be ashamed to exercise their mission. If any false prophets should continue to exercise their function, they will have to do it--
(1) in secrecy;
(2) and disclaiming their profession.
Should their disclaiming be questioned, they will take shelter in falsehood. And one shall say unto Him, what are these wounds in Thine hands? Then He shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of My friends.
Christ cleanses as well as forgives
A criminal, condemned by our law to die, can only be spared by the King empowering the Home Secretary to reprieve or pardon. Even then to remove the stain that must always rest upon that persons character is utterly beyond the power of them both. How different with Jesus. His power is unlimited. He not only is able to forgive sins, but He can cleanse away every trace of guilt, and present us faultless unto God.
The cleasing fountain
A fountain, says James Bailie, not a stagnant pool or a sluggish canal, but a torrent, a waterfall. Gods love flows forth like a great river over the Rock of Ages. Men bathe in that fountain, and their sins are swept away into the dead sea of Gods forgetfulness. God has pardoned transgressions, the very recital of which would have utterly destroyed our faith in human nature. One of the strongest proofs of Divine origin of Christianity is that it has received in its embrace liars, swindlers, and adulterers, and having cleansed and purified them, made them ornaments of society.
The remedy near at hand
Do you know that the wound that Hedley Vicars received before Sebastopol was not necessarily fatal? It was a wound that was very common, and a wound over which the surgeons had complete control, yet he died. How was it? It was because, in the hurry and haste of the march in the grey morning from the heights of the Crimea, the tents where the stores were, were left behind. Had there been a bandage near, had there been lint and cotton wool near, Hedley Vicars would have been saved; but he bled his life away before they could reach the tents. Ah, David tells you today that the tents where Gods supplies are, are never too far away. Blessed be God, the bandages, and lint, and healing efficacy of the blood of Christ, are not confined to Calvary, where it was shed. Here it flows. Oh, plunge into the fountain that was opened for sin! (John Robertson.)
The sense of sin
The sense of sin, we are told, is weaker today than it once was. Are we quite sure, if we could penetrate beneath the crust of mens reserve? An American humorist has put it, but oh! so truly, In his heart of hearts no man can have much respect for himself. In our heart of hearts, in our moments of colloquy with ourselves, when we feel ourselves to be in the presence of another whom we cannot name, we accuse ourselves, and there is no escape from the accusation and its penalty. The sense of sin may be outwardly weaker, but you are always upon safe ground if you appeal to the condemned conscience that is in every man. We have seen our life is marred by the presence of sin; and that mournful fact is not partial but universal. Touch the man and you touch one who has been seared and scored by the presence of an enemy, and that enemy is sin. (R. J. Campbell, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On vv1, 7 CRITICAL NOTES.] This verse completes the thought of Zec_11:10.…
CRITICAL NOTES.] This verse completes the thought of Zec_11:10. God not only pours out the Spirit, but provides means of purification. “The verse exhibits the two grand doctrines of the gospel—justification and sanctification” [Henderson]. Unclean.] Alluding to water of separation or purification for sin (Num_19:9).
Zec_13:2. Idols] (ch. Zec_10:2, marg.) Prevalent form of ungodliness, cut off, i.e. utterly destroyed. Prophets] False prophets, perhaps under demoniacal influence. Spirit] of uncleanness, opposed to the Spirit of holiness (cf. Act_16:16; 1Jn_4:6; Rev_16:13).
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Zec_13:3.] The evil denounced will be abolished; the very parents of false prophets would be the first to inflict merited punishment (cf. Deu_13:6; Deu_13:10; Deu_18:20).
Zec_13:4. Prophets] themselves would be ashamed] of their calling; wear] the badge of a prophet—assumed to deceive] i.e. to lie by imposing upon the people.
Zec_13:5. Say] A dramatic representation of means by which he deceives. He is charged with wounding himself in idolatrous worship (1Ki_18:28). He denies the charge; declares that they are chastisements which he formerly received in the house of his relatives or friends.
Zec_13:6.] By many the words are applied to Christ.
HOMILETICS
THE FOUNTAIN FOR UNCLEANNESS.—Zec_13:1
These words are connected with the preceding chapter. The outpouring of the Spirit will be followed by universal sorrow, and then by forgiveness and purification. Learn—
I. That sin is moral pollution. The evil is described by two words: sin, which is transgression of the law; uncleanness, which is impurity. Sin defiles the heart and conscience, makes unfit for the presence and service of God. What leprosy was to the body, sin is to the soul; the uncleanness of the one sets forth the impurity of the other (Psa_51:9). Education, outward profession, and religious privilege do not exempt from this corruption. “The house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem” required to be washed. All have sinned and need deliverance: first from the guilt, and then from the pollution of sin. “Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.”
II. That God has made provision to take away this moral pollution. “In that day there shall be a fountain opened.” The fountain comprehends forgiveness and sanctification. “The grace of Christ’s Spirit, as well as the virtue of Christ’s blood: whatever is necessary for both ends” (cf. 1Jn_5:5-6).
1. A fountain denotes fulness. It is not a well, cistern, nor reservoir; but a fountain of inexhaustible fulness.
2. A fountain denotes sufficiency. It is ever full and ever flowing. Enough mercy in God, enough merit in Christ, to cleanse the vilest of the vile. The laver of old had to be replenished (Exo_30:18); but God in Christ justifies from the guilt and cleanses from the pollution of sin. “The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.”
III. That this provision is always accessible to men. It is a fountain opened, not closed nor sealed up, as in Son_4:12. The atonement is not a fountain hid and inaccessible. Men are not excluded on account of nationality and the greatness of their sin—the injustice of God’s demands or inability to comply with them.
1. Opened in eternity by the purpose of God. Before the disease came the remedy was provided. “The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.”
2. Opened in every age for all nations of the earth. It was open from the time when it was first needed—from the time that sin came into the world. Ever since it has been opened to Jew and Gentile in every age. From the beginning to the end of the world it will ever be open, if our eyes are only opened to see it.
THE OPENED FOUNTAIN
“That day” opens up a bright vision to the prophet in the darkness of his time. Looking 500 years into the future, he predicts an event at Jerusalem which displays the love of God and makes provision for the necessities of man. “There shall be a fountain,” &c. This is a figure of the source and method of salvation through Christ.
I. The purpose of Divine provision. “For sin and uncleanness.”
1. To expiate sin a necessity. This is the great problem of humanity—what all pilgrimages and penances have had in view. Christ’s death atoned for sin and accomplished what Jewish sacrifices typified.
2. Then pardon for sin is required. Grace destroys the power of sin and delivers from its dominion. “For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.”
II. The freeness of Divine provision. “A fountain opened.”
1. Opened freely by Jehovah. It is not dug by man. The Divine mind originates the scheme. Man wanders in the wilderness ready to perish, seeking water where there is none; but God opens a fountain to quench his burning thirst.
2. Opened freely to all. It is not sealed up, nor forbidden, but accessible to all, without money and without price. “Whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”
III. The plenitude of Divine provision. In Christ is unlimited fulness of grace and truth. Millions have been refreshed, and still the waters flow on with undiminished volume. “Enough for all, and enough for evermore.” “The waters that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water,” &c.
IV. The perpetuity of Divine provision. “A fountain opened,” and always open. It never closes. Its store is never wasted nor exhausted. It is an ever-flowing, never-failing fountain to supply every demand. Not the deceitful brook nor summer stream which vanishes away; nor the broken cistern which holds no water. It is a perpetual spring, which makes the valley of Baca a well, the wilderness glad, and the desert to rejoice and blossom as a rose. This fountain is open now—open for you. Drink, and thirst no more [Adapted].
“There is a fountain filled with blood” [Cowper].
THE PURIFICATION AND REFORMATION OF ISRAEL.—Zec_13:1-6
That grace which pardons sin will also sanctify the soul. The promise which says, “From all your filthiness,” declares also, “From all your idols will I cleanse you.” Sanctification and reformation go together.
I. The purification of Israel. Many seek to get rid of the guilt and consequences wthout desiring freedom from the stain of sin. Repentance however bitter, tears however numerous, do not repair the evils of a wicked life. We must be renewed by grace, and washed in this “fountain for sin and uncleanness.” Some of the vilest characters at Corinth were washed in a double sense. “Ye are sanctified, but ye are justified (two aspects of the same work) in the name of the Lord Jesus.”
II. The reformation of Israel. Idolatry and divination shall be utterly abolished. The very names shall be “cut off,” and unmentioned. False prophets and the spirit of uncleanness shall be completely destroyed. This is done—
1. By a spirit of judgment. They will discern between the true and the false, commend the one and avoid the other.
2. By a spirit of zeal. The nearest relations were to denounce those who seduced from God, and cast the first stone. Loyalty to God is needful now as ever. Love to God must be supreme, and nothing must compete with holiness and truth. “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”
3. By a spirit of shame. Pretenders will be ashamed, and strip off the outward dress of their calling. They will rid themselves of every suspicion by disowning the profession of a prophet, and when pressed by questions evade true answers. All to ensure safety. Self-inflicted torture, fastings, and wounds in the body will not avail to save the soul. Humiliation and hypocrisy in the devotees of religion are hateful to God, who demands “simplicity and godly sincerity.” Never do evil that good may come.
CHRIST WOUNDED IN THE HOUSE OF HIS FRIENDS.—Zec_13:6
Many apply the words to the Messiah. It seems rather difficult, but very natural, so to apply them.
I. He was rejected by his countrymen. Christ was born a Jew, attended the Jewish synagogue, and lived and laboured among them. Yet “he came unto his own, and his own received him not.” He was rejected by the whole nation, who shouted, “Crucify him, crucify him!”
II. He was forsaken by his disciples. He longed for human sympathy, and required human aid in his work. But the best friends are weak, fall short of duty, and desert their duty. His disciples fell asleep. One denied, and another sold him. All forsook him and fled away. “My friends have forsaken me,” cried a great statesman. “My friends, there are no friends,” uttered Socrates. Christ looked for pity in his chosen few, and there was none.
III. He is wounded now by his people. In the domestic and social circles friendship decays and creates grief. What hurts more than lack of confidence, especially after long acquaintance? Christ is wounded—
1. By the inconsistent conduct of his people. When their life does not accord with their profession they crucify him afresh, and put him to an open shame. They act the deed afresh, and inwardly approve of the treatment which he received (Heb_6:6).
2. By coldness and indifference. Treating things for which he died as of no moment. Disregarding his authority, and neglecting the means of grace which he established. Christ is pierced yet, and his sorest wounds are often in the house of his friends.
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Zec_13:1.
1. The great spring. I will pour out.
2. The great agent. The Spirit of grace and supplication.
3. The effect. They look; they mourn; they see the fountain opened [McCheyne].
Zec_13:2-4. False prophets.
1. Putting on garments to deceive, to impose upon the people, and impress them with an idea of superior sanctity.
2. Uttering words which are false. The false was always prevalent among the Jews; is with us; and seeks to meet a craving of our nature. The Word of God is complete. Nothing more can be given by pretenders to Divine inspiration. “Beware of false prophets,” &c.
3. Zeal against false prophets may be great, but should always be in a legitimate method, and with prudence.
4. When false prophets are converted they are ashamed of their former deeds, and repudiate their calling.
Zec_13:3. Zeal for God against error and profanity. Zeal requiring parental sacrifice and punishment of those whom we love. Dearest friendships should not prevent the exposure of false teaching.
Zec_13:6. Wounded. There are four kinds of such wounds.
1. Those arising from their just reprehensions.
2. Those that result from their sufferings.
3. Those produced by our being bereaved of them.
4. Those inflicted by their improper conduct. Again; if the Lord Jesus be the sufferer, he is wounded in the house of his friends by their negligent conduct, by their selfishness, by their gloomy conduct, by their unholiness. His question is—Is this thy kindness to thy friend? [Jay].
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 13
Zec_13:1. Unclean. If we did not first take great pains to corrupt our nature, our nature would never corrupt us [Clarendon]. That must needs be deadly which could be healed by no other way but the death of Christ. Who, therefore, seriously considering that his sins could in no other way be expiated than by the death of the Son of God himself, would not tremble to tread as it were this most precious blood underfoot by daily sinning? [Bishop Davenport].
Zec_13:2-4. Idols. Idolatry has its origin in the human heart. Men love sin, and do not want to be reproved for it; therefore they form for themselves a god that will not reprove them [J. H. Evans].
“With what unutterable humility
We should bow down, thou blessed God, to thee,
Seeing our vanity and foolishness,
When to our own devices left, we frame
A shameful creed of craft and cruelty” [Landon].
Zec_13:4-5. Lies. All deception in the course of life is indeed nothing else but a lie reduced to practice, and falsehood passing from words into things [South]. It is too much proved that with devotion’s visage and pious action we do sugar over the devil himself [Shakspeare].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 I. Into this world, where the fountains were all…
Zec 13:1
I. Into this world, where the fountains were all sin and uncleanness, Messiah came. And for a while He was a fountain sealed. Within His own bosom He carried the purity of heaven, the calm consciousness of His own divinity, a great deep of gentleness and love and compassion. But that was not enough. It was not enough that He should be a holy visitor, by His surpassing sanctity pronouncing a tacit verdict on the surrounding iniquity; an angelic tourist through the realms of earth, leaving them more wretched and lonely than before. He had come not so much a visitor as a victim, not so much to sojourn as to save. Found in fashion as a man, God the Son became the kinsman of sinners, and engaged in His own Person to achieve an ample atonement for the sins of the world. It was on Calvary that the fountain sealed of incarnate love became the fountain opened of redeeming merit.
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II. The fountain is open still. Fresh and efficacious and free as on the day when His mighty sacrifice was offered, the merit of Immanuel still continues. The truth concerning Jesus, published in the Bible, is the fountain opened to the world. The man who believes that truth has his sins washed away. When the muddy Arve joins the limpid Rhone, after a while the bright waters grow troubled, and at last they flow together a turbid stream. But it is not so with this fountain. However many the sins, however much the defilement which it washes away, it springs pure and pellucid as ever, and the reason is that this fountain resembles the sea. Though a limited outlet, it is a boundless tide. In Persia, says a legend, there was a fountain, and if any impurity were cast into it there was sure to be a storm the selfsame day. But here is the very converse. Over the sinner’s head are lowering the dark thunderclouds of wrath Divine; but, emboldened by God’s own invitation, the sinner casts his sins into the fountain opened, and the sky is clear. God’s anger is turned away, and with a pleasant countenance He beholds the believing and returning transgressor.
J. Hamilton, Works, vol. vi., p. 194.
References: Zec 13:1.—Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 971; B. Isaac, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 37; J. N. Norton, Golden Truths, p. 355.
Zec 13:1-6
I. In the words "for sin and for uncleanness" there is apparently an allusion in the former to the water used in the purification of the Levites at their consecration, and in the latter to the water for the purifying of the congregation of Israel, prepared from mixing the ashes of the red heifer slain as a sacrifice with water. As water applied to the person removes bodily defilement, it becomes a fitting emblem of that which removes from the inner man moral defilement. Here the reference is to the cleansing energy which He who pours on men the spirit of grace and supplication bestows on all who truly repent, and which comes to men through the sacrificial death of Christ, whose "blood cleanseth from all sin."
II. The fountain opened, its cleansing waters are free to all—to the inhabitants of Jerusalem as well as the house of David. The grace of salvation is free to all without respect of persons.
III. True repentance will show itself on the part of those who are subjects of it, in the relinquishment of all former objects of evil attachment, and the entering upon a new life of godliness and holy service. So should it be with the covenant people after the great mourning and the attendant cleansing. As the sins to which Israel was most prone, and which brought on the nation the Divine judgments, were idolatry and false prophecy, so the restoration of the people to a new life of godliness and righteousness is depicted by the extermination of idols and false prophets from the land.
IV. It is for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem that this fountain is said to be opened. They seem to err grievously, however, who infer from this that the prophecy refers to the final conversion of the Jewish people. The prophets are wont to describe the new dispensation in language borrowed from the conditions and usages of the old; and we interpret them aright when keeping this in view; we understand their descriptions not as representations of simple historical facts, but as serving as the copy and shadow of the heavenly things, and as finding their fulfilment in crises and conditions of the kingdom of heaven on earth. They go upon the presumption that the Israel of God was never to be abolished, that its continuity was never to be interrupted, that though the outward national Israel might be cast off because of their rejection of the Good Shepherd, the true Israel, the reality of which the other was but the symbol, the Israel that was really Israel, should continue for ever.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Zechariah’s Visions and Warnings, p. 271; see also Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 353.
Reference: R. C. Anderson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxxii., p. 53.
Zec 13:7-9
I. The Person here represented as smitten by the sword of Divine justice is none other than the Messiah, the Christ. No other being but He is at once man and the fellow of Jehovah, the Lord of hosts; and He alone is the Shepherd whom God promised to set over His people Israel to feed them as a flock. Both these our Lord asserted for Himself (Joh 10:14; Mat 26:63-64, Mat 27:43).
II. The stroke inflicted on Him. This was the deadly stroke of Divine justice. As there is but one Being to whom the description of the prophet can refer, so there is but one event to which the command here given can be understood as pointing—the slaying of Him who as the Good Shepherd laid down His life for the sheep. His death was perpetrated by the "wicked hands" of men, but they were in this only the instruments by which God fulfilled His own purpose and counsel. He was a willing victim; He laid down His life of Himself, but He at the same time recognised the hand of God in the infliction, and held it as a fulfilment of the prediction here recorded.
III. The consequence to the flock of this smiting of the Shepherd. It was twofold. The sheep were to be scattered, but God was to turn back His hand over the humble and meek ones of the flock. The former of these our Lord applied to the dispersion of His disciples as consequent on His crucifixion; the other consequence was realised when the Lord, having been raised from the dead, showed Himself to individuals and to groups of them, and especially when, having, according to His promise given before His death, gone before them into Galilee, He met them there as a body to the number of about five hundred, and there showed Himself unto them alive from the dead, and received their worship as Lord of all.
IV. Though preserved and rescued the little flock would not escape all trouble and suffering. God would bring them through the fire, and refine and purify them in the furnace of affliction, and the result of this discipline would be their recovery from all apostasy, and their final establishment in the Divine favour, and their full union to Jehovah as His people.
W. Lindsay Alexander, Zechariah’s Visions and Warnings, p. 286; see also Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 161.
References: Zec 13:9.—Homiletic Magazine, vol. x., p. 8; J. Irons, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. ix., p. 61. Zec 14:1-11.—W. L. Alexander, Homiletic Magazine, vol. xi., p. 357. Zec 14:5.—J. Keble, Sermons from Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 14. Zec 14:6, Zec 14:7.—B. Gregory, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xviii., p. 49; W. M. Taylor, Old Testament Outlines, p. 287.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Purification of Jerusalem
Purification of Jerusalem
Important results follow this great act of national sorrow. 1. The land is purged of sin; 2a, of idols; 2b-6, of prophets, who as a class have fallen into disrepute, and who henceforth will be ashamed of their office.
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1. The idea of water as a symbol of spiritual cleansing was familiar in Jewish thought: cp. Eze_36:25; Eze_47:1. The Messianic reference is obvious.
2. Idols] Idolatry was never rampant in Israel after the exile. Those who maintain a post-exilic date for this prophecy refer to the Maccabsean age, when Greek customs and Greek idolatry were common even in Jerusalem (1Ma_1:54). The unclean spirit] which led men to sin. 3. The office of prophet will be so hateful as to be a dangerous occupation. Prophecy had become utterly distrusted, because it had been degraded by men who spoke smooth things rather than truth.
4. Rough garment] RV 'hairy mantle,' either an untanned sheep-skin, or a cloak of camel's hair, such as the Baptist wore.
5. Man taught me to keep cattle] better, with slight change in the Heb., 'the ground has been my possession.' I am so occupied with manual labour, I do not cultivate prophecy: cp. am Zec_7:14.
6. In thine hands] Heb. 'between thine hands,' probably referring to self-mutilation practised in idolatrous rites: cp. Jer_48:37; 1Ki_18:28. These wounds, says the accused person, I received when frolicking with my companions.
On Zec_13:7-9 see at the end of Zechariah 11.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v8 And it shall come to pass
And it shall come to pass
Zechariah 13 now returns to the subject of Zec 12:10. Zec 13:8; Zec 13:9 refer to the sufferings of the remnant; Isa 1:9; Rom 11:5 preceding the great battle. Zechariah 14. is a recapitulation of the whole matter. The order is:
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(1) The gathering of the nation, Zec 13:2 (see "Armageddon," Rev 16:14 (See Scofield "Rev 19:11")
(2) the deliverance, Zec 13:3;
(3) the return of Christ to the Mount of Olives, and the physical change of the scene, Zec 13:4-8;
(4) the setting up of the kingdom, and full earthly blessing, Zec 13:9-9.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. The cleansing (Zec 13:1)
CHAPTER 13
1. The cleansing (Zec 13:1)
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2. The blessed results of the cleansing (Zec 13:2-6)
3. The smitten Shepherd (Zec 13:7)
4. Salvation and condemnation (Zec 13:8-9)
Zec 13:1. This verse is misplaced; it belongs to the preceding chapter. It is a prophecy of the cleansing of the repenting portion of God’s earthly people. The fountain of cleansing, so beautifully expressed by Cowper:
There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel’s veins, And sinners plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains--
was in existence through all the centuries of Israel’s long dispersion. But the nation in blindness did not believe. Now all is changed. Their guilt is pardoned; all unrighteousness and iniquity is taken away. The Redeemer has come and turned away ungodliness from Jacob Rom 11:26-36. The prophetic Word is filled with promises concerning this future cleansing of the remnant of the nation Psa 103:1-22; Isa 33:24; Eze 39:29; Isa 59:20-21; Isa 45:19.
Zec 13:2-6. The cleansing is followed by the cutting off of the names of the idols, so that they will no longer be remembered. The false prophets and the unclean spirits, which had control during the great tribulation will be cast out and forever pass away. We have seen before in the 10th chapter that Israel will return to idolatry in the last days. The unclean spirit of idolatry which was cast out will at last return with seven others and will find the house empty, swept, and garnished. And the evil spirit, with the seven others more evil than himself, will enter in and dwell there, so that the last state of Israel becometh worse than the first. This will happen to this evil generation. This section of the 13th chapter makes it very clear that when the fountain is opened against sin and uncleanness, that idols will have been in the land, and false prophets prophesy there immediately before the manifestation of the Lord from heaven; for how could the names of the idols be cut off from the land if there were none there? Palestine may well be put down now as the great centre of false worship. Greek and Latin crosses are seen on all sides in Jerusalem and other places, while saints, holy houses, and places are worshipped and adored.
On the spot where the LORD’S house stood, there stands today the mosque of the false prophet. All is idolatry. Of course when the Lord returns these false temples will be destroyed, and the Greek and Latin idolatries, as well as Islam, will forever pass out of existence. There will be a purging of the land from these abominations. This may be included in the prophecy here. Still, it is the people of Israel who are especially concerned in the prophecy before us. The land has often been the scene of idol worship, and the people engaged in that which Jehovah despises. It will be so again, only in a much worse form, when false prophets who are inspired by the unclean spirit and demons themselves will be their guides.
We must look to Revelation for a key. It is well known to all students of the prophetic word that all which comes after the third chapter in the last book of the Bible is future still. We are yet in the things which are present. When the Lord has taken the Church to Himself then the great visions, tribulations, wrath, and judgment will be fulfilled. Aside from the scenes in heaven we learn from Revelation the events in the earth during the great tribulation which ends with the wrath from heaven. Now in the 9th chapter and the 20th verse of Revelation .(Rev 9:20) we read, And the rest of mankind which were not killed with these plagues repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship demons and the idols of gold, and of silver, and of brass, and of stone, and of wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk.
Who is the person mentioned in verse six (Zec 13:6)? In Studies in Zechariah we speak of this man as representing the counterfeit Christ, imitating the true Christ. But after more careful consideration we have come to the conclusion that this view is untenable. It is Christ Himself. He is here contrasted with the false prophets. It is the Pierced One. After they look upon Him they will inquire about those wounds in His hands and He will answer them, revealing the story of His rejection. This leads to the prophecy in the next verse.
Zec 13:7. This certainly is Christ, whose rejection, more than His rejection by His own, is here revealed. It is the same as in Isa 53:1-12, the suffering One, who is a man, and called My Fellow, the fellow of Jehovah of Hosts, Jehovah Himself, who speaks here, and what does He speak? The sword is to work against His Shepherd and against His own Fellow. The blessed mystery of the atonement is thus brought out. Indeed it is the heart of the Gospel here. “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have life eternal.” The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. It speaks of Him, the forsaken One, the Son of God, forsaken in the hour of His agony, the sword upon Him and against Him. In the New Testament we find the passage quoted in the Gospel of Matthew 26th chapter and 31st verse (Mat 26:31): “Then saith Jesus unto them, all ye shall be offended because of Me this night; for it is written, I will smite the Shepherd and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”
Zec 13:8-9. There is a very misleading idea among many students of prophecy as if the statement of Rom 1:26, “all Israel shall be saved,” meant that all the Jews will receive the blessing and the glory on that coming day of salvation. Some of the evil systems, like the Russell cult (International Bible Student Association), go so far as to teach that there will be a resurrection of all the ungodly Jews of past generations for a second chance. This passage silences these unscriptural theories. The promise of restoration and glory belongs to the godly, the believing and repenting remnant. The mass of Jews, who call themselves “Reform Jews,” who in reality are infidels, because they deny the Word of God and have completely discarded the faith in a coming Messiah, will be cut off. The third part (the remnant) only will be saved.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 7 The Fruits Of Penitence
The Fruits Of Penitence
v. 1. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to the entire nation, as representative of the Church of the New Testament, in whose members the fruit of Christ’s redemption is realized, for sin and for uncleanness.
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v. 2. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, in the great Messianic period. that I will cut off the names of the Idols out of the land, so that the very names which had formerly been in the mouths of men everywhere were no longer mentioned, and they shall no more be remembered, the loathing of every form of superstition being so great that men would put aside every thought of the former idolatry and superstition; and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit, who speaks through the false prophets, to pass out of the land. This is one of the results of the preaching of the Gospel, as we see also in the case of the people of Ephesus when Paul proclaimed the true God to them. Cf Act 19:19.
v. 3. And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, continuing his wicked profession in spite of the changed attitude of men, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live, for thou speakest lies in the name of the Lord; and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth. This is in line with the command of the Lord in the Old Testament. Cf Deu 18:20. Translated into terms of our day, it means that the mere fact of prophesying is a proof that a man is a deceiver.
v. 4. And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophets, those who still assert that they possess the power to prophesy, shall be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment, after the manner of Elijah and of John the Baptist, to deceive, to impress men with their status as prophets, just as men nowadays affect the dress, speech, and manners of certain professions in order to make an impression;
v. 5. but he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman, vehemently disclaiming any connection with the prophetic profession; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth, rather, "a man has purchased me from my youth. "
v. 6. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? the scars which he bore as a result of his wounding himself in the service of idols, 1Ki 18:28. Then he shall answer, in trying to evade the issue and to place the blame elsewhere, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends, possibly when lie was chastised in his capacity as slave. The entire paragraph shows with what utter loathing idolatry and superstition is to be regarded in the Church of the Lord and may be taken as a warning in our days when men are turning to deceivers for counsel and guidance.
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 4, 7, 8 a spring will be opened ... for their sin…
a spring will be opened ... for their sin and impurity
Forgiving the people's sins is spoken of as if a spring of water will wash away their sins. This can be stated in active form. AT: "it will be like a spring opens ... to cleanse their sin and impurity" (See: Metaphor and Active or Passive)
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a spring
a place where water flows naturally out of the ground
the house of David
Here "house" represents descendants. AT: "the descendants of David" (See: Metonymy)
this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Zechariah 1:3. AT: "this is what Yahweh of hosts has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh of hosts, have declared" (See: First, Second, or Third Person)
I will cut off the names of the idols from the land
Causing the people to no longer mention the names of idols is spoken of as if Yahweh would "cut off the names of the idols from the land." AT: "I will cause the people to no longer mention the names of the idols" (See: Metaphor)
they will no longer be remembered
This can be stated in active form. AT: "so that they no longer think about the idols" (See: Idiom and Active or Passive)
I will remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land
The prophets may refer to "false prophets." The spirit of impurity is spoken of as if it were physically unclean. AT: "I will also remove from the land the false prophets and their evil spirits" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
house of David
Jerusalem
sin
Yahweh of hosts
cut off
name
false god
false prophet
clean
spirit
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1–9 13:1-6 The second message (13:1-6) of the second oracle…
13:1-6 The second message (13:1-6) of the second oracle (chs 12–14) focuses on cleansing from sin.
13:1 A fountain is a spring of pure, flowing water for cleansing and purification (see 14:8; John 4:14; Rev 22:1-2). • God’s cleansing of Israel will include leaders (represented by the dynasty of David) and all the people of Judah and Israel (signified by the people of Jerusalem, the spiritual center of the nation). • to cleanse them: This cleansing, symbolized in the ritual washings of Old Testament worship (see Exod 30:17-21), was provided in the new covenant as promised by Jeremiah (Jer 31:34) and Ezekiel (Ezek 36:25; see Heb 10:1-22). • all their sins and impurity: The Hebrews would experience a complete moral and spiritual cleansing because of their sorrow over their sin (Zech 12:10-14).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.