Zechariah 12:10 · Subject · Featured Study
The One They Have Pierced
A study of Zechariah's verse on the One pierced and of its use in the Gospel of John and in Revelation, with readings from Jerome to Spurgeon.
Anonymous Russian icon painter, Elisha, Zechariah and Joel, from the prophets' row of the iconostasis of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery, 1497. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
THE ARTWORKThe icon painter set three prophets side by side on a gold ground, with Zechariah in the centre in a red robe. Each holds out an open scroll lettered in Cyrillic.
The LORD says His people will look on Me, the One they have pierced, and mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child.
Summary
The New Testament quotes Zechariah's verse twice, at the cross and at the return of Jesus.
- John uses one Greek verb for the spear thrust and another, ekkenteo, for the quotation.
- Zechariah measures the mourning by the wailing in the plain of Megiddo, where King Josiah fell.
- Amos 8:10 and Jeremiah 6:26 use the same measure of grief, the mourning for an only son.
The Verse and Its Quotations
Four passages, from the promise in Zechariah to the coming in Revelation.
Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.The verse joins grace, the look and the mourning in one sentence.
“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the people of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity.The chapter division falls here, yet the verse continues the day of mourning begun in Zechariah 12.
Now these things happened so that the Scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of His bones will be broken.” And, as another Scripture says: “They will look on the One they have pierced.”John names two Scriptures fulfilled at the cross, and the second is Zechariah's.
Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him—even those who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be! Amen.John's vision joins the words of Zechariah to the words of Jesus in Matthew 24:30, so the pierced One is the One who comes.
One Verse in Four Witnesses
Each text with its language, its verb and the One it speaks of.
| Text | Language | The verb | Of whom |
|---|---|---|---|
| Zechariah, the Hebrew text | Hebrew | daqar, to pierce | Me, the LORD who speaks |
| Zechariah, the Septuagint | Greek | to insult | Me, the LORD who speaks |
| John 19:37 | Greek | ekkenteo, to pierce through | Jesus on the cross |
| Revelation 1:7 | Greek | ekkenteo, to pierce through | Jesus at His return |
- Language
- Hebrew
- The verb
- daqar, to pierce
- Of whom
- Me, the LORD who speaks
- Language
- Greek
- The verb
- to insult
- Of whom
- Me, the LORD who speaks
- Text
- John 19:37
- Language
- Greek
- The verb
- ekkenteo, to pierce through
- Of whom
- Jesus on the cross
- Text
- Revelation 1:7
- Language
- Greek
- The verb
- ekkenteo, to pierce through
- Of whom
- Jesus at His return
Zechariah, Megiddo and the Cross
The prophet's date, the mourning the verse recalls, and the custom John records.
Zechariah dated his first word to the eighth month of the second year of Darius, and his last dated word to the fourth year of Darius. The oracle of Zechariah 12 to 14 carries no date.
Zechariah 12:12 to 14 names the clans of David, Nathan, Levi and Shimei, each mourning on its own. King Josiah had gone out to fight Pharaoh Neco on the plain of Megiddo, where archers shot him, and he died at Jerusalem. Jeremiah lamented over him, and the singers made the laments a statute in Israel.
The Jews asked Pilate to have the legs of the crucified broken so the bodies would not stay on the cross over the Sabbath. The soldiers broke the legs of the two men beside Jesus and found Him already dead.
The Hebrew and the Greek
Five Hebrew words of the verse and the two Greek verbs John uses for the piercing.
daqar (H1856)
A Hebrew verb meaning to pierce or stab, used eleven times, and Zechariah 13:3 uses it again of a false prophet whose parents pierce him through.
chen (H2580)
A Hebrew noun for favor or graciousness, used sixty-nine times, which the Berean renders grace in Zechariah 12:10.
tachanun (H8469)
A Hebrew noun for earnest prayer, used eighteen times, which the Berean renders prayer in Zechariah 12:10.
yachid (H3173)
A Hebrew adjective meaning only or sole, used twelve times, rendered only child in Zechariah 12:10 and used in Genesis 22:2 when God tells Abraham to take his only son Isaac.
bekor (H1060)
The Hebrew noun for the firstborn, used one hundred and twenty-two times, which closes Zechariah 12:10.
nysso (G3572)
A Greek verb meaning to prick or jab, used once, of the soldier's spear in John 19:34.
ekkenteo (G1574)
A Greek verb meaning to pierce through, used twice, in John 19:37 and Revelation 1:7, both times in the words of Zechariah 12:10.
What the Text Leaves Unsaid
Three questions the texts leave open.
Zechariah says who will look and who is pierced, and he leaves unsaid by what means the piercing is done.
John leaves unsaid whether every part of Zechariah 12:10 was fulfilled on the day he records. Revelation leaves unsaid whether the mourning of the tribes is repentance or dread.
What the Verse Shows of Christ
Two teachers on the turn from Me to Him and on the spirit poured out, and two verses from after the cross.
Charles Spurgeon, in his sermon Mourning at the Cross, took the turn from Me to Him as one Person speaking of Himself. He read it as a sign of the unity and the Trinity of God.
John Wesley, in his Notes on the Old Testament, read the outpoured spirit as fulfilled when the exalted Christ sent the Comforter to His disciples, as He did at Pentecost.
Therefore let all Israel know with certainty that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ!” When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and asked Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”Those who crucified Jesus grieve over Him here, as Zechariah foretold of those who would look on the One they pierced.
Then Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and look at My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Stop doubting and believe.”The risen Jesus shows Thomas the side the spear opened, so He bears the wound of the piercing after He is raised.
Three Voices on the Pierced One
Cyril of Alexandria on the cross, John Calvin on the fountain and Matthew Henry on the mourning of the land.
“By his account of what took place, the wise Evangelist confirms his hearers in the belief that He was the Christ long ago foretold by Holy Writ; for the events of His life harmonised with what was written concerning Him. For not a bone of Him was broken, and He was pierced with the spear of the soldier, according to the Scripture.”
Cyril of Alexandria · Commentary on the Gospel of John, Book 12 · on John 19:36Patristic
“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.”
John Calvin · Commentaries · on Zechariah 13:1Reformed
“The land itself put on mourning at the death of Christ, for there was then darkness over all the land, and the earth trembled; but this is a promise that, in consideration of the death of Christ, multitudes shall be effectually brought to sorrow for sin and turn to God; it shall be such a universal gracious mourning as was when all the house of Israel lamented after the Lord, 1 Sam. vii.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Zechariah 12:12Puritan
How the Verse Is Read
Two questions of reading, each with its holders and their works.
Pierced, or insultedJerome and Augustine of Hippo · Patristic commentary
Jerome's Latin follows the Hebrew and John's Gospel with pierced. In his Commentary on Zechariah, Jerome traced the Septuagint's insulted to the Hebrew letters daleth and resh, which differ only by a small mark. In his Letter 57 he set John's pierced beside the Septuagint's mocked.
Augustine, in City of God 20.30, held that pierced shows the crucifixion more plainly. The strongest case for insulted is his own, that Christ was insulted through His whole passion, from His arrest to the cross, and so he read both words together.
The coming in Revelation 1:7Bonaventure, John Wesley and Adam Clarke · Medieval and Methodist commentary
Bonaventure, in his Commentary on John, held that John 19:37 was fulfilled at the spear and has a fuller fulfilment still to come. Wesley, in his Notes on the New Testament, wrote that all who caused His sufferings will look on Him with sorrow in this world or with terror when He comes in the clouds. Wesley tied that coming to Revelation 1:7.
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, read the coming of Revelation 1:7 as His coming to judge Jerusalem. He rendered all the tribes of the earth as all the tribes of the land, and he took the verse as a presumptive proof that Revelation was written before the city fell.
Clarke's reading is the strongest objection to Bonaventure's and Wesley's. Against Clarke stands Revelation 1:7 itself, which says that every eye will see Him.
Look on the One They Pierced
Grace comes first in the verse, so the look Zechariah promises is God's gift before it is the reader's act.
The text asks the reader to look on the pierced Christ, to grieve over sin, and to come to Him to be made clean.