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Summary

Zechariah 12:1–9 – Jerusalem a cup and a heavy stone

What happens: The oracle begins with the Creator who forms spirit within people. God makes Jerusalem a cup that makes surrounding peoples reel and a heavy stone that injures those who lift it. He strikes enemy horses with panic and strengthens Judah. He saves the tents of Judah first so no one boasts over another. On that day He shields Jerusalem and destroys nations that come against it.

What it means: God rules nations and guards His people. Human power breaks against His purpose. He rescues without feeding pride, keeping glory for Himself. Covenant protection rests on God’s might, not our status.

Zechariah 12:10–14 – Mourning for the pierced one

What happens: God pours out on David’s house and Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy. They look on Him whom they pierced and mourn deeply, each family by itself.

What it means: God grants repentance. Sorrow over sin flows from grace He gives. The pierced one points to God’s saving plan centered on a rejected yet redeeming figure, fulfilled in Christ. God’s mercy turns grief into true turning.

Application

  • Depend on God’s strength, not on numbers or status.
  • Ask God for the spirit of grace that leads to real repentance.
  • Look to the pierced Savior and respond with faith and humility.

Bible

1The burden of the word of the LORD for Israel, saith the LORD, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

2Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem.

3And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it.

4In that day, saith the LORD, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness.

5And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God.

6In 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; and they shall devour all the people round about, on the right hand and on the left: and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.

7The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.

8In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

9And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.

11In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

12And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;

13The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;

14All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart.

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