TEXT [Commentary]

black diamond   2.   A fountain of cleansing (13:1-6)

1 “On that day a fountain will be opened for the dynasty of David and for the people of Jerusalem, a fountain to cleanse them from all their sins and impurity.

2 “And on that day,” says the LORD of Heaven’s Armies, “I will erase idol worship throughout the land, so that even the names of the idols will be forgotten. I will remove from the land both the false prophets and the spirit of impurity that came with them. 3 If anyone continues to prophesy, his own father and mother will tell him, ‘You must die, for you have prophesied lies in the name of the LORD.’ And as he prophesies, his own father and mother will stab him.

4 “On that day people will be ashamed to claim the prophetic gift. No one will pretend to be a prophet by wearing prophet’s clothes. 5 He will say, ‘I’m no prophet; I’m a farmer. I began working for a farmer as a boy.’ 6 And if someone asks, ‘Then what about those wounds on your chest?[*]’ he will say, ‘I was wounded at my friends’ house!’

NOTES

13:1 fountain. The noun maqor [TH4726, ZH5227] refers to a spring or fountain of flowing water. The metaphor signifies an “artesian well” that gushes forth pure water to provide ritual cleansing and purification (Merrill 1994:328). Later, Zechariah describes the continuous flow of this spring or fountain as “life-giving waters” (14:8). Jesus proclaimed himself to be the source of this life-giving water (John 4:14), and John’s vision of the new heaven and the new earth describes a river flowing with the “water of life” coursing out of the throne of God and the Lamb (Rev 22:1-2).

will be opened. This Niphal participle of the verb “open” (patakh [TH6605, ZH7337]) in combination with the verb “to be” (hayah [TH1961, ZH2118]) “implies that the fountain is to be opened continuously” (Smith 1984:280).

dynasty of David . . . people of Jerusalem. God’s cleansing of Israel will include both leadership (represented by the family of David) and all the people of Judah and Israel (signified by Jerusalem as the spiritual center of the nation; cf. Meyers and Meyers 1993:364, 398-399).

cleanse them from all their sins. This kind of thorough cleansing or purification (khatta’ [TH2403, ZH2633], Piel stem) could only be symbolized in the ritual washings and sacrifices of OT worship practices (cf. Exod 30:17-21; Heb 10:1-2). Such cleansing was a provision of the new covenant promised by Jeremiah (Jer 31:33) and Ezekiel (Ezek 36:25). The ultimate cleansing of sin was accomplished by the “blood of Jesus” (Heb 10:19), which has been sprinkled on us and made us clean (Heb 10:22). The NLT inserts “sins” as the object of the act of cleansing implied by the context.

impurity. The word “impurity” (niddah [TH5079, ZH5614]) often describes sexual impurity and ritual impurity (especially idolatry in Ezekiel; cf. Ezek 36:17, 25). Taken together, the clause indicates that the Hebrews will experience a complete moral and spiritual cleansing as a result of their sorrow and mourning over their sin (12:10-14).

13:2 erase idol worship. God, the Holy One of Israel, jealously guards his place in the universe as the only true and living deity (cf. Isa 43:10-13; 44:6-8). The cleansing of Israel associated with the new covenant will wash away the former penchant for idol worship and result in a “new heart” that will enable the people to worship God alone (Jer 32:38-40; Ezek 36:25-27). Then the “adoption” of Israel as the people of God will be complete, as they will truly be his people and he will be their God (Jer 31:33; Ezek 36:28).

names of the idols will be forgotten. Lit., “I will cut off the names of the idols.” In the biblical world, the name of a thing or a person embodied the reality of that named entity. Thus, the name of that thing or person and its existence is closely related. To “cut off the names of the idols” means that these false deities will cease to exist because God will see to it that their names are forgotten (cf. Ezek 14:6-11; Meyers and Meyers 1993:367-370).

false prophets. The false prophet or the lying prophet misrepresented God by fabricating divine revelations or by speaking in the name of other gods (Deut 13:5-11; 18:17-22). False prophets had led Israel astray in the past by encouraging the worship of idols (Jer 23:13, 25). The threat of heretical teaching by false prophets continued into the postexilic period (cf. Neh 6:12-14), and Jesus warned that false messiahs and false prophets will deceive people until the end of the age (Mark 13:22). According to 1 John 4:1-3, false prophets promote a common teaching that denies the incarnation of Jesus the Messiah—motivated by the spirit of the Antichrist.

13:3 You must die. According to the law of Moses, a false prophet was to be executed by stoning (Deut 13:5, 10; 18:20).

stab. The same verb is translated “pierce” in 12:10 (daqar [TH1856, ZH1991]), indicating a reversal in the people’s response to prophetic revelation. Previously the Israelites had rejected (and in some cases killed) the prophets of God (cf. 1:6; 7:11-12), but now their anger and rejection will be directed against the false prophets.

13:4 prophetic gift. Lit., “be ashamed of his vision” (bosh [TH954, ZH1017] + khizzayon [TH2384, ZH2612]). The OT prophet was sometimes identified as a “visionary” (khozeh [TH2377, ZH2606]; cf. 2 Sam 24:11), given the fact that divine revelation often came to them in dreams or visions at night (as with Zechariah’s series of night visions in 1:7–6:15).

prophet’s clothes. The distinctive garb of a coarse cloak of camel or goat hair was associated with the Hebrew prophets in OT times (cf. 2 Kgs 1:8; Matt 3:4).

13:5 I’m a farmer. This is perhaps a parody on Amos’s claim that he was not a professional prophet, but a shepherd and a pruner of fig trees (Amos 7:14).

13:6 wounds. Perhaps a reference to self-inflicted bruises that sometimes betrayed the ecstatic prophet, especially in Canaanite religious circles (cf. 1 Kgs 18:28). Meyers and Meyers (1993:383) speculate this may have been the case at times for the Hebrew prophets as well (cf. 1 Kgs 20:35).

COMMENTARY [Text]

The second message (13:1-6) of the second oracle (chs 12–14) has a single theme—cleansing from sin. This cleansing will be applied to the dynasty of David and the people of Jerusalem (13:1) and will result in the purification of Hebrew religion (13:2-6). The third message extends this cleansing to the people of the land (13:8). The first verse of the message (13:1) is understood by some as the conclusion of the first message of the second oracle and is included with 12:10-14 as a complete literary unity (e.g., Baldwin 1972:190). Others acknowledge that the phrase “on that day” indicates that a new literary unit begins with chapter 13 (cf. Smith 1984:280; so NLT).

The sequence of mourning for sin followed by God’s cleansing repeats a pattern similar to that found in Ezekiel’s vision of Israel’s restoration in which the people remembered past sin (and hated themselves for it) and then were purged of their sins (Ezek 36:31-32). This eschatological cleansing of Israel’s sins has theological connections with the new covenant promised to Israel by the prophet Jeremiah (Jer 31:31-34). In fact, Barker (1985:685) has identified four divine provisions contained in this new covenant, including enablement through God’s Spirit to obey his covenant laws (Jer 31:33a), an intimate relationship with God (Jer 31:33b), a saving knowledge of God (Jer 31:34a), and the forgiveness of sins (Jer 31:34b). Each of these new covenant provisions is found in some form in Zechariah’s second oracle, specifically in the enablement for repentance and spiritual renewal in the outpouring of the spirit of grace and prayer (12:10), intimate relationship implicit in the affirmation that the Hebrews are God’s people (13:9), a saving knowledge of God in his deliverance of Jerusalem (12:10; 14:9), and the forgiveness of sins represented in the fountain of cleansing (13:1).

The term for “cleansing” (khatta’th [TH2403, ZH2633], Piel stem) signifies the act of purging or purification from some sort of uncleanness or sin (13:1; see the discussion in Meyers and Meyers 1993:364-366). The linking of this act of cleansing with a flowing spring or fountain of water and the word for ritual impurity (niddah [TH5079, ZH5614]) indicates this is a spiritual purification since Yahweh possesses the fountain of life and he himself is the fountain of living waters (Ps 36:9; Jer 2:13). It is possible that the cleansing of the people of Israel was foreshadowed in the purging of the sins of Jeshua the high priest, symbolized in his change of clothing (3:4-5). Although Zechariah’s cleansing fountain addresses all the sins of the Hebrew people, the promise of purification cannot be separated from the specific sin of “piercing” God’s representative, mentioned in the immediate context (12:10). As McComiskey (1998:1218) has noted, “against the background of this metaphor of cleansing, the sorrow of 12:11-14 becomes repentance.”

The image of the flowing spring or fountain (13:1) suggests that this source of divine cleansing from sins and impurity is both abundant and continual. Beyond this, the flowing water implies the “removal” of the effects of sin and impurity—even as David pleaded that God would “remove the stain” of his guilt (Ps 51:9). According to the psalmist, God in his mercy and grace removes our sins “as far from us as the east is from the west” (Ps 103:12). God’s cleansing and removal of sin for the Hebrew community was symbolized in the “live goat” ceremony on the Day of Atonement, when this “scapegoat” was sent out from the camp into the desert figuratively carrying the sins of the people (Lev 16).

Ollenburger (1996:829) has pointed out additional connections between Zechariah’s spring of cleansing and Mosaic legislation, notably the cleansing of the priests with water to remove the impurity of contact with a corpse (Num 19:11-20). Two key points emerge from the comparison. First, the cleansing and removal of sins is the work of God—even as David recognized in his prayer of penitence (Ps 51:1-2). Second, this ritual cleansing was required for the restoration of the priest to his duties of service and ministry in the sanctuary before the presence of the Holy One of Israel (cf. Num 19:13, 20). And this is the goal of Zechariah’s visions: the restoration of God’s presence in the midst of Israel (1:16; 2:5, 10-11; 8:3, 23). In terms of New Testament fulfillment, Jesus the Messiah has already gone through the curtain of heaven into God’s inner sanctuary (Heb 6:19-20). Therefore, we can enter God’s presence and boldly approach the throne of our gracious God in prayer because as our high priest, Jesus is holy and blameless, unstained by sin (Heb 7:26).

Zechariah’s vision anticipates the cross of Jesus the Messiah because it is the “fountain” of his blood spilled in a violent death that “cleanses” the Christian from every sin (1 John 1:7). Even as Paul reminded the church at Corinth, “you were cleansed; you were made holy” (1 Cor 6:11). Jesus himself spoke figuratively of this “washing” when he dramatized its effect in the bathing of the disciples’ feet (John 13:6-11). The New Testament ends where Zechariah begins, as John’s apocalyptic vision packs these same images into the scene before the throne of the Lamb, including robes washed white in the blood of the Lamb, the Lamb who is also the Shepherd, and the life-giving springs of water (Rev 7:14-17).

Zechariah’s message against idolatry and false prophets (13:2-6) is usually understood as the cleansing or purifying of Hebrew religion. Israel’s history was a story of covenant relationship with Yahweh perpetually compromised by the worship of idols and the perverted teaching of false prophets. So Craigie has noted that the “elimination of idolatry and false prophets would be a restoration of the faith to its purest form” (1984:216). Mason’s (1977:121) observation that Zechariah refers instead to the application of the promise of the new covenant seems more in keeping with the context of the prophet’s message. Since God himself would again be present in the midst of his people, there would no longer be any need for prophetic figures who mediated his word to the people. The people would no longer need “to teach their neighbors, nor . . . their relatives” because God would write his “instructions deep within them, and . . . on their hearts” (Jer 31:33-34). Thus “to appear as a prophet would be to cast doubt on the finality and totality of God’s final act of salvation” (Mason 1977:121). If this is the case, then Zechariah anticipates the fulfillment of Joel’s vision of a time when, in one sense, everyone is a prophet because of the outpouring of God’s Spirit (Joel 2:28-29; cf. Acts 2:16-21). It is this universal knowledge of God that will ultimately bring about the cessation of the prophetic gift (Jer 31:34; cf. 1 Cor 13:9-10).