And one shall say unto him, What are those wounds in thy hands? And he will say, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
The chapter has just swept away the false prophets. Then a new voice speaks. This man claims no prophetic office, only a servant's life. And he carries wounds given to him by friends, not enemies. Who is he, why are his hands marked, and how can he still call the people who wounded him his friends?
A note on translation: the writers quoted below use older versions that read "wounds in your hands." The ESV has "wounds on your back." Their comments follow the older wording.
Commentators differ over the identity of the "he" in verses 5 and 6. One writer lays out both readings before choosing:
Verses 5 and 6 present a difficult problem. Some take them as referring to one of the false prophets, just mentioned. Others go back to the true Shepherd, spoken of in the previous chapter and again very clearly in verse 7. We are inclined to agree with this second view.
Another writer changed his mind on this question:
Who is the person mentioned in verse six? In Studies in Zechariah we call this man the counterfeit Christ, who imitates the true Christ. But after more careful thought we have concluded that this view cannot stand. It is Christ Himself. He is here contrasted with the false prophets. It is the Pierced One.
Verse 5 sets up verse 6. The speaker takes the place of a slave:
Man had acquired Him as a slave from His youth. Compare the Hebrew servant in Exodus 21. He was the slave of all, all the more because He was the perfect servant of God.
The marks in His hands are more than a memory. Israel will meet the risen Christ, as His disciple Thomas did:
Here we see that He will personally present Himself to His own. Earlier they had seen Him through faith, Him whom they had pierced (Zech. 12:10). Just as Thomas once did after His resurrection, they will be able to touch Him, for they will see Him in His resurrection body. They will confirm what the prophet said of Him: "They have pierced My hands and My feet" (Ps. 22:17).
He served them in love, and they answered with wounds:
What a contrast! In love He had become the servant of man. For His love He received hatred, rejection, and crucifixion — and this, as He explains, in the house of His friends. According to the flesh, He was a Jew, Son of David, heir of the promises. As such He came into the house of His friends… He cannot hide His love for His people. He shows the wounds He received while among them, and still says, "the house of my friends." Truly, blessed Lord, Your love is both unchangeable and unquenchable!
One writer notes how much rests on that single phrase:
What did He get? Wounds! He was wounded in the house of His friends… In this expression, "the house of My friends," we see His unalterable love for His people. How often a flood of light comes out in a single word.
The question itself shows who is asking — and who is not:
If He is simply a servant, why such wounds? The one who asks clearly knows nothing of the crucifixion of this blessed Servant of God, who had served man so kindly in his deepest need. The question could not come from Judah. Judah was guilty of Christ's crucifixion, and Zechariah 12:10-14 shows Judah in deep repentance before anyone asks this question. So it seems likely that the question comes from among the ten tribes who will return to the land about this time.
Men wounded Him, but God's hand was in it too:
In chapter 13:5 we see Christ, the servant of man, the rejected one of the Jews, and the smitten of Jehovah… It then appears that it was among His friends that He had been wounded in His hands. And the great secret of all comes out: He is Jehovah's fellow, and smitten of Him. Note: where people acknowledge Christ as God, He calls the saints His fellows; and where, as here, He is in deepest humiliation, God calls Him His fellow.
The scars become the proof of identity, and the answer breaks the nation's heart:
Oh, what brokenness of heart and moving of love this will give… This will be the grand moment of discovery for Israel. Their glorious Messiah is the very Jesus who died for their sins. Oh, think of the hour of His sufferings. Then think of these words of love: "Those I received in the house of my friends." These burning words of love will melt every heart. Reader, it is through this same precious Jesus that forgiveness of sins is preached to us. The same precious blood cleanses us from all sin.
- Servant — first comes the place He took. No prophetic office, a slave acquired from His youth, the perfect servant of God.
- Wounded — the marks in His hands prove His rejection. Israel will see and touch them in His resurrection body.
- Friends — He calls the very people who pierced Him His friends. What they did never changed His love.
- Fellow — men wounded Him, and God, who smote Him, calls this humbled One His fellow.
- Recognised — the question about the scars brings the discovery. Israel's Messiah is the Jesus they crucified, and hearts melt.
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, even against the man [that is] my fellow, saith Jehovah of hosts smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn my hand upon the little ones.
The chapter has just described a man wounded in the house of his friends. Now the voice changes, and the one who orders the blow is God Himself.
Then a still more solemn voice is heard. It is not wolves now, but God... The "sword" here is no harder to understand than in Zechariah 11:17, where it stands for the judgment of the worthless shepherd. In both places it pictures a violent end of life. But how deep the contrast! Jehovah Himself gives Him up to complete humiliation and rejection... We must remember that the hatred of the Jews against the Messiah, however great, could have achieved nothing unless Jehovah allowed it for His own mighty purposes. And this He did.
Two titles sit side by side in this verse. Where the ESV has "the man who stands next to me," the translation these writers use reads "my fellow."
Of whom is Jehovah of hosts speaking? Of His beloved Son, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ... Jehovah calls Him "My fellow." He is therefore divine. In no sense and at no time was He ever inferior to Him. "I and My Father are one," He said in the days of His flesh — one in majesty, power, wisdom and glory. But Jehovah of hosts calls Him "the man." He became this in His grace.
The word carries more than a claim about His nature. It also describes how perfectly this Man matched the mind of God.
This prophetic word was certainly spoken about our Lord Jesus Christ, for He quoted it and applied it to Himself on the night of His betrayal... The Lord of Hosts speaks of Him as "the Man that is My fellow," which surely carries the meaning of equality. But I suggest it means more than that; it means absolute accord with God's thoughts and will. He was God's Fellow, answering to every desire in the heart of God, as a well-tuned harp answers to the touch of a master's fingers.
The word "smite" reaches wider than the atonement itself.
But the smiting of the Shepherd expresses His utter humiliation as Messiah, cut off and having nothing. "I will smite" refers to God giving the Lord up to feel the reality of His rejection and death. "Smiting" is a broader term. Christ takes it from God, yet His enemies did the deed... Does that mighty work of suffering for our sins, does the atonement, "scatter" the sheep? Is it not, on the contrary, the only righteous foundation on which they are gathered?
That sword had a cause behind it.
Israel as a nation were God's sheep, and their sins and turning away had a twofold effect. It stirred up God's governmental retribution in this world, and the prophet had much to say about that. It also raised the far more serious matter of God's eternal judgment in the life to come. The true Shepherd was to meet that in such a way that Jehovah's sword was to awake against Him. The persistent sins of the faithless sheep had awakened that sword, and it was to smite not them but the holy Shepherd.
The scattering has been read at two levels.
First, the sheep are scattered. This came true to the letter on the night He was arrested. All His disciples, the men who had acknowledged Him as the Shepherd of Israel, left Him and fled. In another way, we cannot doubt, it has also come true in the scattering of the Jews across the whole earth... He came to gather His sheep. But the people refused to listen to the voice of the Good Shepherd, and He was smitten. So God in His government scattered the flock.
The verse does not end in loss. These writers follow an older translation, where God turns His hand upon the little ones rather than against them.
What a sweet thought it must have been to the Lord's heart, that if He was smitten, God would turn His hand upon the little ones. If wrath came on Him and the sheep were scattered, there was that drop of sweetness at the bottom of the cup... God's hand turned on the little ones — not one of them ever lost. Where were Mary, John, Peter? God knew where they were, and they would all turn up unharmed. God gave them to this Shepherd, and kept them for Him.
Read alongside Isaiah's use of the same phrase, that turning of the hand points to blessing.
If we turn to Isaiah 1:25 we find the same expression, "I will turn My hand." The context there shows that the turning of His hand means blessing, while for His adversaries there is judgment. If we read the closing chapters of the Gospels and the opening chapters of Acts, we see God turning His hand in blessing on the "little ones."
- The sword — the order comes from the LORD of hosts, not from wolves; men struck the blow, but only because God allowed it.
- The Fellow — the title marks Him as divine and never inferior, in full accord with God's mind; "the man" marks what He became in grace.
- The smiting — it is His utter humiliation as Messiah, cut off and having nothing; the atonement does not scatter the sheep, it is the ground on which they are gathered.
- The scattering — the disciples fled the night He was arrested, and a people who refused the Shepherd's voice were scattered far longer.
- The little ones — God's hand on them means blessing, and He kept every one He gave to the Shepherd.