NOTES for Zec 13:9
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. |
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The prophets said many time that they will meet the Messiah promised by God and that not all the people will enter the messianic Kingdom, but the remnant, which by definition consists not of the majority, but of the minority of people. Zechariah speaks in that case about a third of the population. Probably, it is necessary to consider this number symbolical : because, the Jewish community of Babylon that survived the captivity, and whose members could be considered as the remnant of which the prophets spoke about, was much less than a third of the population of the Jewish people before captivity.
But now all prophets say the same thing about the meaning of what happened. Zechariah and here recourses to symbols: he speaks about the "purifying fire", about “the melting" of people. It is particularly remarkable that all this is already said in the period before captivity. As we see, it was revealed to the prophet that before the arrival of the Messiah the people wait another for trial, similar to the one he experienced during the Babylonian invasion.
Such trial could be historically considered the persecutions of Antiochus Epiphanes and the following answer to them the Maccabees wars. Of course, talking about the destruction of a third of the people during the persecutions is not necessary in this case, but, as we see, it was all about that proportion, which is characteristic of the corresponding technological process mentioned by the prophet, whose impurities contained in the ore is separated from metal.
The meaning of the prediction is completely clear: in order to enter the Kingdom, it is necessary to get rid of everything that is incompatible with its life. And during the persecutions, the superficial in man, as in any critical situation, separates itself from the main which is its spiritual essence. And the people in general are divided into those who are ready to walk by the way of the Kingdom, in spite of the persecutions, and those who are not ready for the trials. Control is rigid, but inevitable.
Other notes
For Zec 12:1-13:9
1 The 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. |
2 Behold, 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. |
3 And 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. |
4 In 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. |
5 And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the LORD of hosts their God. |
6 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; 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. |
7 The 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. |
8 In 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. |
9 And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. |
10 And 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. |
11 In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon. |
12 And 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; |
13 The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; |
14 All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. |
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. |
2 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: and also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. |
3 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. |
4 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive: |
5 But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman; for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. |
6 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. |
7 Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones. |
8 And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein. |
9 And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The LORD is my God. |
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