Zechariah 13:9

13:7-9 Here is a prophecy of the sufferings of Christ. God the Father gave order to the sword of his justice to awake against his Son, when he freely made his soul an offering for sin. As God, he is called my Fellow. Christ and the Father are one. He is the Shepherd who was to lay down his life for the sheep. If a Sacrifice, he must be slain, for without shedding of the life-blood there was no remission. This sword must awake against him, yet he had no sin of his own to answer for. It may refer to the whole of Christ's sufferings, especially his agonies in the garden and on the cross, when he endured unspeakable anguish till Divine justice was fully satisfied. Smite the Shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. This passage our Lord Jesus declares was fulfilled, when all his disciples, in the night wherein he was betrayed, forsook him and fled. It has, and shall have its accomplishment, in the destruction of the corrupt and hypocritical part of the professed church. Because of the sin of the Jews in rejecting and crucifying Christ, and in opposing his gospel, the Romans would destroy the greater part. But a remnant would be saved. And if we are his people, we shall be refined as gold; he will be God, and the end of all our trials and sufferings will be praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Daniel's time of trouble, such as there never was since there was a nation, Daniel 12:1 and the time of the slaying of the witnesses, Revelation 11:7 , and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried; their graces, principles, and profession, will be tried; their dross and tin will be removed, and they will be purged and purified; a more pure and glorious state of the church will take place, in which there will be great purity of Gospel worship, discipline, and conversation; when the word will be more purely preached, the ordinances more purely administered, and the saints will live more holy lives and conversations, signified by the witnesses ascending up into heaven, Revelation 11:12, they shall call on my name; which includes the whole of divine worship, and particularly designs prayer, that pure offering and incense, which shall now be offered to the name of the Lord in every place, Malachi 1:11 hence it follows, and I will hear them; accept their prayers, and give an answer to them: so the Targum paraphrases the words, "he shall pray in my name, and I will receive his prayer:'' I will say, It is my people; the Lord will make it appear to themselves and others that they are his special, peculiar, and covenant people, by calling them out of Babylon; by bestowing his favours upon them; and by granting his presence with them, as well as by the witnessing of his Spirit to them; see Revelation 18:4, and they shall say, The Lord is my God: they sha

I will bring the third part through the fire; that part that is preserved shall be brought into afflictions, hot as fire. And will refine them as silver is refined; these afflictions shall purify them, and so better them, as silver and gold are bettered by the furnace, made fitter to be vessels of honour. They shall call on my name; pray to me, and own me for their God. I will hear; I will answer them, and own them for my people, my purified people, &c.

9. through … fire—of trial (Ps 66:10; Am 4:11; 1Co 3:15; 1Pe 1:6, 7). It hence appears that the Jews' conversion is not to precede, but to follow, their external deliverance by the special interposition of Jehovah; which latter shall be the main cause of their conversion, combined with a preparatory inward shedding abroad in their hearts of the Holy Spirit (Zec 12:10-14); and here, "they shall call on My name," in their trouble, which brings Jehovah to their help (Ps 50:15). my people—(Jer 30:18-22; Eze 11:19, 20; Ho 2:23).

Verse 9. - Through the fire. This third part, like its Master, passes through much tribulation, and is thereby refined and purified (comp. Psalm 66:10 ; Isaiah 48:10 ; Jeremiah 9:7 ; Daniel 12:10 ; Malachi 3:3 ; 1 Peter 1:6, 7 ). Call on my Name. In their distress they shall turn in faith to Jehovah, as the covenant God, a very present Help in trouble ( Isaiah 65:24 ). Thus is represented God's dealing with his Church in every age. Zechariah 13:9

I will bring the third part through the fire - Such is always God's ways. "Thou hast proved us, O God; Thou hast tried us, like as silver is tried. Thou broughtest us into the snare, Thou laidest trouble upon our loins: we went through fire and water, and Thou broughtest us out into a wealthy place" Psalm 66:9-11 . "I have refined thee, but not with silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" Isaiah 48:10 ; and, "Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God" Acts 14:22 . Dionysius: "In adversity virtue is most tried, and it is shown what advance a person has made; for 'patience' hath 'a perfect work' James 1:4; and it is called the touchstone of all other virtues, as is written; 'God tried His elect as gold in the furnace and received them as a burnt offering' ; and, 'All the faithful who have pleased the Lord have passed through many tribulations' .

And the angel Raphael saith to Tobias, 'Because thou wert accepted of God, need was that temptation should prove thee' ." "Adversities are granted to the elect of God, and therefore to be rejoiced in with the whole heart." "Fire, crosses, racks were prepared; swords executioners torturers were put in action; new forms of suffering were invented, and yet Christian virtue remained moveless, unconquered: the fiercer the onslaught, the more glorious was the triumph." : "The more suffered, the more believed in Christ." Osorius: "Whose virtue they adimired, these they imitated, and shared the suffering, that they might be partakers of the glory. This was that fire, whereby God willed that His own should be tried and purified, that, with Christ whom they gave themselves to imitate, they might enjoy everlasting glory." I will bless him and will say, It is My people - Dionysius: "not only by creation as the rest, but by devotion and worship, by predestination and infusion of grace, by singular Providence, by mutual love; 'and it shall say, The Lord is my God,' whom alone above all things, I long for, love, worship." This promise is oftentimes renewed through the prophets, oftentimes fulfilled in Christ, whenever the Church is recalled from listlessness by fiery trials, and through them her children are restored to deeper devotedness and closer union with God.

Zechariah 13:7 . "Arise, O sword, over my shepherd, and over the man who is my neighbour, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts: smite the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered; and I will bring back my hand over the little ones. Zechariah 13:8 . And it will come to pass in all the land, is the saying of Jehovah; two parts therein shall be cut off, shall die, and the third remains therein. Zechariah 13:9 . And the third will I bring into the fire, and melt them as silver is melted, and will refine them as gold is refined: it will call upon my name, and I will answer it; I say, It is my people; and it will say, Jehovah my God." The summons addressed to the sword, to awake and smite, is a poetical turn to express the thought that the smiting takes place with or according to the will of God. For similar personification of the sword, see Jeremiah 47:6 . רעי is the shepherd of Jehovah, since the summons comes from Jehovah. In what sense the person to be smitten is called the shepherd of Jehovah, we may see from the clause על־גּבר עמיתי. The word עמית, which only occurs in the Pentateuch and in Zechariah, who has taken it thence, is only used as a synonym of אח (cf. Leviticus 25:15 ) in the concrete sense of the nearest one. And this is the meaning which it has in the passage before us, where the construct state expresses the relation of apposition, as for example in אישׁ חסידך ( Deuteronomy 33:8 ; cf. Ewald, 287, e), the man who is my nearest one.