Zechariah — Chapter 12

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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.
Abrahamic Catechism
Bible Study
Zechariah — Chapter 12
✦ Talmud

• Sanhedrin 97b-98a's treatment of Gog and Magog as the final end-time military campaign is the Talmudic frame for all of Zechariah 12-14. Zechariah 12:2-3 — "Behold, I am about to make Jerusalem a cup of staggering to all the surrounding peoples... I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples. All who lift it will surely hurt themselves" — is the Talmud's physical description of the trap mechanism: Jerusalem appears to be a prize worth seizing, but the act of seizing it activates the divine counter-measure. The Sitra Achra's endgame offensive is also its mechanism of self-destruction.

• Megillah 3a discusses the heavenly patrons of nations and the Talmud's teaching that the defeat of Gog and Magog requires divine engagement at both the earthly and heavenly levels simultaneously. Zechariah 12:4 — "On that day, declares the Lord, I will strike every horse with panic, and its rider with madness... every horse of the peoples with blindness" — is the divine decommissioning of the Sitra Achra's cavalry at the Second Heaven level before the earthly engagement. The confusion of Gog's armies is not coincidental but is targeted divine electronic warfare.

• Berakhot 4b records the Talmud's discussion of divine protection of David and the covenant people even in maximum military threat. Zechariah 12:5-6 — the clans of Judah recognizing "the inhabitants of Jerusalem have strength through the Lord of hosts, their God" — is the Talmud's picture of distributed Tzaddik recognition of divine operational support. The fire among the wood-piles that consumes the surrounding nations is the divine action that confirms what faith already knew.

• Sotah 14a's teaching about divine chesed in action provides the frame for Zechariah 12:10 — "I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy, so that, when they look on me, on him whom they have pierced, they will mourn for him, as one mourns for an only child, and weep bitterly over him." The Talmud's discussion of this verse connects it to the mourning for the Messiah son of Joseph, the warrior Messiah who falls in the final battle before the Messiah son of David completes the campaign.

• Sukkah 52a is the central Talmudic text for Zechariah 12:10-14: the Talmud identifies the one who is mourned as the Messiah son of Joseph and discusses the weeping of the clans separately — men and women apart, families apart. The Talmud's teaching is that this mourning is not defeat but the final reckoning with the cost of the long war — the tears are not for a lost cause but for the price paid for the won campaign. The Tzaddik holds both the grief and the victory simultaneously.