Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 12:12
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;
12, 13. David Nathan Levi Shimei ] Two families are singled out, the kingly and the priestly, as examples of the rest. And in each case, to shew the pervading character of the grief, the family or tribe is first described by its general and inclusive name, and then one branch of it is mentioned, to indicate that to every part and division the widespread mourning shall extend. “This sorrow should be universal but also individual, the whole land, and that family by family; the royal family in the direct line of its kings, and in a branch from Nathan, a son of David and whole brother of Solomon (1Ch 3:5), which was continued on in private life, yet was still to be an ancestral line of Jesus (Luk 3:31); in like way the main priestly family from Levi, and a subordinate line from a grandson of Levi, the family of Shimei (Num 3:21); and all the remaining families, each with their separate sorrow, each according to Joel’s call (Joe 2:16), let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet, each denying himself the tenderest solaces of life.” Pusey.
The prophecy began to be fulfilled, so soon as the actual piercing had taken place, when “all the people that came together to that sight, beholding the things which were done, smote their breasts and returned.” (Luk 23:48.) The fulfilment was continued on the day of Pentecost, when those to whom it was said, “God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ, were pricked in their heart.” (Act 2:36-37.) It has gone on ever since; but it awaits a larger and more exact realisation, when all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, “There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” (Rom 11:26.)
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
This sorrow should be universal but also individual, the whole land, and that, family by family; the royal family in the direct line of its kings, and in a branch from Nathan, a son of David and whole brother of Solomon 1Ch 3:5, which was continued on in private life yet was still to be an ancestral line of Jesus Luk 3:31 : in like way the main priestly family from Levi, and a subordinate line from a grandson of Levi, the family of Shimei Num 3:23; and all the remaining families, each with their separate sorrow, each according to Joels call, let the bridegroom go forth of his chamber and the bride out of her closet Joe 2:16, each denying himself the tenderest solaces of life.
Dionysius: The ungrateful and ungodly, daily, as far as in them lies, crucify Christ, as Paul says, crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh and putting Him to an open shame Heb 6:6. And on these Christ, out of His boundless pity, poureth forth a spirit of grace and supplication, so that, touched with compunction, with grieving and tearful feeling, they look on Christ, suffering with His suffering, and bewailing their own impurities.
Osorius: The likeness is in the sorrow, not in its degree. Josiah had restored religion, removed a dire superstition, bound up relaxed morals by healthful discipline, recalled to its former condition the sinking state. In their extremest needs light shone on them, when there came his unlooked-for death, Therewith the whole state seemed lost. So in the Death of Christ, they who loved Him, saw His divine works, placed their whole hope of salvation in His goodness, suddenly saw the stay of their life extinct, themselves deprived of that most sweet contact, all hope for the future cut off: But the grief in the death of Christ was the more bitter, as He awoke a greater longing for Himself, and had brought a firmer hope of salvation.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Zec 12:12
And the land shall mourn, every family apart
Personal and family fasting
On the pouring out of the Spirit the land is to mourn, every family apart, and their wives apart.
The duties of fasting consist of–
I. An external and circumstantial part.
1. A proper time must be set apart for these duties. And this is to be regulated by Christian prudence, as best suits the circumstance of the person or family. As to the quantity of time to be spent in personal or family fasting and humiliation, the duty, I judge, is to regulate it, and not it to regulate the duty. None need be solicitous as to what quantity of time, more or less, they spend in these exercises, so that the work of the time be done.
2. A proper place is to be chosen where the person or family may perform the duty without disturbance from others (see Mat 6:18).
3. Abstinence is included in the nature of the thing; abstinence from meat and drink, and all bodily pleasures whatsoever, as well as ceasing from worldly business. The rule for abstinence from meat and drink Cannot be the same for all. These, however, are but the outward shell of these duties.
II. The internal any spiritual part.
1. Serious meditation and consideration of our ways. Such times are to be set apart from conversing with the world, that we may the more solemnly Commune with our own hearts as to the state of matters between God and us. In them we are diligently to review our past life.
2. Deep humiliation of soul before the Lord; the which was signified by the sackcloth and ashes used, under the law, on such occasions.
3. Free and open confession of sin before God, without reserve.
4. The exercise of repentance in turning from sin unto God, both in heart and life, the native result of deep humiliation and sincere confession. The true way to deal with a hard heart is to believe the Gospel. Without faith it is impossible to please God, and therefore impossible to reach true humiliation, right confession, and sincere repentance, which are very pleasing to Him.
5. Solemn covenanting with God, entering into or renewing covenant with Him in express words.
6. Extraordinary prayer, in importunate addresses and petitions unto oar covenanted God, for that which is the particular occasion of our fast. Now consider personal fasting and humiliation in particular.
III. The Divine warrant for it.
1. God requires it in His Word, and that both directly and indirectly.
2. It is promised that the saints shall perform this duty.
3. It is recommended unto us by the practice of the saints mentioned in Scripture.
4. The duty of personal fasting and humiliation may be thus evinced.
(1) There is nothing in the nature of religious fasting and humiliation that of itself is public, or necessarily requiring a plurality of persons to join therein. The preaching of the Word and celebration of the sacraments do, in their own nature, require society, and therefore are not to be used by a single person alone in his closet. But one may keep a fast alone.
(2) Extraordinary duties are called for on extraordinary emergents and occasions. If, then, a church or congregation is called to fasting and humiliation on such occasions, is not a particular person called to the same, or such occasions in his cave?
(3) Extraordinary duties to be performed by a whole nation, church, or congregation cannot soon be overtaken, because all bodies are slow in their operations. What should particular persons do in such cases? Should they not keep personal and family fasts? Now consider a providential call to personal fasting and humiliation.
1. When there is any special evil actually lying upon us, the Church, or our neighbour, in whom we have a special concern; whether it be a sinful or a penal evil. And when the tokens of Gods high displeasure are gone out in afflicting providences, it is time for us to roll ourselves in the dust, and so to accommodate our spirit and way to the dispensation, humbling ourselves before Him with fasting.
2. When there is any special stroke threatening or impending.
3. When there is some special mercy or favour to be desired of the Lord. Take a variety of these particular cases–
(1) When through a long track of sinning and careless walking, the case of ones soul is left quite in disorder and confusion.
(2) when one is under convictions, entertaining some thoughts to reform.
(3) when the conscience is defiled with the guilt of some atrocious sin.
(4) when one would fain get over a snare he is often caught in, and have victory over a lust that hath often mastered him.
(5) When one is under a dead desertion.
(6) When one is under a felt and smarting desertion.
(7) When one is pressed with some outward affliction, whether in his body, relations, name, substance, or otherwise.
(8) When, by the aspect of providence, one is threatened with some such affliction.
(9) When one would have light and direction in some matter of special weight.
(10) When duty being cleared in a matter of special weight, it comes to the setting to.
(11) When one, having some unordinary difficulty to encounter, is in hazard of being ensnared either into sin or danger.
(12) When one hath in view some solemn approach unto God; in which case a special preparation is requisite . . .
Now consider some directions anent personal fasting and humiliation.
1. Make choice of a fit time and place.
2. Make some preparation for it the night before
3. Rise early in the morning, even sooner than ordinary.
4. Let holy thoughts at once have access to your soul.
5. Let your ordinary duties of prayer and reading of the Word be first performed; for extraordinary duties are not to jostle out the ordinary.
6. Begin with a solemn review of your sins–the sins of your nature, of your childhood, of your youth, of your middle age
To recommend the practice of these duties to persons and families, these five things are offered in favour thereof; namely, that the practice of them is a proper means–
1. To bring strangers to religion acquainted with it.
2. To recover backsliders.
3. To prevent relapses.
4. To prepare for a time of trial.
5. To get matters clear for eternity. (T. Boston.)
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Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 12. Every family apart] The meaning of the word apart, which recurs here so often, may be this: Their sorrow shall be so deep and distressing, that every one will endeavour to avoid another, and vent his grief and distress of soul in private. And even husbands and wives shall separate from each other in this general mourning, as they were obliged to do by law in certain circumstances. See 1Co 7:5, and the note there.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The land; land put for the inhabitants of it, the land in general for the land of Judea, or that where the Jews dwelt, who should every where bear a share in this mourning. Thus some of the Jews from every country where they dwelt, being met at Jerusalem, were pricked at heart, and did mourn over the crucified Messiah, Act 2:5,37,41.
Every family apart; or family by family, expressed in Hebrew, families, families. The royal family in both branches of it, Solomons and Nathans. This family, as having greatest portion in Christ, should have been most tender of him, who had been heir on the throne if his kingdom had been of this world, and by descent from David: but since they forgot him, neglected to do their duty to him alive, they remember him, and do their duty towards him, dead; they mourn really and truly.
Their wives apart: the manner of the Jews in mourning was by shutting up themselves, retiring from company and pleasure; here families retire, nay, in the family, wives retire to bewail their sin and their fathers sin in rejecting Christ. Some there were of this family who believed in Christ, and mourned, when the gospel was first published to the Jews before it was carried to the Gentiles.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
12-14. A universal and anindividual mourning at once.
David . . .Nathanrepresenting the highest and lowest of the royal order.Nathan, not the prophet, but a younger son of David (2Sa 5:14;Luk 3:31).
apartRetirement andseclusion are needful for deep personal religion.
wives apartJewishfemales worship separately from the males (Exo 15:1;Exo 15:20).
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And the land shall mourn,…. That is, the inhabitants of it; not only Jerusalem, but the land of Judea, and the people in it everywhere: in the Talmud o it is said, this is the mourning of the Messiah, that is, on his account:
every family apart; though the mourning will be general and public, yet it will be not in a body of the whole people together, but separate and distinct:
the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the men by themselves, and the women by themselves, which is according to the custom of the Jews in public worship; those that belong to the family of David shall mourn because of the Jews’ long rejection of the King Messiah, Jesus the son of David, the Saviour, whom God raised up of his seed:
the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; not of Nathan the son of David, the brother of Solomon, as some think; for, as Aben Ezra observes, he and his family are comprehended in the family of David; but of Nathan the prophet, who will mourn because the Jews have so much slighted Jesus the great Prophet, the Lord raised up in Israel, his doctrines and ordinances.
o T. Hieros. Succah, fol. 55. 2.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Zechariah seems to have used more words than necessary to complete his subject; for he appears to be diffuse on a plain matter: but we ought to attend to its vast importance; for it seemed incredible, that any of that nation would repent, since they had almost all been given up to a reprobate mind. For who could have thought that there was any place for the favor of God, inasmuch as all, as far as they could, even from the least to the greatest, attempted to involve Christ in darkness? When therefore the Sun of Righteousness was as it were extinguished by the Jews, it seemed probable that they were a nation repudiated by God. But the Prophet here shows, that God would be mindful of his covenant, so that he would turn to himself some of all the families.
Lament, he says, shall the land. This indeed we know did not take place as to the body of the people, but God, to whom a small flock is precious, denominates here as the whole land the faithful, who had felt how grievously they had sinned, and were so pricked in their hearts as though they had pierced the Son of God. (Act 2:37.) And though the Jews had destroyed themselves, yet through special and wonderful favor, three thousand were converted at one sermon by Peter; and then many in Greece, Asia Minor, and in the East, repented, and many Churches arose everywhere, as though God had created a new people. If these things be rightly viewed by us, we shall not think it unreasonable that Zechariah promises repentance to the whole land.
What he said before of Jerusalem ought not to be so taken as though he confined what he said to one city, but under this name he includes the whole nation, dispersed through distant parts of the world.
He says now, that this lamentations would be in every family apart. By which word he means, that it would not be a feigned or pretended ceremony, as when one begins to weep and draws tears from the eyes of others. The Prophet then testifies that it would be real sorrow, for one would not imitate another, but every one, impelled by his own feeling, would really grieve and lament. This then is the reason why he says that families would lament apart. Indeed the faithful ought to stimulate others by their example and encourage them to repent, but in a congregation hardly one in ten prays in earnest for pardon and really laments on account of his sins. Since therefore men are thus born to hypocrisy, and are confirmed in it by the whole practice of their the, it is no wonder that the Prophet, in order to set forth real sorrow, represents here every family by itself; as though he had said, “The family of David shall know that it had sinned, and the family of Levi, though it may not observe such an example, shall yet inwardly acknowledge its guilt.” We now see why Zechariah repeats the word apart so often.
By saying, that the women wept apart, he means no doubt the same thing with what we find in the second chapter of Joel (Joe 2:1)
“
Go forth let the bridegroom from his chamber, and the bride from her recess.”
Men in grief, we know, withdraw from all pleasures and all joy. As then men usually separate themselves from their wives during the appointed time of public grief or mourning, the Prophet makes the women to be by themselves: he intimates at the same time that the women would not wait until the men showed then an example of mourning, but that they would of themselves, and through a feeling of their own, be inclined to lament.
But we must bear in mind what I lately said, — that the grief which the Jews felt for the death of Christ is not what is described, but rather that by which they were touched when God opened their eyes to repent for their own perverseness; for the death of Christ, we allow, is a cause of joy to us rather than of sorrow, but the joy arising from Christ’s death cannot shine in us until our guilt really wounds us through God’s appearing to us as a threatening judge. From this sorrow there arises the desire to repent and the true fear of God. Hence it is, that God himself will give us joy, for he will not have us, as Paul says, to be swallowed up with sorrow; he lays us prostrate, that he may again raise us up.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(12) Nathan.Not the prophet, but the son of David (2Sa. 5:14).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Zec 12:12 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;
Ver. 12. And the land shall mourn ] Not the generality of the Jews (unless it be at their last general conversion, that resurrection from the dead, as it is called, Rom 11:15 ), but the elect according to grace, who are here called the land, because more esteemed by God than all the other Jews besides; for he reckoneth of men by their righteousness, as he did of Lot at Sodom.
Every family apart
And their wives apart
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
wives = women.
Nathan. See 2Sa 5:14. All those names are mentioned in the genealogy of Luk 3.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
the land: Jer 3:21, Jer 4:28, Jer 31:18, Mat 24:30, Rev 1:7
every family apart: Heb. families, families, Exo 12:30
the family of the house of David apart: Jer 13:18, Jon 3:5, Jon 3:6
and their: Zec 7:3, Joe 2:16, 1Co 7:5
Nathan: 2Sa 5:14, 2Sa 7:2-4, 2Sa 12:1, Luk 3:31
Reciprocal: Exo 19:15 – come not Mat 21:41 – He will
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
12:12 And the {k} land shall mourn, every family {l} apart; the family of the {m} house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
(k) That is, in all places where the Jews will remain.
(l) Signifying, that this mourning or repentance would not be a vain ceremony: but every one touched with his own griefs will lament.
(m) Under these certain families he includes all the tribes, and shows that both the kings and the priests had by their sins pierced Christ.
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
All the Israelites would mourn; this would be a national repentance. The repeated phrases "every family by itself" and "their wives by themselves" solemnize the mourning and underline its genuineness.
"The wives are spoken of as mourning apart because in public lamentations the custom prevailed of separating into groups, also according to sex." [Note: Leupold, p. 241.]
"The closest relationship is as nothing in [the] presence of sin and God as its judge. Each must be alone." [Note: Kelly, p. 486.]
This would not be a national media event staged by the leaders of Israel to make a show, but individuals everywhere throughout the nation would sincerely voice their remorse.
"Individually and corporately, this is the experience of Leviticus 16 (the Day of Atonement) and Psalms 51 (a penitential psalm) on a national scale. . . . Isa 53:1-9 could well be their confession on the great occasion." [Note: Barker, p. 685.]
The houses of David and his son Nathan represent the political branches of the nation, though not just the kings, as reference to Solomon might have suggested (cf. 2Sa 5:14). Feinberg believed that this Nathan was the prophet of David’s day, so he represents the prophets in Israel who will repent. [Note: Feinberg, God Remembers, p. 233. See pp. 233-35 for a history of the interpretation of this passage.] This is a minority view. The houses of Levi and his grandson Shimei represent the religious branches of Israel, though not just the main ones that reference to Gershon, Shimei’s father, might have suggested (cf. Num 3:17-18; Num 3:21). Perhaps the political and priestly families received mention because they were those chiefly responsible for Messiah’s death. When these leading families mourned, all the other citizens would follow their example. The families of Nathan and Shimei may have been the most prominent families of their kind in Zechariah’s day. Zerubbabel came from Nathan’s line (Luk 3:23-31), and the Shimeites presumably dominated the Levitical classes in the postexilic era. [Note: Merrill, p. 325.]
"Nothing can excite to repentance like a view of the crucified Saviour." [Note: Feinberg, God Remembers, p. 233.]