Passage

Zechariah 12.11

Book: Zechariah · NASB95

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV

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 supplication; and they shall look unto 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 first-born.

11. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

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 the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; (Zechariah 12:9-13, ASV)

WEB

9. It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10. I will pour on David’s house, and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplication; and they will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him, as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for his firstborn.

11. In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.

The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house 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 the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; (Zechariah 12:9-13, WEB)

KJV

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.

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; ^{every: Heb. families, families} 13. The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart; ^{of Shimei: or, of Simeon, as LXX} (Zechariah 12:9-13, KJV)

YLT

9. And it hath come to pass, in that day, I seek to destroy all the nations Who are coming in against Jerusalem, 10. And I have poured on the house of David, And on the inhabitant of Jerusalem, A spirit of grace and supplications, And they have looked unto Me whom they pierced, And they have mourned over it, Like a mourning over the only one, And they have been in bitterness for it, Like a bitterness over the first-born.

11. In that day, great is the mourning of Jerusalem, As the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon,

And mourned hath the land, every family apart, The family of the house of David apart, And their women apart; The family of the house of Nathan apart, And their women apart; 13. The family of the house of Levi apart, And their women apart; The family of Shimei apart, And their women apart, (Zechariah 12:9-13, YLT)

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Setting

Speaker: Jehovah, whose first-person speech runs through 12:1-10, describing the mourning that follows the outpouring of the spirit of grace and of supplication
Audience: Judah and Jerusalem, addressed in the second person throughout
Location: Jerusalem, with the valley of Megiddo as the point of comparison
Time period: undated. Chapters 9-14 stand apart from the dated material of 1-8, and their date and composition are disputed; the reading below rests on the text rather than on a settled dating

Theological reading

"In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon."

The verse measures the grief of v. 10, mourning "for him, as one mourneth for his only son," against a mourning the first hearers knew. That reference point is no longer certain.

The valley of Megiddo is where King Josiah was mortally wounded fighting Pharaoh Neco (2 Kings 23:29; 2 Chronicles 35:22-24). Chronicles records that "all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah," that Jeremiah lamented for him, and that the singers "spake of Josiah in their lamentations unto this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel" (2 Chronicles 35:24-25). A national mourning connected with Megiddo and kept up as a custom fits the comparison well, and many interpreters take Hadadrimmon as a place near Megiddo linked to that grief.

Others note that Hadad and Rimmon are both names attached to the Syrian storm god (compare the house of Rimmon in Damascus, 2 Kings 5:18), and read the verse as comparing Jerusalem's grief to a ritual lament. The name occurs only here, and the text does not settle the question.

On either reading the point is the depth of the grief. Verses 12-14 then divide it family by family, the house of David and the house of Nathan, the house of Levi and the Shimeites, each mourning apart and their wives apart. The mourning is not a public display but a sorrow each household carries on its own.

Key words

Theologically-loaded Greek or Hebrew words in this verse may have entries in the lexicon. Curated to roughly 100 contested terms across the corpus, not every word.

None of the words in this verse has its own lexicon entry yet.

Notes

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Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.