Passage
Zechariah 12.12-14
Book: Zechariah · NASB95
Immediate context (±2 verses)
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ASV
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.
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 the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; 14. all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. (Zechariah 12:10-14, ASV)
WEB
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.
12. 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; 14. all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. (Zechariah 12:10-14, WEB)
KJV
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; 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 14. All the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. (Zechariah 12:10-14, KJV)
YLT
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,
12. 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, 14. All the families that are left, Every family apart, and their women apart! (Zechariah 12:10-14, YLT)
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Setting
- Speaker: the prophetic voice of the book, in an oracle (massa) carrying no date formula
- Audience: Judah and Jerusalem, addressed in the second person throughout
- Location: Jerusalem and the surrounding land, with the nations in view
- 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
"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; the family of the house of Levi apart... all the families that remain, every family apart, and their wives apart."
The conclusion of the mourning scene that begins at 12:10, where God pours out a spirit of grace and supplication and the inhabitants of Jerusalem look on the one they pierced and mourn as for an only son.
The striking feature of vv. 12-14 is the repetition. Some form of "apart" occurs a dozen times in three verses, and the effect in reading aloud is cumulative and deliberate. This is not a national ceremony with a liturgy and a crowd. It is household by household, and within each household the men and the women separately, which is as far as the text can go toward saying that the grief has reached each person individually.
The families named are representative rather than exhaustive: the royal line (David and Nathan, David's son at 2 Samuel 5:14) and the priestly line (Levi and Shimei, a Levite clan at Numbers 3:18). Kingship and priesthood are the two institutions that mediated on the nation's behalf, and here neither can do the mourning for anyone else.
John 19:37 cites 12:10 of the crucifixion, and Revelation 1:7 combines it with Daniel 7:13.
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.
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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.