Commentary - Zechariah 13:2-6

Bird's-eye view

Following the glorious promise of a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness for the house of David, Zechariah now describes the practical outworking of that cleansing. The coming of the Messiah, "in that day," will not be a mere sentimental affair. It will be a radical, top-to-bottom fumigation of the covenant community. God Himself, Yahweh of hosts, declares that He will perform this spiritual exorcism. The cleansing is threefold: He will eradicate idolatry so thoroughly that even the names of the false gods are forgotten, He will remove the false prophets who are the mouthpieces of idolatry, and He will banish the "unclean spirit" which is the demonic power source behind it all. The effect of this cleansing will be so profound that the people of God themselves will develop a holy revulsion to any hint of the old ways. The passage uses stark, shocking imagery, a father and mother executing their own son for false prophecy, to illustrate the depth of this new covenantal loyalty to the truth. The entire industry of false prophecy will be so discredited that its former practitioners will be ashamed, deny their past, and invent pathetic lies to cover the marks of their pagan rituals.

This is a prophecy about the effect of the gospel. The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ is the event that opens the fountain and expels the unclean spirit from the land. The result is a people whose highest allegiance is to the truth of God in Jesus, an allegiance that supersedes even the most basic natural affections. It is a portrait of a world turned right side up by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Outline

Context In Zechariah

This passage is a direct consequence of the events described in the previous chapter. In Zechariah 12, the Spirit is poured out on the house of David, they look upon Him whom they have pierced, and they mourn in repentance. This national repentance leads directly to the promise that opens chapter 13: "In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity" (Zech 13:1). Our text, verses 2-6, explains what happens when that fountain begins to flow. It is not a passive cleansing. It is an active, violent purge of everything that caused the sin and impurity in the first place. The mourning for the pierced Messiah produces a hatred for the lies that led to His piercing. This section, therefore, provides the ethical and spiritual results of the atonement, showing how a people washed by Christ will wage war on all falsehood.

Key Issues

The Great Fumigation

When the gospel truly takes root in a place, it doesn't just offer fire insurance for the afterlife. It begins a comprehensive cleansing of the entire culture, starting with the household of God. Zechariah here is describing what we might call the great spiritual fumigation of the land. The Lord is not simply sweeping the floor; He is tenting the entire house and pumping in the holy gas of His Spirit to kill every last demonic termite. The central promise is that God Himself, Yahweh of hosts, the Lord of the armies of heaven, is the one doing this. This is not a human self-improvement project.

He targets the unholy trinity of deception: the idols (the false gods), the false prophets (their lying mouthpieces), and the unclean spirit (the demonic intelligence behind the whole operation). You cannot get rid of one without dealing with the others. Idolatry is not just a bad idea; it is communion with demons (1 Cor 10:20). False prophecy is not just misinformation; it is the doctrine of demons. The coming of Christ, "in that day," is the D-Day invasion that breaks the back of this demonic occupation. The cross is the decisive victory, and the subsequent history of the church is the mopping-up operation, where the gospel advances and cleanses the land, causing the old gods to be forgotten and their prophets to be utterly disgraced.

Verse by Verse Commentary

2 “And it will be in that day,” declares Yahweh of hosts, “that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered; and I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass away from the land.

The phrase in that day points us squarely to the Messianic era, the age of the new covenant inaugurated by the death and resurrection of Christ. This is not some far-off future event; it is the reality set in motion by the gospel. The one making the declaration is "Yahweh of hosts," emphasizing His sovereign power to accomplish this. The purge is comprehensive. First, He will "cut off the names of the idols." This is more than just tearing down shrines. It is a cultural exorcism so complete that the memory of the false gods is erased. The gospel doesn't just compete with paganism; it replaces it and renders it obsolete. Second, He removes the false "prophets," the human infrastructure of the demonic system. Third, and most fundamentally, He causes the "unclean spirit" to pass away. He deals with the root cause. The gospel is a power encounter. It binds the strong man and plunders his house. This verse is a promise of the victory of Christ over the demonic powers that held the nations in darkness.

3 And it will be that if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who gave birth to him will say to him, ‘You shall not live, for you have spoken falsely in the name of Yahweh’; and his father and mother who gave birth to him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

This is intentionally shocking language, designed to illustrate the radical nature of new covenant loyalty. The prophecy harks back to the civil law of Deuteronomy 13, which prescribed death for those who tried to lead Israel into idolatry. The point here is not to provide a manual for Christian parenting. Rather, it shows the intensity of the zeal for God's truth that the Holy Spirit will create in His people. The love for God and His Word will be so fierce that it reorders all other loyalties. Even the deepest natural bond, that of a parent to their child, will be subordinated to the defense of the truth. When a son begins to speak "falsely in the name of Yahweh," the parents themselves become the agents of judgment. This demonstrates a complete reversal of the old ways, where families were often the means of passing down idolatrous traditions. In the new covenant, the family becomes a bastion of orthodoxy.

4 And it will be in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy mantle in order to deceive;

The entire enterprise of false prophecy will be publicly discredited. The light of Christ's truth is so bright that the old lies and deceptions will be exposed for the shabby things they are. The false prophet will be "ashamed of his vision." The demonic confidence he once had will evaporate, replaced by humiliation. He will no longer be able to pull the wool over people's eyes by dressing the part. The "hairy mantle" was the uniform of a true prophet, like Elijah (2 Kings 1:8). These charlatans were using the costume to lend credibility to their lies. But in the era of gospel clarity, the costume no longer works. The outward show of religion is rendered powerless when the substance of true religion has come.

5 but he will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I am a cultivator of the ground, for a man sold me as a slave in my youth.’

Here we see the disgraced prophet in full retreat. When confronted, he will vehemently deny his former profession. "Me, a prophet? Never." He will try to construct an alternate identity as a simple, uneducated man of the soil, a common laborer. He even adds a backstory of being sold into servitude as a youth, perhaps to make himself seem like a victim and an unlikely candidate for such a lofty spiritual role. It is a pathetic attempt to dodge accountability. The one who once claimed to speak for God is now reduced to fabricating a resume of mediocrity to save his skin. This is what happens when falsehood is exposed by the truth; it has no dignity left.

6 And one will say to him, ‘What are these wounds struck here between your arms?’ Then he will say, ‘Those with which I was struck in the house of my friends.’

The interrogation continues. Someone points out the physical evidence that contradicts his story: "What are these wounds?" The phrase "between your arms" can mean on the hands or chest. These are most likely the ritual scars and cuttings associated with pagan ecstatic worship, like those of the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:28). They are the marks of his trade, the tattoos of his demonic guild. Caught red-handed, he concocts one last, feeble lie. He dismisses the wounds as the result of a drunken brawl or some unfortunate incident "in the house of my friends." He attributes the marks of his idolatry to common fellowship. It is the final act of a man whose entire life is built on deception. He cannot tell the truth, even about his own body. We should contrast these shameful wounds, which the false prophet tries to hide with a lie, to the glorious wounds of the true Prophet, Jesus Christ, which He openly displays as the marks of our salvation.

Application

This passage is a potent reminder that true revival and reformation are never tame. When the Spirit of God moves, He cleans house. He brings a renewed love for the truth and a corresponding hatred for every form of falsehood and idolatry. We live "in that day" that Zechariah prophesied. The fountain for sin has been opened in Christ, and the unclean spirit has been decisively defeated at the cross.

Therefore, we must not be complacent about the idols in our own lives and in our churches. An idol is anything we look to for life, security, or meaning apart from Jesus Christ. It could be money, success, political power, or religious reputation. God has promised to cut off the names of these idols from His land, which is now the Church. We must join Him in this work through repentance.

Furthermore, we must cultivate the zeal for the truth that Zechariah describes. While we do not physically pierce false teachers, we are called to expose them, refute them, and separate from them. We must have a holy intolerance for teaching that speaks "falsely in the name of Yahweh." This requires us to know our Bibles, to be discerning, and to refuse to put on the "hairy mantle" of external piety to cover over a heart that is not right with God. The world is full of disgraced prophets, denying who they are and lying about their wounds. The church must be the pillar and buttress of the truth, a place where the light is so bright that all such deceptions are put to shame.