“I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn” (Zech 12:10).

This verse is mysterious. Why does God, who has been speaking in the first person (see verse 9) suddenly transition from “me” (they will look on me) to “him” (they will mourn for him). Only the larger context can help us make sense of this shift in pronouns. In Zechariah 11:4, God tells an otherwise unknown shepherd to care for his doomed flock (see verse 7). But in Zechariah 11:10, this shepherd assumes the voice of God, speaking as God himself. “I took my staff Favor and cut it in pieces, to break my covenant which I had made with all the peoples.” In Zechariah 13:7, God speaks of a sword striking down his shepherd. “‘Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, and against the man, My Associate,’ declares the LORD of hosts. ‘Strike the Shepherd that the sheep may be scattered; And I will turn My hand against the little ones.'” In Zechariah 11, this mysterious shepherd has a dual identity, and in Zechariah 13 he is called God’s close companion. Returning to Zechariah 12:10, therefore, we know that the “him” of whom God is speaking is this mysterious and pierced shepherd with a dual identity (God’s associate and God himself). And it is this shepherd who will stand upon the Mount of Olives one day to fight for his people (Zech 14:3-4). And on that day Israel and the whole world will know and worship this Shepherd-King as LORD of the universe!

“And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one” (Zech 14:9).