Zechariah 13:4 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 13:4
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:
a day (as the warm hours) · preposition with the article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
prophets
הַנְּבִיאִ֛יםha.ne.vi.'Im
H5030
a prophet or (generally) inspired man · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
ashamed
יֵבֹ֧שׁוּye.Vo.shu
H954
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
one
אִ֥ישׁ'ish
H376
a man as an individual or a male person · noun, common masculine singular absolute
vision
מֵחֶזְיֹנ֖וֹme.chez.yo.No
H2384
a revelation · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
prophesied
בְּהִנָּֽבְאֹת֑וֹbe.hi.na.ve.'o.To
H5012
to prophesy · preposition + verb, niphal infinitive construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
wear
יִלְבְּשׁ֛וּyil.be.Shu
H3847
properly · verb, qal imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
rough
שֵׂעָ֖רse.'Ar
H8181
hair (as if tossed or bristling) · noun, common masculine singular absolute
garment
אַדֶּ֥רֶת'a.De.ret
H155
something ample (as a large vine · noun, common feminine singular construct
deceive
כַּחֵֽשׁka.Chesh
H3584
to be untrue · verb, piel infinitive construct
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Micah 3:6-7 Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun sha…
Matthew 3:4 And the same John had his raiment of camel’s hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
2 Kings 1:8 And they answered him, He was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle of leather about his loins. And he said, It is Elijah the Tishbite.
Isaiah 20:2 At the same time spake the LORD by Isaiah the son of Amoz, saying, Go and loose the sackcloth from off thy loins, and put off thy shoe from…
Revelation 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.
Jeremiah 6:15 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore they shall fal…
Mark 1:6 And John was clothed with camel’s hair, and with a girdle of a skin about his loins; and he did eat locusts and wild honey;
Jeremiah 2:26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 13:1-6
Behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world, the sin of the church; for therefore was the Son of God manifested, to take away our sin, Jo1 3:5.
I. He takes away the guilt of sin by the blood of his cross (Zac 13:1): In that day, in the gospel-day, there shall be a fountain opened, that is, provision made for the cleansing of all those from the pollutions of sin who truly repent and are sorry for them. In that day, when the Spirit of grace is poured out to set them a mourning for their sins, they shall not mourn as those who have no hope, but they shall have their sins pardoned, and the comfort of their pardon in their bosoms. Their consciences shall be purified and pacified by th…
prophets . . . ashamed--of the false prophecies which they have uttered in times past, and which the event has confuted.
rough garment--sackcloth. The badge of a prophet (Kg2 1:8; Isa 20:2), to mark their frugality alike in food and attire (Mat 3:4); also, to be consonant to the mournful warnings which they delivered. It is not the dress that is here condemned, but the purpose for which it was worn, namely, to conceal wolves under sheep's clothing [CALVIN]. The monkish hair-shirt of Popery, worn to inspire the multitude with the impression of superior sanctity, shall be then cast aside.
Adam Clarke on Zechariah 13:4
Neither shall they wear a rough garment - A rough garment made of goats' hair, coarse wool, or the course pile of the camel, was the ordinary garb of God's prophets. And the false prophets wore the same; for they pretended to the same gifts, and the same spirit, and therefore they wore the same kind of garments. John Baptist had a garment of this kind.
John Gill on Zechariah 13:4
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed, everyone of his vision, when he hath prophesied,.... He shall be ashamed of the doctrines he has delivered, they will appear to all men so ridiculous and absurd; as the doctrines of merit, and the works of supererogation; of transubstantiation and purgatory; of pardons, penance, &c:
neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive; or, "a hairy garment" (q); such as the first and ancient inhabitants of the earth wore, who used the skins of beasts for covering, as Diodorus Siculus (r) observes: and Pausanias (s) says of the first natives of Locris, not knowing how to weave and make garments, used to cover their bodi…
The Church Fathers
(Vers. 3 seqq.) And on that day, the prophets will be confused, each one from his own vision, when he prophesies, and they will not cover themselves with a sackcloth to deceive. Instead, they will say, 'I am not a prophet, I am a farmer, for Adam is my example from my youth.' And it will be said to him, 'What are these wounds in the middle of your hands?' And he will say, 'I have been wounded in the house of those who love me.' LXX: And on that day, the prophets will be confused, each one from his own vision, when he prophesies, and they will wear a hairy garment with which they have deceived, and they will say, 'I am not a prophet, because a man has begotten me from my youth,' and I will say to him, 'What are these wounds in the middle of your hands?' And he will say: To whom have I been struck in the house of the one who loves me? Whoever attempts to prophesy and is condemned by the judgment of his parents, and approves the falsehood of his prophecy by contrary outcomes, he will be confounded by his vision, and he will no longer be covered with a hairshirt in order to lie. For this was the attire of the prophets, that when they called the people to repentance, they would be clothed in a hairshirt. Therefore, it is commanded to Isaiah to take the sackcloth from his loins, and to walk naked (Isa. XX): for it is not at all a time of repentance, but of imminent captivity. Therefore, this false prophet will by no means receive the prophet's garb, so as not to deceive the simple under a foreign guise and covering. Rather, he will find delight in tilling the earth and prove himself dedicated to agriculture, subjecting himself to the divine sentence that was spoken to Adam: 'Cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth to you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread' (Gen. III, 17-18). And when he presents himself as born for this purpose, to eat his bread in the sweat of his face, another will ask him, and say: What do these wounds mean to you, and these wounds which are in the midst of your hands? And there is meaning: Why do you adhere to the gallows? Why are your hands pierced with nails? What have you committed, that you should submit to this punishment and torture? And he will answer, and say: I received these wounds and…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Apparel — In Old Testament times the distinction between male and female attire was not very marked. The statute forbidding men to wear female apparel (Deut. 22:5) referred especially to ornaments and…
Camel — From the Hebrew gamal, “to repay” or “requite,” as the camel does the care of its master. There are two distinct species of camels, having, however, the common characteristics of being “ruminants…
Mantle — (1.) Heb. ‘addereth, a large over-garment. This word is used of Elijah’s mantle (1 Kings 19:13, 19; 2 Kings 2:8, 13, etc.), which was probably a sheepskin. It appears to have been his only garment, a…
Prophets · Wore a coarse dress of hair-cloth — Wore a coarse dress of hair-cloth
Sabbath, The · Rough and unsightly — Rough and unsightly
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
Zechariah 13:4
4. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be ashamed every one of his vision, when he hath prophesied; neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive:
4. Et erit in die illa, pudefient Prophetae, quisque a visione sua, ubi prohetaverint; et non induent vestem pilosam ut mentiantur.
Zechariah proceeds with the same subject, but in other words and in another mode of speaking, and says, that so great would be the light of knowledge, that those who had previously passed themselves as the luminaries of the Church would be constrained to be ashamed of themselves. And he farther shows how it was that so great and so gross errors had arisen, when the who…
The house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem represent the whole nation here, as in Zac 12:10. This cleansing will be following by a new life in fellowship with God, since the Lord will remove everything that could hinder sanctification. This renewal of life and sanctification is described in Zac 12:2-7. Zac 12:2. "And it will come to pass in that day, is the saying of Jehovah of hosts, I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, they shall be remembered no more; and the prophets also and the spirit of uncleanness will I remove out of the land. Zac 12:3. And it will come to pass, if a man prophesies any more, his father and his mother, they that begat him, will say to him,…
God’s total cleansing of his people from their impurities will strike such fear among the people that false prophets will deny or conceal their identity, even lying about the nature and purpose of their activities that might be associated with the prophets of idolatrous cults.
13:4 ashamed to claim the prophetic gift (literally ashamed of his vision): The Old Testament prophet was sometimes identified as a visionary “seer” (see 1 Sam 9:9-19; 2 Kgs 17:13), since divine revelation often came to them in dreams or night visions (e.g., Zech 1:7–6:15). • prophet’s clothes: A coarse cloak of camel or goat hair distinctively garbed the Old Testament Hebrew prophets (see 2 Kgs 1:8; Matt 3:4).
Rashi on Zechariah 13:4
a hairy mantle So is the custom of those who entice or draw away [the people], to enwrap themselves with mantles as though they are righteous men in order that their lies be accepted.
