What Does Zechariah 13:6 Mean in the King James?
And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The same Hebrew root names both the wounds and the act of striking, so the mark keeps the blow inside it.
THE MEANING
You meet a body whose hands carry marks of injury, while the answer places that injury inside the house of friends. The verse leaves closeness and harm in the same frame, without making one cancel the other.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the claim that a place called the house of friends cannot also hold violence.
THE ROOT
הַמַּכּוֹת
ham-makkōt
GROWS FROM
נכה
n-k-h
to strike, smite
The verse calls them הַמַּכּוֹת (ham-makkōt, “the blows/wounds”) and says הֻכֵּיתִי (hukkēti, “I was struck”): both come from נכה (n-k-h; nāḵāh, “to strike”). The mark and its making remain joined in the language, even while the answer locates the injury in the house of friends.
ALSO GROWS
nāḵāh: to strike, smite
נָכָה
This verb is the seed beneath “I was wounded”; the speaker’s condition retains the act that made it.
makkāh: a blow, wound, or plague
מַכָּה
The same root names a bodily blow and a wider affliction, keeping the force of the strike present in the word for its mark.
THE PATTERN
A body’s wound keeps the violence that made it visible in the story.
But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.For he maketh sore, and bindeth up: he woundeth, and his hands make whole.Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.THE THREAD
Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the LORD of hosts: smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered: and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.The command translated “smite” is another form of נכה (n-k-h, “to strike”), the root inside “wounds” and “I was wounded” here. The next verse opens the question of the marks onto the act of striking and its scattering consequence.
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