What Does Zechariah 13:8 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the LORD, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
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 verse defines the survivor as what remains after cutting, while most of the land is destroyed.
THE MEANING
The verse places you before devastation across the whole land: two parts are cut off and die, while one part remains. The remnant is defined by what remains after that loss, and the text leaves the scale of the destruction exposed.
THE ROOT
יִכָּרְתוּ
yikkāretū
GROWS FROM
כרת
k-r-t
to cut, cut off, or sever
The same root appears in the Hebrew expression for making a covenant, literally “cutting a covenant.” The word holds together severance and covenant-making: here, its force falls on the majority who are cut off.
ALSO GROWS
kārat berit: to cut a covenant
כָּרַת בְּרִית
The familiar covenant phrase uses the same verb, revealing that this verse’s cutting carries the concrete force of separation.
karet: cutting off; excision
כָּרֵת
This noun preserves the root’s sense of removal, echoing the fate of the two parts.
תִּוָּתֵר
tiwwātēr
GROWS FROM
יתר
y-t-r
to remain over, be left as a remainder
“left” in this verse is tiwwātēr. The third is described with a verb meaning to remain over. The verse names survival as a remainder after loss, not as a portion untouched by the event.
ALSO GROWS
hôtîr: to leave over, leave remaining
הוֹתִיר
This related verb names the act of leaving something in place, clarifying the sense of the third being left in the land.
yether: remainder, surplus
יֶתֶר
This noun from the same root names what is left over, giving the remnant the shape of a remainder.
THE PATTERN
When the whole undergoes severe loss, scripture names what persists as a remnant.
For though thy people Israel be as the sand of the sea, yet a remnant of them shall return: the consumption decreed shall overflow with righteousness.Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.THE THREAD
In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:The Hebrew verb translated “cut off” here shares the root כרת with the phrase for making a covenant in Genesis. The same root’s language of cutting appears in both the severing of the majority and the making of a covenant over the land.
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