What Does Zechariah 13:3 Mean?
And it will be that when anyone still prophesies, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, You shall not live, for you speak lies in the nature of the LORD; and his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him when he prophesies.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And it shall come to pass, that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, Thou shalt not live; for thou speakest lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesieth.THE KEY
The LORD’s name does not authenticate a prophetic voice: the verse calls its speech a lie and shows the speaker pierced by his own parents.
THE MEANING
A mouth can speak in the LORD’s name and still speak a lie; the name does not make the speech true. Here the answer is violent and unsoftened: father and mother say the speaker must not live, then pierce him while he prophesies. The verse holds the sacred claim and the killing in the same frame.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Invoking the LORD’s name does not prove that a speaker carries the LORD’s truth.
THE ROOT
וּדְקָרֻהוּ
ūdəqārūhū
GROWS FROM
דקר
d-q-r
To pierce or stab through.
“pierce him” in this verse is ūdəqārūhū. The Hebrew verb is the same piercing verb found in Zechariah 12:10, where a pierced figure is seen and mourned. The root keeps the physical violence in view; it does not soften the act into mere rejection.
ALSO GROWS
dāqar: To pierce or stab.
דָּקַר
This is the verb’s basic form and makes the force of “thrust him through” unmistakable.
dāqārū: They pierced.
דָּקָרוּ
This form appears in Zechariah 12:10, joining this household killing to the pierced figure there.
יִנָּבֵא
yinnāvēʾ
GROWS FROM
נבא
n-b-ʾ
To speak prophetically.
“prophesy” in this verse is yinnāvēʾ. The verse uses the same prophetic word for the speaker’s act and then names that speech false. The role or form of prophecy alone does not make the message true.
ALSO GROWS
nāḇîʾ: Prophet.
נָבִיא
The noun names the speaker, while this verse shows that the title does not settle whether the speech is true.
nəḇûʾāh: Prophecy.
נְבוּאָה
The related noun names the prophetic utterance that remains answerable to the truth of what it says.
שֶׁקֶר
sheqer
GROWS FROM
שקר
sh-q-r
Falsehood or deceit; to act falsely.
“lies” in this verse is sheqer. The charge is false speech, not merely speech someone dislikes. The phrase “in the name of the LORD” invokes שֵׁם (shem, name as nature): the falsehood contradicts the nature it claims to represent.
ALSO GROWS
shāqar: To lie or act falsely.
שָׁקַר
The verb form shows falsehood as an act of speech and conduct.
sheqārîm: Lies or falsehoods.
שְׁקָרִים
This plural form makes the accusation concrete: the speech carries falsehoods while invoking the LORD’s name.
THE PATTERN
A claim to speak for God remains answerable to whether its words are true.
But the prophet, who boils over to speak a word in my nature, which I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the nature of other gods, that one dies.Thus says the LORD of hosts, Do not hear and respond to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you; they make you vapor. They speak a sight of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the LORD.Beloved, do not lean your weight on every breath, but test the breaths, whether they come out of God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world.THE THREAD
And I will pour out upon the house of David, and upon those who settle in Jerusalem, the breath of favor and of pleas; and they will look upon me, the one they pierced, and they will wail for him as one wails for his only son, and will be bitter for him as one is bitter for his firstborn.The same Hebrew root, דקר (d-q-r), lies behind “thrust him through” here and “pierced” in Zechariah 12:10. The root connects this household killing with a pierced figure who becomes the object of looking and mourning.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us