Zechariah 12

and they shall look upon Me, whom they have pierced, 

and they shall mourn for Him, as one mourns for his only son

Zechariah 12:10

In Short

Zechariah 12 shows the land of Israel in the Endtime, being besieged while the original population still inhabits it. Those besieging it and using it to their own selfish ends, will be destroyed by the Lord - the empire together with its zionist colonists - claiming the land since the early 1900's. The original population of Palestinians, with the most direct ancestral bonds to Israel, will be strengthened by the Lord in their battle against their enemy, that has invaded their land for many decades. That strength will be given to them, once God's Spirit has been poured out upon them and once He has shown Himself to them, Who once was rejected by them: 'and they shall look upon Me whom they have pierced'.

Introduction

Last chapter, Zechariah 11, left God's people under the rule of a foolish shepherd, that had no compassion for the sheep but instead unleashed the most brutal of agonies upon them. Since their rejection of the Good Shepherd, their true Messiah, 2000 years ago, the people of Israel have been ruled by those that sought nothing but their own interests and that brought enormous suffering and destruction upon the people.  It happened in the first age. It happens again in the age before Christ's return.  How are the people of God going to be saved from the hands of its selfish and cruel shepherds, which act as hirelings or even thieves of the flock? That is the subject of Zechariah 12.

Zechariah 12 does no longer use the metaphor of a flock of sheep with a shepherd. It does not mention neighbor or king, as did Zechariah 11. Zechariah 12 uses the metaphor of a siege. The country of the Lord is under siege by strange occupiers and has to be delivered from them. That is exactly the situation of 2025. The land called Israel is occupied by the forces of evil, the last empire and its agents that act as if Israel is independent. It is not. The foolish shepherd, which we think to be Netanyahu, has been groomed in the USA and frequently visits US presidents as well as the US house and the US senate. The policies of Israel in the Middle East are in the interest of the US-empire, not in the interests of the true Jewish people. The true Jewish people are being used as pawns in a sinister plan - to acquire enough territory in the Middle East under direct control of the USA so that it can hold on to its hegemony in the world. The plan goes even much further but that is not the subject of the book of Zechariah.

Chapter 12 bears much resemblance with chapters 9 and 10, which also spoke of God's true people. God would bring them back to their land under much turmoil and violence of their enemies, the forces of the empire - which is the subject of the book of Daniel and the book of Revelation.

Verse 1

This is the second 'burden' of the word of the Lord, the heavy message of judgment that is to come. The first burden was mentioned in Zechariah 9 and concerned the East coast of the Mediterranean, which would be attacked by Alexander the Great. From this first 'burden' Zechariah 9 made a direct connection to the first coming of the Lord in humility, seated upon a donkey, about three centuries later, and from there, the chapter jumps to his second coming, at which the Lord would release his people from a terrible bondage that they would again be under and from the enemies that would have filled their land. 

The second burden of Zechariah 12 concerns Jerusalem and the armies that surround it. It starts with the unimaginable greatness of the Lord Himself. Three things are mentioned of Him. First, He is the One that stretches forth the heavens - the complete universe which continually expands. Second, He lays the foundation of the earth, upholds the constants of the universe, holding all things together, arranging the orbits of all heavenly bodies, sustaining gravity, making life on earth a possibility. Third He forms the spirit of man within him. Every soul, with self-consciousness, rationality, feelings and will, originates in Him -. He is the Father of spirits, af both angels and humans (Heb.12:9). It is this great God that announces the final stages of a war that has lasted thousands of years, a war of the dragon against 'the woman', fought through his 7-headed empire, which is described in the central chapter of Revelation, Revelation 12.

Verse 2

The center of the struggle of ages is Jerusalem, which since 1948 has slowly but certainly been captured by forces of the devil. These forces pose themselves as benign - an old trick of the devil (2 Cor.11:14). The demonic forces are seen in 'the people round about, when they shall be in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem'. It is important to distinguish between the forces of evil and the people of God. As we already said, during the past century, this distinction has been obliterated by the devil. His grand strategy is to present the European Jews as 'people of God', while describing the original inhabitants of the land, the Palestinians, as 'Arabs' that have noting to seek in the land of Israel and are to be rightfully expelled. This is the evil delusion of Zionism, that has enticed the complete church of the past century. Therefore the church phase is harshly criticized by Jesus: 'Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and know not that you are wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked' (Rev.3:17).

The blindness especially concerns the Palestinian people, which have a more direct lineage to the patriarchs of Israel than the European Jews. These European Jews however had a much closer relationship to the empire, the UK and the USA. Therefore they could be used to hold on to domination in the entire Middle East, something which we have been witnessing since 1948. With the enormous support of the USA, militarily, financially and judicially, the 'homeland for the Jews' has grown into the attack dog of the empire.

The land of Israel has been turned into a police state with total surveillance and no privacy. This concerns also the European Jews but especially the Palestinians, who for decades have been treated as second rate citizens. Many of them have lived in refugee camps all their lives, either within or outside of Israel's boarders. Their land was confiscated by the invaders that took over their land in 1948. We therefore consider 'all the people round about in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem' to be the army of the state of Israel, the IDF-soldiers, and the settlers that act like front groups in attacking and chasing more and more Palestinians from their homes and from their land. All of this is coordinated by government officials in Jerusalem, with the mighty US-empire in the background.

Much of Zechariah 12 corresponds to Zechariah 9 and 10, which also describes the future fighting of God's people in the holy land. There are some differences:

Zechariah 9 accentuates the enormous joy that God's people would feel once the Lord would release them from the prison they had been in (10,000 Palestinians are political prisoners and often tortured in their cells) and their joy of experiencing the power of the Lord in their battle against their enemies.

Zechariah 10 accentuates the end of their being rejected and banned from their land, their being acknowledged by the Lord as his people and their being used by Him in the battle against the powers that invaded their land for a long time.

Zechariah 12 accentuates the destruction that the Lord will bring upon the armies that have blockaded and occupied the land, the power He will bestow upon his people in their battle against these armies and the principal source of this power: his appearance to them as their Savior, that they had not appreciated for such a long time.

However desperately Jerusalem might be in the claws of the empire, it will be totally set free. This will not go without a fight.  Therefore, Jerusalem will be made 'a cup of trembling'. This concerns 'all the people round about, when they shall be in the siege...' Everyone that will try to protect the interests of the empire against the almighty God will tremble because of his enormous power that will be experienced.

'...in the siege both against Judah and against Jerusalem', these are the occupied territories of the Palestinians that will be set free for them through the power of the Lord, against the powers of the empire, the zionist state of Israel with its IDF-forces.

Verse 3

This verse goes even further than the 'trembling' of verse 2. Jerusalem is called 'a burdensome stone'. Why? Because the empire wants to keep hold of it whereas God wants the empire to let go of it. Everyone that will battle in the interests of the empire will be severely attacked by the living God Himself: 'all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces'. It does not matter how many people will come to the aid of the empire in order to keep Jerusalem under its control. They will all be 'cut in pieces'. Two different Hebrew words for 'people' are used here: 'am' (mostly for the people of the land) and 'goyim' (non-Jewish nations). The European Jews have taken over the land and for decades have sought the interests of the US-empire under protection of the US-empire. They are the principal actors in the siege against Jerusalem and Judah. In 2025 however, we already see an influx of hirelings from other countries in order to take over duties from Israeli soldiers. However strong the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) might be, they are being exhausted by the many wars that Israel is waging on all sides. This will continue until at the very end of the Endtime. Then enormous armies from the whole world will invade the holy land in order to keep Jerusalem under US-control. At the return of Jesus, they will all be killed.

Verse 4

The expression 'in that day' mus not be interpreted as a day of 24 hours but rather as the short 'Endtime' in which Jesus starts to reveal Himself, first to his own people, then more and more to the whole world. The 'house of Judah', that is mentioned in verse 4, concerns the Palestinians and the Jewish people that side with them. The Lord starts his attack on the empire, while He protects and uses them:  'I will open mine eyes upon the house of Judah'. In Zechariah 10 we already saw that problems would arise for those riding horses: 'and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded.' Here we see more details. Every horse (of the people - the 'Jews' on the side of the empire) would be smitten with astonishment and blindness and its rider with madness. Of course, horses are no longer used in battle. Therefore this must imply the modern way of transportation, mainly through tanks and jeeps and everything in between. The astonishment and blindness might refer to dis-functioning electronic systems, which would make these military vehicles uncontrollable and inoperable. This would cause enormous panic with the soldiers that cannot get away once they are attacked, which will cause their immediate death.

Verse 5

The governors of Judah are those under God's people that will fight against the empire, which oppresses the people. We would call them 'Hamas' or 'Al Qassam Brigades'. It sounds strange that God would fight on the side of Hamas. It is not strange. The world has been totally brainwashed about the situation on the ground in Palestine. Everything has been turned upside down by the mainstream media which is fully under control of the empire. One can see that in the case of an organization like HTS in Syria, which is a re-branding of ISIS, ISIL, DAESH or Al Qaeda. When it suits the empire, it trains and guides the most brutal of murderers in order to topple regimes or to weaken governments (in this case: Syria) and when these groups come into the open they are re-branded and removed from the terrorist list. In the mean time, HTS goes on slaughtering innocent civilians in order to gain more control of Syria. On the other hand, when a people wishes to be independent, the freedom fighters which seek to realize this, are labeled terrorists and are vigorously chased, militarily and judicially. Looking at the negotiations on a Gaza-ceasefire, it is the USA and Israel which are constantly lying, cheating, betraying and violating the ceasefire, while Hamas consistently sticks to all terms it agreed upon. Israel, with the USA in the background, is the evil terrorist, while Hamas wants peace and liberation from the most brutal kind of oppression and occupation. 

This verse shows that there will be cooperation between different groups of Palestinian and Jewish fighters - those outside of Jerusalem (possibly still in Gaza or somewhere on the West-Bank) and those inside of Jerusalem. It might be the case that many 'Jews' have had enough of their evil government and the aspirations of the empire and that they join the 'Palestinians' in their fight. The striving 'governors' outside of Jerusalem have come to understand that it is the Lord of hosts, the God of the Old Testament, that makes his people strong and that will give the victory.

Verse 6

The 'governors of Judah', mainly Palestinians from the West Bank, are compared with a wildfire, that consumes a complete wood. 'The people round about' that they will 'devour on the right and on the left, i.e. attack and destroy, in many different places, could very well be the illegal settlements that for decades have been built throughout land that was stolen from the Palestinians under the pretense of a 'homeland for the Jews', while the Palestinians have more Jewish blood in their veins that the European Jews. The so called United Nations partition plan of 1948 gave about 55% of the holy land to the Zionists from Europe (while 93% was owned by Palestinians) but in the course of decades these Zionists also took the other 45%. They occupied it and treated the Palestinians therein even worse than those that lived in the 55% that was given to the 'Jews' as 'state of Israel'. And these were also severely discriminated. It is a shame upon the world that this has gone on for such a long time, especially for the 'United Nations', which has proven to be totally powerless and even double minded on the issue. Behind all of this - as we have seen in Zechariah 11 - is the empire, first in the form of the UK and later in the USA, that uses obscure methods of diplomacy to reach its worldwide goals. 

Then a strange sentence follows: 'and Jerusalem shall be inhabited again in her own place, even in Jerusalem.'  The 'in her own place', is the translation of one word 'tahat', which principal meaning is 'beneath'. It can also mean: 'under subjection' or 'on behalf of'. That Jerusalem would be inhabited 'in Jerusalem' is meaningless. But it might mean that Jerusalem again serves its original purpose: to be inhabited by those that belong there. That Jerusalem is again under subjection of the indigenous people. Jerusalem will again exist on behalf of its people that it has accommodated of old and no longer be subdued by strangers that pose themselves as Jews. This chapter breathes one and the same thought, outside of Jerusalem and inside Jerusalem,: that the original people of the Lord will regain and own their properties and live where they had always lived once the thieves and oppressors that acted with the full power of the empire, will have been 'devoured'.

Verse 7

Strange is the use of 'tents' by the house of Judah. For it was long ago that Israel lived in tents. One has to go back to the Exodus and the journey through the Arab wilderness that followed. Why would Judah again live in tents? Looking at the situation of the Palestinians of 2025, one has the answer. The people of Judah, the true Jews, have been bombed in their houses by the millions and had to flee. Almost all of them live in 'make-shift' tents because one evacuation order by their oppressors follows after the other. The policy of ethnic cleansing of Gaza demands the most horrific of conditions in order fot the people to finally beg the Zionists to leave their territory for other countries. The people however don't want to leave the land which has been their homeland for thousands of years.

The priority of the Lord is to first save the 'Palestinian' people and secondly the 'Palestinians' and repentant 'Jews' that reside in Jerusalem. According to this text many living in Jerusalem are from the house of David. For decades the Palestinians living outside of Jerusalem have suffered under the rule of the European zionists. Since 2023, they are being subjected to the rudest of ethnic cleansing one can think of. Complete neighborhoods are emptied of inhabitants and destroyed, in Gaza and in the West-Bank. The Zionists want to annex all of it while leaving the Palestinians homeless, murdering tens if not hundreds of thousands of them. We believe this to be the 'covenant with death and hell' that Isaiah 28 speaks of and that - in its most extreme phase - would last for 7 years, according to Daniel 9:27. Those surviving have to live in tents. But they are the first that will be saved by the Lord once He will interfere.

Verse 8

The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be defended by the Lord, which is necessary because of the violence and destruction that will surround it. However, not the courageous and strong ones are saved but ones that are feeble. This could indicate the state of humility caused by true repentance. In many places, the Bible teaches us that pride falls, 'For whosoever exalts himself shall be abased; and he that humbles himself shall be exalted.' Luke 14:11. Paul writes: 'for when I am weak, then am I strong'. When Gideon asked: '' Oh my Lord, if the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?', the Lord answered: ' Go in this thy might'. (Judg.6:13,14).

The feeble ones will be empowered by the Lord and be as David, who is the Hebrew prototype of strength and courage, through his trust in the Lord, as can be read in many Psalms: 'For by Thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.' (Psalm 18:29). The house of David, being as God, as the angel of the Lord, before them, would mean total invincibility of those in David's lineage that humiliate themselves. The 'before them' means vis à vis the other people of the Lord. Those in the line of David will be guiding the rest of God's people in their Endtime struggle for liberation from the most evil faced empire in history.

Verse 9

If God seeks to destroy something, it will be destroyed utterly and totally. God will destroy 'the nations'. For the second time the word 'goyim' is used, standing for the non-Jewish nations, that have come to the rescue of the 'state of Israel' as the control center of the empire. Here it has to be said that the name 'Israel' is nowhere mentioned in the book of Zechariah. Seeing the evil that this former name of God's people is attached with, worldwide, it shouldn't come as a surprise for anyone that this name will never ever again be used again, once Jesus has returned and erected his Millennial kingdom. The names 'Zion' and 'Jerusalem' wil prevail but not 'Israel'. 'Israel' means 'warrior of God'. But the history of the Jewish people has been much more a struggle on behalf of the god of this world against the God of heaven than vice versa.

The state of Israel is such an important entity for the interests of satan's empire that he will send all armies in the world that he can mobilize to the Middle East in order to keep it under his control, once this is being threatened. Why would it be threatened? As our chapter explains, the control center of satan's empire in the Middle East, the state of Israel, will be severely attacked from within, by the Palestinian fighters, the true holy people of God and those that will choose their side. That is the grand subject of the book of Zechariah: the rescue of the Palestinians from their evil zionist oppressors, their attack on the infrastructure that oppressed them for decades and their final victory over their enemies.

Verse 9 is in fact a repetition of the third verse, in which was also spoken of the 'goyim': 'And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people ('goyim') of the earth be gathered together against it'. All goyim armies will be gathered at Jerusalem at the end of the Endtime.

This is also foretold in the book of Revelation. There will be 7 vials of God's wrath, the fifth vial is poured out on the throne of the beast, which will darken his empire. We estimate this to be the uprising of the Palestinians in the power of the Lord. They will crush the infrastructure of the beast in the land of Israel. This infrastructure has been built since 1967 as the model for the world as a whole. It has been the means of relentless oppression of the Palestinians ever since. This system will be extended to the compete world. This will be the great tribulation, starting with a world war that will end in 'the great sword' given to the empire that started it (Red horse of the second seal - Rev.6:3,4).

The effective Palestinian uprising at the end of the great tribulation is an attack on the 'throne of the beast' (vial 5) which is control system of the beast for world domination. The Palestinian initiative for the release of the world from the beast system (vial 5) will instigate a furious reaction from the beast. All armies under control of the empire will be sent to Jerusalem in order to retake it, which has to do with the drying up of the Euphrates (vial 6). At vial 7, the Lord will enter the scene on a white horse, slaying all armies with the sword out of his mouth, destroying all cities of the empire by a devastating earthquake and a worldwide hailstorm (Revelation 16, Revelation 19).

When we link the content of Chapters 9, 10 and 12 with the fifth vial of Revelation 16, then we have an indication of the time frame in which these chapters must be placed: toward the end of the 3.5 years of great tribulation. How long before the end? We estimate the 7 vials of Revelation 16 to take about 2 months. The first four vials (grievous sores, water of sea and river turning to blood, sun-flares) weaken the empire. This could take at most one month. Then the Palestinian uprising starts, taking down the operating system of the beast, 

Verse 10

From verse 10 until the end of the chapter, we see something that totally differs from the verses 1-9. Verses 1-9 started with the destruction of people belonging to the empire, striving to keep Jerusalem as bulwark of world domination. It then spoke of the people of God that would be oppressed and that would battle the empire from within, in its very heart in Jerusalem. Suddenly verse 10 speaks about mourning because the Lord's Spirit is poured out upon his people and because they see Him, in his suffering for mankind, so long ago. How are the battling and mourning to be combined? Do they take place at the same time or is there first a battling and then a mourning or is it the other way around? We see indications for the last. First the mourning, then the battle. It is the mourning that gives them the strength and the wisdom, that is spoken of in the first nine verses.

Verse 5: 'And the governors of Judah shall say in their heart, The inhabitants of Jerusalem shall be my strength in the Lord of hosts their God.' - they know 'the Lord of hosts their God' though his Spirit and his appearance.

Verse 8'...he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the Lord before them.' - they are strengthened by God's Spirit and his appearance

And in other chapters:

Ch.9, Verse 14 - 'And the Lord shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the Lord God shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.' - If the Lord will be seen over them, they must have seen the Lord themselves

Ch. 10, Verse 5 - 'And they shall be as mighty men, which tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them' - the Lord is with them, would his Spirit not be poured out on them and would they not yet have seen Him?

When?

Nowhere is said that every appearance of the Lord that is spoken of in Bible prophecy will occur on one and the same day, at the so called second coming. Yet, this is often presumed by many an expositor. We however think otherwise. The pouring out of God's Spirit upon his people in Jerusalem and surroundings will even happen before the start of the last 3.5 years of history that will end in the Lord's return. We read about the Spirit being sent out into all the earth in Revelation 5 - before the start of any tribulation, before the opening of any seals. There, John speaks of 'a Lamb that stood as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth'. In Revelation 6 the first seal is opened by the Lamb and a white horse comes upon the scene, with a bow and a crown is given to it and it goes forth, conquering and to conquer. In our estimation, this white horse speaks of the moment that the Spirit will act on the hearts of the true people of God, the Palestinian people, that are so severely attacked by the world empire, the USA, through its evil zionist proxy, that they are on the verge of being exterminated.

What has been the goal of the suffering of decades by the Palestinian people under the harsh rule of brutal apartheid by zionist liars? Liars, that had presented themselves as Jews but they weren't. In reality they were a synagogue of satan (Rev.3:9). Indeed, what has been the aim of the unspeakable Palestinian suffering of the last years? The years since the start of the Netanyahu-cabinet, in which 'the covenant would have been made strong for many' (Dan.9:27) - the 1917 - Balfour declaration. The years in which this covenant would be executed in the most extreme of ways by evil extremists in the Knesset of Jerusalem, so extreme that it has become a 'covenant with death and hell' (Isaiah 28:14). The Palestinian people truly have been brought into the fire. But as always, the fire purifies the heart and makes the soul susceptible of Him who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. As Maleachi 3:3 prophecies: 'And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness.' The last verses of Zechariah align with Zechariah 13:9: 'And I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will try them as gold is tried: they shall call on my name, and I will hear them: I will say, It is my people: and they shall say, The Lord is my God.'

The working of the Spirit goes hand in hand with the Revelation of Jesus. Revelation 1: 'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet...'. John 16:14: 'He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.'

With the future restoration of Israel, it will be the same. The Spirit will be poured upon the true people of God, the Palestinians, and they will see Jesus, the One they have pierced. Of course the crucifixion was the responsibility of a generation that lived many centuries before they were born but they so to speak inherited this guilt from old Israel - not to be held accountable for it but to acknowledge it and to mourn about the One Who had been done such a grievous injustice - the greatest injustice in all of history. And mourn they will, as one mourns about an only begotten son - as the people once mourned the death of a beloved king, who had reigned for 31 years and had eliminated the idol worship in the country (see below).

From this moment on, the pouring out of God's Spirit, the revelation of Messiah to his people, in the fullness of his glory and his former suffering, Him being the Lord God Himself and the great mourning because of all of this, the Spirit will take hold of the people as never before and with an enormous zeal, they will start to preach and to evangelize the world. This is the white horse of the first seal, the people being 'pricked in their heart', as they once were (Acts 2:37), the message of the king (crown) being heralded everywhere (conquering). This is the moment where many other Bible texts refer to, like Jeremiah 31:34 and Ezekiel 26:25-27. This is what would be fulfilled before the 70 weeks of Daniel would have passed: 'to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.''  (Dan.9:25)

This is the moment that will start the forming of the 144,000 and the two witnesses, as indicated in Zech.4, 'the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth' (Zech.4:14).

Verse 11

About the 'mourning Hadadrimmon' - the 'of' is absent in Hebrew - so Hadadrimmon is a person who was mourned but a place where was mourned. From the 'Keil and Delitzsch biblical commentary', we retrieve the following:

'The mourning of Hadad-rimmon is therefore the mourning for the calamity which befel Israel at Hadad-rimmon in the death of the good king Josiah, who was mortally wounded in the valley Megiddo, according to 2 Chronicles 35:22., so that he very soon gave up the ghost. The death of this most pious of all the kings of Judah was bewailed by the people, especially the righteous members of the nation, so bitterly, that not only did the prophet Jeremiah compose an elegy on his death, but other singers, both male and female, bewailed him in dirges, which were placed in a collection of elegiac songs, and preserved in Israel till long after the captivity (2 Chronicles 35:25). Zechariah compares the lamentation for the putting of the Messiah to death to this great national mourning.'

King Josiah had reigned over God's people for 31 years, doing what was right in the eyes of the Lord, extinguishing all idolatry.

Verses 12 -14

The mourning takes place among separated tribes and families of Israel. This indicates that they will not only see Jesus in glory and suffering. They will also be made known to themselves, who they are, from which specific parts of Israel they descend. It is only by seeing and acknowledging Him, that they also come to know themselves, as is in fact the case with every human individual. It is the Spirit of grace and supplications that will uncover the truth for them. Four categories of Israel are given:

1. David - the line of the king

2. Nathan - the son of David from which Zerubbabel descended (Luke 3:27, Luke 3:31)

3. Levi - the line of the Levites, those who had to be purified, according to Mal.3;3.

4. Shimei - grandson of Levi

From the 'Keil and Delitzsch biblical commentary', we retrieve the following:

'Luther adopted this explanation: "Four families," he says, "are enumerated, two from the royal line, under the names of David and Nathan, and two from the priestly line, as Levi and Shimei; after which he embraces all together." Of two tribes he mentions one leading family and one subordinate branch, to show that not only are all the families of Israel in general seized with the same grief, but all the separate branches of those families. Thus the word mishpâchâh is used here, as in many other cases, in the wider and more restricted meaning of the leading and the subordinate families.'

The four names are given to indicate how widespread the mourning for Messiah will be. That the mourning will take place in separate families or tribes as well as with men separate from women, indicates that the division in families will be as clear as the division in male/female.