NRSV

[7] “Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,

Against the man who is my associate,” says the Lord of hosts.

Strike the shepherd, that the sheep may be scattered;

I will turn my hand against my little ones.

[8] In the whole land, say the LORD, 

Two-thirds shall be cut off and perish,

And one-third shall be left alive.

[9] And I will put this third into the fire, 

Refine them as one refines silver,

And test them as gold is tested.

They will call on my name,

And I will answer them.

I will say “They are my people”;

And they will say, “The LORD is our God.”

LXX

[7] Sword, rise up against my shepherds

And upon my male citizen, say the Lord Almighty;

Strike the shepherd and pluck out the sheep

And I shall bring my hand against the shepherds.

[8] And it shall be so in all the earth, says the Lord,

The two portions will be utterly destroyed and come to an end,

But the third shall be left behind in it;

[9] And I shall pass through the third by means of fire and purify it, 

As they purify silver,

And test them, as they test gold,

This one it shall call my name,

And I will hearken to it,

And I shall say “this is my people”

And this one shall say “The Lord is my God.”

Notes on Text

Obviously “Strike the shepherd and the sheep will be scattered” is a familiar phrase from the Gospels, specifically Mark and Matthew, and after I finish looking at Zechariah one of the things that I intend to examine in depth is how citations for Zechariah are used in Matthew (the Gospel which borrows most heavily from it).  But before that, let us turn our attention to the passage on its own terms.  

Here we see a return to the shepherd metaphor which we saw in Zechariah 10-11 and especially the latter chapter.  The NRSV version of the text is particularly interesting and I think builds off the ambiguity of “prophets” (as opposed to “false prophets”) which we discussed in the previous passage.  Reading the two passages in continuity, the sequence of events possibly seems to be: the death of idols → the futility of prophecy → the persecution of the prophets by their own parents → God’s sword awaking against God’s own associates → divine wrath falling upon “the little ones” → the destruction of two-thirds of people → the purification in fire of the remaining third → a faithful covenant between God and the remnant.  

The LXX series of events is similar, but in the case of the LXX it is more explicit that divine wrath is connected to the failures of the aristocracy, as indicated by the use of the term “false prophets” rather than “prophets” in the first half of Zechariah 13, and by the use of “I will bring my hand against the shepherd” in the LXX, which replaces the NRSV “I will bring my hand against the little ones.” My general impression of the LXX text is that it is a later variant than the Hebrew from which the NRSV is translated, and the key indicator for me is that there are several places throughout Zechariah 9-14 where it seems like the Greek text has been changed to clear up ambiguities in the Hebrew or to make a more theologically coherent text.  

In any case, this passage is exceptionally doom-ridden, describing the destruction of the majority of people!  Here I think there are perhaps several pertinent things to consider. The first of these is that Zechariah often borrows language, tone, metaphors, and imagery from other prophetic books, and so this doomward turn is perhaps the stylistic influence of, for example, Jeremiah (and indeed Matthew misattributes a citation from Zechariah to Jeremiah). Many of these prophetic books were written in the context of the Babylonian exile, either immediately preceding the Babylonian conquest or during the Exile itself, and a key them within them is the large-scale death and destruction of the Babylonian conquest and exile is divine punishment for the lack of fidelity and uprightness of the ruling class.  So we may simply be seeing this trope reused in a new context, and the promises of destruction and purification through fire might be a metaphor for destruction and tribulation in the sense of the Babylonian exile.  

At some point, however, this passage came to be interpreted in apocalyptic terms (as it clearly is within the Gospels), which is to say as a promise for future divine intervention.  Here I think it is worth dwelling on the specific mechanics that are being described here, where I think this passage could plausibly be read as describing a day or days of judgment in which most people are destroyed completely.  The remaining third’s treatment is also quite fascinating: they are purified with fire like silver and tested like gold.  The Greek verb that I have translated as purify, πυρὀω puroō, means “to burn” and it is only through context (there are few reasons to burn silver, the description of gold as being tested) that it makes sense to translate πυρὀω puroō as “purify.” Specifically what is being described here is silver being smelted to remove impurities.  

This passage is worth emphasizing quite a bit, because it should influence how we read the New Testament passages that are often interpreted as describing hell.  Particularly, it is important to remember that fire is viewed as purifying and that it is the faithful remnant subjected to it (rather than the unfaithful, who are destroyed with little comment).