Who is the wounded farmer in Zechariah 13:6?

Question

Zechariah 13:6 speaks of a man wounded in the house of friends. Taken by itself, I would immediately interpret this as a Messianic reference.

However, the context is the cessation of prophecy (verse 4), and the man is identified as a farmer and apparently a slave laborer (verse 5). How does that fit the Messiah, the greatest of the prophets? And what would that be about being sold to toil in tilling the ground?

Then again, if it is not Messianic, who is the injured man, and why was he hurt at the house of his friends? Also, the context immediately following is clearly about the suffering of the Messiah (verse 7):

Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who stands next to me,” declares the LORD of hosts. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; I will turn my hand against the little ones.

Would the viewpoint of the original hearers have offered us any clues on how this is to be solved? How do we reconcile these tensions?

Answer 1

The key for understanding this section is that from verses 1-6 the prophecy deals with cleansing sin which includes banishing ‘the names of the idols’ and 'false prophets'. In fact the false prophets should be killed even by ‘their own parents” who will ‘stab the one who prophesies’ (v3). This was the rule under the laws of Moses. (Deuteronomy 13:9) The idea presented is that the false prophet seems to repent. Just as in the case of a rebellious child, stoning would not be practiced if after some discipline the child repents. Possibly after receiving a beating a false prophet could repent and be spared from the death penalty. The false prophet has repented, because he is still alive and he even attributes his wounds to his ‘friends’. In fact, he decides juts to go back to simple 'farming' now that his old highly esteemed religious career is over.

‘The wounds I was given at the house of my friends.' (NIV Zechariah 13:6)

Wounds from a friend can be trusted, but an enemy multiplies kisses. (NIV Proverbs 27:6)

It is with this in mind that the scripture then turns to a different type of prophet, with different types of wounds, and refers to his being 'struck' and the sheep being 'scattered' as further prophesied by our Lord in Mathew 26:31.