They Will Look on the One They Pierced

• Anchor Bible Dictionary — “Zechariah,” “Messiah,” “Mourning,” “Spirit of God.”
• Dictionary of the OT: Prophets — “Zechariah, Book of,” “Day of the Lord,” “Repentance,” “Messiah.”
• NIDOTTE / TDOT — דָּקַר (dāqar, pierce), נָבַט (nāḇaṭ, look), חֵן (ḥēn, grace), יָחִיד (yāḥîḏ, only child).

• Carol & Eric Meyers (Anchor Yale, Zechariah 9–14), Mark J. Boda (NICOT), Anthony Petterson (Apollos), Al Wolters (HCOT) on Zechariah.
• Maarten J. J. Menken, Old Testament Quotations in the Fourth Gospel (the text-form of John 19:37).
• D. A. Carson (John, PNTC); G. K. Beale (Revelation, NIGTC) on Rev 1:7 as Daniel 7:13 + Zechariah 12:10; Beale & Carson, NT Use of the OT.

Grace before grief. The mourning of Zechariah 12 does not earn God’s favor; it is produced by it. God first “pours out a spirit of grace and pleas for mercy” — a lovely Hebrew wordplay (ḥēn…taḥănûnîm) — and only then do the people look and weep. Repentance itself is his gift; the tears are the evidence of a heart he has already turned.

The verb, and the two Greek readings. The Hebrew verb is daqar — a violent, fatal piercing with a weapon (as in 1 Sam 31:4; Isa 13:15). The oldest Greek translation stumbled here: reading the consonants of daqar (דקר) as raqad (רקד, “dance”) by a slip of two letters, it rendered κατωρχήσαντο — “they danced in triumph over / mocked” — losing the piercing altogether. But later Jewish revisers of the Greek (the tradition behind Theodotion and Aquila) corrected it to ἐξεκέντησαν, “they pierced,” matching the Hebrew — and it is that Greek, not the Old Greek, that John and Revelation quote. So this page prints the Old Greek honestly (it really does read “danced”), while noting that the New Testament follows the pierced-reading that agrees with the Hebrew.

‘On me… whom they pierced.’ The Hebrew reads “they will look on me” (ʾēlai, first person) — the Lord speaking — “whom they pierced,” and then “they shall mourn for him.” A few Hebrew manuscripts ease the difficulty to “on him” (ʾēlaw), but “on me” is the harder and better-attested reading, almost certainly original. The verse does not confuse God with a man; it holds together, in one breath, the God who is pierced and the Son who is mourned — the very mystery of the incarnation.

• Zechariah 9:9; 11:12–13; 13:7 — the humble king, the thirty pieces of silver, the struck shepherd: Zechariah’s cluster of passion prophecies (see Zechariah 9).
• Theodotion & Aquila (early Jewish Greek revisions) (translation witnesses, not Scripture) — render ἐξεκέντησαν, “they pierced,” correcting the Old Greek; the reading John uses.
• Justin Martyr, Dialogue 14, 32, 64 (mid-2nd c. Christian witness) — quotes Zechariah 12:10–12 of the crucified and returning Christ with “whom they pierced.”
• b. Sukkah 52a (later rabbinic reception, not Second-Temple) — reads the mourning as lament over “Messiah son of Joseph”: the messianic hearing is not merely a Christian imposition.

• John 19:37 — “They will look on him whom they have pierced”: fulfilled at the cross (the pierced side), quoting the Hebrew-matching Greek.
• Revelation 1:7 — “every eye will see him, even those who pierced him”: fused with Daniel 7:13 and applied to Christ’s return (see Daniel 7).
• John 19:34–36 — the pierced side and the unbroken bone (Ps 34:20; Exod 12:46): the Passover Lamb pierced (see the Passover).
• Matthew 24:30 — “all the tribes of the earth will mourn”: the same Zechariah mourning at the coming of the Son of Man.

• Zechariah 9:9; 11:12–13; 13:7 — the humble king, the price of a slave, the struck shepherd scattered (Matt 26:31): Zechariah’s passion cluster.
• Psalm 22:16–18; Isaiah 53:5 — “they have pierced my hands and feet”; “pierced for our transgressions” (see Psalm 22, Isaiah 53).
• John 19:34–37; Revelation 1:7 — the pierced side at the cross; the pierced One seen by every eye at his return.
• Daniel 7:13; Matthew 24:30 — coming with the clouds; the tribes mourning: the composite behind Revelation 1:7 (see Daniel 7).
• John 1:14, 18; Colossians 1:15–18 — the only Son, the firstborn: the only-child/firstborn grief of Zechariah answered in Christ.

• Carol L. & Eric M. Meyers (Anchor Yale, Zechariah 9–14), Mark J. Boda (NICOT), Anthony R. Petterson (Apollos), Al Wolters (HCOT), David L. Petersen (OTL) on Zechariah.
• Maarten J. J. Menken, Old Testament Quotations in the Fourth Gospel; D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John (PNTC).
• G. K. Beale, The Book of Revelation (NIGTC), on Revelation 1:7; Beale & Carson, eds., Commentary on the NT Use of the OT.

• The Old Greek is wrong here — and John does not follow it. The Old Greek reads “danced/mocked” (misreading daqar as raqad); John and Revelation quote the corrected “pierced” (ἐξεκέντησαν). Show both; don’t claim John cites the Septuagint.
• ‘On me’ is original. MT reads ʾēlai (“on me,” the Lord speaking); a few mss read ʾēlaw (“on him”). The harder “on me” is almost certainly original — a witness to the deity of the pierced One.
• Grace before grief. The mourning is the fruit of a “spirit of grace” poured out first — God-given repentance, not a human work.
• No versification offset. Zechariah 12:10 is 12:10 in MT, LXX, and English alike (the chapter-1–2 English/Hebrew shift is far away and irrelevant here).

• God was pierced for you. The Lord said “they will look on me whom they pierced” — and it was God the Son, in the flesh, run through at the cross. The wound is the measure of the love.
• Repentance is a gift. The mourning of Zechariah 12 is poured out, not worked up. If your heart is soft toward the crucified Christ, that softness is already grace at work in you.
• The pierced One is coming. The same Jesus lifted up will return, and every eye will see him. The looking that saves now is better than the looking that only wails then.

Step in response: do the one thing the verse commands — look. Look on the pierced One, and let the Spirit of grace do its work: name a sin honestly, and mourn it not in despair but in the hope of the One who bore it. Live this week facing the cross rather than your own record.