"They shall look upon me whom they have pierced"
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10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
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7The LORD also shall save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of the house of David and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem do not magnify themselves against Judah.
8In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and 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.
9And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
10And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn.
11In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
12And the land shall mourn, every family apart; the family of the house of David apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart;
13The family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of Shimei apart, and their wives apart;
37And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
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34But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.
35And he that saw it bare record, and his record is true: and he knoweth that he saith true, that ye might believe.
36For these things were done, that the scripture should be fulfilled, A bone of him shall not be broken.
37And again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they pierced.
38And after this Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, besought Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus: and Pilate gave him leave. He came therefore, and took the body of Jesus.
39And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight.
40Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury.
The Hebrew reads "they shall look to me, [him] whom they pierced, and mourn over him", with God as the speaker. "To me" is the original reading; "to him" is a minor medieval variant. The syntax is hard, and translations differ. The Septuagint has no piercing at all: "because they danced in mockery". John's Gospel and Revelation share a Greek wording of their own, ἐξεκέντησαν, "they pierced".
Zechariah foresees a moment of national repentance: "they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son" (). The Hebrew "upon me" is the original reading, so the pierced one is bound up with God himself, and his piercing leads to mourning and a fountain of cleansing (). John's Gospel records the soldier's spear thrust, "one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side" (), presents it as eyewitness testimony, and cites the verse: "They shall look on him whom they pierced" (). Revelation applies it to Christ's return (). John and Revelation share the same Greek wording, which differs from the Septuagint, pointing to an early Christian use of the text. Later Jewish tradition also applied the verse to a slain messianic figure, "Messiah ben Yosef who was killed".
The passage offers more than most: an unnamed pierced one, tied to God and to national mourning. But no messianic reading of it is known from before Christianity. The spear thrust is recorded only in John, and the piercing of hands and feet was part of crucifixion itself. The national mourning in Jerusalem did not happen in Jesus' time; Revelation places it at his return.
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The pierced one is unnamed and the Hebrew syntax is hard; the Jewish Publication Society translation reads "lament to Me about those who are slain" and notes "Meaning of Heb. uncertain". The Septuagint has no piercing at all, reading "because they danced in mockery". The earliest Jewish messianic reading, in the Talmud, comes after Christianity and is disputed in the same passage. The spear thrust appears only in John's Gospel, where it is framed as fulfilment; Mark's account of the crucifixion has nothing like it.