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Modern English language renderings of Zechariah 12:10b produced by the Jewish community differ radically from the Christian tradition. For example, the Jewish Publication Society’s 1917 translation of Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures renders Zechariah 12:10b like this:

“…and they shall look unto Me because they have thrust him through; 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 first-born.” (JPS)

The fundamental difference between the Christian and Jewish renderings involves how the Hebrew formula אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר is to be translated. Should אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר be translated as a relative pronoun and the verb "to pierce" in the active voice (i.e., “the one whom they pierced”), as does the pre-Christian Septuagint (LXX) and virtually all English language translations produced by Christians, or should אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר rendered with causal force and the verb "to pierce" as in the passive voice (i.e., “because they have thrust him through” or "because of the ones pierced") as does the JPS translation and four other renderings produced by scholars from the Jewish community?

In this paper we present evidence that the JPS rendering of Zechariah 12:10b is not only incorrect from a grammatical standpoint, it stands inconsistent with how JPS handles the אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר formula and the verb "to pierce" in every other instance of its occurrence throughout the JPS Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures.

We conclude this paper with our suggestion as to how the JPS should recast the verse to reflect a rendering that is more consistent, not only with the Hebrew text of the passage (and of the Greek LXX), but with the Jewish community’s own English translations of the אֵ֛ת אֲשֶׁר formula in other contexts.

Christian translators of the Tanakh claim that Zechariah 12:10b is a reference to Jesus of Nazareth in His role as Israel’s slain Messiah as well as the incarnation of the God who Himself uttered the prophecy quoted by Zechariah:

“…and they will gaze on me—the one whom they stabbed. Then they will mourn for him, as one would mourn for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him, as for a firstborn son.” (ISV)

The claim that Zechariah speaks of the death of Jesus originates in a statement made by the Apostle John in the Gospel that he authored. After recording (John 19:34) that a Roman soldier pierced Jesus’ side with a spear after his death, John observes that “…these things happened so that the Scripture might be fulfilled” (John 19:36). John alludes to Psalm 34:20 as a prediction that Messiah’s bones will not be broken in his death. John then cites Zechariah 12:10b:

In addition, another passage of Scripture says, “They will look on the one whom they pierced.” (John 19:37, ISV)

John’s quotation is an unmistakable claim that the wound caused by the spear thrust made by the Roman soldier into Jesus’ side will be seen by Israel when the nation recognizes its Messiah in Jesus of Nazareth. The English-speaking Jewish community contends that Zechariah 12:10b does not refer to Jesus. The tables set forth below illustrate the diversity of renderings in the text of English translations of Zechariah 12:10b from both the Jewish and the Christian perspective:

Certain portions of Zechariah 12:10 and the immediate context in which the verse appears are not in dispute as to the speaker: both Jews and Christians acknowledge that the speaker of the words of Zechariah 12:10 and the person to whom Israel will look is YHWH, the God of Israel, since that speaker is introduced in Zechariah 12:1 with the classic prophetic formulaמַשָּׂ֥א דְבַר־יְהוָ֖ה עַל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֑ל נְאֻם־יְהוָ֗ה (i.e., “The burden of the word of the Lord to Israel: Thus says the Lord”). Within the larger context of Zechariah 12:1-14, the God of Israel declares his sovereignty over the universe (12:1), his plans to lay siege works against Jerusalem and Judah (12:2), his unstoppable intention to make Jerusalem a stumbling block to all nations (12:3), his promise to watch over Judah in that day (12:4-5), his commitment to pay special attention to Jerusalem (12:6) and to save the inhabitants of Judah (12:7) and Jerusalem (12:8), and his threat to destroy all nations that come against Jerusalem (12:9). Furthermore, neither side of the debate denies that a day of “great mourning” (12:11) will one day come to Jerusalem, a period of mourning so profound that it causes the separate clans of Israel to mourn by themselves, “every family by itself” (12:12-14).

Judaica Press claims that the third person plural active Qal verb “to thrust through” (דָּקָ֑רוּ) in Zechariah 12:10b should be not be translated as “they thrust through” but as the passive “those who have been thrust through.” But this is a problematic rendering—it requires the verb דקר to have been written by the original author of the text in the passive Niphal form rather than in the active Qal form. JPS 1917 further complicates the translational issues by rendering the Hebrew phrase אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר with causal force (“because they have thrust him through”) instead of rendering the phrase as the relative pronoun “whom”, as do all English language translations of Zechariah 12:10b produced by Christians. The crux of the problem passage (pardon the pun) is clearly the last three words in the five words that constitute the last part of Zechariah 12:10b in Hebrew:

We can dismiss דָּקָ֑רוּ, the last of these three words, rather quickly from consideration on grammatical grounds: as used in Zechariah 12:10b, דָּקָ֑רוּ is the third person common plural Qal (active) perfect of דקר. The verb דקר means to pierce, stab, to thrust through, or to impale. The word is almost always employed in the MT to connote the infliction of a catastrophic, mortal injury, often as a result of a blow from a sword, spear, or other instrument of war. The Hebrew word דקר appears only eleven times in the Tanakh. Six occurrences are in the active Qal form: Numbers 25:8, Judges 9:54, 1 Samuel 31:4 (twice), 1 Chronicles 10:4; Zechariah 12:10, and Zechariah 13:3. דקר appears three times in the Tanakh in the Pual participial form: Jeremiah 37:10, Jeremiah 51:4 (where the term refers to those who have been wounded in war), and in Lamentations 4:9, where the Pual of דקר is used to describe pain experienced through famine. דקר appears only once in the passive Niphal form, at Isaiah 13:15,[5] where it can be translated as “to be pierced” or “to be thrust through”. In Isaiah 13:15 (which conservative scholars claim predates Zechariah’s post-captivity writings), the Niphal of דקר is utilized to describe war fugitives as being thrust through when they are found.

The Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, which was written from the perspective of the conservative Christian community, observes concerning דקר that:

Zechariah knew that the verb דקר can be cast in the Niphal form—he could have employed its construction in Zechariah 12:10b had he wished to connote the passive verb’s nuance. Instead, Zechariah chose to use the active Qal form of דקר, not the passive Niphal, to communicate his intention. Accordingly, any modern English language translation that renders the active Hebrew Qal form as a passive Niphal is simply incorrect and inconsistent with the original author’s grammatical intention. The Hebrew verb form דָּקָ֑רוּ used in Zechariah 12:10b should be translated “they pierced,” “they stabbed,” “they thrust through,” etc. Any passive voice rendering of the Hebrew active verb such as “those who have been thrust through” (Judaica Press NACH Series) or “those whom they have stabbed” (ArtScroll Stone Edition) may be rejected as unfaithful to the grammatical structure of Zechariah’s Hebrew because Zechariah carefully and deliberately chose the active Qal form of דקר, not the passive Niphal.

The Hebrew phrase אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר translated by JPS as “because” in its rendering of Zechariah 12:10b occurs 159 times in the Tanakh. Starting on page six, below, we have set forth a table containing all 159 citations of the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula that appear in the Tanakh, together with the JPS (1917) English language rendering as well as the pre-Christian second century BCE’s Septuagint (LXX) rendering[7] of the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula. As may be noted by examining each of these 159 occurrences, JPS translates the vast majority of them as relative pronouns modifying an active verb. Two instances connote an indirect object of a verb. In Genesis 44:1, Joseph is recorded as having given a command to (the Hebrew preposition עַל accompanies אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר) his steward. In Judges 11:24, Jephthah is recorded as asking the rhetorical question, “Will you not possess whatever Chemosh your god gives you?” employing אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר to connote the indirect object of the active verb “to possess”. Four instances occur in which אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר modifies verbs adverbially with telic force or as an adverb of manner. In Genesis 49:1, Jacob calls his sons together so that he could tell them what would happen in the future. In this passage, אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר is used to connote the telic purpose of the command. In 1 Samuel 24:18, Saul notes how David had treated him, using אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר to connote the manner of the treatment. In Esther 5:11, the historical narrative utilizes אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר to describe Haman recounting to his friends and family “how” (אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר) the king had advanced him above princes and other servants of the king. Lastly, in Esther 9:23 utilizes אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר with the connotation of an adverbial of extent: i.e., how the Jews had acted “as they had begun” and as they had been instructed by Mordecai. Only one instance is recorded in the Tanakh that utilizes אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר as a prepositional phrase. In 1 Kings 9:25, Solomon is described as having offered offerings upon the holy altar “that was” (אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר) before the Lord. A single use of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר can be found that renders it as a conditional phrase. 1 Kings 8:31 introduces the hypothetical case “If a man sin against his neighbor” (or perhaps, “When a man sin against his neighbor”) with the phrase אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר.

Three uses of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר are translated with causal force in the JPS 1917 translation. They are 1 Kings 11:34 (where Israel’s God speaks of preserving the king on account of David, “because he kept My commandments and My statutes”); 2 Kings 17:26 (where lions are said to have killed certain disobedient people “because they know not the manner of the God of the land.”), and Zechariah 12:10b. With all due respect to the JPS’ renderings of 1 Kings 11:34 and 2 Kings 17:26, it should be noted from a strictly grammatical viewpoint that both 1 Kings 11:34 and 2 Kings 17:26 contain the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula with accompanying modifiers that do not appear in Zechariah 12:10b. As a matter of grammar, the אֹתֹ֔ו portion of the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula as it appears in 1 Kings 11:34 modifies the verb בָּחַ֣רְתִּי (“I chose”) as its direct object and is not part of the traditional אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula in that passage. The same argument can be said of 2 Kings 17:26: theאֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula appears as אֹותָ֔ם כַּאֲשֶׁר֙, where אֹותָ֔ם serves as the direct object of the verb “to kill”; i.e., the lions “kill them” because (כַּאֲשֶׁר֙) they do not know the ways of the God of the land. In the 2 Kings 17:26 passage, from a strictly grammatical standpoint, the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula is being rendered by JPS 1917 because the כַּ modifier accompanying the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula requires that the passage be rendered as “because” or “since”. However, neither a declined אֵ֣ת nor the prefix כַּ accompanies the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula in Zechariah 12:10. To its credit, JPS 1917 is consistent in its translation of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר as a relative pronoun for most of the remaining occurrences of the formula in the Tanakh, describing everything from Noah’s knowledge about what his son had done in Genesis 9:24 to what the Lord had to say through Micah the prophet in Micah 6:1. Consult the table below at ¶¶ 32-159 for specific details.

In its polemic against translating אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר as a relative pronoun, the Messiah Truth web site subtly assumes what it is attempting to prove. Note how every assertion in the following sentence is accurate, except for the statement that אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר can mean “because or for”:

The Hebrew word אֲשֶׁר (asher) is a conjunction, a part of speech that connects other words or phrases. אֲשֶׁר (asher) can mean because or for, that or which, who or whom, and it may take on various other meanings when combined with prepositions.[8]

When אֵ֣ת (et) and אֲשֶׁר (asher) occur together as a phrase, and in the particular grammatical structure, such as is found in Zechariah 12:10B(i), the phrase אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר (et asher) must be read as, because of or concerning or regarding [something] or simply because or that which, but not simply as whom or the one, which are common in Christian translations.[9]

Messiah Truth appears unaware that אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר is translated as “what,” “that,” or “whom” in every occurrence of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר in the Tanakh by JPS 1917 except for Zechariah 12:10b! Messiah Truth also seems unaware that the only grammatically sound basis for rendering אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר as “because” is if אֲשֶׁר is preceded by the Hebrew prefix כַּ, as may be observed in 2 Kings 17:26! If Messiah Truth were correct in its allegation that the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula “must be read as, because of or concerning,” then Messiah Truth would have to demand that JPS 1917 recast all 128 of the other 129 instances of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר to read “because of” instead of translating the phrase as a relative pronoun.

Except for its problematic rendering of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר as “because”, JPS 1917’s other renderings of the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula appear to be consistent with how the pre-Christian LXX translates the phrase in almost all occurrences. In fact, the non-Christian LXX upholds all of the JPS 1917 renderings of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר except its rendering of Zechariah 12:10b! As may be confirmed by examining the citations from the LXX that have been listed in the addendum below, the Septuagint renders Zechariah 12:10 as a relative pronoun:

… καὶ ἐπιβλέψονται πρός με ἀνθ̓ ὧν κατωρχήσαντο …

The LXX should be translated “and they will look to me, the man whom they pierced.” We shall leave to a future forum a discussion regarding why the LXX non-Christian translators added the abbreviation for “man” to the text, rendering the LXX passage as “the man whom they pierced”. We contend that ἀνθ is not an elision for ἀντι.

וְהִבִּ֥יטוּ אֵלַ֖י אֵ֣ת כַּאֲשֶׁר־ דָּקָ֑רוּ

adding the prefix כַּ before the word אֲשֶׁר. But he didn’t.

If JPS 1917 is to remain faithful to its own consistency in rendering the אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר formula, in Zechariah 12:10b JPS should recast the verse to be consistent with the ISV's rendering:

Undisputed Issues

What Causes the Mourning?

On the Late Dating of the Talmudic Interpretation of Two Messiahs

The Verb דקר

Qal vs. Niphal

Statistical Analysis of אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר Formulae

Rendering אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר With Causal Force

Messiah Truth’s Position

אֵ֣ת אֲשֶׁר in the Pre-Christian Septuagint

Is a Trinitarian View of God
Implicit in Zechariah 12:10?

How to Craft Zechariah 12:10
to Conform to JPS 1917

How Should JPS 1917
Render the Passage?