Zechariah 12:11

11 In that day great wailing shall be in Jerusalem, as the wailing of Hadadrimmon in the field of Megiddon. (On that day great wailing shall be in Jerusalem, like the wailing of Hadadrimmon on the Plain of Megiddo.)

Zechariah 12:11 Meaning and Commentary

Zechariah 12:11

In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem,
&c.] Great numbers being awakened, convinced, and converted, and brought to true repentance: as the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon.
Lightfoot ^F9 thinks the prophet alludes to the two great and general lamentations of Israel; the one about the rock Rimmon, where a whole tribe was come to four hundred (it should be six hundred) men, ( Judges 20:47 ) and may be rendered, "the sad shout of Rimmon"; and the other in the valley of Megiddo, for the death of Josiah. Some take Hadadrimmon to be the name of a man, as Aben Ezra; and the Targum and Jarchi say who he was, and also make two mournings to be alluded to ^F11; paraphrasing the words thus,

``at that time mourning shall be multiplied in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Ahab the son of Omri, whom Hadadrimmon the son of Tabrimmon slew in Ramothgilead; and as the mourning of Josiah, the son of Amon, whom Pharaohnecho, or the lame, slew in the valley of Megiddo:''

and so the Syriac version renders it,

``as the mourning of the son of Amon in the valley of Megiddo.''

Of the first of these, see ( 1 Kings 22:31-37 ) and of the latter, ( 2 Kings 23:29 ) according to Jerom, it was the name of a place in the valley of Megiddo, near to Jezreel; and which, in his time, went by the name of Maximianopolis, called so in honour of the Emperor Maximian; it was seventeen miles from Caesarea in Palestine, and ten miles from Jezreel {l}; and mention is made by Jewish ^F13 writers of the valley of Rimmon, in which place the elders intercalated the year; though Jerom elsewhere

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FOOTNOTES:

F14 says, that Adadrimon was a king, the son of Tabrimmon, who reigned at Carchemish, whom Pharaohnecho slew at the same time he slew Josiah. Both words, Hadad, or Adad, and Rimmon, are names of idols with the Syrians.
F9 Works, vol. 1. p. 46.
F11 Vid. T. Bab. Megillah, fol. 3. 1. & Gloss. in ib. & Moed Katon, fol. 28. 2.
F12 Vid. Reland. Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. p. 892.
F13 T. Hieros. Chagigah, fol. 78. 4.
F14 Trad. Heb. fol. 86. I.

Zechariah 12:11 In-Context

9 And it shall be, in that day I shall seek to all-break all folks that come against Jerusalem. (And it shall be, on that day, I shall seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.)

10 And I shall pour out on the house of David, and on the dwellers of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and of prayers; and they shall behold to me, whom they pricked. And they shall bewail him with wailing, as on the one begotten son; and they shall make sorrow on him, as sorrow is wont to be made in the death of the first begotten son. (And I shall pour out upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace, and the spirit of prayer; and they shall look upon me, whom they have pierced. And they shall bewail me with wailing, as if over their only child; and they shall make sorrow upon him, as sorrow is wont to be made upon the death of the first-born son.)

11 In that day great wailing shall be in Jerusalem, as the wailing of Hadadrimmon in the field of Megiddon. (On that day great wailing shall be in Jerusalem, like the wailing of Hadadrimmon on the Plain of Megiddo.)

12 And the land shall wail; families and families by themselves; the families of the house of David by themselves, and the women of them by themselves; families of the house of Nathan by themselves, and the women of them by themselves;

13 families of the house of Levi by themselves, and the women of them by themselves; families of Shimei by themselves, and the women of them by themselves.