Zechariah 13:5

5 but he will say, "I [am] not a prophet; I am a tiller of the soil, for a man has acquired me since my youth."

Zechariah 13:5 Meaning and Commentary

Zechariah 13:5

But he shall say, I [am] no prophet
That he is not of the Romish clergy, or of any of their religious orders, having laid aside his habit: I [am] an husbandman;
he shall put on the habit of a husbandman, and work for his bread; for he will not be able to support himself, as before, with the sale of pardons and indulgences, and by praying souls out of purgatory; for no man hereafter will buy of his merchandise, ( Revelation 18:11 ) and he will be ashamed of his former calling and traffic, and will not own that he was ever concerned therein; but will affirm that he was never of the Romish clergy, but always a layman, and employed in husbandry: for man taught me to keep cattle from my youth;
he will say he was brought up to husbandry, or in some mechanic business, from his youth, and never was in any convent or monastery, or of any religious order: it may be rendered, "for man made me to work from my youth" ^F21; and is not to be restrained to keeping cattle, or any particular employment.

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FOOTNOTES:

F21 (ynnqh) "fecerunt me operari", Noldius; "homo operari fecit me", De Dieu, Burkius.

Zechariah 13:5 In-Context

3 {And then}, if anyone prophesies again, his father and his mother who bore him will say to him, "You shall not live, because you have spoken a lie in the name of Yahweh!" And his father and his mother who bore him will pierce him through when he prophesies.

4 {And then} on that day, each of the prophets will be ashamed because of his vision when he was prophesying, and they will not put on a cloak of hair in order to deceive,

5 but he will say, "I [am] not a prophet; I am a tiller of the soil, for a man has acquired me since my youth."

6 And someone shall say to him, "What [are] these wounds {between your arms}?" and he will say, "Those I have received [in] the house of [the ones who] love me." '"

7 "O sword, awake against my shepherd, against [the] man [who is] my associate," {declares} Yahweh of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, so that the sheep may be scattered, and I will turn my hand against the small [ones].

Footnotes

• [a] Other translations read "for the land has been my possession since my youth"