Zechariah 12:11-12, "There will be great mourning in Jerusalem and including every family of the house of David. What is the cause of the mourning?

Question

The answer is found at Zechariah 12:10 where the Lord Himself is speaking. "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look upon Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born."

The Lord in this verse identifies Himself as the one being pierced and slain. This has caused MUCH debate among Jewish scholars over the centuries even to the point of some changing the modern translations of the scriptures to obscure this fact. But that the issue itself was debated so long ago siting this scripture as written above is evidence that the scriptures as we have them are correct and there is valid reason to infer that YHWH himself is the one to be pierced.

Now, my question is for Biblical Unitarians who deny the deity of Jesus Christ. What reason or reasons can you offer that dispute the plain meaning of Zechariah 12:10?

Answer 1

Regarding Jesus existing before the world was created, that we do not dispute for even the devil and his angels existed before man was ever created upon the face of the earth. Jesus was and we also believe that he is the Word that visited the prophets in the Old Testament and delivered messages. In this same manner, Satan also approaches members of his own synagogue and gives them messages concerning how his global 666 plan will be imposed on the inhabitants of the world.

We do believe Jesus is the arch angel Michael because of two principal verses in the Bible

1. Daniel 12:1

At that time Michael, the great prince who protects your people, will arise. There will be a time of distress such as has not happened from the beginning of nations until then. But at that time your people—everyone whose name is found written in the book—will be delivered.

Michael your prince, Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Is this an end time prophecy concerning the raising of the dead and their judgment? What's an arch angel doing in the middle of it? We do know it's Jesus who is central to the end of the age because his return triggers it.

2. Revelation 12:7

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back,

It reaches a point where the devil has to be prevented from accessing heaven and force needs to be used so war arises in heaven, Jesus who is at the right hand of God commands his angels to fight just as he told us while he was here on earth that he can ask of his Father legions of angels and they would come to his defense, I want you to pause and think of all the instances of scripture that say God would send angels to the defense of Jesus, remember the temptation at the pinnacle of the temple?

Don't you realize that I could ask my heavenly Father for angels to come at any time to deliver me? And instantly he would answer me by sending more than twelve legions of angels to come and protect us.

For it is written: “’He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully;

Scripture shows that there is divine command that has been given to Jesus over the angels and he is the One leading them to war against the devil and his angels in Revelation.

The verse in Zechariah you posted could also be an end time prophecy that proclaims that the inhabitants of the world shall see Jesus in the glory of his Father in the skies and they shall mourn

Mathew 24:30

“Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds .

That is because scripture doesn't say that anyone mourned during the crucifixion but it does confirm that after the world sees him in the sky then they shall mourn.

To wind up, how does Jesus shout with the voice of the arch angel if he is not the arch angel?

1 Thessalonians 4:16

“For the Lord himself will come down from heaven with a shout of command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first”

Answer 2

I recently read an excellent response on this so called proof text the OP is clinging to.

Here is the link to the original post

Below are some salient points made

John 19:37 (even in the KJV) where this scripture has been quoted by John. All translations show John here translating Zech. 12:10 as "They shall look upon him [or the one'] whom they pierced." So we have this Apostle and inspired Bible writer telling us plainly (and undisputed even by trinitarian scholars) that Zechariah 12:10 should read: "They shall look upon him (not me')." Therefore, Jehovah is speaking in Zech. 12:10 of someone else who will be pierced - not Himself!

The OT Greek Septuagint uses "me" (in existing copies, at least - 4th century A.D. and later), but it is significantly different from the Hebrew text: "They shall look upon me, because they have mocked me, and they shall make lamentation for him, as for a beloved [friend], and they shall grieve intensely, as for a firstborn [son]." - Zech. 12:10, Septuagint, Zondervan, 1976 printing. In other words, (1) they will look upon God whom they have mocked [not "pierced"] as their judgment arrives and (2) they will mourn Christ. The two are not the same person here, nor the same God!

The testimony of the first Christian writers to come after the NT writers (the Ante-Nicene Fathers') confirms the non-trinitarian translation of Zechariah 12:10 ("him"). Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Tertullian (repeatedly) rendered Zech. 12:10 as "him whom they pierced"! This is specially significant because trinitarian scholars and historians claim these particular early Christians (including Origen who doesn't quote Zech. 12:10 at all in his existing writings) are the very ones who actually began the development of the trinity doctrine for Christendom! If any of the earliest Christian writers, then, would use a trinitarian interpretation here, it would certainly be these three. Since they do not do so, it must mean that the source for the look upon me' translation originated even later than the time of Ignatius, Irenaeus, and Tertullian (early 3rd century A.D.)!

A biblical Unitarian response found here says in part

Translators and commentators who believe that the word “pierced” should refer back to the pronoun “him” cite textual variants that more clearly read “him,” as well as the flow of the sentence which continues with the word “him” in the phrase “they shall mourn for him” and “grieve bitterly for him.” The Jewish understanding of this verse has always been that the one pierced was one in an intimate relationship with God, but there is no record of any early Jewish commentator understanding Zechariah 12:10 to be saying that somehow Yahweh Himself would come into the flesh and be pierced in the literal sense of the word. It is apparent to us that the Revised Standard Version has a good translation of the verse and that Zechariah 12:10 is a prophecy of the piercing of the promised Messiah. Another important point to make is that Zechariah 12:10 is quoted in John 19:37 after the Roman soldier thrust his spear into Christ’s side. John 19:37 reads: “and, as another scripture says, ‘They will look on the one they have pierced.” The King James Version translates John 19:37 as follows: “And again another scripture saith, ‘They shall look on him whom they pierced.’” The different versions may disagree on the Hebrew text of Zechariah 12:10, but none of them disagree on the translation of the way it is quoted in the New Testament. None of the versions have the word “me,” and most of them supply the word “him” as does the KJV, NASB and RSV. If the original reading of Zechariah 12:10 was “me, whom they have pierced,” we can think of no reason that it would not be quoted that way in the New Testament. On the other hand, if the reading of Zechariah 12:10 in the RSV and other versions is correct, then it makes perfect sense that the verse would be quoted in the New Testament the way it is. We contend that the New Testament quotation of Zechariah 12:10 gives us the proper interpretation of the verse.