Charles Spurgeon Commentary Zechariah 13:6

"And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds between thine arms? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends." — Zechariah 13:6 (ASV)

Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

Idolatry shall become so detestable a thing that he will say anything rather than acknowledge that he has had anything to do with idols. Those very marks in which the false prophets once gloried, they shall loathe. The Brahmin shall throw away his sacred thread, and those who have been tattooed in honor of other false gods shall hate the marks of shame that are upon their persons.

Now, brothers, since the heathen prophets received in their bodies the marks of their gods, we understand something of what Paul meant when he wrote to the Galatians, From henceforth let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.

He regarded his baptism as a kind of watermark that could not be removed. He looked upon the marks of the scourge, with which he had been beaten again and again for Christ's sake, as being proofs that he belonged to Jesus.

These marks stamped him with the great King's mark, so that all might know that he was dedicated to him and to his service, tattooed with marks in his flesh that were indelible and never to be removed.

And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in thine hands?

"You wear the marks usually seen in God's servants; you have scarred yourself as his prophets were accustomed to do. You have, as it were, tattooed yourself with the name of your God. What does it all mean?" But he will be so ashamed of it that—

Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.

He will say anything rather than confess that he is a false prophet. He will be so ashamed of himself. What a mercy it is when God makes men ashamed of sin, and when he makes them so ashamed of false doctrine that they cannot bear it, and will not any longer proclaim it! Oh, that that day had already come!