Talk about totally reversing a messianic prophecy! Proof texts (passages ripped from the Hebrew bible and said to point to Jesus) are often mistranslated or lifted out of context. This claim is lifted out of context. Z'charyah / Zechariah 13:7 - 9 is about what will happen to the enemies of the Jewish people in the messianic age (when all the Jews return to the land of Israel from exile). It is about the enemies of G-d (not Jesus). Is Jesus an enemy of G-d? If Jesus is not an enemy of G-d this passage is not about him. No one is rejected in this passage. This claim is even more ironic given that the real messiah will return all the Jews from גָּלוּת / galut / exile. "Fear not for I am with you; from the east I will bring your seed, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, "Give," and to the south, "Do not refrain"; bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the end of the earth." Y'shayahu / Isaiah 43:5 - 6. In the messianic age all the Jews return from exile and will live in the land of Israel. "I will scatter the house of Israel among all the nations. . . " Amos 9:9. Exile. But one day: "I will raise up the fallen Tabernacle of David, and I will close up their breaches, and I will raise up its ruins, and build it up as in the days of yore. . ." Amos 9:11. Amos is speaking of the messianic age, when the Jewish exiles (did not happen in Jesus' lifetime) will be returned from exile: "And I will return the captivity of My people Israel, and they shall rebuild desolate cities and inhabit [them], and they shall plant vineyards and drink their wine, and they shall make gardens and eat their produce. And I will plant them on their land, and they shall no longer be uprooted from upon their land, that I have given them, said the L-rd your G-d." Amos 9:14 - 15. G-d exiled the Jewish people from the land of Israel due to our own actions (lack of observance, baseless hatred for Jew against Jew), BUT G-d stated there would be a Jewish exile before there was even a Jewish nation (B'reshit / Genesis 15). So while the exile was punishment -- it was also a necessity -- for Jews to become holier and closer to G-d, and for the Jewish people to fulfill our role as a light to the nations. "So said G-d the L-rd, the Creator of the heavens and the One Who stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and what springs forth from it, Who gave a soul to the people upon it and a spirit to those who walk thereon. "I am the L-rd; I called you with righteousness and I will strengthen your hand; and I formed you, and I made you a covenant for the people, for a light to nations." Y'shayahu / Isaiah 42:5 - 7. This is the primary reason Jews are found in every corner of the world -- even the smallest place. There is no prophecy that the Jews will be scattered (exiled) because we reject the messiah. Jesus was never a messiah -- but even if he had been one Z'charyah / Zechariah 13:7 has nothing to do with the messiah. The last three verses of Z'charyah / Zechariah 13 are about the foreign nations to which the Jewish people were exiled. G-d will punish those who were cruel to His people in exile: "O sword, awaken against My shepherd and against the man who is associated with Me! says the L-rd of Hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the flock shall scatter, and I will return My hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass throughout all the land, says the L-rd, two parts of it shall be cut off. They shall perish, and the third shall remain therein. And I will bring the third in fire; and I will refine them as one refines silver, and I will test them as one tests gold. He shall call in My name, and I will respond to him. I said, "He is My people"; and he shall say, "The L-rd is my G-d." Z'charyah / Zechariah 13:7 - 9. The gentiles who can be redeemed will be redeemed -- as silver and gold is refined, those who turn to G-d will be accepted by Him.
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