Zechariah 13:1 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

In that day When the Lamb of God shall be offered up a sacrifice for mankind, and the gospel shall be preached, in which the glad tidings of our redemption are published. This seems to be a continuation of the prophecy begun at the ninth verse of the preceding chapter; and the meaning to be that, through the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah, the repentance and humiliation there described should be accepted of God, and followed with a full pardon and gracious communication of sanctifying grace to the penitent. There shall be a fountain opened “The blood of Christ, which cleanseth from all sin, (1 John 1:7,) is manifestly here intended, the Jews being, upon their repentance and conversion, to be admitted to all the privileges of the Christian covenant.” Probably there may be an allusion in the words “to the one great spring at Jerusalem, (mentioned Isaiah 7:3,) which served the uses of king and people.” See Vitringa. The spouse of Christ, his church, is a spring shut up, a fountain sealed, Song of Solomon 4:12; but Christ is to sinners a fountain opened: under the law, he was as the waters of the temple for the Jews; but now his merits are opened to us Gentiles, free for all, and of easy access, and of sovereign virtue to heal. For sin and for uncleanness The original words here used, חשׂאת and נדה, are “legal terms; the former denotes sin generally, or any transgression of the law which required atonement, and is sometimes put for the means of purification from it, Numbers 19:9-17; the latter is used for that uncleanness, or legal defilement, which secluded a man from all intercourse with God, and holy things. Now whatever efficacy the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkled on the unclean, had to purify from legal sin and defilement, the same is ascribed to the blood of Christ in the Christian dispensation, for purging the conscience of a sinner from the guilt of dead works, or moral pollution.” Blayney. The legal washings were but shadows and types of this matchless, healing, purifying fountain, which never fails to heal all those that apply to it. It must be observed, likewise, that spiritual graces and influences, communicated by the Holy Spirit, are also compared to a fountain, Joel 3:17; and by these sinners are represented as being washed and cleansed, Ezekiel 36:25; Titus 3:5.