Bible Strands
Zechariah 13:8
And in all the land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be cut off and perish, but a third will be left in it.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks directly (נְאֻם יְהוָה) in a prophetic oracle bracketed by the striking of the Shepherd (v. 7) and the refining of the remnant (v. 9); the address is to "all the land," i.e., Israel as a whole.
The words — יִכָּרְת֖וּ (yiqqārəṯû, "they will be cut off"), from the root כרת, carries the sense of violent severance, the same verb used for covenantal excision (Gen 17:14); it is not a neutral "perish" but an active cutting away.
The thread — The threefold division of a people appears in Ezekiel 5:2, 12 (burned, sword, scattered) and the trisected city in Revelation 16:19; the כרת "cut off" language recurs in covenant-warning contexts throughout the Pentateuch.
Why it lands — The verse refuses to let the reader identify with the remnant by default; the majority is the cut-off portion, and the "third" is not a prize but a residue that must then pass through fire (v. 9).
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it shall come to pass, that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die; but the third shall be left therein.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 5:12 A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.
- Revelation 16:19 The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed. And God remembered Babylon the great and gave her the cup of the wine of the fury of His wrath.
- Ezekiel 5:2 When the days of the siege have ended, you are to burn up a third of the hair inside the city; you are also to take a third and slash it with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter a third to the wind. For I will unleash a sword behind them.
- Malachi 4:1 “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
- Revelation 8:7 Then the first angel sounded his trumpet, and hail and fire mixed with blood were hurled down upon the earth. A third of the earth was burned up, along with a third of the trees and all the green grass.
- Matthew 24:21 For at that time there will be great tribulation, unseen from the beginning of the world until now, and never to be seen again.
- Luke 23:28 But Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for Me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.
- 1 Thessalonians 2:15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and their own prophets and drove us out as well. They are displeasing to God and hostile to all men,
- Deuteronomy 28:49 The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,
- Isaiah 6:13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will be burned again. As the terebinth and oak leave stumps when felled, so the holy seed will be a stump in the land.”