a fountain opened. There will be living waters emerging from Jerusalem in that day (Zechariah 14:8), but the fountain mentioned in this verse is “for sin and uncleanness.” It can only refer to the cleansing blood of the Savior (Ephesians 1:7; Revelation 1:5; etc.), which is, for the first time, applied here to the whole nation of Israel. Possibly their national repentance will be couched in the words of Isaiah 52:13-53:12.

wounds in thine hands. Most expositors say this question is addressed to the “false prophet” discussed in Zechariah 13:3-5, on the assumption that his wounds were somehow caused by mutilation in his occult rituals. This seems unlikely since, in the post-Armageddon context of this section, any false prophets operating during the tribulation period would already have been “cut off” (Zechariah 13:2) and dispatched to the lake of fire along with their masters, the Beast and his False Prophet (Revelation 19:20; Matthew 25:41). Zechariah 12:11-13:5 seem rather to be a parenthetical section inserted between two profoundly moving descriptions of Messiah's wounds (Zechariah 12:10; 13:6), the sight of which will result in Israel's conversion, great mourning and cleansing, accompanied by their purging the land of any remaining idols and false prophets, together with the evil spirits possessing and energizing them.

I was wounded. It seems more appropriate to the whole amazing scene here described to understand these words as addressed to the one on whom they had looked and for whom they were mourning (Zechariah 12:10). Not only had His side been pierced, but also His hands (see Psalm 22:16), and these wounds remained even in His resurrected body (John 20:24-28). With great sadness, He replies that these everlasting wounds had been inflicted at the urging of those who should have been His friends, the leaders of the nation He had come to redeem. This interpretation is strengthened by the fact that the succeeding verse is explicitly applied to the wounding of Messiah.

smite the shepherd. This verse is quoted in Matthew 26:31 and Mark 14:27, by Christ Himself. He, the Good Shepherd, would give His life for the sheep (John 10:11) but, in the trauma of these world-changing events, His sheep would be scattered for a while. The “sword” would “smite the shepherd,” and they would be scattered for two thousand years, but the time would come when they would return to Him, exactly as Zechariah has predicted.