The Proper Interpretation of Zechariah 13:4-6

I received a question today about Zechariah 13:4-6, which says this:

4 "And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive.

5 But he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a farmer; for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth.'

6 And one will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your arms?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'"

The bold text has been taken out of context to refer to Jesus, probably because of the word-association that our brains do with the word wounded (Isaiah 53:5) and perhaps also with friend (Matthew 26:50, John 15:5?).

But the Zechariah context does not support a Jesus reference from this text. That is a non-literal, spiritualized use of the text. I do not follow the non-literal school of thought in hermeneutics.

It is best to understand this in a more plain fashion. The authorial intent seems to convey that "in that day" = the day of the Lord = the Messianic Kingdom = the future Millennial Kingdom...people who are false prophets will have to fly under the radar lest they be found out and punished by death for trying to deceive the people away from the King of kings. So, they will not wear the typical prophet's clothing of coarse hair.

Go back to verses 2-3 and see that God is going to cut off the false prophets and idols. Even parents will not support their own child who has abandoned faith in God and gone into false religion. So, times will be "desperate" in the false prophecy business.

The false prophet will not wear the regular prophet's clothing, he will claim he is just a farmer, and he will deny the markings that he got from his false prophecy rituals (wounds between the arms). These markings would indicate scars from cutting themselves, like the false prophets of Baal cut themselves on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:28). The undercover false prophet will make an excuse that he got these scars or wounds while at some friends' house.

Bottom line: in the kingdom of Christ, religious pluralism will not be cool.