CHAPTER 13 Dec. 28 
Forgiveness of Sins 
In that day there will be a spring opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. 2It will come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land. 3It will happen that, when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, ‘You must die, because you speak lies in the name of Yahweh;’ and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies. 4It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive: 5but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth’. 6One will say to him, ‘What are these wounds in your hands?’. Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends’.
The Refining of God’s People 
7Awake, sword, against My shepherd, and against the man who is close to Me, says Yahweh of Armies. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn My hand against the little ones. 8It shall happen that in all the land, says Yahweh, two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it. 9I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on My name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is My people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God’.

Commentary

13:6 Marks- see on 12:10.
13:8 This could mean that two thirds of the Jews now living in Israel will die during the tribulation.
13:9 The purpose of Israel’s final tribulation will be to bring them to repentance; once there is repentance amongst them, then Christ will come (Is. 59:20). The quicker they repent, the shorter and lesser will be their tribulation. This explains why some of the prophecies of the last days are vague and hard to fit together chronologically- because there are various potential scenarios, depending upon the speed of Israel’s repentance. This trial of faith as gold is tried is going on in the lives of believers right now (1 Pet. 1:7)- the tribulations of our lives are therefore as intense and dramatic, in spiritual terms, as the tribulation about to break upon Israel. We shouldn’t underestimate the traumas which we go through spiritually.