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The Legend of Kirta describes a forced military call where even the sick, blind, newly married, and sole heirs are taken to war. Zechariah echoes this background when it mourns a lone surviving son, someone normally spared from battle.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
KTU 1.14 II:43
Cuneiform Texts from Ugarit
Ancient Near East
After two, two march; after three, all of them. The solitary man closes his house; the widow hires herself out; the sick man is carried in (his) bed; the one-eyed man blinks with one eye. And even the newly wed bridegroom goes forth: he drives to another his wife, to a stranger his well beloved.—(They are) like the locusts that dwell on the steppe,
Zechariah 12:10
Hebrew Bible
9 So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. 10 “I will pour out on the kingship of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn. 11 On that day the lamentation in Jerusalem will be as great as the lamentation at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of Megiddo.
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Notes and References
"... The sole surviving son of a family: compare Genesis 22:2; Zechariah 12:10. This class of persons, and the rest that follow, are ordinarily excluded or exempted from military service; compare Deuteronomy 24:5. ..."
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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