Zechariah 12:10
Zechariah 12:1010Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son.
JWs read the pierced one as Jesus, sent by Jehovah — relying on the NWT's "the one whom they pierced" to keep Jehovah and the pierced one as separate persons. The verse is rarely opened in Kingdom Hall study, and the cross-reference to is treated as Christological application without the deity implication.
The Hebrew reads 'elai et-asher daqaru — "to me, the one whom they pierced". Jehovah, who has been speaking in the first person throughout chapter 12 (verse 1: "I stretched out the heavens"; verse 9: "I will annihilate the nations"), now says THEY will look to ME, the pierced one. The pronoun shift to "him" later in the verse ("they will wail over him") shows distinction within the same divine identity — the pattern Trinitarian theology calls personal distinction within unity. quotes this verse and applies it to the moment a Roman soldier pierced Jesus' side. Either Jehovah was pierced in his Son at Calvary, or John misapplied the prophecy. confirms John's reading: "every eye will see him, even those who pierced him".
The Hebrew first-person 'elai ("to me") is rendered in the NWT 2013 as "the one whom they pierced" — shifting the grammatical object from first person to third person. The Masoretic Text says Jehovah is the one pierced; the NWT's rendering preserves the JW theology that Jehovah cannot suffer. Older NWT footnotes acknowledged the Hebrew "me" reading. Standard translations (BSB, NASB, ESV, KJV) all read "they will look on me whom they pierced".