Christ, the Fellow of Jehovah, came as the God-sent Shepherd to the children of Israel but was attacked unto death by them (v. 7a; Matt. 9:36; John 10:11; Matt. 26:31; Acts 2:23). Zechariah 13:7a says, "Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, / And against the man who is My Fellow, / Declares Jehovah of hosts. / Strike the Shepherd, / That the sheep may be scattered." Christ was both a relative to the children of Israel and a Fellow of Jehovah. As He was hanging on the cross, His relatives wounded Him, and God called in the sword to strike Him. He was in a situation where His relatives were against Him and where God, to whom He is a Fellow, was also against Him.
The word in verse 7a about striking the Shepherd is quoted by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 26:31. To strike the Shepherd means to attack the Shepherd. Immediately after He established the table, He told His disciples that He would be attacked and that they, the sheep, would be scattered.
In Zechariah 13:7b through 9 we see God's sovereign preparation of a people to receive the Redeemer with His salvation. In His household salvation for Israel, God has provided not only redemption but also a people to receive His redemption. In the same way, God prepared us even before we were born to be recipients of His salvation.
Verse 7b says, "I will turn My hand upon the little ones." Here the "little ones" refer to the people of Israel. This indicates that in His preparation God reacted to the rejection of Christ by the children of Israel and turned His hand upon them as the little ones by punishing them through Titus the Roman prince and his army in A.D. 70 and scattering them into the nations to be despised, humiliated, persecuted, and destroyed throughout the age of grace until today (Matt. 21:41a; 23:38; 24:2).