Zechariah 12 is the twelfth of the 14 chapters in the Book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible and the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Zechariah. In the Hebrew Bible, it is part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter is a part of a section (so-called "Second Zechariah") consisting of Zechariah 9–14. The New Testament allusion to "the one whom they have pierced" (John 19:37) is drawn from this chapter.

The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 14 verses.

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Codex Cairensis (from year 895), the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets (916), Aleppo Codex (930), and Codex Leningradensis (1008). Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, including 4Q80 (4QXII^e; 75–50 BCE) with extant verses 7–12. and 4Q82 (4QXII^g; 50–25 BCE) with extant verses 1–3.

There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus (B; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^B; 4th century), Codex Sinaiticus (S; BHK: ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^S; 4th century), Codex Alexandrinus (A; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^A; 5th century) and Codex Marchalianus (Q; ${\displaystyle {\mathfrak {G}}}$^Q; 6th century).

This chapter and chapter 13 verses 1–6 are a section, forming a three-section "entity" with 13:7–9 and 14:1-21. The New King James Version divides this chapter into two parts:

This section contains an oracle or prophecy "concerning Israel", focusing on "the final onslaught of all nations on Jerusalem".

"Burden" here means "oracle" or "prophecy", similarly in Zechariah 9:1 and Malachi 1:1. This verse contains the heading of the oracle which, to biblical writer Katrina Larkin, "seems to cover the whole of the rest of the book" (chapters 12–14), with a "doxology on creation" bringing ideas about "creation and origins" (the Urzeit) projected forwards onto the "end of time" (the Endzeit).

There is a similar image in Isaiah 51:17: You ... have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of his wrath, who have drunk to the dregs, the bowl, the cup of staggering. Theologian Albert Barnes comments that "the image of the 'cup' is mostly of God's displeasure, which is given to His own people, and then, His judgment of chastisement being exceeded, given in turn to those who had been the instruments of giving it".