Zakharia 1:21

1:21 I asked, “What are these going to do?” He answered, “These horns are the ones that have scattered Judah so that there is no one to be seen. ¹  But the blacksmiths have come to terrify Judah’s enemies ²  and cut off the horns of the nations that have thrust themselves against the land of Judah in order to scatter its people.” ³ 

Zakharia 8:14

8:14 “For the Lord who rules over all says, ‘As I had planned to hurt ⁴  you when your fathers made me angry,’ says the Lord who rules over all, ‘and I was not sorry,

Zakharia 12:10

12:10 “I will pour out on the kingship ⁵  of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, ⁶  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. ⁷ 

[1:21]  ¹ tn Heb “so that no man lifts up his head.”

[1:21]  ² tn Heb “terrify them”; the referent (Judah’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[1:21]  ³ tn Heb “to scatter it.” The word “people” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.

[8:14]  ⁴ tn The verb זָמַם (zamam) usually means “to plot to do evil,” but with a divine subject (as here), and in light of v. 15 where it means to plan good, the meaning here has to be the implementation of discipline (cf. NCV, CEV “punish”). God may bring hurt but its purpose is redemptive and/or pedagogical.

[12:10]  ⁵ tn Or “dynasty”; Heb “house.”

[12:10]  ⁶ tc Because of the difficulty of the concept of the mortal piercing of God, the subject of this clause, and the shift of pronoun from “me” to “him” in the next, many mss read אַלֵי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ale ’et ’asher, “to the one whom,” a reading followed by NAB, NRSV) rather than the MT’s אֵלַי אֵת אֲשֶׁר (’ela ’et ’asher, “to me whom”). The reasons for such alternatives, however, are clear – they are motivated by scribes who found such statements theologically objectionable – and they should be rejected in favor of the more difficult reading (lectio difficilior) of the MT.

[12:10]  tn Or “on me.”

[12:10]  ⁷ tn The Hebrew term בְּכוֹר (bÿkhor, “firstborn”), translated usually in the LXX by πρωτότοκος (prwtotokos), has unmistakable messianic overtones as the use of the Greek term in the NT to describe Jesus makes clear (cf. Col 1:15, 18). Thus, the idea of God being pierced sets the stage for the fatal wounding of Jesus, the Messiah and the Son of God (cf. John 19:37; Rev 1:7). Note that some English translations supply “son” from the context (e.g., NIV, TEV, NLT).