Zakharia 4:9

4:9 “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundations of this temple, ¹  and his hands will complete it.” Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

Zakharia 5:9

5:9 Then I looked again and saw two women ²  going forth with the wind in their wings (they had wings like those of a stork) and they lifted up the basket between the earth and the sky.

Zakharia 11:5

11:5 Those who buy them ³  slaughter them and are not held guilty; those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the Lord, for I am rich.’ Their own shepherds have no compassion for them.

Zakharia 13:6

13:6 Then someone will ask him, ‘What are these wounds on your chest?’ ⁴  and he will answer, ‘Some that I received in the house of my friends.’

[4:9]  ¹ tn Heb “house” (so NAB, NRSV).

[5:9]  ² sn Here two women appear as the agents of the Lord because the whole scene is feminine in nature. The Hebrew word for “wickedness” in v. 8 (רִשְׁעָה) is grammatically feminine, so feminine imagery is appropriate throughout.

[11:5]  ³ sn The expression those who buy them appears to be a reference to the foreign nations to whom Israel’s own kings “sold” their subjects. Far from being good shepherds, then, they were evil and profiteering. The whole section (vv. 4-14) refers to the past when the Lord, the Good Shepherd, had in vain tried to lead his people to salvation and life.

[13:6]  ⁴ tn Heb “wounds between your hands.” Cf. NIV “wounds on your body”; KJV makes this more specific: “wounds in thine hands.”

[13:6]  sn These wounds on your chest. Pagan prophets were often self-lacerated (Lev 19:28; Deut 14:1; 1 Kgs 18:28) for reasons not entirely clear, so this false prophet betrays himself as such by these graphic and ineradicable marks.