Genesis 20:6

20:6 Then in the dream God replied to him, “Yes, I know that you have done this with a clear conscience. ¹  That is why I have kept you ²  from sinning against me and why ³  I did not allow you to touch her.

Psalms 105:15

105:15 saying, ⁴  “Don’t touch my chosen ⁵  ones!

Don’t harm my prophets!”

Proverbs 6:29

6:29 So it is with ⁶  the one who has sex with ⁷  his neighbor’s wife;

no one ⁸  who touches ⁹  her will escape ¹⁰  punishment. ¹¹ 

Zechariah 2:8

2:8 For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ¹²  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ¹³  of his ¹⁴  eye.

¹ tn Heb “with the integrity of your heart.”

² tn Heb “and I, even I, kept you.”

³ tn Heb “therefore.”

⁴ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

⁵ tn Heb “anointed.”

⁶ tn Heb “thus is the one.”

⁷ tn Heb “who goes in to” (so NAB, NASB). The Hebrew verb בּוֹא (bo’, “to go in; to enter”) is used throughout scripture as a euphemism for the act of sexual intercourse. Cf. NIV, NRSV, NLT “who sleeps with”; NCV “have sexual relations with.”

⁸ tn Heb “anyone who touches her will not.”

⁹ sn The verb “touches” is intended here to be a euphemism for illegal sexual contact (e.g., Gen 20:6).

¹⁰ tn Heb “will be exempt from”; NASB, NLT “will not go unpunished.”

¹¹ tn The verb is יִנָּקֶה (yinnaqeh), the Niphal imperfect from נָקָה (naqah, “to be empty; to be clean”). From it we get the adjectives “clean,” “free from guilt,” “innocent.” The Niphal has the meanings (1) “to be cleaned out” (of a plundered city; e.g., Isa 3:26), (2) “to be clean; to be free from guilt; to be innocent” (Ps 19:14), (3) “to be free; to be exempt from punishment” [here], and (4) “to be free; to be exempt from obligation” (Gen 24:8).

¹² tn Heb “After glory has he sent me” (similar KJV, NASB). What is clearly in view is the role of Zechariah who, by faithful proclamation of the message, will glorify the Lord.

¹³ tn Heb “gate” (בָּבָה, bavah) of the eye, that is, pupil. The rendering of this term by KJV as “apple” has created a well-known idiom in the English language, “the apple of his eye” (so ASV, NIV). The pupil is one of the most vulnerable and valuable parts of the body, so for Judah to be considered the “pupil” of the Lord’s eye is to raise her value to an incalculable price (cf. NLT “my most precious possession”).

¹⁴ tc A scribal emendation (tiqqun sopherim) has apparently altered an original “my eye” to “his eye” in order to allow the prophet to be the speaker throughout vv. 8-9. This alleviates the problem of the Lord saying, in effect, that he has sent himself on the mission to the nations.