Job 4:5

4:5 But now the same thing ¹  comes to you,

and you are discouraged; ² 

it strikes you,

and you are terrified. ³ 

Job 19:21

19:21 Have pity on me, my friends, have pity on me,

for the hand of God has struck me.

Genesis 26:11

26:11 So Abimelech commanded all the people, “Whoever touches ⁴  this man or his wife will surely be put to death.” ⁵ 

Psalms 105:15

105:15 saying, ⁶  “Don’t touch my chosen ⁷  ones!

Don’t harm my prophets!”

Zechariah 2:8

2:8 For the Lord who rules over all says to me that for his own glory ⁸  he has sent me to the nations that plundered you – for anyone who touches you touches the pupil ⁹  of his ¹⁰  eye.

¹ tn The sentence has no subject, but the context demands that the subject be the same kind of trouble that has come upon people that Job has helped.

² tn This is the same verb used in v. 2, meaning “to be exhausted” or “impatient.” Here with the vav (ו) consecutive the verb describes Job’s state of mind that is a consequence of the trouble coming on him. In this sentence the form is given a present tense translation (see GKC 329 §111.t).

³ tn This final verb in the verse is vivid; it means “to terrify, dismay” (here the Niphal preterite). Job will go on to speak about all the terrors that come on him.

⁴ tn Heb “strikes.” Here the verb has the nuance “to harm in any way.” It would include assaulting the woman or killing the man.

⁵ tn The use of the infinitive absolute before the imperfect makes the construction emphatic.

⁶ tn The word “saying” is supplied in the translation for clarification and for stylistic reasons.

⁷ tn Heb “anointed.”

⁸ 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.

⁹ 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”).

¹⁰ 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.