Zechariah 13:6

13:6 Then someone will ask him, ‘What are these wounds on your chest?’ ¹  and he will answer, ‘Some that I received in the house of my friends.’

Zechariah 4:4

4:4 Then I asked the messenger who spoke with me, “What are these, ²  sir?”

Zechariah 4:11

4:11 Next I asked the messenger, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the menorah?”

Zechariah 4:13

4:13 He replied, “Don’t you know what these are?” And I said, “No, sir.”

Zechariah 5:6

5:6 I asked, “What is it?” And he replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain ³  that is moving away from here.” Moreover, he said, “This is their ‘eye’ ⁴  throughout all the earth.”

Zechariah 5:10

5:10 I asked the messenger who was speaking to me, “Where are they taking the basket?”

Zechariah 6:4

6:4 Then I asked the angelic messenger ⁵  who was speaking with me, “What are these, sir?”

Zechariah 13:5

13:5 Instead he will say, ‘I am no prophet – indeed, I am a farmer, for a man has made me his indentured servant since my youth.’ ⁶ 

Zechariah 1:9

The Interpretation of the First Vision

1:9 Then I asked one nearby, “What are these, sir?” The angelic messenger ⁷  who replied to me said, “I will show you what these are.”

Zechariah 2:2

2:2 I asked, “Where are you going?” He replied, “To measure Jerusalem ⁸  in order to determine its width and its length.”

Zechariah 3:5

3:5 Then I spoke up, “Let a clean turban be put on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him, while the angel of the Lord stood nearby.

Zechariah 4:5

4:5 He replied, “Don’t you know what these are?” So I responded, “No, sir.”

Zechariah 4:12

4:12 Before he could reply I asked again, “What are these two extensions ⁹  of the olive trees, which are emptying out the golden oil through the two golden pipes?”

Zechariah 5:2

5:2 Someone asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.” ¹⁰ 

Zechariah 11:9

11:9 I then said, “I will not shepherd you. What is to die, let it die, and what is to be eradicated, let it be eradicated. As for those who survive, let them eat each other’s flesh!”

Zechariah 11:12

11:12 Then I ¹¹  said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, forget it.” So they weighed out my payment – thirty pieces of silver. ¹² 

Zechariah 1:19

1:19 So I asked the angelic messenger ¹³  who spoke with me, “What are these?” He replied, “These are the horns ¹⁴  that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ¹⁵ 

Zechariah 4:2

4:2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, ¹⁶  “I see a menorah of pure gold with a receptacle at the top and seven lamps, with fourteen pipes going to the lamps.

Zechariah 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. ¹⁷  But the blacksmiths have come to terrify Judah’s enemies ¹⁸  and cut off the horns of the nations that have thrust themselves against the land of Judah in order to scatter its people.” ¹⁹ 

¹ tn Heb “wounds between your hands.” Cf. NIV “wounds on your body”; KJV makes this more specific: “wounds in thine hands.”

² sn Here these must refer to the lamps, since the identification of the olive trees is left to vv. 11-14.

³ tn Heb “[This is] the ephah.” An ephah was a liquid or solid measure of about a bushel (five gallons or just under twenty liters). By metonymy it refers here to a measuring container (probably a basket) of that quantity.

⁴ tc The LXX and Syriac read עֲוֹנָם (’avonam, “their iniquity,” so NRSV; NIV similar) for the MT עֵינָם (’enam, “their eye”), a reading that is consistent with the identification of the woman in v. 8 as wickedness, but one that is unnecessary. In 4:10 the “eye” represented divine omniscience and power; here it represents the demonic counterfeit.

⁴ tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in 1:9.

⁵ tn Or perhaps “for the land has been my possession since my youth” (so NRSV; similar NAB).

⁶ tn Heb “messenger” or “angel” (מַלְאָךְ, mal’akh). This being appears to serve as an interpreter to the prophet (cf. vv. 13, 14).

⁷ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

⁸ tn The usual meaning of the Hebrew term שְׁבֹּלֶת (shÿbolet) is “ears” (as in ears of grain). Here it probably refers to the produce of the olive trees, i.e., olives. Many English versions render the term as “branches,” but cf. NAB “tufts.”

⁹ tn Heb “twenty cubits…ten cubits” (so NAB, NRSV). These dimensions (“thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide”) can hardly be referring to the scroll when unrolled since that would be all out of proportion to the normal ratio, in which the scroll would be 10 to 15 times as long as it was wide. More likely, the scroll is 15 feet thick when rolled, a hyperbole expressing the enormous amount and the profound significance of the information it contains.

¹⁰ sn The speaker (Zechariah) represents the Lord, who here is asking what his service as faithful shepherd has been worth in the opinion of his people Israel.

¹¹ sn If taken at face value, thirty pieces (shekels) of silver was worth about two and a half years’ wages for a common laborer. The Code of Hammurabi prescribes a monthly wage for a laborer of one shekel. If this were the case in Israel, 30 shekels would be the wages for 2 1/2 years (R. de Vaux, Ancient Israel, pp. 76, 204-5). For other examples of “thirty shekels” as a conventional payment, see K. Luke, “The Thirty Pieces of Silver (Zech. 11:12f.), Ind TS 19 (1982): 26-30. Luke, on the basis of Sumerian analogues, suggests that “thirty” came to be a term meaning anything of little or no value (p. 30). In this he follows Erica Reiner, “Thirty Pieces of Silver,” in Essays in Memory of E. A. Speiser, AOS 53, ed. William W. Hallo (New Haven, Conn.: American Oriental Society, 1968), 186-90. Though the 30 shekels elsewhere in the OT may well be taken literally, the context of Zech. 11:12 may indeed support Reiner and Luke in seeing it as a pittance here, not worth considering (cf. Exod 21:32; Lev 27:4; Matt 26:15).

¹¹ tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in v. 9.

¹² sn An animal’s horn is a common OT metaphor for military power (Pss 18:2; 75:10; Jer 48:25; Mic 4:13). The fact that there are four horns here (as well as four blacksmiths, v. 20) shows a correspondence to the four horses of v. 8 which go to four parts of the world, i.e., the whole world.

¹³ map For location see Map5-B1; Map6-F3; Map7-E2; Map8-F2; Map10-B3; JP1-F4; JP2-F4; JP3-F4; JP4-F4.

¹² tc The present translation (along with most other English versions) follows the reading of the Qere and many ancient versions, “I said,” as opposed to the MT Kethib “he said.”

¹³ tn Heb “so that no man lifts up his head.”

¹⁴ tn Heb “terrify them”; the referent (Judah’s enemies) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

¹⁵ tn Heb “to scatter it.” The word “people” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.