This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land: This refers to the scroll on which the curse is written. In many languages it would be better to state this, as Good News Translation does with “On it is written the curse…,” or one may use “On it someone has written the curse…,” or even “This scroll puts a curse on…” (Contemporary English Version).

The idea of a written curse against evil conduct is found elsewhere in such passages as Num 5.23-28; Deut 28.15-68; Ezek 2.9-10. Curses were regarded as having a power of their own, even if the speaker did not take action to put them into effect. If this were true of men’s words, then of course it was even more true of God’s words. In this case, the curse carries God’s authority, and he is condemning or calling down punishment upon thieves and those who give false evidence. Certain languages will have a perfectly appropriate technical term for a curse in this context. However, in other languages translators may have to say something like “On it [the scroll] are written words of condemnation” or “… words of punishment for evildoers.”

The face of the whole land is a Hebrew figure of speech. In languages in which it is not natural to speak of the land having a face, there is no need to do so. Good News Translation says simply “over the whole land.” The curse is placed on “people,” as is evident later in the verse. So Contemporary English Version combines that information with this clause as follows: “This scroll puts a curse on everyone in the land who steals or tells lies.”

In ancient times people would sometimes write curses on pieces of papyrus, and let the wind blow them into the houses of their enemies. It may be that the prophet has something of this background in mind. He sees the curse of God against evildoers being carried by the wind and having an effect upon people of the whole land, that is the land of Judah.

For every one who steals shall be cut off henceforth according to it, and every one who swears falsely shall be cut off henceforth according to it: The last part of the verse gives some detail about the nature of the curse. It is directed against every one who steals and every one who swears falsely. The word falsely does not occur in the Hebrew, but it accurately expresses the sense in the context. It is included in all major modern translations, either by means of the adverb falsely, or by means of the technical term “perjury” (New Jerusalem Bible) or “perjurer” (New English Bible/ Revised English Bible). Stealing and lying involve breaking two of the Ten Commandments (Exo 20.15-16). They are sins that are particularly common in a poor community such as that of Judah in Zechariah’s day (compare Zech 8.17; Mal. 3.5). Thus in a very appropriate way they represent the whole of the Law of God. For swears falsely in this context, translators need to find a term that means “lying” or “giving false evidence” rather than “breaking a promise or vow” as in Matt 5.33. However, the element of using God’s name when lying or giving false evidence must also be included; for example, “everyone who tells a lie invoking the name of God” or “everyone who tells a lie after swearing in God’s name that he will tell the truth.” This idea occurs in the clause “him who swears falsely by my name” in the following verse.

There are two main problems in this part of the verse. The first is to decide what henceforth refers to. There are four main views:
(1) Revised Standard Version takes henceforth in its normal sense, meaning “from this time onward” (compare Biblen: Det Gamle og Det Nye Testamente).
(2) Some scholars think that the Hebrew text is mistaken and that two letters should be deleted. Instead of the words translated henceforth according to it, this would leave words identical with those in 7.3 translated “for so many” in Revised Standard Version. In 7.3 these words are followed by a word meaning “years.” There is no such word here, but the meaning would be more general: “for such a long time” (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).
(3) Others translate henceforth as “from here,” taking the Hebrew word to refer to place rather than time (Bible de Jérusalem, New American Bible, Beck; “banished” in Jerusalem Bible). According to Amsler, this is the normal meaning of the Hebrew word.
(4) Others understand the two occurrences of the word translated henceforth as meaning “on one side” and “on the other side” (Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation, New Revised Standard Version, Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). They take this to refer to the two sides of the scroll. The curse against stealing would be written on one side and the curse against false oaths on the other. According to it would mean “according to the curse.” This view gives some purpose to the repetition, and that must count as an argument in its favor.

The second problem is to decide the meaning in this context of the Hebrew word niqqah, translated cut off. Its usual meaning is “to be clean, innocent, unpunished,” but that does not seem to fit this context. Those who think it does have that meaning here tend to follow view (2) above, and translate as follows: “How long the thief/perjurer has gone unpunished!” (Moffatt; compare New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament). Another possible meaning of the Hebrew root is “to be cleaned, purged [perhaps by punishment].” This seems to be the view taken by Revised Standard Version with its rendering cut off. Compare Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New International Version, New Living Translation “banished,” New American Bible “swept away … expelled” (similarly Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), New English Bible “swept clean away,” Good News Translation “removed … taken away,” and Contemporary English Version “destruction.” This interpretation goes more readily with view (3) above (adopted by Bible de Jérusalem, New American Bible), or with view (4) above (adopted by New English Bible/ Revised English Bible, Good News Translation, New International Version, Contemporary English Version). In languages that do not use the passive voice and need to state the doers of the action in the phrase shall be cut off, translators may identify the LORD as the agent from the following verse. They may say for example, “the LORD will remove all thieves from the land.” In certain languages, however, it is possible to use the equivalent of the English verb “receive” and say, “every thief will receive destruction.”

It is difficult to be certain of the right interpretation, but on the whole we recommend that translators take view (4) with regard to henceforth, and combine it with the second view about the word niqqah. This combination is followed by Good News Translation, and its text will probably form an adequate translation model. In languages that do not use the passive voice, alternative translation models are the following:

• Then he said to me, “Someone has written on this scroll words of condemnation for evildoers in the whole land of Judah. On one side of the scroll it says that the LORD will destroy [or, wipe out from the land] every thief. On the other side it says that he will destroy everyone who lies using his name.”

• Then he told me, “This scroll contains a curse that applies to everyone in the country. On one side it says that all thieves will receive [or, suffer] destruction, and on the other it says that everyone who gives false evidence will receive [or, suffer] destruction.”

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Zechariah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .