Those who buy them slay them; that is to say, the merchants who buy the sheep kill them for their meat. It is not clear who these buyers represent symbolically.

And go unpunished: This phrase in English is used in many modern versions (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, Good News Translation, New International Version, Contemporary English Version). It conveys the hint that those who kill the sheep ought to be punished. This idea is expressed also in the phrase “with impunity” (New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). However, it is not so clear that the Hebrew has the same overtones. Among ancient versions the Septuagint and the Vulgate both seem to understand the words to mean “and they suffered no remorse.” Some versions are more neutral in their wording: “and incur no guilt” (New English Bible/ Revised English Bible). Compare the Revised Standard Version translation of the same verb in Jer 50.7, where it has “We are not guilty.” On the whole it seems better not to suggest that those who killed the sheep ought to have been punished. Translators may say “without remorse,” “without compunction,” or “without feeling any regret.”

Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, I have become rich’: Those who sell them are other merchants, but again it is not clear who they represent symbolically. Good News Translation treats the buyers and the sellers as a single group, “Their owners,” but this is an oversimplification that is not helpful. Blessed be the LORD is a formula for thanking the LORD, and may be rendered “Thanks to the LORD,” “I give thanks to the LORD,” or even “Praise the LORD.”

I have become rich refers to the profit made in selling the sheep.

And their own shepherds have no pity on them: With a further example of the carelessness frequent in the book of Zechariah, the prophet does not make entirely clear who their refers to. In Hebrew a flock of sheep is regarded as feminine because most of the animals in it are ewes (females). Thus the pronoun suffixes translated them four times in this verse are feminine in Hebrew. However, the Hebrew suffix translated their is masculine. By the strict application of the rules of pronoun reference, the masculine suffix must refer back to the people who buy and sell the sheep, and it is taken this way by Delcor. However, since the sense of the passage seems to require that it should be the sheep who have shepherds, most scholars assume that there is a textual error, and read the suffix as feminine. There is only one letter different between the masculine and feminine suffixes (-hem as against -hen), and a few Hebrew manuscripts actually have a feminine at this point. But in fact the Hebrew text as it stands with the masculine suffix can make perfectly good sense. In the light of verses 7 and 12, it is clear that the shepherds are hired by those who buy and sell the sheep (the “traffickers” in Revised Standard Version at verse 11). Translators are therefore recommended to translate as follows: “the shepherds they hire have no pity on the sheep” or “the people they hire to look after the sheep have no pity [on the sheep].”

There is no mention of shepherds other than the prophet himself up to this point, but the text seems to assume that the flock had other shepherds before the prophet was appointed. Verse 8 may be taken to indicate that he was one of several shepherds. These other shepherds did not develop affection for the animals that people who look after animals often show, but had no pity on them; that is to say, they did not care that the animals would be slaughtered. Presumably the prophet himself is not included among those who have no pity. It is possible, as the Revised Version margin indicates, to take the Hebrew as “their shepherd” (singular), and indeed the verb translated have … pity is singular. But this would make an already difficult verse even more complex, and it is noteworthy that the ancient versions have both the noun and the verb in the plural.

A possible alternative model for this verse is:

• Those people who buy the sheep kill them and feel no regret. As for those who sell them, each one says, “I give thanks to the LORD that I have become rich.” Even the people the buyers and sellers [or, dealers] hire to look after the sheep have no pity on them.

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 .