1:10a

at the hour of the incense offering: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as at the hour of the incense offering refers to one of the two times during each day when a priest entered the temple alone and burned incense. One time was in the morning, and one was in the evening. The events that are described in this paragraph happened at one of these times.

In some languages it may be necessary to say who burned incense. If this is true in your language, you may be able to say:

At/during the time when ⌊Zechariah⌋ was burning incense…

1:10b

the whole congregation: The Greek phrase that the Berean Standard Bible translates as the whole congregation is literally “all the crowd of the people.” It refers to the crowd of people who gathered in the temple courts.

was praying: The Greek word that the Berean Standard Bible translates as was praying indicates that the people were speaking to God.

Some languages may use different words to refer to specific kinds of prayer, such as requests, thanks, or praise. Use a term that is natural in your language to refer to prayer in general. Avoid a term that may imply magical or meaningless words.

Some other ways to translate this are:

were talking to God
-or-
were asking/begging God

outside: The word outside refers to the area outside the temple building. The people were worshiping in one of the courtyards that were part of the temple area. The leaders did not allow the people to go into the temple building itself. Only certain priests could go there.

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