As in verse 6, it will probably be helpful in most languages to begin a new paragraph at this point.

I will signal for them and gather them in: The word translated signal is literally “hiss” (King James Version, Revised Version) or “whistle” (New American Bible, Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible, New English Bible/ Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh). Revised Standard Version is following the example of the ancient Greek version in using a more general term. Most scholars interpret “whistle” as a picture drawn from the way a shepherd calls to his sheep to gather them together (compare Jdg 5.16). A similar picture is found in Isa 5.26 and 7.18, where the LORD is calling foreign nations to punish his people. Here the opposite is the case—the LORD is calling his own people back from exile. In cultures where sheep are kept, it may be helpful to say “I will whistle for them as a shepherd calls his sheep,” but in areas where sheep are little known, it may be more appropriate to use a more general term like signal or “call” (Good News Translation; compare Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). In some areas people may have customary ways of communicating over long distances other than speech, such as the use of whistles, smoke signals, or talking drums. In such situations these customs may provide terms that could be used to translate signal here.

I have redeemed them: In Hebrew the verb is a perfect form, but this may be an example of the so-called prophetic perfect, in which events still future are referred to as if they have already happened. Thus some versions translate it as a future: “I will rescue them” (Good News Translation; compare the Septuagint, New International Version, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). Others, such as Bible en français courant and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, say “I have decided to rescue them,” and this may be a helpful model.

They shall be as many as of old: Inevitably the upheaval of going into exile led to a reduction in the numbers of the LORD’s people. Now the LORD promises that these numbers will be restored. Jewish scholars have often seen in these words a reference to the earlier period when the people were in Egypt and multiplied rapidly (Exo 1.7, 12). As they increased in a foreign land then, so they will increase in their current countries of exile. Compare Ezek 36.10-11. Contemporary English Version has a helpful model: “And there will be as many as ever before” (similarly Good News Translation).

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 .