And I took my staff Grace: This is the first staff mentioned in verse 7, and translators should ensure that they give it the same name here as there.

And I broke it: In languages where there are different verbs for different kinds of breaking, translators may assume that the staff was snapped (New English Bible/ Revised English Bible, New Living Translation) across the middle, possibly more than once so that it may have ended up in more than the two pieces mentioned in New English Bible/ Revised English Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh, and New Living Translation. In some languages I took … and I broke will be very natural, but in others it may be too wordy. In such cases it may be sufficient to say just “I broke my staff called Grace.” Translators should try to choose a term for broke which can also be used in the parallel context in verse 14.

Annulling the covenant which I had made with all the peoples: To annul means to “cancel” (Good News Translation, Contemporary English Version), “revoke” (New International Version, New Living Translation), or just “break” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible). Breaking the staff symbolizes breaking the covenant. Again translators should use a verb that will also fit the parallel context in verse 14. The difficulties in this part of the verse arise more from interpretation than from translation as such, but in this case the decisions made about the interpretation do affect the translation. There are three questions to be answered:
(1) Who is the I? Some scholars see these words as coming from the mouth of the LORD, but others see them as the words of the prophet speaking on behalf of the LORD. This second view fits the flow of the paragraph better. Some scholars like Delcor think that the Hebrew words underlying “my covenant which I had made” (King James Version, Revised Version) twice contain an abbreviation for the divine name, and should be understood to mean “the LORD’s covenant which the LORD made.” Of available versions, New English Bible/ Revised English Bible and Jerusalem Bible incorporate this view, but it is abandoned by New Jerusalem Bible. Its advantage is that it avoids having the prophet speak of himself as making a covenant, but there is no serious problem anyway in having the prophet identify himself with the one on whose behalf he is speaking. Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament also advises against the abbreviation view, and we recommend that translators render “my [or, the] covenant which I had made.”
(2) Who are all the peoples? The Hebrew noun is plural, and some scholars take it to refer to the gentile “nations” (New English Bible/ Revised English Bible, Good News Translation, New International Version, New Living Translation) surrounding the Jews. Compare Hos 2.18-20. Driver, Cashdan, Lamarche, Delcor, and Petersen assume that the LORD had made a covenant with these nations that would prevent them from attacking Israel (compare Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), and that now this embargo would be lifted. The problem with this view is that there is no evidence of the existence of any such covenant. Mitchell, Gaide, Chary, Meyers & Meyers, Merrill, and Redditt (1995) prefer to understand all the peoples to refer to all the tribes of Israel, as in 1 Kgs 22.28. In a context where the prophet is concerned more with Israel’s relationship with the LORD than with its relationship with other nations, this view seems more convincing, so translators may say “with all the people of Israel.”
(3) What sort of covenant is referred to? Those who think in terms of a covenant with gentile nations tend to want to give the term a meaning weaker than that which it normally bears, and so use a word different from the usual one (Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente), one more like “pact,” “armistice,” or “truce.” In English Moffatt uses “safe-guard,” which both sounds and looks rather odd. It seems more consistent with the context to understand the covenant God made with his own people, and to translate the word in the usual way. For covenant see 9.11.

The following are possible alternative models:

• I took my staff called “Grace” and I snapped it. In this way I showed that the covenant I had made with the whole nation of Israel was broken.

• … that I had canceled the agreement that I had made with all the people of Israel.

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 .