In the Hebrew, the LORD begins by referring to himself in the third person. Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version have changed this to the first person “I, the LORD” right at the beginning to fit in with the first person references in the Hebrew in verses 3 and 6. In some languages this phrase will be rendered as “I, who am the LORD.”

Was very angry: The Bible does not hesitate to speak of the LORD feeling anger like a human being. However, the LORD’s anger is not unpredictable or emotionally based. It is directed against his people who have broken his covenant and disobeyed his law, as verses 4-6 make clear. Angry in many languages is expressed in physical terms; for example, “to have a hot heart/stomach/liver toward someone.”

With your fathers: The reference is not just to the generation immediately before Zechariah’s but to the people of Judah and Israel who lived before the exile. This meaning is given clearly by the term “ancestors” in Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version, but in some other languages, the word “fathers” may be used in this sense (compare “forefathers” in New English Bible/ Revised English Bible and New International Version). In some languages one may translate this word as “fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers,” or in others, “all the people who lived before you [or, us].”

Jerusalem Bible transposes verse 2 to the middle of verse 6, but there is no manuscript support for this, and translators should not do it. The transposition has been dropped in New Jerusalem Bible.

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 .