If translators wish to include another section heading, it should not be here but rather before verse 12, as indicated in the comments at the beginning of this section. See also the comment at verse 12. If verses 9-11 are treated as a unit, as the Handbook recommends, then the introductory formula “The LORD says” (Good News Translation) will not be placed here, but at the beginning of verse 12.

As for you also: You here is feminine singular and refers back to Zion in verse 9. The fact that the same figure is addressed here as in verses 9-10 with no marker of a new discourse unit is the reason for linking this verse more closely with verses 9 and 10 than many versions do. The pronoun you is highlighted by an emphatic particle in Hebrew.

Because of the blood of my covenant with you: The Hebrew actually has only “by the blood of your covenant,” but there is general agreement that this is an elliptical expression meaning either “… the blood of your covenant with me” (New American Bible; similarly Revised English Bible) or “… the blood of my covenant with you” (Revised Standard Version/New Revised Standard Version, New International Version; similarly Good News Translation, New Living Translation). There is no significant difference in meaning between them. There is however uncertainty about what covenant is referred to. Some scholars (such as Mitchell) think of the covenant with Abraham described in Gen 15. Others (such as Jerusalem Bible and New Jerusalem Bible in their footnotes) think the blood refers to the daily offerings in the Temple. The majority consider the reference is to the Sinai covenant, and point out that the expression “blood of the covenant” occurs at Exo 24.8. This last view seems the most probable, though if translators wish to identify any particular covenant, they should do so only in a footnote as Contemporary English Version does, and not in the text. The relationship between the blood (of the sacrificial animal killed in the covenant ceremony) and the covenant may need to be stated clearly. Good News Translation does this well by saying, “my covenant with you that was sealed by the blood of sacrifices.” Contemporary English Version is also good with “When I made a sacred agreement with you, my people, we sealed it with blood.” To “seal” a covenant means to perform some symbolic action to guarantee that the parties involved will do what they promise. Covenant means generally a contract, agreement, pact, or treaty. In the context of the relationship between God and Israel, God is the one who drew up the covenant and offered it to his people, and the focus is on his promise. An alternative translation model for the first line is as follows:

• When I made an agreement [or, contract] with you, my people, we sealed [or, guaranteed] the agreement with the blood of the animals that you sacrificed.

I will set your captives free: The speaker is still the LORD and he is still addressing Zion. The identity of your captives is generally understood to be Jews who had not yet returned to the Promised Land but were still living in exile. It is not clear why Revised Standard Version translates the Hebrew verb as a future tense. It is in fact a perfect and should be translated as a past tense here, as in King James Version and Revised Version. The fact that the LORD has created the opportunity for the exiles to return home is the basis for the command to them to do so in the following verse.

From the waterless pit: In some versions the Hebrew phrase rendered waterless in Revised Standard Version is omitted (New American Bible, New English Bible). However, there is no manuscript support for this either in Hebrew or in the ancient translations, and the words should be included. A pit or dry well was sometimes used as a place to keep a prisoner, such as Joseph (Gen 37.24) or Jeremiah (Jer 38.6). Here the waterless pit is used as a symbol for the exile of the Jews from the Promised Land, and some translators may decide to make this clear. Good News Translation does this with “the waterless pit of exile,” but in some languages it may be necessary to use a fuller expression like “from their prison, the exile, which was like a waterless pit” (so Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). “Exile” means “being taken to live in foreign countries,” so translators may express this last line as “I have freed your people who are captives from their prison in foreign countries—a prison that is like a waterless pit.”

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 .