And the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets: Revised Standard Version here follows the sentence pattern of the Hebrew in a way that is very unnatural in English. Good News Translation uses a much more normal structure and says, “And the streets will again be full of boys and girls playing.” The word that Good News Translation here renders as “streets” is the same word that it rendered as “squares” in the previous verse. There is no need for this change, and indeed it would be better to use “squares” both times, as Jerusalem Bible and New Jerusalem Bible do, since there is more room to play in a square than in the streets. But translators should try to select a term describing a place in the culture where children are normally expected to play. In situations where there is no such suitable term, it may be easier just to say “The towns will be full of boys and girls playing outdoors.”

Boys and girls may be translated with a single term for “children” if this is more natural. The emphasis is on the playing rather than on the sex of the children.

Verses 4 and 5 together give a picture of a situation that was very different from the reality of Zechariah’s own day. The community in which he lived was small and probably consisted mostly of people of working age. Such old people and children as there were had neither the leisure nor the peace to enjoy sitting at ease or playing.

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 .