1.9 KiB
General Information:
Zechariah often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/writing-poetry and rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism)
General Information:
Here Yahweh begins speaking.
Sword! Rouse yourself against my shepherd
"You, sword! Go and attack my shepherd." Here Yahweh speaks to a sword as if it were a person. Here it represents enemies. AT: "You, enemies! Go and attack my shepherd" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-personification)
my shepherd
This speaks of a servant of Yahweh as if he were a shepherd. AT: "my servant who is like a shepherd" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)
the man who stands close to me
This is an idiom. AT: "the man who is my close companion" or "the man who is my friend" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-idiom)
this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts
Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in Zechariah 1:3. AT: "this is what Yahweh of hosts has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh of hosts, have declared" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-123person)
the flock will scatter
The people of God are spoken of as if they were sheep. AT: "my people will run away like sheep" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor)
I will turn my hand against the lowly ones
The idiom "turn my hand against" means to act hostile towards someone. AT: "I will attack the lowly ones" (See: rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-idiom)
the lowly ones
This probably refers to all the Israelites who are weak and defenseless.