This verse goes closely with the previous one and explains the reasons why the prisoners in exile were right to remain hopeful: the LORD would vindicate his people.

For I have bent Judah as my bow; I have made Ephraim its arrow: These two statements add something to each other and need to be understood together. Just as a bow and an arrow are both needed to form an effective weapon, so the LORD would use both the people of the south (Judah) and the people of the north (Ephraim) to form an effective instrument for carrying out his purposes. Ephraim is more commonly called “Israel” (see verse 10), and many translators will prefer to use that name here. The mention of both the northern and southern groups at a time when the north had no separate existence shows that the passage continues to be a vision of the future. Good News Translation makes it clear that the context is a military one by saying “like a soldier’s bow.” The Hebrew verb I have bent suggests that the bow is about to be used, so a number of versions translate it as a future. In many languages something like “I will use Judah as my bow and Israel as my arrow” (Contemporary English Version) will be a possible translation. In languages where bows and arrows are unknown, an expression like “weapons of war” may be used, and these two lines may be translated as “I will use Judah and Israel as my weapons of war.”

I will brandish your sons, O Zion, over your sons, O Greece: The term brandish means to shake or wave about in a threatening manner, as a soldier might wave a weapon. Some versions take the Hebrew word that Revised Standard Version renders brandish in a different sense and translate it as “rouse” (New International Version, New Jerusalem Bible), “arouse” (New American Bible, New Revised Standard Version), or “stir up” (Beck). This fits better with the last part of the verse. It is not natural in English to speak of brandishing someone over someone else, whereas it is quite normal to speak of arousing someone against someone else.

Your sons, O Zion refers to “the people of Zion” (Contemporary English Version), or more generally, of Judah. Some versions such as New English Bible treat the words over your sons, O Greece as a later addition to the text, and include them only in a footnote. There is no manuscript evidence to support this omission, and translators should include these words. Some scholars consider that the mention of Greece means that this passage comes from the time after the conquests of Alexander the Great, who died in 323 B.C. This view is found in the footnotes in Jerusalem Bible and New Jerusalem Bible, but such an assumption is not at all necessary. As Cashdan and others have pointed out, the Greeks could not have been unknown to the other nations of western Asia after they had defeated the Persian armies of King Darius at the battle of Marathon in 490 B.C. The Hebrew word for Greece is yawan. This name is also found as “Javan” in Gen 10.2, 4 and other places in the Old Testament, such as Isa 66.19, where it is part of a list of foreigners in general.

In languages where a vocative (a form of the name of the person or group addressed) has to come at the beginning of a sentence, the presence of two vocatives in this sentence may pose a problem. It may be necessary to restructure it as two sentences: “O Zion, I will stir up your warriors. O Greece, I will use them to fight against your warriors.”

And wield you like a warrior’s sword: A fuller form of the picture here is “I will wield [or, use] you like a warrior uses a sword.” You refers back to Zion; in translation, however, it may be simpler to recognize that Zion stands for its sons, or people, and translate you as “them” (Bible en français courant). Sword is rendered in some languages as “large knife.” The translation found in Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente offers a useful model of restructuring for the whole verse:

• I will use Judah as my battle bow, and Israel as an arrow. I will order your men, Zion, to attack those of Greece. I will use them like the sword of a brave soldier.

This is more satisfactory than Good News Translation, which drops both the vocatives, and loses the vividness of the Hebrew.

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 .