This verse opens with a rhetorical question and a vocative expression. The question is given an answer, and the effect of the question-and-answer pair is to illustrate the results that people are to expect through the activity of the spirit of the LORD.

What are you, O great mountain?: This question is both rhetorical in function and symbolic in meaning. The great mountain stands for the difficulties that faced Zerubbabel in his role as civil leader of the Judean community. Some interpreters take them to be political difficulties, and others take them to be practical ones concerning the “mountain” of rubble on the Temple site. (This view is offered in a footnote in Bible en français courant and Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente.) However, the Hebrew actually says, “Who are you?” rather than What are you? This suggests that the writer had in mind people rather than things. Zerubbabel’s main difficulties were indeed political ones caused by rival officials, rather than practical ones caused by the state of the Temple site. However, translators should keep a more general translation such as Good News Translation, “Obstacles as great as mountains.” This rendering with a simile also makes it clear that the mountain is figurative. The renderings of New English Bible and Revised English Bible here arise from changing the Hebrew text, and are not recommended (compare Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament).

Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain: These words continue the symbolism of the question. To speak of a mountain becoming a plain means that difficulties will vanish (compare Isa 40.4). Most English versions translate literally and leave readers to work out the meaning if they can. Good News Translation, however, has taken several steps to make the meaning clear. First, it has continued to refer to Zerubbabel in the second person, as in verse 6. Second, it has dropped the rhetorical question and expressed its meaning as part of a statement. Third, it has dropped the symbolic use of mountain and plain and used a simile in the first case and plain language in the second. Finally, it has combined the question and answer into a single sentence. The result is both clear and simple: “Obstacles as great as mountains will disappear before you.” Many translators will find this a helpful example to follow. Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch takes a similar approach. Such a restructuring also avoids a problem that translators in some languages would face, namely that inanimate objects like a mountain cannot be addressed as if they were persons. It may therefore be a helpful model in this respect also.

He shall bring forward the top stone: The second half of the verse expresses the result of Zerubbabel overcoming his problems; that is, that the rebuilding of the Temple will be successfully completed. Good News Translation has made this clear by saying “You will rebuild the Temple” before mentioning the details. The prophet seems to envisage a public ceremony with Zerubbabel as leader putting the finishing touches to the reconstruction. There has been a lot of discussion as to what the top stone means. Some scholars such as Amsler and Meyers & Meyers have taken it to refer to the foundation stone (so also Hebrew Old Testament Text Project), but a majority (Driver, Mitchell, R. L. Smith, Cashdan, Delcor, Baldwin, Merrill, Redditt [1995]) understand it to be some special stone that completes the building. English versions have used architectural terms like “keystone” (Jerusalem Bible/New Jerusalem Bible), “capstone” (New American Bible, New International Version), and “coping-stone” (Moffatt). Revised Standard Version top stone, Good News Translation “last stone,” and Contemporary English Version “most important stone” all express the same meaning without using technical terms.

Amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’: Amid shouts means “while people are shouting.” Good News Translation has expressed the relationship between the shouting and the placing of the stone by saying, “as you put the last stone in place, the people will shout.”

Grace, grace to it! is a very odd thing to say to a stone. The Hebrew word translated grace has a variety of meanings. One of these is indeed “grace” in the sense of God’s favor, and another is “grace” in the sense of gracefulness or beauty. In the present context it is not clear which of these two meanings is more in focus. It is also not certain whether the shouts of the people are to be taken as an exclamation or a prayer. Some versions understand grace in the sense of favor, and interpret the shout as a prayer. Thus Jerusalem Bible has “Blessings on it, blessings on it!” New International Version has “God bless it! God bless it!” and Revised English Bible has “All blessing be upon it!” Contemporary English Version takes grace in this sense, but treats the shout as a statement rather than a prayer, and says, “God has been very kind.” Others understand grace in the sense of beauty and interpret the shout as an exclamation. Thus Moffatt has “Splendid, splendid!” and Good News Translation and New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh “Beautiful, beautiful!” Both options are true to the original and both are appropriate to the context, but the second seems to have somewhat more scholarly support. It is also possible to express the shout in indirect speech. New English Bible has done this, and translates “while men acclaim its beauty.” Other possible renderings are “while the people shout, saying how beautiful it is” and “while the people shout, ‘It is very beautiful’ ” (similarly Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch is more general with “while the people break out with cries of joy.”

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 .