The angel who talked with me came again: This angel is the same figure as appeared in earlier visions (1.9, 13, 14, 19; 2.3). The fact that he came again suggests he had been absent during the previous vision. This may possibly be a reference back to 2.4. If the interpreting angel was the person addressed there, then he had departed to speak to the young man with the measuring line. Another way to express this is “The angel who had been explaining the visions to me came back.”

And waked me, like a man that is wakened out of his sleep: At first sight it may not be clear whether Zechariah had actually been asleep or not. But the use of the simile like a man … strongly suggests that he had not. Since the word waked in English conveys the sense that he had, it would be better not to use it. In all probability, the prophet was absorbed in his own thoughts, meditating on the meaning of the previous visions. The angel is merely rousing him from his meditation and calling his attention to a new vision. This sense is conveyed more clearly in Good News Translation, “roused me as if I had been sleeping” (similarly New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente). However, if the use of the equivalent of words such as wakened and sleep would in some languages signal that Zechariah was actually sleeping, then translators may express this verse in a similar way to the following: “The angel who had talked with me returned and brought me out of my deep thoughts” or “The angel who had been speaking with me returned, interrupted my thoughts, and attracted my attention.” Another possible restructuring is “The angel who had talked with me returned and shook me like someone waking a sleeper.”

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 .