The direct quotation of the LORD’s words continues.

I scattered them with a whirlwind represents only one word in Hebrew, in which a root meaning “a whirlwind” is used in a bold metaphor as a verb. Probably few languages will be able to do anything similar. Good News Translation uses a simile instead of a metaphor, saying, “Like a storm I swept them away.” It is good to keep some kind of figurative language if at all possible, but if not, then translators may use plain language, such as “I dispersed them” (Bible de Jérusalem). For a similar expression, see Job 27.21.

Among all the nations which they had not known: This does not mean nations the Jews had never heard of before, but rather those they were not closely acquainted with. The unknown, whether people or places, always carries a hint of something fearful. Compare Deut 28.33, 36; Jer 9.16; Jer 16.13. Good News Translation translates this expression simply as “to live in foreign countries.” This gives the content of the Hebrew, but loses the overtones. New International Version and Revised English Bible catch something of the overtones by saying, “among all the nations where they were strangers.” A possible alternative model for the first part of the verse that keeps the Hebrew imagery is:

• As a whirlwind blows everything in its path away, so I swept them away to live in lands where they were strangers.

Thus the land they left was desolate: After the people had gone, there was nobody to cultivate the land and it became wild and overgrown.

So that no one went to and fro: There were no travelers. Moffatt puts this vividly in English as “not a foot stirred in it.” In some languages it may be possible to find an equivalent idiomatic expression. Good News Translation translates it in plain language as “with no one living in it”; Contemporary English Version has “empty of people.”

The pleasant land was made desolate: The pleasant land refers of course to what is often called the Holy Land. In this context both northern Israel and southern Judah are included. A similar expression occurs in Psa 106.24; Jer 3.19. Because this last clause is similar to the first clause of the sentence, Good News Translation and Contemporary English Version run the two together and avoid repetition. It is also possible to treat this final clause as a summary and say, “the land which should have been fruitful they turned into a desert” (similarly New American Bible, New Jerusalem Bible, Bible en français courant, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

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 .