Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard AT ont.com>]

Dear Steve:

You wrote:

The more I study Z`Q and Zech 6, the more I think that "and it [or he]
caused me to cry out." Is the only way to translate the beginning of Zech
6:8.

HH: Your reading certainly is possible, but since no lexicon I have agrees 
with you, I ask whether the context calls for the reading that you like. 
Little in the context may suggest that meaning other than the verb form. 
Zechariah is being told that the horses going northward have quieted God's 
Spirit in the land of the north. It looks as though the horses represent 
aggressors who defeat Babylon. Babylon had taken Israel into captivity,and 
Cyrus'defeat of Babylon allowed Israelites to return home. The text would be 
like 2:7-9. The vision in 5:5-11 was also about Babylon.

HH: So why would the speaker make Zechariah cry for help? Was Zechariah to 
imitate the plight of Israel in captivity crying for deliverance? That's 
possible, but Zechariah may just be a bystander, a witness here, and the 
speaker may simply summon him in order to give him data that helps to make 
sense of the vision.

HH: A significant question is the subject of the verb q[z in Zech 6:8. One commentary I have assumes that the speaker 
is the angel, but it seems quite possible to me that the speaker is "the Lord of all the earth" introduced 
in 6:5. The messenger angel could close his speech at the end of verse 6. Then verse 7 could be narrative. If the 
horses have to get permission to go through the earth, it is logical that they would get it from the Lord before whom 
they had been standing as servants (v. 5). So the speaker in verse 7 ("Go, patrol the earth") could be the 
Lord, and the HCSB and NET insert "Lord" as the subject of the verb (v. 7). The same subject could continue 
into verse 8, so that the Lord summoned Zechariah and told him what the horses were doing. Since the speaker in verse 
8 seems to be the Lord ("quieted My Spirit"), this makes good sense. So the Lord would have summoned 
Zechariah over to Himself to give him the message conveyed in verse 8.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard