Zakharia 5:3

5:3 The speaker went on to say, “This is a curse ¹  traveling across the whole earth. For example, according to the curse whoever steals ²  will be removed from the community; or on the other hand (according to the curse) whoever swears falsely will suffer the same fate.”

Zakharia 14:5

14:5 Then you will escape ³  through my mountain valley, for the mountains will extend to Azal. ⁴  Indeed, you will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah ⁵  of Judah. Then the Lord my God will come with all his holy ones with him.

[5:3]  ¹ tn The Hebrew word translated “curse” (אָלָה, ’alah) alludes to the covenant sanctions that attend the violation of God’s covenant with Israel (cf. Deut 29:12, 14, 20-21).

[5:3]  ² sn Stealing and swearing falsely (mentioned later in this verse) are sins against mankind and God respectively and are thus violations of the two major parts of the Ten Commandments. These two stipulations (commandments 8 and 3) represent the whole law.

[14:5]  ³ tc For the MT reading נַסְתֶּם (nastem, “you will escape”) the LXX presupposes נִסְתַּם (nistam, “will be stopped up”; this reading is followed by NAB). This appears to derive from a perceived need to eliminate the unexpected “you” as subject. This not only is unnecessary to Hebrew discourse (see “you” in the next clause), but it contradicts the statement in the previous verse that the mountain will be split open, not stopped up.

[14:5]  ⁴ sn Azal is a place otherwise unknown.

[14:5]  ⁵ sn The earthquake in the days of King Uzziah, also mentioned in Amos 1:1, is apparently the one attested to at Hazor in 760 b.c.