# General Information:

Zechariah often wrote prophecy in the form of poetry. Hebrew poetry uses different kinds of parallelism. (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/writing-poetry]] and [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-parallelism]])
Here Yahweh begins speaking.

# Sword! Rouse yourself against my shepherd

"You, sword! Go and attack my shepherd." Here Yahweh speaks to a sword as if it were a person. Here it represents enemies. Alternate translation: "You, enemies! Go and attack my shepherd" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-personification]])

# my shepherd

This speaks of a servant of Yahweh as if he were a shepherd. Alternate translation: "my servant who is like a shepherd" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor]])

# this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts

Yahweh speaks of himself by name to express the certainty of what he is declaring. See how you translated this in [Zechariah 1:3](../01/03.md). Alternate translation: "this is what Yahweh of hosts has declared" or "this is what I, Yahweh of hosts, have declared" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-123person]])

# the flock will scatter

The people of God are spoken of as if they were sheep. Alternate translation: "my people will run away like sheep" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-metaphor]])

# I will turn my hand against the lowly ones

The idiom "turn my hand against" means to act hostile towards someone. Alternate translation: "I will attack the lowly ones" (See: [[rc://en/ta/man/translate/figs-idiom]])

# the lowly ones

This probably refers to all the Israelites who are weak and defenseless.