Scala/Art Resource, NY

A glum Zechariah exhibits unexplained dismay in a portrait by Jan Provost (1465–1529). Perhaps the Hebrew prophet sensed that some of his words would be misunderstood by later translators. In addition to the passage quoted in the previous caption, regarding a king riding an animal, Zechariah 14:5 has also proved a challenge to translators: Owing to an ambiguity in one Hebrew word, the passage can mean either “And the Vale of Hinnom will be filled up…it will be blocked as it was by the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah,” as the Jerusalem Bible has it, or “And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains…as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah,” as the King James version renders it. Fleeing citizens or a filled up valley—such are the problems created for translators by a sometimes enigmatic biblical text.