Zechariah 2:8

"For thus saith Jehovah of hosts: After glory hath he sent me unto the nations which plundered you; for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye."

The fact of Jehovah's reference to himself in this passage as the one sent is due to the speaker's actually being the angel of the Covenant, called Jehovah here, as is appropriate; but the identity of the angel being actually different from that of Jehovah himself is apparent in the second clause where the third person appears in the reference to "his eye." This is an amazing revelation regarding the covenant Angel, equal with God, but nevertheless subordinate in the matter of his being "sent" to the people who had plundered Israel, the Gentiles.

"After glory hath he sent me ..." The scholarly struggles with this clause are amusing. Thomas rendered it "whose glory has sent me";[16] Mitchell thought there was a time-reference in it, "after the glory (vision), he sent me";[17] Baldwin preferred: "with insistence he sent me";[18] Ironside thought "after the glory" meant "after the apocalyptic appearing of Jesus Christ";[19] and there are a number of other remarkable suppositions. Presumably, none of the learned men who adopted such bizarre meanings of a simple clause had ever experienced such a thing as being "sent to the well after a bucket of water !" We are thankful that a number of commentators had no trouble at all with the passage:

"After" in this case means "in search of" the glory.[20]

It means "sent to get glory over the heathen."[21]

It means to "get glory from the heathen."[22]

It means that "God will send the Messiah for the vindication of his glory."[23]

It means, "to win glory, by bringing judgment upon Babylon."[24]