In their commentary on Zechariah 9-14, Carol L. Meyers and Eric M. Meyers render Zech 12:1 thusly:
An oracle:
the word of Yahweh concerning Israel—utterance of Yahweh,
The one who stretched out the heavens and founded the earth,
Who fashioned the breath of humankind within.
With respect to the phrase “fashioned the breath
of humankind within” (Hebrew: יֹצֵ֥ר רֽוּחַ־אָדָ֖ם בְּקִרְבּֽוֹ), they offer
the following commentary:
The third
phrase, in terms of poetic structure, forms the second half of verse 1b in that
it balances perfectly the first half (or first two phases) with its ten
syllables. It also sustains the cosmic imagery with its reference to the first
creation in language that explicitly evokes the word of Gen 2:7, where God
“fashions” the first human out of the clay of the earth and blows the first
breath of life in to that first earthling. Although this verse draws upon the
Eden tale, however, it also diverges significantly. Both Genesis and Zechariah
use the verb “to fashion” (yṣr), which conjures up the image of a potter
working with a lump of clay and modeling it to suit his or her tastes. But “the
breath of humankind” (rûaḥ-‘ādām) of Zechariah 12 differs from “the
breath of life” (nišmat ḥayyîm) of Gen 2:7. Moreover, the addition of
“within” (běqirbô, literally, “within him,” with the pronominal suffix
referring to “humankind”) is a departure from the Genesis material. The
Zechariah author perhaps includes it to emphasize the individuality of God’s
relationship with people, in consonance with the trend of postexilic prophecy.
“Within” emphasizes that God breathed out the first breath into the very
corporeal existence of the first individual, who is the archetypal
representative of all subsequent human beings . . . (Carol L. Meyers and Eric
M. Meyers, Zechariah 9-14: A New Translation with Introduction and
Commentary [AB 25C; New York: Doubleday, 1993], 312)
On this, note the following from Kevin Barney on
this passage (one that is sometimes used against the LDS belief that everyone,
not just Jesus, personally preexisted):
The critical question for the meaning of the last line is how we
should understand the last Hebrew word of the verse, beqirebbo. Does it
modify the verb (i.e., the Lord formed within him the spirit of man),
which might be taken to suggest that God actually created the spirit spatially
within man’s physical body? If so, this would be most consonant with Christian
creationism and would seem inconsistent with a prior existence of that spirit
apart from the body. That reading may be possible, but (particularly given the
word order) I construe the expression with “the spirit of man” (ruach adam)
(the Lord formed the spirit of man, i.e., that which is within him [or in the
midst of him; his inward part]). The basic word here is qereb, “inward
part, midst,” with the preposition be- “in” and the third person
singular masculine pronominal suffix –o, “of him.” To me that word is
definitional. The line says that God created the spirit of man, and then
identifies or defines the spirit as that which is inside him, that is, his
“inward part.” The word does not modify the act of creation; it is simply
descriptive of what the spirit is and where it (normally) resides. If the
underlying conception here is monistic, then the spirit only resides in
the midst of the body; if it is not, then a preexistent existence of the spirit
apart from the body is just as plausible as a post mortem one. (Kevin L.
Barney, "On
Preexistence in the Bible," p. 20)
