Zechariah 2:8

The divine declaration 'after the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye' expresses both the protective intensity of God's regard for Israel ('apple of his eye,' literally the pupil — the body's most sensitive and instinctively protected organ) and the missions-theology of the Zechariah night-visions. The phrase 'apple of his eye' (bat-'ayin, daughter of the eye) echoes Deuteronomy 32:10 ('he kept him as the apple of his eye'), connecting Zechariah's post-exilic vision to the wilderness tradition of God's protective custody of Israel. The verse raises Christological questions: who is the 'me' sent after the glory? The ambiguity between YHWH and his messenger throughout Zechariah 2 (vv. 8-11) has led Trinitarian readers to see here a pre-incarnate Christophany. The protective guarantee has been applied ecclesiologically to the church as the continuation of the covenant community in contexts of persecution.