Albert Barnes Commentary 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." — Zechariah 2:8 (ASV)

After the glory - Jonathan: "Which it is promised to bring upon you." This being the usual construction, the words involve a great course of God’s dealing, of first showing favor to those who will receive favor, then abandoning or punishing the rest; as, when the eight souls had been received into the ark, the flood came; when Lot and his family had escaped out of Sodom, the fire came down from heaven; when Israel had passed the Red Sea, Pharaoh’s hosts were drowned; the election obtained what Israel sought for, the rest were blinded. "The glory" then would be the glory of which God says, I will be the glory in the midst of you (Romans 11:7).

But further, He who speaks is Almighty God, Thus says the Lord of Hosts, He has sent me; For lo, I wave My hand against them, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me; Lo, I come and dwell in the midst of you, says the Lord, and many nations shall cleave unto the Lord in that day, and they shall be to Me a people, and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent me unto you (Zechariah 2:8–10).

In all this series of promises, the I, of whom Israel was to know that the Lord of hosts had sent Him, is the I, who affirms of Himself what belongs to Almighty God only: inflicting punishment on the enemies of Judah, indwelling the Church and people, receiving the pagan as His own. And it is precisely by all these acts of power and love that Israel shall know that the Lord of hosts had sent Him.

(Jerome: "In what follows, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, After glory, He has sent Me,' etc., the Savior is introduced speaking, who, being Almighty God, says that He was sent by the Father Almighty—not according to that by which He was Almighty, but according to this: that after glory, He was sent, 'who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God; but emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, and was made obedient unto the Father even unto death, even the death of the cross' (Philippians 2:6). Nor is it a wonder that Christ is called Almighty, in whose Person we read in the Apocalypse of John, 'These things says the faithful Witness—I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, says the Lord, who was and who is and who is to come, the Almighty' (Revelation 1:5, 8), 'to whom all power is given in heaven and in earth' (Matthew 28:18); and who says, 'All things that the Father has are Mine' (John 16:15).

"But if all things, that is, God from God, Lord from Lord, Light from Light, therefore also Almighty from Almighty; for it cannot be that the glory of those whose Nature is One should be diverse.")

For he who touches you - so as to injure you, touches the apple of His eye, that is, of Him who sent Him, Almighty God. (So Jerome, Theodoret; others, like Cyril, interpret it as of his own eye, meaning turning to evil for himself; but the analogy of the other passages is against it.) As in the song of Moses, He led him about, He instructed him, He kept him as the apple of His eye (Deuteronomy 32:10); and David prays, Keep me as the apple of the eye (Psalms 17:8).