Bible Commentaries

II. THE NIGHT VISIONS

Zechariah 1:7 to Zechariah 6:15

This division contains a series of visions all given at one time and therefore naturally supposed to be closely connected with each other and to exhibit an orderly progress of thought. The first vision sets forth the evident need of a divine interference in behalf of the people, with a strong assurance that it shall be vouchsafed. The second indicates one form of this interference in the fact that the foes are driven away. The third promises great enlargement and absolute security. The fourth exhibits the forgiveness of sin which had been the cause of all the previous troubles and endangered the recurrence of them. The fifth is a counterpart to the fourth by promising the positive communication of God’s Spirit and grace which secure sanctification as well as justification. The sixth gnards against a perversion of the two preceding visions as if they warranted security on the part of the impenitent, by exhibiting the fearful curse of God upon all sinners of whatever class. The seventh enforces the same point still further by representing that a longer and yet more dreadful deportation than that to Babylon awaited the unfaithful members of the theocracy. Finally, the eighth completes the entire series of visions in an artistic manner by returning to the point whence they set out, and repeating much the same imagery. It shows the accomplishment of all which the first image promised. From the purified and divinely protected theocracy, symbolized by mountains of brass, there go forth executioners of judgment who do not stay their hands until God’s Spirit is completely satisfied. But there is another future in reserve for the distant heathen, besides that of judgment. They are to be converted from enemies into friends, and in the days of the Branch shall come from far, and freely contribute to build up and glorify the Lord’s holy kingdom. This cheering thought is exhibited in the shape of a symbolical action, appended to the visions and appropriately closing and crowning their hallowed disclosures.

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VISION I. THE MAN AMONG THE MYRTLES

Zechariah 1:7-17

A. A symbolical Representation of the tranquil Condition of the Heathen World and consequent Need of Divine Interference ( Zechariah 1:7-11). B. Intercession for Suffering and Desolate Judœa ( Zechariah 1:12-13). C. Assurances of Relief and Restoration ( Zechariah 1:14-17).

7On the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month which is the month Sebat,⁷ in the second year of Darius, came the word of Jehovah to Zechariah, the son of8 Iddo the prophet, saying: I saw that⁸ night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtles⁹ that were in the valley, and behind him were red, bay and white horses9 And I said, what are these, my lord? And the angel that talked with¹⁰ me said to me, I will show thee what they are 10 And the man who stood among the myrtles answered,¹¹ and said, These are they whom Jehovah has sent to walk through the earth 11 And they answered the angel of Jehovah who stood among the myrtles, and said, We have gone through the earth, and behold, all the earth sits still¹² and is at rest 12 Then the angel of the Lord answered and said, Jehovah of Hosts! how long wilt thou not pity Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which thou hast been angry these¹³ seventy years? 13And Jehovah answered the angel that talked with me, good words, comforting¹⁴ words 14 And the angel that talked¹⁵ with me, said to me, Cry, saying:

Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,

I am jealous¹⁶ for Jerusalem and for Zion with great jealousy,

15 And I burn with great anger against the nations at ease.

For I was angry for a little, but they helped forward the affliction.

16 Therefore thus saith Jehovah,¹⁷

I have returned to Jerusalem in mercy,¹⁸

My house shall be built in her, saith Jehovah of Hosts,

And a measuring line¹⁹ shall be stretched over Jerusalem.

17 Cry also,²⁰ saying, Thus saith Jehovah of Hosts,

My cities shall yet overflow²¹ with prosperity,

And Jehovah shall yet comfort Zion,

And shall yet choose Jerusalem.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Zechariah 1:7. The dale of this revelation is from three to four months after Zechariah’s first prophecy and exactly two months after Haggai’s last, namely, on the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, Shebat, our February, of the year519. The precise day of the month, here and in Haggai 2:10-20, seems to have been suggested by the fact that on just this day of the sixth month the building of the Temple had been resumed ( Haggai 1:14-15). The Lord thus indicated his pleasure in the resumption of the work. The visions are called the word of Jehovah, because they had the significance and answered the purpose of oral revelations.

Zechariah 1:8. I saw that night. The disclosure was made to the Prophet, not in a dream (Ewald, Hitzig), but in a vision. His senses were not locked in sleep, but like Peter at Joppa ( Acts 10:10; Acts 11:4) he was ἐν ἐκστάσει. This trance-like condition, according to Zechariah 4:1, bears the same relation to ordinary human consciousness which that docs to the condition of sleep. A man’s usual state when under the control of the senses and able to see only what his own faculties discover, is one of spiritual sleep; but an ecstatic condition, in which the senses and the entire lower life are quiescent, and only pictures of divine objects are reflected in the soul as in a pure and bright mirror, is one of spiritual waking. The Prophet received his visions at night, because then his susceptibility for divine communications was most lively, in consequence of the stillness, the suspension of worldly cares and the freedom from outward impressions. In the space of one night the whole series of stately symbolic scenes passed before his spiritual eye, for the title in Zechariah 1:7 extends to the end of chap6 after which a new title first occurs, and besides, the narrative itself shows ( Zechariah 2:1; Zechariah 4:1, etc.) that as soon as one vision ended another began. Behold, a man riding upon a red horse, etc. A man, i. e, one in the shape or appearance of a man, for manifestly an angel and not a human being is intended. He is seated upon a red horse, the meaning of which is seen in the fact that red is the color of blood. In Revelation 6:4, it is a rider on a red horse who receives a great sword and has power to take peace from the earth and cause men to kill one another. The color of the horse then is a symbol of the purpose of its rider, namely, wrath and bloodshed. He stood among the myrtles that were in מְעֻלָּה. The meaning of this word is much contested. The Vulgate gives it in profundo, which supposes that the text is only another form of מְצוּלָה, which ordinarily means the depths of the sea. Hengstenberg and Baumgarten adopt this, and explain it as a symbolical designation of the abyss-like power of the world, in which the Church stands like a feeble, lowly shrub. Others (Gesenius, Henderson), following the LXX, derive the word from צָלַל, in the sense of shade (so Dr. Van Dyck in the New Arabic Version), but in this case we should expect a different middle vowel, and besides, as Pressel says, it would be a pleonasm to speak of trees in a shady place. Others (Hitzig, Fürst, Bunsen), following an Arabic analogy, render it tent, by which they suppose heaven is intended, but this is extremely artificial. There seems no reason to depart from the Vulgate and Targum, or to make it other than=deep place, i. e., a low valley or bottom. It will then stand in vivid contrast with the corresponding point in the eighth vision, which is the complement of the first. There, the chariots start from between two mountains of brass=the theocracy under the mighty protection of Jehovah; here, the horsemen issue from amid myrtles in an open bottom=the Church in a condition of feebleness and exposure. Behind the first rider are other horses of different colors. They have riders (see Zechariah 1:11), but this fact is allowed to be understood, because the emphasis is laid upon the color of the horses. They are like their leader red (explained above), or bay, or white. The last like the first is easily understood from Scripture usage—white being the reflection of heavenly glory ( Matthew 17:2), and therefore the symbol of victory ( Revelation 6:2), But the second epithet is difficult שָׂרֹק is rendered by the LXX.: ψαροὶ καὶ ποικίλοι, Vulg, varii, Peshito versicolores, after whom Maurer, Umbreit, Keil, etc, render it as in text of A. V, speckled. But Gesenius and Fürst derive it from an Arabic root, signifying dark red, and Hengstenberg renders this brown, but Köhler bay or flame-colored. The latter gives the better sense. The colors do not signify the three kingdoms against whom the riders were sent (Cyril, Jerome, et al.), for all appear to go in company, nor the quarters of the heavens (Maurer, Hitzig, et al.), for the fourth quarter is wanting; but the nature of the mission which they had to perform, namely, to take an active part in the agitation of the nations, those upon red horses by war and bloodshed, those upon bay horses by burning and destroying, and those upon white horses by victory over the world.

Zechariah 1:9. The Prophet asks. What are these, i. e., what do they signify? The question is addressed to one whom he calls my lord, but who is this? Manifestly, the one who gives the answer, the angelus interpres. It is no objection to this that he has not been mentioned before, for in prophecies, and especially in visions, from their dramatic character, persons are frequently introduced in such a way that only from what they say or do, can we learn who they are. This angelus interpres, or collocutor, had for his sole function to open the spiritual eyes and ears of the Prophet and cause him to understand the meaning of the visions. The preposition in the phrase הֵדֹּבֵר בי is not to be understood, with Ewald, Keil, etc, as denoting the internal, character of the communications made, for this would not distinguish him from the other angels of the vision, but the phrase is simply an official designation of the angel’s character.

Zechariah 1:10. And the man who stood among, etc. The rider on the red horse states the object of the horsemen’s mission. He is said to have answered, because, although not referring to any definite question, his words were a reply to the Prophet’s desire for an explanation.

Zechariah 1:11. The riders themselves state the result of their mission. This is called an answer to the Angel of the Lord, because it replies to a question implied in the circumstances. It is given to the Angel of the Lord. But is this a created or an uncreated angel? The latter view is maintained by McCaul, Lange, Hengstenberg, Philippi, and Kahnis, the former by Hoffman, Delitzsch, Kurtz, Köhler, Pressel. That the angel of Jehovah is distinguished from the other angels, and in many places identified with Jehovah, is undeniable ( Genesis 16:7-10; Genesis 31:11-13; Genesis 32:25-31 comp. with Hosea 12:4; Exodus 3:2-4; Judges 6:11-22; Zechariah 3:1-2). On the other hand, there are passages, where he seems to be discriminated from Jehovah ( Exodus 23:20-22; Exodus 32:34). The simplest way of reconciling these two classes is to adopt the old view that this angel is the Second person of the Godhead, even at that early period appearing as the revealer of the Father. The mingled clearness and obscurity of the representation is quite analogous to the same features in the delineation of the Messiah in Psalm 2, 45, 72, 110, and in various prophecies before and after David’s time. In this vision he appears first as a man upon a red horse, then as the leader of the troop standing behind him, and when these have made their report, as the angel of Jehovah who presents the prayer of the pious before God. The answer which he receives from the troop is that all the earth sits still and is at rest,—a phrase upon which Wordsworth comments as denoting proud and licentious ease, because, as he says, the word for “at rest” is shaanân. This is a strange mistake, for it is another word, שֹׁסָטֶת, which rarely, if ever, has any moral significance, and means merely quiet, peaceful security, without reference to the way in which that state has been attained or is employed. Here the sense is that the nations at large were dwelling in a calm, serene repose, undisturbed by any foe. The reference seems to be to Haggai 2, where the Lord promised that in a little while He would shake the heavens and the earth and all nations, and in consequence his house would be filled with glory. The riders now report that having gone through the earth they find it not at all shaken but quiet and serene. This statement, furnishing such a vivid contrast to the prostrate and suffering condition of the people of God, gave occasion to the intercession recounted in the next verse.

Zechariah 1:12. How long wilt thou not pity Jerusalem, etc.? The language is that of intercessory expostulation. The reference to these seventy years does not imply that that period predicted by Jeremiah ( Jeremiah 25:12) was just drawing to a close, for it had already expired in the first year of Cyrus ( Ezra 1:1). But although the people had been restored, they were still in a sad state,—the capital for the most part in ruins, its walls broken down, its gates burnt ( Nehemiah 1:3), the population small, the greater part of the land still a waste, and the rebuilding of the Temple embarrassed with difficulties. It might well seem as if the troubles of the exile would never end, and the more Song of Solomon, since there was no sign of that violent agitation of the heathen world which was to be the precursor of Israel’s exaltation. The intercession was effectual.

Zechariah 1:13. And Jehovah answered, etc. Here the answer is given to another person than the questioner. The best explanation is that of Hengstenberg, that “the angel of the Lord had asked the question not for his own sake, but simply in order that consolation and hope might be communicated through the angelus interpres to the Prophet, and through him to the nation at large.” Good words are words that promise good. Cf Joshua 23:14 (Heb.); Jeremiah 29:10. The contents of these good and comforting words follow in Zechariah 1:14-17, the first two of which assert Jehovah’s active affection for his people, and the latter two, his purpose to manifest that love in the restoration and enlargement of Jerusalem.

Zechariah 1:14. I am jealous, etc. קִיֵּא, lit, to burn, to glow, indicates a vehement emotion which may have its motive in jealousy ( Numbers 5:14), or in envy ( Genesis 26:14), or in hatred ( Genesis 37:11), or in love ( Numbers 25:11). The last expresses its force here, which is greatly strengthened by the addition of the cognate noun. Jehovah is inspired with a burning zeal for Jerusalem and for Zion, the holy hill which He has chosen for his habitation. He had already displayed this in part, and would soon develop it to the full.

Zechariah 1:15. Toward the heathen, on the contrary, Jehovah burned with great anger. This was partly because they were “at ease,” i. e., not merely tranquil, but in a state of carnal security, proudly confident in their power and prosperity, but mainly because, while He had been angry for a little, i. e., time (cf. Job 10:20), they, on the contrary, had helped forward the affliction, lit, had helped for evil, i. e., so that evil was the result. The Lord contemplated a moderate, limited chastisement in love, with a view to the purification and restoration of his people. The heathen, on the contrary, rioted in the sufferings of helpless Israel, and would willingly prolong them.

Zechariah 1:16. I have returned … Jerusalem. The emphatic therefore indicates the consequence of God’s love for Jerusalem. He has actually returned with purposes of mercy, and these shall be fully executed. All hindrances shall be removed, the Temple completed, and instead of scattered houses here and there, the whole city shall pass under the surveyor’s measuring line. But the blessing is not to be confined to the capital, as appears from what follows.

Zechariah 1:17. Cry also, i. e., in addition to the foregoing. The other cities of Judah shall overflow with prosperity, lit, be scattered, yet not by an invading foe, but by the inward pressure of abundant growth requiring them to diffuse themselves over a larger surface (cf. Zechariah 2:4, Zechariah 8:4, Zechariah 9:17, Zechariah 10:7). This overflow of blessing will assure the covenant people that Jehovah is still comforting Zion, and has by no means renounced the purpose in pursuance of which he had originally choseh Jerusalem. The same cheering reference to God’s electing love is found in Zechariah 2:12; Zechariah 3:2.

The object of this first vision was to satisfy the dispirited colony that although there was no present appearance of an approaching fulfillment of promised blessings, yet these blessings were sure. Jehovah had appointed the instruments of his righteous judgments, and by these would accomplish his purposes upon the ungodly nations, and thus secure the salvation of Zion. The fulfillment then is easily pointed out. The completion of the Temple, the restoration of the city under Ezra and Nehemiah, the increase of the population, all declared Jehovah’s fidelity to his engagements. But this was only the beginning. Zechariah, like his predecessors in office, looks down the whole vista of the future, and utters germinant predictions, as Bacon calls them, which do not exhaust themselves in any one period, but wrap up in pregnant sentences long cycles of historical development. The first vision presents the general theme of the whole series, each of which stands closely related to the others, so that there is an evident advance from the beginning to the end, as will appear in the course of the exposition.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. How near are the seen and unseen worlds! Nor are they without sympathy with each other. We have a craving for the knowledge of creatures higher than ourselves, and yet fellow servants with us of the same Creator. All the various forms of Polytheism show this natural longing of the race, but the Scripture satisfies it by revealing to us the existence, character, and function of the holy angels. This revelation is not made merely to gratify a curiosity, however intelligent and reasonable, but to furnish important aid in the conduct of life. It pleases God to employ the agency of these supernatural beings in establishing his kingdom in the world. “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?” ( Hebrews 1:14.) In the book of Genesis, after the call of Abraham, we observe frequent instances of this blessed ministry, guiding, protecting, and upholding the patriarchs (18, 19, 24, 27, 32). Again, in the time of the Judges similar manifestations were made to Gideon and to Manoah. But at and after the Captivity, their interposition not only resumes its former frequency, but is manifested on a wider scale. To Daniel and Zechariah the angels are revealed, not only as watching over the covenant people, but as executing the counsels of Jehovah toward the heathen world. There does not seem to be the least necessity for attributing this circumstance to the influence of Chaldæan or Persian modes of thought upon the minds of these prophets. They follow in the line of the earlier traditions of the chosen people, with only that degree of variation and expansion which is natural under the altered circumstances of the case. It was a comforting thought to a feeble colony overshadowed by a colossal empire to be reminded of superhuman helpers whose mighty interposition was ever at hand. Of course even these celestial beings could prove efficient only by the power of God, but their intermediate agency rendered that power more directly conceivable. In the New Testament there is not the same prominence given to these “sons of God” ( Job 38:7), but enough is stated of their ministrations at the Incarnation, in the wilderness, the garden, and the sepulchre, and of their sympathy with the joys and sorrows of God’s people, to make us feel that the shining stairway which rose over Jacob’s head to the clouds ( Genesis 28:12) still exists, and is traversed by the same holy beings. It is still true, as Spenser said, —

“They for us fight, they watch and duly ward,

And their bright squadrons round about us plant,

And all for love and nothing for reward;

Oh! why should heavenly God to man have such regard?”

2. The extraordinary position assigned to the angel of Jehovah in this vision and also in the one recorded in the third chapter, continues and completes the long chain of ancient testimonies beginning in Genesis, to the existence of self-distinctions in the Godhead. (See the summary of the argument in Lange’s Genesis, p386, or Keil On Pant., i184, and Hengstenberg’s Christology, i107 ff, iv285.) The view that this exalted personage was only a created angel through whom God issues and executes his commands, and who speaks and acts in God’s name, was favored by Origen, defended by Augustine, adopted by Jerome and, Gregory the Great, and has been maintained in our own day by some eminent critics; but it cannot displace what has been the almost universal doctrine of the early Church and of the great body of believers in all ages, namely, that this angel was the Old Testament form of the Logos of John, a being connected with the supreme God by unity of nature, but personally distinct from Him. The most frequent and plausible objection to the old view affirms that it unreasonably transfers the revelations of the later dispensation to the older, and introduces notions entirely foreign to Hebrew habits of thought. But the contrary is the case. The Old Testament records one stage in the progressive development of religious truth, and the New Testament another, and both correspond in the most striking manner to each other. Indeed, they present what is not found, is not claimed in any other book in the world,—a complete system of typical and antitypical institutions, events, and persons. This feature has been sometimes pressed to an extravagant extent, and applied where it has no real bearing. But its general correctness is admitted by all sober interpreters. This being Song of Solomon, if the triunity of the divine nature is plainly set forth in the New Testament, especially if the great revealer of the Father ( John 1:18) is emphasized by evangelists and apostles, is it not to be expected that a foreshadowing of so important a truth will be found in the elder Scriptures? Guided by such an analogy, it was neither uncritical nor rash for the Church to conclude that the being called the Angel of Jehovah, the Angel of his Presence, the Angel of the Covenant, in whom Jehovah puts his name, who is identified with Jehovah, who performs the peculiar works of Jehovah, and yet is in some sense distinct from Him, is the same divine person who is represented in the New Testament as the brightness of the Father’s glory and the express type of his essence, the image of the invisible God; in whose face the glory of God shines, and in whom dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.

3. The intercession ascribed to our Lord in the Christian Scriptures was not only typified by a remarkable function of the high-priest on the great day of atonement, but was actually performed by the second person of the Godhead long before his incarnation. He was “the lamb slain before the foundation of the world,” and the merits of his priceless explation could as well be availed of antecedently as subsequently, and they were. In all the affliction of his people, he was afflicted, and his potential voice was habitually uttered for their relief. The returned exiles, who were laying again the groundwork of Judah’s prosperity, were discouraged, not only by their scanty numbers and impoverished resources, but by the consciousness of their own and their fathers’ sins. What claim had such as they upon the Holy One of Israel? The prophet draws aside the veil and discloses an Intercessor who had nothing to hinder Him from immediate access to the Most High, and the surest prospect of success. How long, O Lord, was the anxious refrain of many a distressed believer in former years; and ages afterward John heard the same importunate cry from the souls under the altar ( Revelation 6:10). Many a time since, solitary sufferers, unable to penetrate the dark mysteries of Providence, waiting and watching for relief from sore burdens, have had the same exclamation wrung from their lips. What with them is a burst of impatience or the utterance of exhausted nature, on the lips of the uncreated angel is the calm reminder of Jahovah’s gracious promise and eternal purpose. And his intercession being always “according to the will of God,” is therefore always successful. “Good words, comforting words,” soothe and cheer the tried believer, until those words are translated into deeds, and the weary length of the night is forgotten in the brightness of the dawn.

4. Forbearance is not forgiveness. To the outward observer in Zechariah’s day it looked as if prosperity was all on the side of the heathen world. Quiet reigned in all quarters, and divine justice seemed asleep. But it was only the calm before the storm. God is eternal, and therefore never in haste, and never slack as men count slackness. He can afford to wait. Kings and rulers take counsel together against Him and his Anointed; with malice and rage they help forward the affliction of Zion; but He that sitteth in the heavens laughs ( Psalm 2:4). “Who thought,” said Luther, “when Christ suffered and the Jews triumphed, that God was laughing all the time?” Since He knows that his enemies cannot escape He suffers them to proceed long with impunity. Often He uses them as instruments to chastise his own people, but when the chastisement has been inflicted, He breaks the rod and casts it into the fire. The quiet of the old Persian world was soon broken by a succession of strokes which scattered and destroyed all the persecutors of the Church. But Zion lived and grew and extended, until she became the most potent factor in all human society; and to-day is lengthening her cords and strengthening her stakes to fill the whole earth.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Pressel: The Church militant does not stand alone; there is always at its side the Church triumphant. (1.) It often appears to us as if it stood alone, and then we are misled either to despondency, as if our labor and hope were vain, or to self-confidence, as if the result depended upon our running or willing. (2.) But no, the Church triumphant stands at its side and watches while we sleep; and He who is its Head and ours, brings our prayers before the Father.

Moore: The hour of darkest desolation to the Church, and of haughtiest triumph to her enemies, is often the very hour when God begins his work of judgment on the one, and returning mercy on the other.

Calvin: When the servant of Elisha saw not the chariots in the air, he became almost lost in despair; but his despair was instantly removed when he saw so many angels ready at hand for help ( 2 Kings 6:17); so whenever God declares that angels are ministers for our safety, He means to animate our faith. At the same time He does not send us to angels, but this one thing is enough, that when God is propitious all the angels have a care for our salvation.

Footnotes

VISION II. THE FOUR HORNS AND FOUR SMITHS

Zechariah 1:18-21

A. Four Horns which scattered the People of God ( Zechariah 1:18-19). B. Four Smiths which cast down these Horns ( Zechariah 1:20-21)

18–19 And I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, four horns. And I said to the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he said to me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem20 And Jehovah showed me four smiths 21 And I said, What come these to do? And he said thus,²² These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that²³ no man lifted up his head, but these are come to terrify them, to cast out²⁴ the horns of the nations which lifted up the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

This vision carries forward the assurance given in the one before it, by showing the provision made for repelling the foes of the covenant people.

Zechariah 1:18. I lifted up my eyes. After seeing the first vision, the Prophet had sunk down in meditation. Again he raises his eyes, and behold, four horns. The horn is a common Scriptural symbol of strength, and in the prophecies usually represents a kingdom or political power. Do these four horns refer to just so many kings or empires which oppressed the covenant people? Not a few expositors answer in the affirmative, but they differ widely in the designation of these opposing powers. Cyril names Pul, Salmaneser, Sennacherib, and Nebuchadnezzar; Grotius, the Persian Kings, Alexander, Antiochus, and Ptolemy; Pressel, Assyria, Chaldæa, Egypt, and Persia; but the greater number refer to the four great empires predicted by Daniel, so Jerome; Kimchi, Hengstenberg, Keil, Baumgarten, Wordsworth. It is not a sufficient objection to this last view, to say with Henderson and Köhler, that of these powers two were not in existence at this time, and cannot have been spoken of, because the hostility described in the vision had already taken place; for the vision might very well have included the future as well as the past. A more serious objection is that each of these destroyed its predecessor, whereas in the vision the smiths are represented as distinct from the horns. And besides, neither the Persian nor Alexander were enemies of the Jews. It is better, therefore, with the majority of interpreters (Theodoret, Calvin, Umbreit, Hitzig, Maurer, Köhler), to refer the number four to the cardinal points of the compass, and thus make it include all possible enemies. As a matter of fact the people of God had enemies on all sides, the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Samaritan on the north, the Egyptian on the south, Philistines on the west, and Moabites and Ammonites on the east. These foes scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, i. e., the twelve tribes in their completeness, with special mention for the sake of emphasis, of the capital city. The objection to this founded upon the lack of אֵת before the last substantive (Keil) is of no force, as that sign of the definite object may be inserted or omitted at pleasure, Deuteronomy 12:6 (Green H. G., § 270 b).

Zechariah 1:20. The Prophet saw four smiths. The LXX. render חָרָשִׁים, τεκτονες, whence our E. V, “carpenters.” The Vulgate gives fabri, which corresponds exactly to the Hebrew, but in view of the work assigned to these persons, most expositors render the term smiths. No man lifted up his head=all were in an utterly prostrate condition. To scatter it=its inhabitants. The four smiths simply express the various powers which God raises up and employs to overthrow the agencies which are hostile to his people. There is no indication in the passage itself what these powers are, and there seems to be no need to seek information elsewhere. The point of the entire vision lies in the coincidence of the numbers of the horns and the smiths. For every horn there was a smith to beat it down. The Church then could rest calmly in the assurance that every hostile power that rose in opposition should be judged and destroyed by the Lord. The primary reference was of course to the work of the Jews in restoring the city and completing the Temple, but this did not exhaust the meaning of this very simple but significant symbol. It had as wide a sweep as the corresponding verbal statement of Isaiah ( Isaiah 54:17), “No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper.” Zion’s God controls all persons and powers and events; and through the long tract of the Church’s history it will be seen that for every evil there is a remedy, and for every enemy a deliverer. The horn will arise and do its work, but the smith will also appear and do his work.

It is worthy of observation that what the angel in Zechariah 1:19 calls “Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem,” he calls in Zechariah 1:21 simply “Judah.” So that here is a clear and indubitable proof, in the first part of the Book whose post-exile origin is unquestioned, that Israel is used, not to denote distinctively the northern kingdom, but merely to round out the view of what was left of the entire covenant people after the restoration. This bears upon the similar use of “Israel” and “Ephraim” in the second part of these prophecies.

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The Church of God on earth exists in the midst of conflict. There always have appeared horns which attempt to scatter it. A halcyon period sometimes is found like that mentioned in Acts 9:31, “Then had the Churches [true text, Church] rest throughout all Judæa and Galilee and Samaria,” but its normal state is that of a struggle against numerous and mighty foes. The Saviour came not to send peace on earth but a sword. The carnal mind is enmity with God, and the flashing of truth upon an unregenerate conscience must needs provoke wrath. Hence the bloody tracks which so often occur in the records of the past. There has never been any considerable period since our Lord’s ascension, in which persecution of his followers has not existed in some quarter of the earth. Even now it is found in the remote east, in the Turkish Empire and in the Baltic Provinces of Russia. True believers are tossed on the horns of furious foes. Their course lies through a storm to the haven, through a battle to the crown. Let them not “count it a strange thing” when even a fiery trial befalls them. Such an experience belongs to the fixed purpose of God.

2. Conflict does not mean defeat. The very same voice which announces the gory horn, sets forth the agency which is to crush it. The character of this agency varies indefinitely. One horn may be used to destroy another horn, or a totally different instrument may be employed, but in either case the result is the same. Such an equilibrium between assault and defense is maintained that the Church is indestructible. One heathen ruler persecuted, another protected and restored. So in the conflicts of the early Church and of the Reformation, for every formidable horn there was found an equally formidable smith. Thus, too, in the organized attacks of Deism, Rationalism, and Scientific Atheism, at first the air was filled with the shouts of victory, but the rejoicing was premature. In every instance, the head of the Church raised up, sometimes in an unexpected quarter, a workman who needed not to be ashamed, who successfully vindicated the old truth and put to flight the armies of the alien.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

Jay: We see from this that the friends of Zion are as numerous as her foes; that her defense is equal to her danger; and that as the state of his people requires it, the Lord will seasonably raise up means and instruments for their succor and deliverance. The assurance may be derived from four principles: the love of God; the power of God; the faithfulness of God; the conduct of God. In the first we see that He must be inclined to appear for them as they are infinitely dear to Him. In the second, we see that He is able to do it. In the third, that He is engaged to do it, and his promise cannot be broken. In the fourth, that He always has done it, Scripture, history, and experience being witness.

Then let the world forbear their rage,

The Church renounce her fear;

Israel must live through every age,

And be the Almighty’s care.

Calvin: The Prophet by asking the angel ( Zechariah 1:19), sets before us the example of a truly teachable disposition. Tough the Lord does not immediately explain his messages, there is no reason for us disdainfully to reject what is obscure as many do in our day, who complain that God’s Word is ambiguous and extremely difficult. The Prophet although perplexed did not morosely turn away, but asked the angel. And though the angels are not nigh us or at least do not visibly appear, yet God can by other means afford us help when it is needed. He promises to give the Spirit of understanding and wisdom. If then, we do not neglect the word and sacraments, and especially if we ask for the guidance of the Spirit, there is nothing obscure or intricate in the prophecies which He will not make known so far as is necessary.

Footnotes