Zaccaria 1:18 Commento

In this chapter, after the introduction (Zac 1:1), we have, I. An awakening call to a sinful people to repent of their sins and return to God (Zac 1:2-6). II. Great encouragement given to hope for mercy. 1. By the vision of the horses (Zac 1:7-11). 2. By the prayer of the angel for Jerusalem, and the answer to that prayer (Zac 1:12-17). 3. By the vision of the four carpenters that were employed to cut off the four horns with which Judah and Jerusalem were scattered (Zac 1:18-21).

It is the comfort and triumph of the church (Isa 59:19) that when the enemy shall come in like a flood, with mighty force and fury, then the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him. Now, in this vision (the second which this prophet had), we have an illustration of that, God's Spirit making a stand, and making head, against the formidable power of the church's adversaries. I. We have here the enemies of the church bold and daring, and threatening to be its death, to cut off the name of Israel; such the people of God had lately been insulted by: I looked and behold four horns (Zac 1:18), which are explained Zac 1:19. They are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, that is, the Jews both in the country and in the city, because they were the Israel of God. They have tossed them (so some read it), as furious bulls with their horns toss that which they are enraged at. They have scattered them, so that no man did lift up his head, Zac 1:21. No man durst show his face for fear of them, much less give them any opposition, or make head against them. They are horns, denoting their dignity and dominion - horns exalted, denoting also their strength, and power, and violence. They are four horns, for the Jews are surrounded with them on every side; when they avoid one horn that pushes at them they run upon another. The men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and many of Israel that joined themselves to them, set about the building of the temple; but the enemies of that work from all sides pushed at them, and drove them from it. Rehum, and Shimshai, and the other Samaritans that opposed the building of the temple, were these horns, Ezr 4:8. So were Sanballat and Tobiah, and the Ammonites and Arabians, that opposed the building of the wall, Neh 4:7. Note, The church's enemies have horns, and use them to the hindrance of every good work. The great enemy of the New Testament church has seven heads and ten horns (Rev 17:3), so that those who endeavour to do the church any service must expect to be pushed at. II. We have here the friends of the church active and prevailing. The prophet did himself lift up his eyes and see the four horns, and saw them so formidable that he began to despair of the safety of every good man, and the success of every good work; but the Lord then showed him four carpenters, or smiths, who were empowered to cut off these horns, Zac 1:20, Zac 1:21. With an eye of sense we see the power of the enemies of the church; look which way we will, the world shows us that. But it is with an eye of faith that we see it safe, notwithstanding; it is the Lord that shows us that, as he opened the eyes of the prophet's servant to see the angelic guards round about his master, Kg2 6:17. Observe, Those that were to fray or break the horns of the Gentiles, and to cast them out, were, 1. Carpenters or smiths (for they are supposed by some to have been horns of iron), men who had skill and ability to do it, whose proper business it was, and who understood their business and had tools at hand to do it with. Note, God calls those to serve the interests of his church whom he either finds, or makes, fit for it. If there be horns (which denote the force and fury of beasts) against the church, there are carpenters (which denote the wisdom and forecast of men) for the church, by which they find ways to master the strongest beasts, for every kind of beasts is tamed, and has been tamed, of mankind, Jam 3:7. 2. They were four carpenters, as many horns so many hands to saw them off. Note, Which way soever the church is threatened with mischief, and opposition given to its interests, God can find out ways and means to check the force, to restrain the wrath, and make it turn to his praise. Some by these four carpenters understand Zerubbabel and Joshua, Ezra and Nehemiah, who carried on the work of God in spite of the opposition given to it. Those horned beasts broke into God's vineyard to tread it down; but the good magistrates and the good ministers whom God raised up, though they had not power to cut off the horns of the wicked (as David did, Psa 75:5, Psa 75:10), yet frightened them and cast them out. Note, When God has work to do he will raise up some to do it and others to defend it and protect those that are employed in the doing of it.

In this chapter, after the account of the prophet, and the time of the prophecy by him, are an exhortation of the people of the Jews to repentance; the vision of a rider upon a red horse, and the intercession of the angel of the Lord for Jerusalem; and another vision of the enemies of the Jews, and of their deliverers. In Zac 1:1 is the general inscription of the book; in which an account is given of the time of its writing, and of the writer of it: then follows the exhortation to repentance, enforced from the wrath of God, which came upon their fathers for not hearkening to the Lord, and turning from their evil ways; and from the advantage that would be received thereby, the Lord would return to them; and from the certain accomplishment of the divine word; for, though both their fathers and prophets died, the word of the Lord had its sure effect, Zac 1:2 and next the vision of the rider on the red horse is presented; the year, month, day, and night, in which it was seen, are mentioned, Zac 1:7 and the rider is described by his form, a man; by the horse he rode upon, a red one; by the place he stood in among the myrtle trees in the bottom; and by his attendants behind, red horses, speckled and white, Zac 1:8. The interpretation of which last is given to the prophet by the angel, by the man among the myrtle trees, and by the answer of them to the angel of the Lord themselves, Zac 1:9. After which the angel is represented as making intercession for Jerusalem, who is answered by good and comfortable words, Zac 1:12 upon which the prophet is bid to publish the jealousy of the Lord for Jerusalem; his displeasure at the heathens for afflicting them; his promise to return to the Jews, that the temple and city of Jerusalem should be rebuilt, and other cities of Judea, which should enjoy great prosperity, Zac 1:14 and the chapter is concluded with a vision of four horns, signifying the enemies of Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem; and of four carpenters that should destroy them, Zac 1:18.

Then I lifted up mine eyes,.... To behold another vision which follows: and saw, and behold four horns; either iron ones, such as Zedekiah the son of Chenaanah made to push the Syrians with, Kg1 22:11 or horns of beasts, as the horns of unicorns, to which the horns of Joseph are compared, Deu 33:17 and signify kingdoms or kings, and these very powerful and mighty; and so the Targum interprets them of "four kingdoms"; and which Kimchi and Abarbinel understand of the four monarchies, Babylonian, Persian, Grecian, and Roman; so ten horns, in Dan 7:24 design ten kings or kingdoms; unless rather, seeing these horns were such who had already distressed and scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem; and two of the above monarchies were not yet in being, the Grecian and Roman, when this vision was seen; and one of those that were, were friends to the Jews, as the Persians; they may in general signify all the enemies of the Jews that were round about them, on the four corners of them; as the Syrians, Assyrians, and Babylonians, on the north; the Ammonites and Moabites on the east; the Edomites and Egyptians on the south; and the Philistines on the west; as Junius thinks. Cocceius interprets them of four kings, Shalmaneser, Nebuchadnezzar, Xerxes, and Artaxerxes the first, called Longimanus; and may be applied to the antichristian states, Pagan and Papal, in the various parts of the world, called horns, Dan 7:24.

(Verse 18, 19.) And I lifted up my eyes and saw: and behold four horns, and I said to the angel who spoke with me: What are these? And he said to me: These are the horns that have scattered Judah, and Israel, and Jerusalem. And the Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said: What are these coming to do? And he said, saying: These are the horns that have scattered Judah, each one by his own man, and none of them has lifted up his head, and these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations that have lifted up their horn over the land of Judah, to scatter it. LXX: And I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold four horns. And I said to the angel who talked with me, 'What are these, Lord?' And he said to me, 'These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.' Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said, 'What are these coming to do?' And he said, 'These are the horns that have scattered Judah, so that no one raised his head. And these have come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations who lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.' Four horns, the nations that lifted up a horn over the land of the Lord to scatter it. Four horns that scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, to be four nations, the Babylonians, Medes and Persians, and Macedonians, and Romans, and now the Lord, questioned by the prophet, explains, and Daniel fully repeats. He, in the vision of the image, had a golden head, and a silver chest, and a bronze belly, and legs and feet of iron and clay, these four nations he interpreted (Dan. II). And again, in another vision, four beasts, a lion and a bear, and a leopard, and another horrible beast, whose name was not given, showed the same nations under a different appearance. And let no one doubt that the Medes and Persians are one kingdom after the victory of Cyrus, who has read both secular and sacred letters. And he rightly placed horns for kingdoms, the Holy Scripture having this custom of always interpreting kingdom as horns, as in this passage: And He has exalted the horn of His Christ (Psalm 148:14). And in another place: And he raised up the horn of salvation for us, in the house of David his servant (Luke 1:69). And ten horns will reign in the end, as the prophet Daniel also testifies (Daniel 7). At that time when this vision was seen, the kingdom of the Babylonians had already passed, the Persians and Medes were pressing in, the Greeks or rather the Macedonians were to come, and then the Romans. What the Babylonians, the Medes and Persians, the Greeks or rather the Macedonians did to the Jews, Israel, and Jerusalem, a learned man knows, especially during the time of Antiochus, surnamed Epiphanes, under whom the history of the Maccabees is recorded. After the arrival of the Lord and Savior, when Jerusalem was surrounded and the Israelites endured, as the Gospel before tells (Luke 19), and as the Jewish historian Josephus explains in great detail. These horns scattered and dispersed Judah, almost every single man, so that none of them, burdened by the weight of great tribulation, could raise their head. The prophet himself did not see the four craftsmen or artisans whom the Greeks call τέκτονες, but the Lord showed and explained to him who these craftsmen are, whom we understand to be obedient to the Lord's authority, to rebuild what the nations destroyed. But this, for which we have been interpreted from the Hebrew: They came to destroy these things, namely, kingdoms, interpreted by the Seventy: They came to sharpen these things, in their hands. But to sharpen these things means to understand them. Or certainly, to destroy, so that all may submit their necks under the yoke of Christ, and not (as some have interpreted) when they have been sharpened, become worse. For if the angels come for this purpose, to make the wicked worse, they should not be called craftsmen, that is, destroyers of evil, and builders of good; but they themselves should be understood as wicked and destroyers. And it should be noted that these four horns of the nations, one opposed to the people of God, raised a horn; for they did not reign equally and at the same time oppress Israel, but they succeeded each other, Babylonians, Medes, and Persians. The kingdom of the Persians, the kingdom of the Macedonians; the kingdom of the Macedonians, the empire of the Romans. We have mentioned these following the order of history. But what the prophet says, that he lifted up his eyes, must be understood in a spiritual sense: I have lifted up my eyes to the mountains, from whence help shall come to me (Ps. 120:1). And: Lift up your eyes and behold the regions, for they are already white for harvesting (John 4:35). And that which we read in Isaiah: The holy one said, Lift up your eyes and see who has shown all these things (Isaiah 51:6). Therefore, it is necessary to lift up our eyes and have spiritual understanding, so that we may see the opposing forces that have exalted their horn against us, and concerning which the Apostle speaks: For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against the spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). These four adversaries, who always fought against the Saints, were crushed by Christ when He came. And concerning them, the Psalmist says: You shall tread upon the asp and the basilisk, and you shall trample the lion and the dragon (Psalm 90:13). We can understand four horns, which reigned against the people of God, and four passions, which the learned do not express word for word with envy, but interpret as disturbances, the affliction of the soul and joy: two present, and two future, fear and desire, of which even the illustrious poet signifies (Aeneid VI). From here they fear, desire, grieve, and rejoice. Against these [virtues], four craftsmen, and (so to speak) doctors, and good artisans, are not perceived by the prophet, for without the revelation of God he could not yet see them on his own, but they are revealed to him by the Lord, namely the four virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance, about which Cicero extensively argues in his book On Duties, also writing a separate book about the four virtues. Therefore, those who destroy vices and build virtues, and all the saints who continually restore the Church possessing these remedies, are to be called craftsmen. Hence, the Apostle spoke: Like a skilled builder, I laid the foundation (1 Corinthians 3:10). And the angry Lord said that He would remove the architect and wise man from Jerusalem (Isaiah 3). And the Lord Himself, the Son of God Almighty and Creator of all, is called the son of a craftsman. I read in someone's Commentaries that the four blacksmiths are the four Evangelists, who, by understanding the oppressed Israel, namely, seeing God, and confessing the Lord Judah, and the vision of peace in Jerusalem, restore them to their former seat, and who the sinful nations had dispersed from the Church, they brought back to salvation through the preaching of the Gospel.

The prophet earnestly exhorts the people to repentance, that they may escape such punishments as had been inflicted on their fathers, Zac 1:1-6. The vision of the horses, with the signification, Zac 1:7-11. The angel of the Lord successfully intercedes in behalf of Jerusalem, Zac 1:12-17. The vision of the four horns, and of the four carpenters, Zac 1:18-21.

And behold four horns - Denoting four powers by which the Jews had been oppressed; the Assyrians, Persians, Chaldeans, and Egyptians. Or these enemies may be termed four, in reference to the four cardinal points of the heavens, whence they came: - 1. North. The Assyrians and Babylonians. 2. East. The Moabites and Ammonites. 3. South. The Egyptians. 4. West. The Philistines. See Martin.

INTRODUCTORY EXHORTATION TO REPENTANCE. THE VISION. The man among the myrtles: Comforting explanation by the angel, an encouragement to the Jews to build the city and temple: The four horns and four artificers. (Zec. 1:1-17) See Introduction.

SECOND VISION. The power of the Jews foes shall be dissipated. (Zac 1:18-21) four horns--To a pastoral people like the Jews the horns of the strongest in the herd naturally suggested a symbol of power and pride of conscious strength: hence the ruling powers of the world (Rev 17:3, Rev 17:12). The number four in Zechariah's time referred to the four cardinal points of the horizon. Wherever God's people turned, there were foes to encounter (Neh 4:7); the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Samaritan on the north; Egypt and Arabia on the south; Philistia on the west; Ammon and Moab on the east. But the Spirit in the prophet looked farther; namely, to the four world powers, the only ones which were, or are, to rise till the kingdom of Messiah, the fifth, overthrows and absorbs all others in its universal dominion. Babylon and Medo-Persia alone had as yet risen, but soon GrÃ&brvbrco-Macedonia was to succeed (as Zac 9:13 foretells), and Rome the fourth and last, was to follow (Dan. 2:1-49; Dan. 7:1-28). The fact that the repairing of the evils caused to Judah and Israel by all four kingdoms is spoken of here, proves that the exhaustive fulfilment is yet future, and only the earnest of it given in the overthrow of the two world powers which up to Zechariah's time had "scattered" Judah (Jer 51:2; Eze 5:10, Eze 5:12). That only two of the four had as yet risen, is an argument having no weight with us, as we believe God's Spirit in the prophets regards the future as present; we therefore are not to be led by Rationalists who on such grounds deny the reference here and in Zac 6:1 to the four world kingdoms.

The second vision is closely connected with the first, and shows how God will discharge the fierceness of His wrath upon the heathen nations in their self-security (Zac 1:15). Zac 1:18. "And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. Zac 1:19. 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 Jerusalem. Zac 1:20. And Jehovah showed me four smiths. Zac 1:21. And I said, What come these to do? And He spake to me thus: These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no one lifted up his head; these are now come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations which have lifted up the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it." The mediating angel interprets the four horns to the prophet first of all as the horns which have scattered Judah; then literally, as the nations which have lifted up the horn against the land of Judah to scatter it. The horn is a symbol of power (cf. Amo 6:13). The horns therefore symbolize the powers of the world, which rise up in hostility against Judah and hurt it. The number four does not point to the four quarters of the heaven, denoting the heathen foes of Israel in all the countries of the world (Hitzig, Maurer, Koehler, and others). This view cannot be established from Zac 1:10, for there is no reference to any dispersion of Israel to the four winds there. Nor does it follow from the perfect זרוּ that only such nations are to be thought of, as had already risen up in hostility to Israel and Judah in the time of Zechariah; for it cannot be shown that there were four such nations. At that time all the nations round about Judah were subject to the Persian empire, as they had been in Nebuchadnezzar's time to the Babylonian. Both the number four and the perfect zērū belong to the sphere of inward intuition, in which the objects are combined together so as to form one complete picture, without any regard to the time of their appearing in historical reality. Just as the prophet in Zac 6:1-15 sees the four chariots all together, although they follow one another in action, so may the four horns which are seen simultaneously represent nations which succeeded one another. This is shown still more clearly by the visions in Daniel 2 and 7, in which not only the colossal image seen in a dream by Nebuchadnezzar (ch. 2), but also the four beasts which are seen by Daniel to ascend simultaneously from the sea, symbolize the four empires, which rose up in succession one after the other. It is to these four empires that the four horns of our vision refer, as Jerome, Abarb., Hengstenberg, and others have correctly pointed out, since even the picturing of nations or empires as horns points back to Dan 7:7-8, and Dan 8:3-9. Zechariah sees these in all the full development of their power, in which they have oppressed and crushed the people of God (hence the perfect zērū), and for which they are to be destroyed themselves. Zârâh, to scatter, denotes the dissolution of the united condition and independence of the nation of God. In this sense all four empires destroyed Judah, although the Persian and Grecian empires did not carry Judah out of their own land. The striking combination, "Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem," in which not only the introduction of the name of Israel between Judah and Jerusalem is to be noticed, but also the fact that the nota acc. את is only placed before Yehūdâh and Yisrâ'ēl, and not before Yerūshâlaim also, is not explained on the ground that Israel denotes the kingdom of the ten tribes, Judah the southern kingdom, and Jerusalem the capital of the kingdom (Maurer, Umbreit, and others), for in that case Israel would necessarily have been repeated before Judah, and 'ēth before Yerūshâlaim. Still less can the name Israel denote the rural population of Judah (Hitzig), or the name Judah the princely house (Neumann). By the fact that 'ēth is omitted before Yerūshâlaim, and only Vav stands before it, Jerusalem is connected with Israel and separated from Judah; and by the repetition of 'ēth before Yisrâ'ēl, as well as before Yehūdâh, Israel with Jerusalem is co-ordinated with Judah. Kliefoth infers from this that "the heathen had dispersed on the one hand Judah, and on the other hand Israel together with Jerusalem," and understands this as signifying that in the nation of God itself a separation is presupposed, like the previous separation into Judah and the kingdom of the ten tribes. "When the Messiah comes," he says, "a small portion of the Israel according to the flesh will receive Him, and so constitute the genuine people of God and the true Israel, the Judah; whereas the greater part of the Israel according to the flesh will reject the Messiah at first, and harden itself in unbelief, until at the end of time it will also be converted, and join the true Judah of Christendom." But this explanation, according to which Judah would denote the believing portion of the nation of twelve tribes, and Israel and Jerusalem the unbelieving, is wrecked on the grammatical difficulty that the cop. ו is wanting before את־ישׂראל. If the names Judah and Israel were intended to be co-ordinated with one another as two different portions of the covenant nation as a whole, the two parts would necessarily have been connected together by the cop. Vav. Moreover, in the two co-ordinated names Judah and Israel, the one could not possibly stand in the spiritual sense, and the other in the carnal. The co-ordination of 'eth-Yehūdâh with 'eth-Yisrâ'ēl without the cop. Vav shows that Israel is really equivalent to the Jerusalem which is subordinated to it, and does not contain a second member (or part), which is added to it, - in other words, that Israel with Jerusalem is merely an interpretation or more precise definition of Yehūdâh; and Hengstenberg has hit upon the correct idea, when he takes Israel as the honourable name of Judah, or, more correctly, as an honourable name for the covenant nation as then existing in Judah. This explanation is not rendered questionable by the objection offered by Koehler: viz., that after the separation of the two kingdoms, the expression Israel always denotes either the kingdom of the ten tribes, or the posterity of Jacob without regard to their being broken up, because this is not the fact. The use of the name Israel for Judah after the separation of the kingdoms is established beyond all question by Ch2 12:1; Ch2 15:17; Ch2 19:8; Ch2 21:2, Ch2 21:4; Ch2 23:2; Ch2 24:5, etc. (Note: Gesenius has correctly observed in his Thesaurus, p. 1339, that "from this time (i.e., from the severance of the kingdom) the name of Israel began to be usurped by the whole nation that was then in existence, and was used chiefly by the prophets Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Deutero(?)-Isaiah, and after the captivity by Ezra and Nehemiah; from which it came to pass, that in the Paralipomena, even when allusion is made to an earlier period, Israel stands for Judah," although the proofs adduced in support of this from the passages quoted from the prophets need considerable sifting.) Jehovah then showed the prophet four chârâshı̄m, or workmen, i.e., smiths; and on his putting the question, "What have these come to do?" gave him this reply: "To terrify those," etc. For the order of the words מה אלּה בּאים לעשׂות, instead of מה לעשׂות אלּה בּאים, see Gen 42:12; Neh 2:12; Jdg 9:48. אלּה הקּרנות is not a nominative written absolutely at the head of the sentence in the sense of "these horns," for that would require הקרנות האלּה; but the whole sentence is repeated from Zac 1:2, and to that the statement of the purpose for which the smiths have come is attached in the form of an apodosis: "these are the horns, etc., and they (the smiths) have come." At the same time, the earlier statement as to the horns is defined more minutely by the additional clause כּפי אישׁ וגו, according to the measure, i.e., in such a manner that no man lifted up his head any more, or so that Judah was utterly prostrate. Hachărı̄d, to throw into a state of alarm, as in Sa2 17:2. Them ('ōthâm): this refers ad sensum to the nations symbolized by the horns. Yaddōth, inf. piel of yâdâh, to cast down, may be explained as referring to the power of the nations symbolized by the horns. 'Erets Yehūdâh (the land of Judah) stands for the inhabitants of the land. The four smiths, therefore, symbolize the instruments "of the divine omnipotence by which the imperial power in its several historical forms is overthrown" (Kliefoth), or, as Theod. Mops. expresses it, "the powers that serve God and inflict vengeance upon them from many directions." The vision does not show what powers God will use for this purpose. It is simply designed to show to the people of God, that every hostile power of the world which has risen up against it, or shall rise up, is to be judged and destroyed by the Lord.