Zechariah 1:19

Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. The power of the Jews' foes shall be dissipated. Verse 18. BEHOLD, 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, "horns" represent the ruling powers of the world (; ). The number four in Zechariah's time refers to the four cardinal points of the horizon. Wherever God's people turned there were foes to encounter (); 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 further-namely, to the four world-powers...

18-21 The enemies of the church threaten to cut off the name of Israel. They are horns, emblems of power, strength, and violence. The prophet 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 showed him four workmen empowered to cut off these horns. 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 only with an eye of faith that we see it safe. The Lord shows us that. When God has work to do, he will raise up some to do it, and others to defend it, and to protect those employed in doing it. What cause there is to look up in love and praise to the holy and eternal Spirit, who has the same care over the present and eternal interests of believers, by the holy word bringing the church to know the wonderful things of salvation!...

THESE ARE THE HORNS WHICH HAVE SCATTERED - o “The four horns which scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem, are four nations, Babylonians, Medes and Persians, Macedonians and Romans; as the Lord, on the prophet’s enquiry, explains here, and Daniel unfolds most fully Daniel 2; who in the vision of the image with golden head, silver breast, belly and thighs of brass, feet of iron and clay, explained it of these four nations, and again in another vision of four beasts Daniel 7, lion, bear, leopard and another unnamed dreadful beast, he pointed out the same nations under another figure. But that the Medes and Persians, after the victory of Cyrus, were one kingdom, no one will doubt, who reads secular and sacred literature. When this vision was beheld, the kingdom of the Babylonians had now passed

EXPOSITION VERSE 1-6:15 Part I. A SERIES OF EIGHT VISIONS, AND A SYMBOLICAL ACTION. ZECHARIAH 1:1 § 1. _Title of the book, and author. _THE EIGHTH MONTH. This was called Bul before the Captivity (1 Kings 6:38), and afterwards Marchesvan (Josephus, 'Ant.,' 1.3 3); it answered to parts of October and November, and was a time of rain. Haggai had first prophesied two months earlier. THE SECOND YEAR OF DARIUS. Being now under foreign rule, the prophet uses the regnal years of the king to whom his people were subject (see note on...

AND I SAID UNTO THE ANGEL THAT TALKED WITH ME,.... Zechariah 1:9: WHAT [BE] THESE? that is, who do these horns signify? and what or whom do they represent? AND HE ANSWERED ME, THESE [ARE] THE HORNS WHICH HAVE SCATTERED JUDAH, ISRAEL, AND JERUSALEM; which may design the distresses, vexations, and captivities of the people of Israel by their enemies, as by the Moabites, Ammonites, c. in the times of the judges and the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel by Shalmaneser; and of the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah, and of the destruction of Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar; when they were ventilated or fanned, as the word x signifies, and so scattered abroad; see Jeremiah 6:11 and also their troubles in the times of the Medes and Persians, under Cambyses, until this second

ANGEL (_ See Scofield) - (Hebrews 1:4). _...

ANALYSIS AND ANNOTATIONS 1. THE NIGHT VISIONS CHAPTER 1 _ 1. The introduction (Zechariah 1:1) _ 2. The first night vision (Zechariah 1:7) 3. The second night vision (Zechariah 1:18) Zechariah 1:1. The first utterance of Zechariah concerns the past. “The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers.” They were a disobedient, stiff-necked people. The pre-exilic prophets had called them to repentance, but they did not hearken. Then he gives the message to turn to the Lord, with the promise that He will turn to them; they should not be like their fathers. And their fathers, where w

The four horns which have scattered Judah and Jerusalem (Israel should probably be omitted) represent the whole world arrayed against Judah, and are perhaps iron horns like those made by Zedekiah (1 Kings 22:11); hence smiths are introduced to shatter them....

JUDAH, Israel, and Jerusalem. With _'eth_ pre- fixed to the first two (not Jerusalem) for emphasis, so that we may not confuse them with the Church or with Gentile peoples. There is no "gloss", as alleged....

_Judah, Israel and Jerusalem_ The two tribes, the ten tribes, and the capital of the whole nation. So inclusive a description must be held to refer to the whole Jewish people, so that the vision predicts the overthrow of the oppressors of Israel as well as of Judah....