The Book of Zechariah-Part 4

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The Book of Zechariah—Part 4

This article is the fourth in a series of articles designed to give a brief commentary on the prophetic portion of the Old Testament known as the book of Zechariah. In particular, this article will deal with the Vision of the Four Horns and Craftsmen given in Zechariah 1:18-21. These verses describe the second night vision within a series of eight such visions (Zech. 1:7-6:8).

There is some question as to which chapter of Zechariah these verses belong. The organization of the Hebrew Bible puts them as the first four verses of the second chapter. However, following the Septuagint and Jerome, English versions place it in the first chap­ter. However, this difference is inconsequential since the chapter divisions are not inspired by God but were added later for study purposes.

The meaning of the second night vision is from one perspective merely the flip side of the first vision of the riders on the horses. In the first vision, God primarily encourages Israel by His promise of restoration for Jerusalem and the nation. God’s judgment of Israel’s enemies is only implicit in the vision. In the second vision, He comforts Israel by assuring them that their enemies will be overthrown. Both visions contribute to the overall message that God will remember His people and His promises to the fathers and to all generations of the nation in spite of the opposition along the way throughout history. Both visions thus appear to fulfill the gracious and comforting words from God mentioned in 1:13 and that were to be part of Zechariah’s proclamation (1:14). The second vision, like the first, is more general as it gives an overview of God’s promises, while the third through eighth visions give more specific predictions. In this way, the first two visions combine to introduce the remaining prophecies in the section.

The general idea of the second vision is that Zechariah sees four horns, which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, followed by four craftsmen who apparently destroy the four horns. The framework of the vision consists of Zechariah’s introductory phrase and two questions which he asks the angel with whom he is speaking. Zechariah begins with the words “Then I lifted up my eyes” (v. 18). This phrase marks off the second vision from the first. It also is used by Zechariah to introduce the third vision and the last three of the eight night visions (2:1; 5:1; 5:5-9; 6:1). Such language is common in prophetic portions of the Bible (cp. Daniel 7-12) and reinforces the fact that the vision is coming from another source, i.e., God, to Zechariah and that the prophet is primarily an observer with respect to the visions. Zechariah’s two questions to the angel as he observes the vision are related to the two symbols in the passage. He first asks for the identity of the four horns: “What are these?” (v. 19). Later he asks the angel for the purpose of the four craftsmen: “What are these coming to do?” (v. 21).

These two questions take the reader to the heart of the vision. First, what is the identity of the four horns? The term horn is not used elsewhere in Zechariah. In the immediate context of the vision, there are a couple of observations that can be made. The horns, according to the angel’s answer to Zechariah’s first question, have scattered Judah and Israel along with Jerusalem (v. 19). Nations or leaders of nations scatter other nations. Thus, enemy nations would be in view. This position is consistent with the statement later in the vision that the craftsmen would come to throw down the horns of the nations (v. 21).

Therefore, the context of the second vision easily leads one to the conclusion that the horns represent enemy nations and/or their rulers who come successfully against Judah and Israel in some way.

This identification is also consistent with how other biblical texts use the term horn. In the Bible, the horn is generally understood as the horn belonging to that of a wild animal such as a ram or goat (e.g., Dan. 8:3, 5). It often symbolizes the idea of strength. For example, in 1 Samuel 2:10 the text says “And He will give strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed.” Here the Hebrew parallelism shows that the term horn refers to strength as it relates to a leader of a nation. Furthermore, the book of Daniel, which uses the word horn more frequently than any other Bible book, specifically uses it to refer to a king from the third world empire of Greece (the little horn of Daniel chapter eight) and to refer to a king from the fourth world empire of Rome (the little horn of Daniel chapter seven). In addition, Daniel 7:7 refers to the fourth world empire as having ten horns. These ten horns are defined later as ten kings (7:24). Throughout the discussion in that chapter of Daniel, the focus is on the little horn who wages war against the saints. In context, this is the king with his nation or empire who attacks and attempts to harm. Zechariah’s audience would have been well aware of this imagery from Daniel in the immediate years following the Babylonian captivity. They would have understood the horns of Zechariah 1:18-19 as kings and nations who scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.

However, there is no specific identification of the four horns given within the text of Zechariah itself. The fact that Zechariah does not ask for any further clarification may suggest that he understood which kings and nations are in view. Again, this would not be surprising in light of his probable familiarity with the book of Daniel. Daniel gave a vision of the sequence of four world kingdoms that keep the chosen people from controlling their own land. It is pictured by way of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of a statue in Daniel two and by way of animal imagery in Daniel seven. These chapters form the backdrop of the identifica­tion of Zechariah’s four horns. The four world empires are Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. The first three are clearly identified in Daniel beyond question while the fourth one can be deduced. Zechariah is living in the early years of the Medo-Persian era so that the final two empires are future to him. However, the empires had been predicted by Daniel and could be known by Zechariah on that account. The import of its meaning for Zechariah and his audience is that some aspects of the judgment upon the nation that started with the Babylonian captivity will still continue on for a time.

Nonetheless, the people who had returned to the land should take heart precisely because God’s plan of ultimate deliverance for them is sovereignly in place. This is where the imagery of the four craftsmen comes in. The craftsmen come to do two things (v.21): 1) terrify the horns; 2) throw down the horns. The meaning is that each of the four horns will be done away because of hurting Judah. That is, Judah’s enemies will face their own time of judgment. At the time of Zechariah, Babylon had already been thrown down (cp. Dan. 5). The others will be thrown down as well so that God could keep his promise of full restora­tion for the nation. The identification of the craftsmen is similar to the horns. The leader of the nation who overthrows the previous empire is in view. Daniel’s portrait of the sequence of the four world kingdoms ends with God’s ultimate intervention, but the truth is also pre­sented that God is the one who sovereignly raises up and puts down throughout the se­quence. In other words, Zechariah’s four craftsmen are doing God’s bidding as he controls the timeline of history.

Zechariah’s immediate audience would have been comforted to know, even if they did not live to see the ultimate deliverance of their nation, that they could live confidently in their day in light of God’s sure promise for tomorrow. Zechariah’s later visions help to make application of this idea for his people. Christians can apply such a message in the twenty-first century also. We who have placed our faith in Christ for salvation from sin should eagerly await the rapture of the Church and the later Second Coming of Jesus, knowing that these two events will mark the beginning of the final era of restoration.

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