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Israel Urged to Repent

In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the L ord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo, saying: ²The L ord was very angry with your ancestors. ³Therefore say to them, Thus says the L ord of hosts: Return to me, says the L ord of hosts, and I will return to you, says the L ord of hosts. ⁴Do not be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed, “Thus says the L ord of hosts, Return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.” But they did not hear or heed me, says the L ord. ⁵Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶But my words and my statutes, which I commanded my servants the prophets, did they not overtake your ancestors? So they repented and said, “The L ord of hosts has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just as he planned to do.”

First Vision: The Horsemen

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Shebat, in the second year of Darius, the word of the L ord came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah son of Iddo; and Zechariah said, ⁸In the night I saw a man riding on a red horse! He was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen; and behind him were red, sorrel, and white horses. ⁹Then I said, “What are these, my lord?” The angel who talked with me said to me, “I will show you what they are.” ¹⁰So the man who was standing among the myrtle trees answered, “They are those whom the L ord has sent to patrol the earth.” ¹¹Then they spoke to the angel of the L ord who was standing among the myrtle trees, “We have patrolled the earth, and lo, the whole earth remains at peace.” ¹²Then the angel of the L ord said, “O L ord of hosts, how long will you withhold mercy from Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, with which you have been angry these seventy years?” ¹³Then the L ord replied with gracious and comforting words to the angel who talked with me. ¹⁴So the angel who talked with me said to me, Proclaim this message: Thus says the L ord of hosts; I am very jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. ¹⁵And I am extremely angry with the nations that are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they made the disaster worse. ¹⁶Therefore, thus says the L ord, I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion; my house shall be built in it, says the L ord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. ¹⁷Proclaim further: Thus says the L ord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; the L ord will again comfort Zion and again choose Jerusalem.

Second Vision: The Horns and the Smiths

¹⁸ And I looked up and saw four horns. ¹⁹I asked the angel who talked with me, “What are these?” And he answered me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” ²⁰Then the L ord showed me four blacksmiths. ²¹And I asked, “What are they coming to do?” He answered, “These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no head could be raised; but these have come to terrify them, to strike down the horns of the nations that lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter its people.”

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

And who are these smiths? They are also horns; for they all wish to destroy as much as they can the Church; but God does not permit them; on the contrary he excites them to mutual wars to destroy one another. Though then all these are horns, ready to assault the Church, and though it appears evident from the comparison that they are as it were furious and vicious bulls, and as much as they can unite together to scatter the Church, yet God gives hammers to two or three of them, and bids them to check the ferocity of their associates. While all these are intent on striking and dispersing the Church by their horns, the Lord calls them to a different work, and as I have said, bids them to be smiths that they may strike and break in pieces these horns, even their associates, with whom they had previously wickedly conspired. And it is certainly a wonderful instance of God’s providence, that amidst so violent and turbulent commotions the Church should take breath, though under the cross; for except these hammers had broken the horns, we must have been pierced through, not only a hundred but a thousand times, and had been dashed into fragments. But God has turned aside their strokes and assaults by his hammers, and, as I have said, has employed his enemies for this purpose.

We now then see that this prophecy was not only useful in the age of Zechariah, but that it has been so in all ages, and that it ought not to be confined to the ancient people, but extended to the whole body of the Church.

But the Prophet, by saying that he asked the angel, sets before us an example of a truly teachable disposition. Though the Lord then may not immediately explain to us his messages, there is yet no reason for us in disdain to reject what is obscure, as we see to be done by many in our day; for when any thing seems ambiguous to them, they immediately reject it, and also complain that God’s word is extremely difficult; and such blasphemies are uttered by many at this day. But the Prophet, though perplexed, did not yet morosely reject what God had showed; on the contrary, he asked the angels. Though the angels are not nigh us, or at least do not appear to us in a visible form, yet God can by other means afford us help when there is any perplexity in his word: he promises to give us the spirit of understanding and wisdom, whenever there is need; and we also know that the preaching of the word and the sacraments are helps to lead us to himself. If then we neglect not these helps which God affords us, and especially if we ask him to guide us by his Spirit, there will certainly be nothing obscure or intricate in the prophecies, which he will not, as far as it is necessary, make known to us. He does not indeed give the Spirit in an equal degree to all; but we ought to feel assured, that though prophecies may be obscure, there will yet be a sure profit derived, if we be teachable and submissive to God; for we find that Zechariah was not deprived of his request, as the angel gave him an immediate answer.

It must also be observed, that in one place he calls him Jehovah, and in another angel; and indeed he speaks thus indiscriminately of one and the same person. It hence follows that God appeared among the angels. But we must remember what I have already said, that this chief angel was the Mediator and the Head of the Church; and the same is Jehovah, for Christ, as we know, is God manifested in the flesh. There is then no wonder that the Prophet should indiscriminately call him angel and Jehovah, he being the Mediator of the Church, and also God. He is God, being of the same essence with the Father; and Mediator, having already undertaken his Mediatorial office, though not then clothed in our flesh, so as to become our brother; for the Church could not exist, nor be united to her God without a head. We hence see that Christ, as to his eternal essence, is said to be God, and that he is called an angel on account of his office, that is, of a Mediator.

The meaning is now evident: God declares that the horns were those which dispersed or scattered Judah as well as Jerusalem, and the kingdom of Israel: but that he had as many smiths, ²⁸²⁸     The word, [חרשים], is of general import, and means artificers, or workmen either in iron, brass, stone, or wood. It is rendered “workmen” by Newcome and Henderson, and “carpenters” in our version. They may be viewed here as signifying skillful men, fitted to do the work assigned to them. The terms used to designate what they were to do, would lead us to this supposition; they were to “drive away” and to “thrust away.” It was not then a work suitable to any particular trade: hence, “skillful men,” would be perhaps the most suitable rendering.
   To give the meaning of terrifying to [החריד] seems not suitable here: the idea must be similar to that included in [ידות], which is not introduced as explanatory. To cause to fly or to move quickly, is the most common meaning of the first verb, so that it may be rendered, “drive or hurry away:” and the other verb means to throw or cast out, to hurl, to thrust forth or away. It seems to note a stronger action, or a greater force than the former.
   There is here an evident instance in which [אלה] being repeated must be rendered, those and these; there is otherwise a confusion in the passage. I offer the following version: —
   21. And I said, “What are these coming to do?” And he said, saying, “Those are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no one lifted up his head; and these are come to drive them away, — to thrust away the horns of the nations, which have raised the horn over the land of Judah, to scatter it abroad.”
   Notwithstanding this difference as to the literal rendering of this verse, yet the general drift of Calvin’s remarks remains the same. — Ed. who would by force and by hammers, shatter these horns in pieces, though for a time they would greatly harass the Church. It must be also noticed that horn is to be taken differently when the number is changed: the Gentiles are called horns in the plural number to show their hardness or their strength; and they are then said to lift up their horn in the singular number to show that they ferociously exerted all their power to lay prostrate or to scatter the people of God. Then follows —

²⁸ The word, [חרשים], is of general import, and means artificers, or workmen either in iron, brass, stone, or wood. It is rendered “workmen” by Newcome and Henderson, and “carpenters” in our version. They may be viewed here as signifying skillful men, fitted to do the work assigned to them. The terms used to designate what they were to do, would lead us to this supposition; they were to “drive away” and to “thrust away.” It was not then a work suitable to any particular trade: hence, “skillful men,” would be perhaps the most suitable rendering. To give the meaning of terrifying to [החריד] seems not suitable here: the idea must be similar to that included in [ידות], which is not introduced as explanatory. To cause to fly or to move quickly, is the most common meaning of the first verb, so that it may be rendered, “drive or hurry away:” and the other verb means to throw or cast out, to hurl, to thrust forth or away. It seems to note a stronger action, or a greater force than the former. There is here an evident instance in which [אלה] being repeated must be rendered, those and these; there is otherwise a confusion in the passage. I offer the following version: — 21. And I said, “What are these coming to do?” And he said, saying, “Those are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no one lifted up his head; and these are come to drive them away, — to thrust away the horns of the nations, which have raised the horn over the land of Judah, to scatter it abroad.” Notwithstanding this difference as to the literal rendering of this verse, yet the general drift of Calvin’s remarks remains the same. — Ed.