to lift · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
eyes
עֵינַ֖י'ei.Nai
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
saw
וָאֵ֑רֶאva.'E.re'
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
four
אַרְבַּ֥ע'ar.Ba'
H702
four · noun, common both genders singular construct
horns
קְרָנֽוֹתke.ra.Not
H7161
a horn (as projecting) · noun, common feminine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Joshua 5:13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with…
2 Kings 24:1-20 In his days Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up, and Jehoiakim became his servant three years: then he turned and rebelled against him.
Daniel 8:3-14 Then I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there stood before the river a ram which had two horns: and the two horns were high; but o…
Zechariah 5:9 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the…
2 Kings 15:29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel came Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-beth-maachah, and Janoah, and Kedesh, and…
2 Kings 17:1-6 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah began Hoshea the son of Elah to reign in Samaria over Israel nine years.
2 Kings 18:9-12 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, that Shalmaneser k…
Daniel 2:37-43 Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 1:18–end
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 J…
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…
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.
John Gill on Zechariah 1:18
The Church Fathers
(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…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Angel — A word signifying, both in the Hebrew and Greek, a “messenger,” and hence employed to denote any agent God sends forth to execute his purposes. It is used of an ordinary messenger (Job 1:14: 1 Sam.…
Horn — Trumpets were at first horns perforated at the tip, used for various purposes (Josh. 6:4, 5). Flasks or vessels were made of horn (1 Sam. 16:1, 13; 1 Kings 1:39). But the word is used also…
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
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, 1 Kings 22:11 or horns of beasts, as the horns of unicorns, to which the horns of Joseph are compared, Deuteronomy 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 Daniel 7:24 design ten kings or kingdoms; unless rather, seeing these horns were such who had already distressed and scattered Judah, Israel,…
Zechariah 1:18-21
18. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns.
18. Et sustuli oculos meos, et vidi, et ece quatuor cornua.
19. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
19. Et dixi ad angelum, qui loquebatur mecum, Qui isti? (hoc est, Qui sunt isti?) et dixit ad me, Haec sunt cornua quae ventilarunt Iehudah, Israel, et Ierusalem. (Ego conjungam etiam proximos versus)
20. And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.
20. Et ostendit mihi Iehova quatuor fabros.
21. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Ju…
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 second vision states God’s plan to bring his judgment against the nations who destroyed Jerusalem and exiled Judah. The prophet leaves unspecified the identity of the nations represented by the four horns; it is best to view the number four as symbolic of all those nations who will face divine judgment for scattering the people of God.
1:18-19 Then I looked up suggests that the prophet was interrupted by another vision while still preoccupied with the previous one (also in 2:1; 5:1; 6:1). • Horns symbolized power and authority in the biblical world and might represent an individual ruler (see Dan 7:8; 8:8), a dynasty, or nations.
Rashi on Zechariah 1:16
and a plumb line shall be stretched out to measure its wall, its length and breadth.
