Zechariah 1:8 - Exposition

I saw by night ; in the night; i.e. the night of the twenty-fourth day ( Zechariah 1:7 ). The visions were seen in this one night at short intervals. There is nothing to make one suppose that they came in dreams ( Isaiah 29:7 ). The prophet is awake, but whether he sees these scenes with his bodily eyes, or was rapt in ecstasy, cannot be decided. A man riding upon a red horse. This is the Angel of Jehovah, mentioned again in Zechariah 1:10 and in Zechariah 1:11 , in both of which places the description, "that stood among the myrtle trees," serves to identify him. He is different from the interpreting angel, and is the leader of the company of horsemen that follow him. Keil and Wright consider that the rider on the red horse cannot be identified with the Angel of Jehovah, because otherwise he would have been represented as standing opposite to the other horsemen to receive the information which they brought him, and they would not have been spoken of as "behind" hint. But the expression in Zechariah 1:8 may mean merely that the prophet sets his eyes first on the leader and then on the attendants. Or in Zechariah 1:10 he is the spokesman who begins the account of the riders' doings, which these themselves complete in Zechariah 1:11 . Thus there are in the scene only

The red colour of the horse is supposed to represent war and bloodshed, as in Revelation 6:4 ; but this seems unsuitable in this piece, where nothing of the kind is intimated, but rather the contrary ( Revelation 6:11 ). It is, indeed, impossible to affix any satisfactory explanation to the colour. If, as we may well suppose, this personage is the Angel of the covenant, who was the leader and guide of the Israelites (comp. Joshua 5:13 ), his standing in the valley among the myrtles may represent the depressed and humbled condition of the chosen people, which yet was well pleasing unto God, like the sweet scent of odoriferous myrtles is agreeable to men. The myrtle trees. The myrtle is indigenous in the hilly regions of Northern Palestine, and is still seen in the glens near Jerusalem, though no longer on the Mount of Olives, where the returned captives found it when celebrating their first Feast of Tabernacles ( Nehemiah 8:15 ). In the bottom; the valley. Myrtles love such places. "Amantes littora myrtos" (Virgil, 'Georg.,' 4:124). The term would suit the valley of the Kidron. Others render, "the shady place," or "the tabernacle," but not so appropriately. LXX ; ἀναμέσον τῶν [Alex; 860] ὀρέων τῶν κατασκίων , "between the shady mountains." The Greek translators seem to have borrowed their reading from Revelation 6:1-17 ; where the chariots issue from between two mountains of brass. Behind him were them red horses; i.e. horses mounted by riders ( Revelation 6:11 ). Speckled. It is not clear what colour is meant by this word. The Revised Version gives sorrel; Wright, "bay or chestnut;" LXX ; ψαροί καὶ ποιλίλοι : "dapple-grey and spotted;" Vulgate, varii. The Septuagint Version is probably a double rendering. The word occurs elsewhere only in Isaiah 16:8 , where it is applied to the tendrils of the vitae. What is intended by the different colours of the horses is a matter of great dispute, and cannot be known. There is some reason for considering that they represent the world powers at this particular period—the Babylonian, the Medo-Persian, the Greek; three of those concerning which Daniel prophesied; the fourth, the Roman, not having yet come in view. The notion of tutelary angels, presiding over countries, was familiar to the Hebrew mind (see Daniel 10:12 , Daniel 10:13 , Daniel 10:20 , Daniel 10:21 ). These horsemen are evidently not post couriers, but warriors on military service.