Zechariah 1:8

8. I saw In a vision or trance (compare Isaiah 6:0), one of the means by which God communicated his truth to the prophets (compare Numbers 12:6; see on Amos 7:1; Nahum 1:1).

By night Visions usually came during the night ( 1Sa 3:3 ; 1 Kings 3:5; Acts 16:9). Since the Hebrew day began at sunset, this was probably during the night preceding the twenty-fourth day.

Behold Calls attention to the first object that met his eye. The following appear as dramatis personae in the first vision: 1. The prophet; 2. The interpreting angel, who is present in all the visions; 3. The man riding upon the red horse; 4. The men riding upon the red, speckled, and white horses; 5. The angel of Jehovah; 6. Jehovah himself.

A man riding upon a red horse This was the first being observed by the prophet, but the man was not alone, he was followed by a group of horsemen.

Among the myrtle trees The leader stopped in a grove of myrtle trees, because there was the one to whom the report had to be given. The fact that “the angel of Jehovah” also was among the myrtle trees is no reason for identifying the two; the latter was there first, the former stopped because the report was intended for the angel. LXX. reads wrongly, “between the mountains” (compare Zechariah 6:1). That myrtles grew near Jerusalem is shown by Nehemiah 8:15, where it is said that myrtle branches were gathered for the feast of tabernacles.

In the bottom The meaning of the last word is somewhat obscure; various translations have been suggested; margin R.V., “shady place”; but the common rendering is to be preferred. The reference is probably to some valley at the foot of the temple hill, in which was a myrtle grove, well known to the contemporaries of the prophet, though the spot cannot be identified to-day. Attempts have been made to assign symbolical meanings to the myrtle trees and to the bottom. Keil, for example, considers the former a “symbol of the theocracy, or of the land of Judah as a land that was dear and lovely in the esteem of the Lord”; of the latter he says that it “can be only a figurative representation of the deep degradation into which the land and the people of God had fallen at that time.” Since the heavenly interpreter gives no symbolical meaning to these features, his earthly counterparts may do well to follow his example; it seems best to consider these elements mere incidents in the picture, without special symbolical significance.

Red… speckled… white For the second R.V. reads “sorrel.” The meaning of the Hebrew so translated is uncertain; the corresponding Arabic word is used of chestnut or bay horses, and this is the meaning which should probably be given to the Hebrew. Chapter Zechariah 6:3, and Revelation 6:8, to which appeal has been made by some, are of no assistance in determining the meaning, since there is no close connection between them and this passage. Whatever may be true of other passages, here the colors are without symbolic meaning; they are only incidents introduced to make the picture complete.