Zechariah 6:2-3

2, 3. The chariots were drawn by horses of different colors.

Red… black… white… grisled and bay For the last R.V. reads “grizzled strong.” Various symbolical meanings have been suggested for these colors; for example, red, the color of blood, has been thought to symbolize war and slaughter, black, the color of mourning, the distress following the slaughter. White has been thought to symbolize victory, grizzled has been taken as equivalent to pale, the color of the horse ridden by Death (Revelation 6:8). Those who take the chariots to symbolize four nations interpret the colors as representing the chief characteristics of the nations alluded to. But these and similar interpretations are fanciful; the colors have no symbolical meaning; they serve only to distinguish the chariots from one another. Grizzled means literally covered with hail, that is, spotted (Genesis 31:10; Genesis 31:12). The word joined with it, bay, or R.V. strong, is of uncertain meaning. Since it occurs in connection with several colors, one would expect another color; this is supplied by A.V., but there is little to support the translation bay. In Isaiah 63:1, a similar word is translated “dyed,” margin “crimsoned.” Some think, therefore, that the word used here has the same meaning, or that the other was originally in this place. If so, the meaning might be that the ground color was crimson and that on it were the spots. All this is more or less doubtful. Others, who favor the translation strong, explain the use of the term by the more difficult task assigned to this chariot (but see on Zechariah 6:7). The expression remains peculiar, and Wellhausen and others who, on the basis of Zechariah 6:6-7, omit strong (see on Zechariah 6:7), may offer the correct solution.