Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/189

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CHAPTER IX

WE come to the eighth, or last vision, in which the prophet's eyes are opened to see the invisible chariots of God which are being sent forth for the overthrow of Gentile world-power, and to prepare the way for the Kingdom of Messiah, which " shall never be destroyed."

What the Prophet saw

Probably directed again by the interpreting angel to do so, the prophet lifts up his eyes and beholds four chariots coming forth from between two mountains of brass.[1] These chariots were drawn by horses of various colours. In the first were red horses, in the second black, in the third white, and in the fourth grisled, or speckled, horses, to which also are applied the epithet D ifOX (amutsim, " strong "y

The Significance of the Symbolism

I. The two mountains, which in the Hebrew have the definite article, indicating that they are well known, and which, as we may gather from the 5th verse, are associated with the " presence," or special dwelling-place, of " the Lord of the whole earth," are very probably Mount Zion and Mount Olivet, " viewed as ideal mountains, and as the place whence God's judgments go forth over the world."

  1. The Rabbis understood a chariot as signifying a team of four horses. Their reason is a curious one. In I Kings x. 29 it is said: " And a chariot came up and went out of Egypt for six hundred shekels, and a horse for a hundred and fifty." The price of a chariot is here four times that of a horse. Thus, there fore, Kimchi says, " A chariot is a team oi four horses."