signify " powerful," or " strong," but he argues that this predicate, although only formally connected with the horses in the fourth chariot, at the end of the 3rd verse, " cannot apply to them in contrast with those of the other three chariots, but must, in fact, belong equally to all the four."
The " strong " horses therefore, seen to go forth last, in the 7th verse, are in reality the " red " of the first chariot. He lays emphasis on the article, " the strong ones," in ver. 7, and says, " the strong ones, that is, those in comparison with which the others were to be regarded as weak, although in themselves they were really strong; ... in other words, the strongest among them. They are mentioned last because in the consciousness of their strength they were not content like the rest with one particular portion of the globe, but asked permission of the Lord to go through the whole earth." But, excepting on the supposition that a word in the 3rd verse has dropped out, Hengstenberg's exposition is, as is now pretty generally agreed, on gram matical reasons " impossible."[1]
Let us now give what appears to be the most likely and satisfactory solution of the difficulty. We have already observed that though these four chariots, which with their horses are interpreted by the angel to be " the four winds," or " spirits," of the heavens, cannot be identified with the four Gentile world-powers of Dan. ii. and vii., on which Zechariah's second vision, that of the horns and carpenters, is, as we have seen, based they are closely connected, and
- ↑ If D ycN (amutsim, "strong"), in the 3rd verse, were intended to be referred to the horses in all the chariots, the phrase would have been expressed by D73 O XSN, amutsim kulam "all of them strong." As to Hengstenberg's argument that the article before amutsim (the strong), ver. 7, is to be regarded as emphatic, it must not be forgotten that all the adjectives used in reference to the horses when first mentioned naturally occur without the article; but when spoken of by the interpreting angel are all used most naturally with the article. "The use of the article with the adjective in ver. 7 can no more be regarded as emphatic than when used -with the black, the -white, and speckled (or grisled ) horses. Amutsim is similarly used at first without the article; but when mentioned the second time it takes the article just as the other adjectives."
