such as, regarded from the point of view of their colour, are " speckled " (gefleckte), but from the point of view of their special characteristic, are " strong."
Viewed as going forth like the other chariots into a particular direction, and as encountering a particular power, they are described, like the previous ones, by their colour, which is in itself symbolical; but when the fact is brought into view that this particular power which these horses are to encounter is unlike its predecessors, but will assert its dominion over the whole earth, then their special character istic as " the strong ones " is emphasised.
To this we may add the striking fact that strength was to be an outstanding feature of the fourth great worldempire, even as we read in Dan. vii. 7: " After this I saw in the night visions, and behold a fourth beast, terrible and powerful, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth; it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with his feet: and it was diverse from all the beasts which were before it; and it had ten horns."
Now, over against the might of man, and of all the powers of darkness which assert themselves in this last great world-power, there is the might of God; and we are reminded in this vision that His invisible hosts are a match for the mightiest, and that God is ever stronger than His foes.
We now come to the 8th verse:
" And He cried unto me, and spake unto me, saying, Behold, those which go toward the north country have quieted ( caused to rest ) My spirit in the north country"
The idiom, " to cause to rest upon " a person, or, as in this case, upon a land, involves, as Pusey rightly observes, that that person (or land) is the object on whom it abides, not that the spirit is quieted in him whose it is, as some interpreters have explained it. The word nri (ruach, " spirit ") must, I believe, be understood here as anger, in which sense it is found also in other scriptures.[1] The meaning of the 8th verse, then, is that that company of
- ↑ Judg. viii. 3; Eccles. x. 4.
