Bible Strands
Zechariah 1:19
So I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “What are these?” And he told me, “These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Zechariah addresses the angel who was speaking with him immediately after observing four horns in Zechariah 1:18. The angel responds directly to Zechariah’s inquiry about the identity of these objects.
The words — The interrogative מָה (mah) means “what?” and the demonstrative אֵלֶּה ('E.leh) means “these,” forming a direct question about the vision’s symbols. The participle הַ/דֹּבֵר (ha./do.Ver) identifies the responder as “who was speaking,” anchoring the revelation to a specific angelic figure.
The thread — The angel’s identification of the horns as agents of scattering connects directly to Zechariah 1:21, where four craftsmen are shown to confront them. The pattern of foreign opposition against Judah and Jerusalem parallels the discouragement recorded in Ezra 4:4.
Why it lands — The text demands recognition that hostile powers function as instruments of judgment before divine restoration is prepared. Readers must trace the vision’s sequence from scattered destruction to the LORD’s subsequent provision of craftsmen to dismantle that judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.
Cross-references
- Ezra 4:4 Then the people of the land set out to discourage the people of Judah and make them afraid to build.
- Zechariah 1:21 “What are these coming to do?” I asked. And He replied, “These are the horns that scattered Judah so that no one could raise his head; but the craftsmen have come to terrify them and throw down these horns of the nations that have lifted up their horns against the land of Judah to scatter it.”
- Zechariah 2:2 “Where are you going?” I asked. “To measure Jerusalem,” he replied, “and to determine its width and length.”
- Zechariah 8:14 For this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Just as I resolved to bring disaster upon you when your fathers provoked Me to anger, and I did not relent,” says the LORD of Hosts,
- Ezra 4:1 When the enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard that the exiles were building a temple for the LORD, the God of Israel,
- Ezra 4:7 And in the days of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Bishlam, Mithredath, Tabeel, and the rest of his associates wrote a letter to Artaxerxes. It was written in Aramaic and then translated.
- Jeremiah 50:17 Israel is a scattered flock, chased away by lions. The first to devour him was the king of Assyria; the last to crush his bones was Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.”
- Zechariah 1:9 “What are these, my lord?” I asked. And the angel who was speaking with me replied, “I will show you what they are.”
- Habakkuk 3:14 With his own spear You pierced his head, when his warriors stormed out to scatter us, gloating as though ready to secretly devour the weak.
- Revelation 7:13 Then one of the elders addressed me: “These in white robes,” he asked, “who are they, and where have they come from?”