Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/196



In contrast to these who went forth to the north country, the beruddim (" grisled," or " speckled " horses) the exact colour of which it is difficult to give with certainty, but which probably answers to the seruqqim (" speckled ") in chap. i. 8 go forth to the south country.

Now, the south country is Egypt, the other direction from which hostile world-power came into contact with Israel and Palestine; and " the king of the south," as, for instance, in Dan. xi., is the king of Egypt. But there it was that the fourth great world-empire came into collision with the declining Macedonian power, and that it was first brought into direct contact with the Jewish nation. It is most probable, therefore, that the fourth chariot, appointed for the overthrow and destruction of the fourth great worldempire, is seen to go forth, first to the south, as if to encounter this fresh hostile power at the point at which it first came into contact with Israel.

But the Spirit of God, foreseeing that the fourth empire, unlike its predecessors, would spread itself, not only to the north, and south, and east, but westward also, and practi cally embrace the whole known world; and that it would, in the different stages of its existence, endure for a con siderably longer period than its predecessors the horses of this same chariot are represented as desiring also, after having accomplished their mission in the south, to go forth to walk to and fro through the earth. " And He " (that is, the Lord of the whole earth, before whom they were all seen " standing " in the first instance) " said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth," in order to meet this power in every place where it shall establish itself, to hold it in check, and to counteract its evil plans, until the signal shall be given for its final overthrow.

If we are asked why the horses in this last chariot are seen first going forth as the " grisled " or " speckled," and then, in the 7th verse, as the " strong " (which, be it noted, was the additional epithet applied to them already in the 3rd verse), the true answer is probably that suggested by| Bredenkamp, who says that " speckled strong horses " ar