Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/62

 Israel. In that case, to use the language of a learned commentator who thinks only of the past, the four horns would " represent the enemies of Israel on every side: Edom and Egypt in the south; the Philistines in the west; the Ammonites and Moabites in the east; and from the north the Syrians, Assyrians, and especially the Chaldeans."

Or, according to another commentator who views this prophecy in relation to the then present, " the number four refers to the four cardinal points of the horizon, indicating that wherever God's people turned there were enemies to encounter."

But there can be no doubt, according to our judgment, especially if we remember the fact that it is the character istic of Zechariah's visions and prophecies, that the Divine messages contained in them are generally based on revelations already granted to the former prophets, that in this vision of the four horns there is a direct reference to the four great world-powers, differently represented by the four metals in the great image, and four great beasts in chaps, ii. and vii. of Daniel's prophecies the only four empires which were, or are, to rise till the kingdom of Messiah, the fifth of Daniel's visions, overthrows and absorbs all others in its universal dominion. This was the view of the most authoritative of Jewish commentators. Thus Kimchi says, " These are the four monarchies and they are the Baby lonian monarchy, the Persian monarchy, and the Grecian monarchy, and so the Targum of Jonathan has it (instead of four horns), the four monarchies."

Some commentators have raised an objection to this