Zacharias 1:18
And I lifted up my eyes, and saw: and behold four horns.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et levavi oculos meos, et vidi, et ecce quatuor cornua.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- Καὶ ἦρα τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς μου καὶ εἶδον, καὶ ἰδοὺ τέσσαρα κέρατα.
- Hebrew (WLC) shown from Zacharias 2:1
- וָאֶשָּׂ֥א אֶת עֵינַ֖י וָאֵ֑רֶא וְהִנֵּ֖ה אַרְבַּ֥ע קְרָנֽוֹת
Haydock's commentary
On verses 18 to 20
Four horns,...four smiths. The four horns represent the empires, or kingdoms, that persecute and oppress the people of God: the four smiths or carpenters (for faber may signify either) represent those whom God makes his instruments in bringing to nothing the power of persecutors. (Challoner)
The Ammonites, &c., on the east, the Philistines on the west, the Idumeans and Egyptians on the south, and the Assyrians and Chaldeans on the north, had much molested God's people, and were therefore punished. (Worthington)
The princes of Assyria and of Babylon, the kings of Persia and of Egypt, had all treated them ill; and these four empires have or will be destroyed by four chariots, (chap. vi. 1.) Nabopolassar, Cyrus, Alexander, and Antiochus, Daniel vii. 1., &c. St. Jerome, and many who usually follow him, understand the empires of the Chaldeans, Persians, Greeks, and Romans, to be designated by the horns, as the workmen mean the angels who have chastised those nations.
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.