Zechariah 1

1-6 Israel Urged to Repent

1 The word comes to Zechariah, son of Berechia, son of Iddo, in the 2nd year, 8th month of Darius.

2-6 Regarding their ancestors and their history of disobedience:

• When you return to me, I will return to you. Though God’s love is unconditional, his blessings are not.
• Do not be like your ancestors who would not listen to me.
• My word goes on long after the prophets who spoke it and those who refuse it. Interesting that he includes the mortality of the prophets here – a reminder that it’s the message, not the messenger, that’s important.
• The LORD is true to his word.

7-17 First Vision: The Horsemen

7 In 2nd year, 11th month (Shebat), 24th day

8-11 Zechariah sees a vision of a man on a red horse among myrtle trees, backed by red, sorrel and white horses. An angel tells Zechariah they are patrolling the earth and finding it at peace.

12-15 The angel asks God how long he will withhold mercy from Judah, after 70 years, and God replies that he still cares for them; other countries – now at ease – over-reacted.

16-17 God, in his compassion, will rebuild Jerusalem, and his cities will once again be prosperous.

18-21 Second Vision: The Horns and the Smiths

18-21 Zechariah then sees four horns – those who scattered God’s people – and four blacksmiths – those who will strike down the horns.

Even though Jamieson, Fausset and Brown later interpret the four horns as Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece and Rome, their initial interpretation seems more plausible in context:

The number four in Zechariah's time referred to the four cardinal points of the horizon. Wherever God's people turned, there were foes to encounter; the Assyrian, Chaldean, and Samaritan on the north; Egypt and Arabia on the south; Philistia on the west; Ammon and Moab on the east.

From a commentary by Eugene Merrill at Bible.Org:

What is suggested here and elsewhere by that number is the universal character of the persecution of God’s people by the nations. From the time of their settlement in Canaan until the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians, the story of Israel’s struggle had been the same. It was only that that final destruction had been so climactic and irreversible that it stands out in the text at hand.

Re: the blacksmiths (or carpenters), JFB

For every one of the four horns there was a cleaving "artificer" to beat it down. For every enemy of God's people, God has provided a counteracting power adequate to destroy it.: