What Does Zechariah 1:20 Mean in the King James?
And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The four craftsmen answer the four horns: the powers that scatter you are already met by a force that can bring them down.
THE MEANING
The LORD brings a counterforce into view before the threat has the final word. The four craftsmen answer the four horns that scatter and dominate; the power that frightens you does not fill the whole scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
The force that has scattered me is too great to be answered.
THE ROOT
חָרָשִׁים
ḥārāšîm
GROWS FROM
ח־ר־שׁ
ḥ-r-š
To work material skillfully by cutting or shaping; as a noun, a craftsman.
English “carpenters” narrows the word to woodworkers, but חָרָשׁ (ḥārāš, craftsman) names skilled makers across materials. Here that shaping skill is turned against the horns: the hands that can form can also dismantle.
ALSO GROWS
ḥārāš ʿēṣîm: Craftsman in wood; woodworker
חָרָשׁ עֵצִים
Isaiah uses this phrase for the worker who shapes wood, showing the craft behind the English “carpenter.”
ḥārāš ʾeven: Craftsman in stone; stone engraver
חָרָשׁ אֶבֶן
The same craft word applies to shaping stone, widening the image from a carpenter to a skilled shaper.
THE PATTERN
A force that scatters and dominates is met by a force that can bring its power down.
Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.All the horns of the wicked also will I cut off; but the horns of the righteous shall be exalted.These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.THE THREAD
The carpenter stretcheth out his rule; he marketh it out with a line; he fitteth it with planes, and he marketh it out with the compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man; that it may remain in the house.Isaiah uses חָרָשׁ (ḥārāš, craftsman) for the woodworker who carefully shapes an idol. In Zechariah, the same craft word names workers whose skill is turned against the horns that dominate.
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