What Does Zechariah 1:20 Mean?
And the LORD let me see four carvers.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
And the LORD shewed me four carpenters.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.
“carvers” in this verse is ḥārāšîm. 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 I said, What are these coming to do? And he said, These are the horns that have scattered Judah, so that no man lifted up his head, but these have come to make them tremble, to bring down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it.All the horns of the wicked I cut off; but the horns of the aligned one are lifted high.These wage war with the Lamb, and the Lamb overcomes them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with him are called, chosen, and steady.THE THREAD
The carpenter stretches out the cord, marks it out with a line, fits it with planes, and draws it with the compass. He makes it after the outline of a man, after the adornment of a man, so that it settles in a 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.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us