What Does Zechariah 6:7 Mean?
And the strong ones went forth and sought to go, to walk about through the earth, and he said, Go, walk through it. So they walked about through the earth.
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 bay went forth, and sought to go that they might walk to and fro through the earth: and he said, Get you hence, walk to and fro through the earth. So they walked to and fro through the earth.THE KEY
One Hebrew root repeats through their wish, the command, and the result: what English makes several movements is one unfolding act of going.
THE MEANING
The horses seek to go, receive the command to cross the earth, and then carry it out. The repeated movement makes the earth a field they traverse, while the command directs their roaming.
THE ROOT
לְהִתְהַלֵּךְ
lehithallekh
GROWS FROM
הלך
go, walk, move along
“walk about” in this verse is lehithallekh. The verse repeats this root in “to go,” “get you hence,” “walk to and fro,” and “walked.” English presents these as separate actions, while Hebrew carries the same movement from intention through command to completion.
ALSO GROWS
lalechet: to go
לָלֶכֶת
This earlier form names the movement the horses seek before they receive the command.
lekhu: go; get you hence
לְכוּ
The command uses the same root, turning their desired movement into directed travel.
hithallekh: walk about; move around
הִתְהַלֵּךְ
This form describes the traversal itself, linking the command to the horses’ completed roaming.
הָאֲמֻצִּים
ha’amutsim
GROWS FROM
אמצ
be strong, firm, or resolute
“strong ones” in this verse is ha’amutsim. The Hebrew word translated “bay” comes from a root carrying the sense of strength. The horses’ description therefore holds a quality of strength beneath the color-word English gives them.
ALSO GROWS
amats: be strong
אֲמַץ
This verbal form shows the strength present as a quality in the horses’ Hebrew description.
immets: strengthen; make firm
אִמֵּץ
The related form shows the same root can describe strength being established, not only possessed.
THE PATTERN
A calling becomes action when a sender’s word is answered with movement.
And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are the ones the LORD has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then I said, Here I am; send me.Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, immersing them into the nature of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Set-Apart Breath.THE THREAD
And the man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are the ones the LORD has sent to walk to and fro through the earth.The same phrase, “walk to and fro through the earth,” appears in both verses, carrying the Hebrew root הלך. Zechariah 1:10 identifies the roaming horses as sent by the LORD; 6:7 shows their movement following the command.
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