Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, October 30th, 2024
the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Read the Bible

King James Version

Zechariah 1:20

And the Lord shewed me four carpenters.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Carpentry;   Horn;   Israel, Prophecies Concerning;   Vision;   Scofield Reference Index - Carpenters;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Apocalyptic literature;   Zechariah, book of;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Apocalyptic;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, Book of;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Zechariah, Prophecy of;   Wilson's Dictionary of Bible Types - Carpenter;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Carpenter;   Four;   Horn;   Zechariah, Book of;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Preexistence;  

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
The Lord showed me four workers.
New American Standard Bible
Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
New Century Version
Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.
Update Bible Version
And Yahweh showed me four smiths.
Webster's Bible Translation
And the LORD showed me four carpenters.
Amplified Bible
Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
English Standard Version
Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.
World English Bible
Yahweh showed me four craftsmen.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And the Lord schewide to me foure smythis.
English Revised Version
And the LORD shewed me four smiths.
Berean Standard Bible
Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
American Standard Version
And Jehovah showed me four smiths.
Bible in Basic English
And the Lord gave me a vision of four metal-workers.
Complete Jewish Bible
In the eighth month of the second year of Daryavesh, the following message from Adonai came to Z'kharyah the son of Berekhyah, the son of ‘Iddo, the prophet: " Adonai was extremely angry with your ancestors. Therefore, tell them that Adonai -Tzva'ot says this: ‘"Return to me," says Adonai -Tzva'ot, "and I will return to you," says Adonai -Tzva'ot. "Don't be like your ancestors. The earlier prophets proclaimed to them, ‘ Adonai -Tzva'ot says to turn back now from your evil ways and deeds'; but they didn't listen or pay attention to me," says Adonai . "Your ancestors, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? But my words and my laws, which I ordered my servants the prophets, overtook your ancestors, didn't they? Then they turned and said, ‘ Adonai has dealt with us according to our ways and deeds, just as he intended to do.'"'" On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, the month of Sh'vat, in the second year of Daryavesh, this message from Adonai came to Z'kharyah the son of Berekhyah, the son of ‘Iddo, the prophet: It was night, and I saw there before me a man riding on a russet-colored horse. He stood among the myrtle bushes in the valley; and behind him were other horses, russet, chestnut-colored and white. I asked, "What are these, my Lord?" The angel speaking with me said to me, "I will show you what these are." The man standing among the myrtles said, "These are those whom Adonai has sent to wander throughout the earth." Then they themselves answered the angel of Adonai standing among the myrtles, "We have been wandering throughout the earth, and the whole world is quiet and at peace." The angel of Adonai said, " Adonai -Tzva'ot, how long will you keep withholding mercy from Yerushalayim and the cities of Y'hudah? You've been angry with them for the past seventy years!" Adonai replied with kind and comforting words to the angel who was speaking with me. The angel speaking with me then said to me, "Here is what Adonai -Tzva'ot says: ‘I am extremely jealous on behalf of Yerushalayim and Tziyon; and [to the same degree] I am extremely angry with the nations that are so self-satisfied; because I was only a little angry [at Yerushalayim and Tziyon], but they made the suffering worse.' Therefore Adonai says, ‘I will return to Yerushalayim with merciful deeds. My house will be rebuilt there,' says Adonai -Tzva'ot; ‘yes, a measuring line will be stretched out over Yerushalayim.' In addition, proclaim that Adonai -Tzva'ot says, ‘My cities will again overflow with prosperity.' Adonai will again comfort Tziyon, and he will again make Yerushalayim the city of his choice."
Darby Translation
And Jehovah shewed me four craftsmen.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
span data-lang="eng" data-trans="jps" data-ref="zec.1.1" class="versetxt"> In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying: 'The LORD hath been sore displeased with your fathers. Therefore say thou unto them, Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Return unto Me, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will return unto you, saith the LORD of hosts. Be ye not as your fathers, unto whom the former prophets proclaimed, saying: Thus saith the LORD of hosts: Return ye now from your evil ways, and from your evil doings; but they did not hear, nor attend unto Me, saith the LORD. Your fathers, where are they? and the prophets, do they live for ever? But My words and My statutes, which I commanded My servants the prophets, did they not overtake your fathers? so that they turned and said: Like as the LORD of hosts purposed to do unto us, according to our ways, and according to our doings, so hath He dealt with us.' Upon the four and twentieth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shebat, in the second year of Darius, came the word of the LORD unto Zechariah the son of Berechiah, the son of Iddo, the prophet, saying-- I saw in the night, and behold a man riding upon a red horse, and he stood among the myrtle-trees that were in the bottom; and behind him there were horses, red, sorrel, and white. Then said I: 'O my lord, what are these?' And the angel that spoke with me said unto me: 'I will show thee what these are.' And the man that stood among the myrtle-trees answered and said: 'These are they whom the LORD hath sent to walk to and fro through the earth.' And they answered the angel of the LORD that stood among the myrtle-trees, and said: 'We have walked to and fro through the earth, and, behold, all the earth sitteth still, and is at rest.' Then the angel of the LORD spoke and said: 'O LORD of hosts, how long wilt Thou not have compassion on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah, against which Thou hast had indignation these threescore and ten years? And the LORD answered the angel that spoke with me with good words, even comforting words-- so the angel that spoke with me said unto me: 'Proclaim thou, saying: Thus saith the LORD of hosts: I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion with a great jealousy; and I am very sore displeased with the nations that are at ease; for I was but a little displeased, and they helped for evil. Therefore thus saith the LORD: I return to Jerusalem with compassions: My house shall be built in it, saith the LORD of hosts, and a line shall be stretched forth over Jerusalem. Again, proclaim, saying: Thus saith the LORD of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity; and the LORD shall yet comfort Zion, and shall yet choose Jerusalem.'
King James Version (1611)
And the Lord shewed mee foure carpenters.
New Living Translation
Then the Lord showed me four blacksmiths.
New Life Bible
Then the Lord showed me four workmen.
New Revised Standard
Then the Lord showed me four blacksmiths.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And the Lord shewed me foure carpenters.
George Lamsa Translation
And the LORD showed me four carpenters.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then Yahweh shewed me Four Craftsmen.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And the Lord shewed me four smiths.
Revised Standard Version
Then the LORD showed me four smiths.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And the Lorde shewed me foure carpenters.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And the Lord shewed me four artificers.
Good News Translation
Then the Lord showed me four workers with hammers.
Christian Standard Bible®
Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen.
Hebrew Names Version
The LORD showed me four craftsmen.
Lexham English Bible
Then Yahweh showed me four skilled craftsmen,
Literal Translation
And Jehovah made me see four craftsmen.
Young's Literal Translation
And Jehovah doth shew me four artizans.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And ye LORDE shewed me iiij. carpenters.
THE MESSAGE
Then God expanded the vision to include four blacksmiths.
New English Translation
Next the Lord showed me four blacksmiths.
New King James Version
Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Then the LORD showed me four craftsmen.
Legacy Standard Bible
Then Yahweh showed me four craftsmen.

Contextual Overview

18 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and behold four horns. 19 And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What be these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. 20 And the Lord shewed me four carpenters. 21 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

four: Zechariah 9:12-16, Zechariah 10:3-5, Zechariah 12:2-6, Deuteronomy 33:25, Judges 11:16, Judges 11:18, 1 Samuel 12:11, Nehemiah 9:27, Isaiah 54:15-17, Obadiah 1:21, Micah 5:5, Micah 5:6, Micah 5:8, Micah 5:9

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 8:10 - the Lord Psalms 75:10 - All the horns Jeremiah 24:1 - Lord Amos 7:1 - showed Zechariah 10:4 - of him came forth

Cross-References

Genesis 1:7
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
Genesis 1:14
And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Genesis 1:22
And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Genesis 1:24
And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
Genesis 1:25
And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Genesis 1:30
And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
Genesis 2:19
And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.
Genesis 8:17
Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth.
1 Kings 4:33
And he spake of trees, from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.
Psalms 148:10
Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And the Lord showed me four carpenters. To saw and cut in pieces the four horns; or rather "four blacksmiths" y; these horns were horns of iron; so the word is rendered a "smith" in 1 Samuel 13:19 and indeed it signifies both a worker in wood and a worker in iron; and who are sometimes distinguished by what they work in, whether wood or iron; see Isaiah 44:12. The Jews say z these four carpenters are Messiah ben David, Messiah ben Ephraim, Elijah, and the priest of righteousness; or, as elsewhere a, Elijah, the King Messiah, Melchizedek, and he that was anointed for war; though Kimchi much better interprets them of the kings, the princes above, who preside over kingdoms, that is, the angels; and so Jerom and Theodoret; who have been sometimes employed in the destruction of the enemies of God's people, or in preventing them doing the mischief they otherwise would; and even the several monarchies themselves have been the means of destroying each other; so the Babylonians were destroyed by the Medes and Persians; the Persians by the Grecians; the Grecians by the Romans; and the Romans by the Goths, Hunns, Vandals, c. in the western part of the empire and by the Saracens and Turks in the eastern part of it: and they may be applied to the apostles of Christ, who were chiefly mechanics, mean and illiterate persons, yet workmen in the Gospel, that need not to be ashamed; and who were sent by Christ into the four parts of the world, to spread his Gospel, set up his interest, and pull down the kingdom of Satan: and since the Jews make the Messiah himself one of these carpenters, they have no reason to upbraid or be offended at Jesus our Messiah being a carpenter, and a carpenter's son, as in

Matthew 13:55 and Kimchi owns that their ancient Rabbins explain this verse of the days of the Messiah.

y חרשים "fabros ferrarios", Pembellus, Sanctius, Burkius. z T. Bab. Succa, fol. 52. 2. a Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 11. 4. Vid. Bemidbar Rabba, sect. 14. fol. 111. 4.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse Zechariah 1:20. Four carpenters. — Four other powers, who should defeat the powers intended by the horns. These are the same as the four chariots mentioned Zechariah 6:1-3; Zechariah 6:6-7. The first was NABOPOLASSAR, father of Nebuchadnezzar, who overturned the empire of the Assyrians. The second was CYRUS, who destroyed the empire of the Chaldeans. The third was ALEXANDER the Great, who destroyed the empire of the Persians. And the fourth was PTOLEMY, who rendered himself master of Egypt. Some of these had already been cast down; the rest were to follow. Calmet gives this interpretation, and vindicates it at length.


 
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