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COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH, CHAPTER SIX I turned around, lifted up my eyes and saw, and, lo, four chariots coming out between two mountains, and the mountains were mountains of bronze. In the first chariot were red horses, in the second chariot black horses, in the third chariot white horses, and in the fourth chariot piebald horses of dapple-grey. I asked in reply to the angel speaking in me, What are they, Lord? In reply the angel speaking in me said, They are the four winds of heaven issuing forth to attend on the Lord of all (357) the earth. The chariot with the black horses issued forth to the north country, the white issued forth after them, the piebald issued forth to the south country, the dapple-grey issued forth and searched where to gaze and roam the earth. And they roamed the earth. He cried out and spoke to me thus, Lo, those issuing forth to the north country have set at rest my anger with the north country (vv.1–8). E PREVIOUSLY showed that, snared in their own nets and constrained by the cords of their own sins, as Scripture puts it, they were deported to a foreign land and dwelt among the foe, bearing the unfamiliar yoke of slavery. It was necessary, however, to mention also the time of release, and he actually does suggest it, interweaving other things; the prophet had been given overall instruction in everything that would happen to the nation in due course. The four chariots between two mountains, then, we claim again to be the kingdoms that were more famous than the others and located in the four quarters, or winds, under heaven, which are highlighted at different times. In my view, the bronze mountains refer to the two halves of the world, some people dividing the whole earth into Europe and Asia. Its halves are bronze, doubtless on account of their stability on all sides, their immobility, and being proof against any damage. The divinely inspired David, remember, also sings to the Lord of all, (358) “You established the earth, and it abides.”1 So these kingdoms are, as it were, from 149 1. Ps 119.90. 150 CYRIL OF ALEXANDRIA the four winds, stouter than the others, as I said; they enjoyed a higher reputation and issued forth to attend on the Lord of all the earth. Their attending suggests to us the manner of their servitude: they serve his wishes, and if they are strong and famous, this advantage accrues to them through him. If they performed any deed and plundered countries and cities, it was again only with his permission that they achieved this degree of force. After all, if what the prophet says is true, “There will be no evil in the city for which the Lord was not responsible” (where we speak of trouble as “evil”),2 how would they prevail over nations and countries without once more his granting the power as part of his plan? Now, it is time to explain as well which in fact are the kingdoms. In the first chariot were red horses, it says, then, representing the cruelty of the kingdom of the Chaldeans, red appropriately suggesting bloodshed to us. The Babylonians, in fact, were very bloodthirsty, capturing Judea and the cities in Samaria, with no quarter given. In the second chariot black horses, probably suggesting the kingdom of the Medes and Persians, that is, under Cyrus, black being the color in which they were invested, doubtless on account of the exorbitant and immeasurable slaughter they inflicted on the nations of the Chaldeans, in my view, and the great grief they caused the country; so their appearance would symbolize mourning and death. In the third chariot there were white horses, he says, perhaps suggesting the rule of Greeks and Macedonians, or (359) the kingdom of Alexander—white both because of effeminacy and because the nations of the Greeks were clad almost entirely in white clothing, and because they were clear in their speech, not having the darkness, as it were, of the barbarians’ language. In the fourth chariot there were some piebald horses of dapple-grey. Now, it should be realized that the Hebrew text and some of the other translators put “strong” for dapple-grey. But we also claim that this is the kingdom of the Romans, which constantly has among its rulers at various times a variety of skill and a seriousness of purpose; they were...

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