1 Samuel 2:3
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
3 Speak boastfully no longer,
Do not let arrogance issue from your mouths.[a]
For an all-knowing God is the Lord,
a God who weighs actions.(A)
Zechariah 2:1-4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 2
Second Vision: The Four Horns and the Four Smiths. 1 I raised my eyes and looked and there were four horns.[a] 2 Then I asked the angel who spoke with me, “What are those?” He answered, “Those are the horns that scattered[b] Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.”(A)
3 Then the Lord showed me four workmen.[c] 4 And I said, “What are these coming to do?” And the Lord said, “Those are the horns that scattered Judah, so that none could raise their heads any more;(B) and these have come to terrify them—to cut down the horns of the nations that raised their horns to scatter the land of Judah.”
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 2:1 Four horns: symbols of the total political and military might of Judah’s imperial adversaries, probably representing Assyria, Babylonia, and Persia. The number four represents universality rather than any specific number of foes.
- 2:2 Scattered: sent part of the population into exile. This was standard imperial policy initiated in the ancient Near East by the Assyrians for dealing with a conquered state.
- 2:3 Four workmen: four agents of God’s power. The imagery follows that of four horns: the workers cut down, or make ineffectual, the horns, i.e., enemy.
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