SUMMARY
These visions showcase God’s ongoing interest in the international affairs that threatened the people of Jerusalem. Several horsemen in the first vision are echoed by four chariots in the eighth vision, with the same message: the world is calm.
ANALYSIS
An unspecified number of riders open the first vision. A rider is described as riding a red horse, and behind him there are other [presumably riders on] red, speckled, and white horses (all of the colors are plural, indicating at least seven riders total). In the vision from Zechariah 6, black horses draw one of the four chariots, joined by red, spotted, and white horses, as in the vision from Zechariah 1. This grouping of riders/chariots may be reminiscent of the “four living creatures” in EzekielEzekiel was a priest and prophet who was raised in Jerusalem and exiled to Babylon in 597 BCE. 1:5-12 (see also Ezekiel 14:21). The four creatures and the horsemen appear together in Revelation 4:6b-8; 6:1-8, where each of the four living creatures summons one of the “four horsemen of the apocalypseAt its root, being derived from a Greek word meaning "unveiling," apocalypse refers to a revelation of a divine or previously unseen reality. Some ancient Jewish and Christian literature used the term to describe destruction or cataclysm. Paul describes his encounter with Jesus Christ as...,” as we know them from numerous depictions in art and literature. We should note, however, that the horsemen in Zechariah are more than four, and have only three different colors of horses. The chariots have similar colors to the horsemen of Revelation (with “pale” replacing “spotted”), however. Whereas in Zechariah their role is to “patrol” the four corners of the earth, the horsemen in Revelation bring judgment–capture, slaughter, economic hardship, and death.
