Four Horns
Zech. 1:18-21 And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, four horns. And I said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these? And he answered me, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. And the Lrd showed me four carvers. Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head; but these [four carvers] are come to terrify them, to cast down the horns of the nations, which lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.
Horn = King/Kingdom
Dan. 8:20 The ram which thou saw, that had the two horns, they are the kings of Media and Persia.
Dan. 8:21 And the rough he-goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.
Dan. 8:8 And the he-goat magnified himself exceedingly: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and instead of it there came up four notable [horns] toward the four winds of heaven.
Dan. 8:21-22 And the rough he-goat is the king of Greece: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king. And as for that which was broken, in the place whereof four [horns] stood up, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not with his power.
Dan. 7:23-24 Thus he said, The fourth beast shall be a fourth kingdom upon earth, which shall be diverse from all the kingdoms, and shall devour the whole earth, and shall tread it down, and break it in pieces. And as for the 10 horns, out of this kingdom shall 10 kings arise: and another shall arise after them; and he shall be diverse from the former, and he shall put down three kings.
Rev. 17:12 And the 10 horns that thou saw are 10 kings, who have received no kingdom as yet; but they receive authority as kings for one time period with the beast.
The horns represent kingdoms from different nations because Zechariah calls them “horns of the nations.”
Scattering = Persecuting
Psa. 89:10 Thou hast broken Rahab in pieces, as one that is slain; Thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength.
Psa. 92:9 For, lo, thine enemies, O Lrd, For, lo, thine enemies shall perish; All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
Acts 8:1 And Saul was consenting unto his death. And there arose on that day a great persecution against the church which was in Jerusalem; and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judaea and Samaria, except the apostles.
Judah = Jews
Rom. 2:28 For he is not a Judean who is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh.
Judah = Jsus = Christians
Rom. 2:29 But he is a Judean who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of Gd.
Rev. 5:4-5 And I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll, or to look thereon: and one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not; behold, the Lion [Jsus] that is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath overcome to open the book and the seven seals thereof.
Israel = Non-Christian Jews
2Kings 17:21 For he rent Israel from the house of David; and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king: and Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lrd, and made them sin a great sin.
Rom. 9:3-5 For I could wish that I myself were anathema from Chrst for my brethren’s sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh: who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of Gd, and the promises; whose are the fathers, and of whom is Chrst as concerning the flesh, who is over all, Gd blessed for ever. Amen.
1Cor. 10:18 Behold Israel according to the flesh: have not they that eat the sacrifices communion with the altar?
Jerusalem = Old Covenant = Judaism
Gal. 4:22-25 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which things contain an allegory: for these women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children.
Jerusalem = New Covenant = Christianity
Gal. 4:26-31 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now. Howbeit what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman.
Carver = Destroyer
Is. 54:16 Behold, I have created the carver that blows the fire of coals, and bringeth forth a weapon for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.
Jer. 10:3 For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the carver with the axe.
Ezek. 21:31 And I will pour out mine indignation upon thee; I will blow upon thee with the fire of my wrath; and I will deliver thee into the hand of brutish men, carvers of destruction.
Land = Peoples
Is. 60:2 For, behold, darkness shall cover the earth [land], and gross darkness the peoples; but the Lrd will arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Mic. 1:2 Hear, ye peoples, all of you; hearken, O earth [land], and all that therein is: and let the Lrd Gd be witness against you, the Lrd from his holy temple.
There are four kingdoms (horns). These are the kingdoms (horns) which have persecuted (scattered):
1) Jews and Christians (Judah);
2) Non-Christian Jews (Israel);
3) Judaism and Christianity (Jerusalem).
These are the kingdoms (horns) which persecuted (scattered) Jews and Christians (Judah), so that no man did lift up his head.
And there are four destroyers (carvers). These destroyers (carvers) are come to terrify the four kingdoms (horns), to cast down the kingdoms (horns) of the nations, which lifted up their kingdom (horn) against the peoples (land) of the Jews and Christians (Judah) to persecute (scatter) it.
FULFILLED: 608 BC – present
Babylonian Empire
First Horn
The Babylonian Empire (first horn) dominated the Middle East from 608-539 BC.
The Babylonian Empire persecuted (scattered) the Jews (Judah) and Judaism (Jerusalem) because:
1) In 597 BC, Nebuchadnezzar plundered the Jewish Temple;
2) In 586 BC, Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple;
3) Nebuchadnezzar tried to kill Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego.
Medo-Persian Empire
First Carver
Cyrus the Persian and Darius the Mede (Cyaxares II) of the Medo-Persian Empire (first carver) conquered the Babylonian Empire (first horn) in 539 BC.
Dan. 5:30-31 In that night Belshazzar the Chaldean king was slain. And Darius the Mede [Cyaxares II] received the kingdom, being about 62 years old.
Dan. 6:28 So this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius, and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian.
Second Horn
The Medo-Persian Empire (second horn) persecuted (scattered) the Jews (Judah) because:
1) In 539 BC, Medo-Persian leaders tried to have Daniel killed in the lions’ den;
2) Around 475 BC, Haman tried to eradicate the Jews in the story of Esther.
Greek Empire
Second Carver
Alexander the Great of the Greek Empire (second carver) conquered the Medo-Persian Empire (second horn) in 330 BC.
“And it happened, after that Alexander son of Philip, the Macedonian, who came out of the land of Chettiim, had smitten Darius king of the Persians and Medes, that he reigned in his stead, the first over Greece.”
——First Book of Maccabees (Jewish apocrypha), Chapter 1, Verse 1, Written c. 100 BC.
Third Horn
The Greek Empire (third horn) persecuted (scattered) the Jews (Judah) and Judaism (Jerusalem) because:
1) In 216 BC, Ptolemy IV killed tens of thousands of Jews and tried to eradicate them;
2) From 168-165 BC, Antiochus IV killed thousands of Jews and tried to eradicate Judaism;
3) Around 168-141 BC, the Greek Seleucids fought wars against the Jews during the Maccabean Revolt and Hasmonean Kingdom.
Roman Empire
Third Carver
Augustus of the Roman Empire (third carver) conquered the Greek Empire (third horn) in 30 BC.
“He [Augustus] delayed at Brundisium only 27 days — just long enough to satisfy all the demands of the soldiers — and then went to Egypt by a roundabout way through Asia and Syria, laid siege to Alexandria, where Antony had taken refuge with Cleopatra, and soon took the city. Although Antony tried to make terms at the eleventh hour, Augustus forced him to commit suicide, and viewed his corpse. He greatly desired to save Cleopatra alive for his triumph, and even had Psylli brought to her, to suck the poison from her wound, since it was thought that she had died from the bite of an asp.”
——Suetonius (pagan Roman), The Twelve Caesars, Life of Augustus, Paragraph 17, Written 121 AD.
“He [Augustus] reduced Egypt to the form of a [Roman] province, and then to make it more fruitful and better adapted to supply the city with grain, he set his soldiers at work cleaning out all the canals into which the Nile overflows, which in the course of many years had become choked with mud.”
——Suetonius (pagan Roman), The Twelve Caesars, Life of Augustus, Paragraph 18, Written 121 AD.
Fourth Horn
The Roman Empire (fourth horn) persecuted (scattered) Christians (Judah), non-Christian Jews (Israel), and Christianity (Jerusalem) because:
1) In 70 AD, Titus killed massive numbers of non-Christian Jews and destroyed the Temple;
2) From 303-313 AD, Roman Emperors persecuted and killed many Christians;
3) Roman Catholic Popes killed massive numbers of Christians and tried to change the holy days and the laws of Gd;
4) Roman-German Europe persecuted the non-Christian Jews during the Crusades, Spanish Inquisition, and expulsions of Jews from Western Europe;
5) Around 1938-1945, Roman-German Europe killed 6 million non-Christian Jews.
NOT FULFILLED: Return of Jsus
Fourth Carver
Jsus of the Kingdom of Heaven (fourth carver) will conquer Roman-German Europe (fourth horn).
Dan. 2:34-35 Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon its feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them in pieces. Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken in pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, so that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.
2Th. 1:7-10 And to you that are afflicted rest with us, at the revelation of the Lrd Jsus from heaven with the angels of his power in flaming fire, rendering vengeance to them that know not Gd, and to them that obey not the gospel of our Lrd Jsus: who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction from the face of the Lrd and from the glory of his might, when he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be marvelled at in all them that believed (because our testimony unto you was believed) in that day.
2Th. 2:8-10 And then shall be revealed the lawless one, whom the Lrd Jsus shall slay with the breath of his mouth, and bring to nought by the manifestation of his coming; even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
Rev. 19:19-21 And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat upon the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought the signs in his sight, wherewith he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast and them that worshipped his image: they two were cast alive into the lake of fire that burneth with brimstone: and the rest were killed with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, even the sword which came forth out of his mouth: and all the birds were filled with their flesh.