And I said unto the angel that talked with me
( Zechariah 1:9 Zechariah 1:13 Zechariah 1:14 ) : What [be] these?
that is, who do these horns signify? and what or whom do they represent? and he answered me, These [are] the horns which have scattered
Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem;
which may design the distresses, vexations, and captivities of the people of Israel by their enemies, as by the Moabites, Ammonites in the times of the judges; and the captivity of the ten tribes of Israel by Shalmaneser; and of the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah, and of the destruction of Jerusalem, by Nebuchadnezzar; when they were ventilated or fanned, as the word F24 signifies, and so scattered abroad; see ( Jeremiah 6:11 ) ( 15:7 ) and also their troubles in the times of the Medes and Persians, under Cambyses, until this second year of Darius; and may likewise have reference prophetically to their after troubles and captivity by the Romans; and to Rome Pagan, which persecuted and scattered the churches of Christ and people of God in the several parts of the world; and the antichristian states, the persecutors of the same.