Zechariah 6:1-8--A Vision of Four Chariots

Zechariah 6:1-8
English Standard Version

A Vision of Four Chariots
6 Again I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, four chariots came out from between two mountains. And the mountains were mountains of bronze. 2 The first chariot had red horses, the second black horses, 3 the third white horses, and the fourth chariot dappled horses—all of them strong. 4 Then I answered and said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” 5 And the angel answered and said to me, “These are going out to the four winds of heaven, after presenting themselves before the Lord of all the earth. 6 The chariot with the black horses goes toward the north country, the white ones go after them, and the dappled ones go toward the south country.” 7 When the strong horses came out, they were impatient to go and patrol the earth. And he said, “Go, patrol the earth.” So they patrolled the earth. 8 Then he cried to me, “Behold, those who go toward the north country have set my Spirit at rest in the north country.”

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Zechariah sees another vison--this one with little to no explanation, but we assume this has to do with the big theme of the Day of the LORD.  These horses and chariots would go north and south to make war against the enemies of the LORD and the enemies of Israel until the Spirit was at peace (remember how the spirit is grieved and provoked by sin, especially unrepentant sin that remains unpunished).  These are the horses that we saw returning from their mission in chapter 1:7-17.  As the "Got Questions" article on all the visions of Zechariah says, this makes the visions come full circle--we end where we began.  The LORD will judge the earth so that His Spirit will be at rest and to bring peace and rest to His people who have suffered judgment and persecution for a long time.

These four horses may or may not be related to the four horsemen of the apocalypse (three of the four horses match in description.  If so, the fourth that is called dappled here is called pale there in Revelation 6).  They certainly go out to bring judgment on the whole world but I don't see the judgment of War, Antichrist, Famine and Death being focused on either the North or the South, thought maybe they start in one of those places and progress throughout the entire world.  You can read more about the four horsemen in Revelation 6 and I have a journal article about them from when I studied that passage.