"And the LORD showed me four carpenters. (21) Then said I, What come these to do? And he spake, saying, These are the horns which have scattered Judah, so that no man did lift up his head: but these are come to fray them, to cast out the horns of the Gentiles, which lifted up their horn over the land of Judah to scatter it."
It is possible, (though here again I only venture to enquire, not to decide), by these four carpenters, may be intended, in a special allusion, the four Evangelists, whose doctrines of the person, work, and ministry, of the Lord Jesus, might in this figurative way, be said to hew down the enemies of the Church. But, as we are certainly not taught to consider any specific number in the literal sense of the word, but only as a certain quantity mentioned to imply the certainty of the thing itself; no more than in the parable of the virgins, because five were wise, and five foolish, we are to conclude the happy and the miserable will be equal in the great day of account; so I humbly conceive, that the vision is here intended to show, by four horns, the enemies of Christ, and by the four carpenters, the friends of Christ. Of what number soever each are, be they many, or be they few, the Lord showed the Prophet the sure end of the blessings that must take place in his Church and kingdom. The word of God is the sword of the Spirit, and his servants are commissioned in the use of it for the comfort of his people, and the destruction of his foes. I have hewed them by the Prophets, saith the Lord, and I have slain them by the words of my mouth. Hosea 6:5.