And I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains [were] mountains of brass.
Ver. 1. And I turned, and lift up mine eyes] i.e. I passed on to another vision; and I lifted up the eyes of my mind, higher to heaven, saith Jerome, to receive a further revelation from God. And whereas he saith, I turned, he declareth, that God from on every side giveth his Church clear testimonies of his care of her so that she will give heed unto them, and lift up her eyes.
There came four chariots out] i.e. Four squadrons of angels, God's warriors, and ministers of his manifold decrees, which are here set forth by the name of brazen mountains, see Zechariah 1:8, See Trapp on " Zec 1:8 " Chariots the angels are called in many places, 2Ki 2:11; 2Ki 6:17 Habakkuk 3:8, but especially Psalms 68:17. The chariots of God (in the Hebrew it is chariot, in the singular, to note the joint service of all the angels) are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels (of cheerful ones, so the Septuagint: ευθυμουντων, of such as serve the Lord readily and freely, with joy and tranquillity, and so do quiet his spirit, as it is said here, Zechariah 6:8, give him full satisfaction). The Lord is among them as in Sinai, in the holy place; that is, the angels by their swiftness and warlike prowess make Zion, the Church, as dreadful to all her enemies (did not one of them so to Sennacherib?) as those angels made Sinai, at the delivery of the law, which was given in fire, Deuteronomy 33:2. God rideth upon the heavens for Israel's help, i.e. upon the angels. Heb. the word rendered angels, in the above cited Psalms 68:17 (and so the Chaldee plainly expresseth it), is by some (who derive it from Shaan, to sharpen) referred to chariots; to note a kind of chariots armed with sharp hooks, used in wars, as many humane writers record. And so it maketh something to the confirmation of this interpretation, concerning angels, rather than the four monarchies. But the angel himself is our best interpreter, Zechariah 6:5, where, being asked by Zechariah what these chariots were? he answereth, These are the four spirits of the heavens, which go forth from standing before the Lord of all the earth, for a plain periphrase of the angels, Zechariah 1:10. See Trapp on " Zec 1:10 "
From between two mountains] Tanquam e carceribus, as designed by God's all-disposing providence and power, and ready pressed at his appointment and pleasure to run their race, do their office, execute God's judgments, which are both unsearchable and inevitable; and this the poets hammered at in their ineluctabile Fatum, unescapable destiny, as they called it. God's decrees lie hidden under mountains of brass, as it were, till they come to execution; they run as a river underground, till they break out and show themselves. When he hath once signified his will then we understand it, which before lay hidden from us; that is, when these chariots come out from between the mountains of brass, when the event declareth what was the immutable decree of God. Hence the Psalmist, "Thy righteousness is like the great mountains; thy judgments are a great deep"; this for the decree. And for the execution, "Thou preservest man and beast," Psa 36:6 but by such means and in such manner as to thee seemeth best. It is our part to say Amen to his Amen, and to put our Fiat and Placet to his. "The will of the Lord be done," said those primitive Christians, Acts 21:14 "Here am I, send me," Isaiah 6:8 .