[795] xxi. 36 Heb., 31 Eng.: _skilful to destroy_. [796] See next chapter. [797] Jer. xxv. 12; Hag. ii. 7. [798] Myrtles were once common in the Holy Land, and have been recently found (Hasselquist, _Travels_). For their prevalence near Jerusalem see Neh. viii. 15. They do not appear to have any symbolic value in the Vision. [799] For a less probable explanation see above, p. 282. [800] See pp. 311, 313, etc. [801] Ewald omits _riding a brown horse_, as “marring the lucidity of the description, and added from a misconception by an early hand.” But we must not expect lucidity in a phantasmagoria like this. [802]‎ מְצֻלָה, Meṣullah, either _shadow_ from צלל, or for מְצוּלָה, _ravine_, or else a proper name. The LXX., which uniformly for הֲדַסִּים, _myrtles_, reads הרים, _mountains_, renders אשר במצלה by τῶν κατασκίων. Ewald and Hitzig read מְצִלָּה, Arab, mizhallah, _shadowing_ or _tent_. [803] Heb. שרקים, only here. For this LXX. gives two kinds, καὶ ψαροὶ καὶ ποικίλοι, _and dappled and piebald_. Wright gives a full treatment of the question, pp. 531 ff. He points out that the cognate word in Arabic means sorrel, or yellowish red. [804] _Who stood among the myrtles_ omitted by Nowack. [805] Isa. xxxvii. 29; Jer. xlviii. 11; Psalm cxxiii. 4; Zeph. i. 12. [806] Or _for_. [807] _Who talked with me_ omitted by Nowack. [808] Heb. _helped for evil_, or _till it became a calamity_. [809] Marcus Dods, _Hag., Zech. and Mal._, p. 71. Orelli: “In distinction from Daniel, Zechariah is fond of a simultaneous survey, not the presenting of a succession.” [810] For the symbolism of iron horns see Micah iv. 13, and compare Orelli’s note, in which it is pointed out that the destroyers must be smiths as in Isa. xliv. 12, _workmen of iron_, and not as in LXX. _carpenters_. [811] Wellhausen and Nowack delete _Israel and Jerusalem_; the latter does not occur in Codd. A, Q, of Septuagint. [812] Wellhausen reads, after Mal. ii. 9, כפי אשר, _so that it lifted not its head_; but in that case we should not find ראׁׁשׁוֹ, but ראׁׁשָׁהּ. [813]‎ החריד, but LXX. read החדיד, and either that or some verb of cutting must be read. [814] The Hebrew, literally _comes forth_, is the technical term throughout the Visions for the entrance of the figures upon the stage of vision. [815] LXX. ἵστηκει, _stood up_: adopted by Nowack. [816] Psalm xxiv. [817] Isa. xvii. 12-14. [818] Psalm cxxii. 3. [819] Some codd. read _with the four winds_. LXX. _from the four winds will I gather you_ (σὺνάξω ὑμᾶς), and this is adopted by Wellhausen and Nowack. But it is probably a later change intended to adapt the poem to its new context. [820] _Dweller of the daughter of Babel._ But בת, _daughter_, is mere dittography of the termination of the preceding word.