Zechariah 6:1

In this chapter, we have the concluding vision in the series of eight, the vision of the four chariots of God (Zechariah 6:1-8); and an altogether different type of revelation from God to Zechariah, in which by impressive symbolical actions, the coming of the Redeemer of the world is prophesied, namely, the Branch, the Messiah, the holy one who is both Priest and King, Jesus Christ the Lord (Zechariah 6:9-15).

Zechariah 6:1

"And again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there came four chariots out from between two mountains; and the mountains were mountains of brass."

Here there come into view four chariots and two mountains. These chariots are symbols of the power of God. "The angels of God are often called the chariots of God (Psalms 48:17, and Psalms 18:10)";[1] and evidently these great powers also appear in Revelation 9:14, where the loosing of the four angels at the great river Euphrates is mentioned. These and also similar visions of chariots and horses are symbols of the universal power of the Eternal in his government of human affairs. Their number, "four," should not be understood as any kind of limitation, but as a suggestion that God's power is universal, bearing upon the "four corners of the earth," encompassing "the four winds of heaven," etc.

"The mountains were mountains of brass ..." The metallic nature of these mountains forbids the notion that they were literal. We may also reject with confidence the allegations of scholars like Mitchell who find here some borrowing by the prophet from Babylonian mythology which alleged that the abode of Deity was guarded on either side by a brass mountain! We believe that God gave the vision to Zechariah and that he was in no way indebted to the silly myths of Babylon. Leupold cited a number of "interpretations" of the mountains thus:

They are the two fundamental forms of divine appointment (Lange): they are the actual hills Zion and Moriah; they represent church and state; and Luther made them the law and the prophets.[2]

Since no inspired interpretation of the meaning of the brass mountains is available, we may safely pass over them as inert figures in the vision.