Zechariah Perek 2

Note: This is just a description of what’s written. For further info listen to NachDaily Audio shiur on this perek.

Zechariah sees a vision of four horns. (Radak and Targum: The four horns represent the four kingdoms of Babylonia, Persia, Media and Greece, that ruled over Yisrael.)

Zechariah questioned the angel who spoke to him about what those horns represented.

The angel replied that they were the horns of Yisrael and Yehudah that were spread out among the nations in exile.

Zechariah is then shown four carpenters, and he asks what they are going to do.

Zechariah was told that the carpenters were coming to fix the horns of Yehudah that no one else was able to fix, and to terrify the horns of the nations of the world who attacked Yehudah. (Ramad walli explains that in the time of Mashiach, Hashem will first lower the horns of the resha’im and will then raise the horns of the tzaddikim.)

Sukkah 52B asks:Who are these craftsmen? Mashiach ben Dovid, Mashiach ben Yosef, Eliyahu and the righteous kohen.

Zechariah has another vision:

Zechariah looked up and saw a man holding a measuring tape.

Zechariah asked the man where is he was going. The man replied that he was going to measure Yerushalayim.

Then the first angel who spoke to Zechariah left and another angel spoke to him and told him in the name of Hashem that Yerushalayim will be repopulated as an unwalled city. Hashem will “personally” surround Yerushalayim like a wall of fire.

Meforshim explain that the first angel who went to measure Yerushalayim thought that Yerushalayim was not going to grow and be repopulated, and he therefore went to measure it to see its limitations. The second angel, however, wanted to stop the angel with the measuring stick because the borders of Yerushalayim will expand, in the time of Mashiach, like an unwalled city.

Hashem will protect His nation.

He will once again choose Yerushalayim.