The Horn · The Symbolism of Scripture
The Horn
A horn is the part of an animal that pushes — so in Scripture it means strength that can be counted. And it is the rarest kind of symbol: five separate times, the vision of horns is followed within a few verses by a sentence saying what they are.
What It Stands For
strength that pushes, and a flask you can carry
The Hebrew word is qeren (H7161), and the lexicon gives both senses in one line: a horn as projecting, and by implication a flask. That is not two symbols sharing a word by accident. It is one object doing two jobs in an agricultural world: the part of the animal that fights, and, once the animal is dead, the hollow container that survives it.
The first sense is the loud one. Matthew Henry, reading Zechariah’s four horns, puts the physical action back into the metaphor:
They are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem, that is, the Jews both in the country and in the city, because they were the Israel of God. They have tossed them (so some read it), as furious bulls with their horns toss that which they are enraged at.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Zechariah 1:19
Now by a horn he means power, glory, and honour, deriving it metaphorically from the brute creatures, to whom God has given horns for defence and glory.
John Chrysostom· Catena Aurea (Aquinas), on Luke 1:69, 407Greek, fourth century
Luke 1:69
For "horn" signifies either power, since horned animals have their strength in their horns, or kingdom, since kings were anointed from a horn.
Theophylact of Ohrid· Commentary on Luke, 1107Byzantine
Luke 1:69
Theophylact has both halves in one sentence, and notice how he gets from strength to kingship: not by allegory, but by remembering what kings were anointed out of. The flask is the bridge between the two meanings.
The Picture That Explains Itself
five visions, and the sentence that follows each one
| What is seen | What the passage says it is | Stated at |
|---|---|---|
| Four hornsZechariah 1:18 | “These are the horns which have scattered Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem.” | Zechariah 1:19 |
| A ram with two hornsDaniel 8:3 | “The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.” | Daniel 8:20 |
| A goat with one great hornDaniel 8:5 | “The great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.” | Daniel 8:21 |
| Ten horns on a fourth beastDaniel 7:7 | “The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” | Daniel 7:24 |
| Ten horns on a scarlet beastRevelation 17:3 | “The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet.” | Revelation 17:12 |
The two-horned ram that you saw represents the kings of Media and Persia. The shaggy goat represents the king of Greece, and the large horn between his eyes is the first king.Two named empires and one king, given as the meaning of the horns in the vision Daniel has just watched.
This matters for how a reader handles the harder horns. Where Scripture decodes, the decoding is the meaning and no cleverness is required. Where it does not: the identity of the little horn, the timing of the ten kings: the honest position is that the passage names a kind of power and leaves the roll-call open. Those questions have their own studies; this page is about the picture.
And I lifted up my eyes and saw: and behold four horns, and I said to the angel who spoke with me: What are these? And he said to me: These are the horns that have scattered Judah, and Israel, and Jerusalem. And the Lord showed me four craftsmen, and I said: What are these coming to do?
Jerome· Commentary on Zechariah, 420Latin, fifth century
Zechariah 1:18-19
Jerome is quoting the passage rather than interpreting it, which is the point: the prophet asks “what are these?” and is told. And the answer to the horns is four craftsmen — the men who work with tools, sent against the powers that pushed.
The Horns on the Altar
where the blood is put, and what a man grabs
Make a horn on each of its four corners, so that the horns are of one piece, and overlay it with bronze.Of one piece with the altar, not attached to it. The strength is not an addition.
But Adonijah, in fear of Solomon, got up and went to take hold of the horns of the altar.Adonijah, who has just tried to take the throne, runs to the altar and takes hold of its horns.
Two men in this one book do it. Adonijah is spared. Joab does the same thing a chapter later, holding the horns of the altar and saying he will die there — and he is executed at them (1 Kings 2:28-34). The symbol is honest about its own limit: the place of strength is a real refuge, and it is not a hiding place from justice. What the horns actually carry is shown in Leviticus, where the blood of the sin offering is put on them.
The priest must then put some of the blood on the horns of the altar of fragrant incense that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. And he is to pour out the rest of the bull’s blood at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.The blood goes on the horns first, and the rest is poured out at the bottom.
some of it was to be put upon the horns of the golden altar, because at that altar the priest himself ministered; and thus was signified the putting away of that pollution which from his sins did cleave to his services.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Leviticus 4:5-7
The Horn of Oil
the other sense of the same word
Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem, for I have selected from his sons a king for Myself.”'Fill thine horn with oil': the vessel, not the animal. Samuel is going to anoint a king.
Fill thine horn with oil - Horns appear to have been the ancient drinking vessels of all nations; and we may suppose that most persons who had to travel much, always carried one with them, for the purpose of taking up water from the fountains to quench their thirst. Such a horn had Samuel; and on this occasion he was commanded to fill it with oil, for the purpose of consecrating a king over Israel from among the sons of Jesse.
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible, 1832Wesleyan
1 Samuel 16:1
Clarke is describing an ordinary object: everybody had one. Which makes the next observation worth noticing rather than over-reading — the Hebrew is not consistent about which vessel is used, and the difference tracks the two kinds of kingship in the books of Samuel and Kings.
Saul was anointed with a glass vial of oil, scanty and brittle, David with a horn of oil, which was more plentiful and durable; hence we read of a horn of salvation in the house of his servant David, Luke i.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
1 Samuel 16:1
The vessels, verse by verse, and the honest limitwhat the Hebrew actually distinguishes, and what it does not say
Saul is anointed from a flask — Hebrew pak, a small container (1 Samuel 10:1). Jehu, whose house lasts four generations and ends, is anointed from the same kind of vessel (2 Kings 9:1, 9:3). David is anointed from a horn (1 Samuel 16:1, 16:13), and so is Solomon, from the horn of oil Zadok fetches out of the tabernacle (1 Kings 1:39).
The honest limit: Scripture reports the vessels and never comments on the difference. No verse says the horn means an enduring house and the flask a temporary one. It is an observation about the text: a real one, and Matthew Henry made it three hundred years ago, but it is a reading, not a doctrine, and the page presents it as one.
What Scripture does say out loud is the other half: qerenis the word behind “horn of salvation”, and Zechariah’s song puts that phrase in the house of David (Luke 1:69), which is where Psalm 132:17 promised the horn would bud.
Where It Points
a horn that buds, and seven on a Lamb
There I will make a horn grow for David; I have prepared a lamp for My anointed one.A horn that grows. The verb is agricultural, and it is promised to a place, 'there', in Zion.
He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David,The first words of a man who has been unable to speak for nine months.
There will I make the horn of David to bud. In Zion David's dynasty shall develop power and glory. In our notes from other authors we have included a description of the growth of the horns of stags, which is the natural fact from which we conceive the expression in the text to be borrowed. As the stag is made noble and strong by the development of his horns, so the house of David shall advance from strength to strength.
Charles Spurgeon· The Treasury of David, on Psalm 132, 1885Baptist
Psalm 132:17
Christ is the horn of salvation (denoting a plentiful and powerful salvation) which God has raised up, and made to bud, in the house of his servant David.
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710Nonconformist
Psalm 132:17
Spurgeon takes the odd verb seriously instead of smoothing it: a stag’s antlers grow, and the growing is the strength. Cyril of Alexandria puts the two senses of the word together on the one person the New Testament applies them to:
The word horn is used not only for power, but also for royalty. But Christ, Who is the Saviour that hath risen for us from the family and race of David, is both: for He is the King of kings, and the invincible power of the Father.
Cyril of Alexandria· Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, 444Alexandrian
Luke 1:69
Then I saw a Lamb who appeared to have been slain, standing in the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which represent the seven Spirits of God sent out into all the earth.John is told to look at a Lion and turns to see a Lamb, with seven horns.
The symbol ends where it began and reverses: horns are what an animal gores with, and the seven of them here are on the one creature in the scene that has been killed. The strongest thing in Revelation looks like the weakest thing in the room.
Having seven horns and seven eyes. The Spirit in Christ is sevenfold, due to the eminence of power: compared to horns, due to the illumination of grace, to eyes.
Bede the Venerable· Commentary on Revelation, 735Anglo-Saxon, eighth century
Revelation 5:6
Bede’s reading of the seven horns and seven eyes as the sevenfold Spirit is a devotional reading of long standing, and is named as one. What the verse itself explains is the eyes— “which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth” — and it leaves the horns unexplained.
What Scripture says outright
- Zechariah 1:19
The angel names the four horns as the powers that scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem. The interpretation is in the text.
- Daniel 7:24
“The ten horns out of this kingdom are ten kings that shall arise.” Horns are kings, said plainly.
- Luke 1:69
A horn of salvation, raised up in the house of David: the New Testament applying the whole image to one person.
What readers have heard in it
Readings and observations, named as such.
- 1 Samuel 16:1
That the horn of oil for David and Solomon, against the flask used for Saul and Jehu, marks the enduring house from the temporary one. A genuine pattern in the vocabulary; Scripture never comments on it.
- Revelation 5:6
That the seven horns are the sevenfold Spirit. The verse explains the seven eyes that way and says nothing about the horns.
- Daniel 7:24
Every identification of the ten kings and the little horn with named rulers or institutions. The passage supplies the category, not the roll-call, and the identifications have changed in every century that has made them.
The Voices
with the work named
The commentary worth having on this symbol is the commentary that keeps the animal in view. Chrysostom says the metaphor is taken from the brute creatures and does not apologise for it; Theophylact links strength and kingship through the anointing flask; Cyril of Alexandria refuses to choose between the two senses. Spurgeon reads the strange verb in Psalm 132 as a stag’s antlers growing, and Matthew Henry supplies both the bulls of Zechariah 1 and the observation about the vessels. Adam Clarke does the plain historical work, everyone owned a horn.
John Wesley’s note is the shortest and covers the ground: “A horn - Signifies honour, plenty, and strength. A horn of salvation - That is, a glorious and mighty saviour.”
Where to Go Next
Where the horn is the whole scene
Where the strength is claimed by someone else
Where the picture goes on
Its neighbours in the index
The Symbolism of Scripture gathers every picture the Bible thinks in. This one sits with: