Cast down by praise

The craftsmen who throw down the “horns” that have scattered Judah (Zechariah 1:18-21) are like the craftsmen that built the tabernacle and temple.  They are destroying horns (of an altar), and so gaining the victory over the Gentiles.

Zechariah gives a neat little verbal twist to this in verse 21, using the verb yadah in the sense of “throw down.”  That word is more typically translated as “praise,” “confess,” or “give thanks.”  It can mean shoot or throw down, but that meaning comes out only in a few places.  Zechariah seems to hint playfully at the lesson of Nehemiah: The joy of Yahweh is our strength.

The connection between praising Yahweh and casting down enemies is apparently evident in Hebrew vocabulary.  The typical word for “cast down” is yarah , which differs only by a tittle from yadah .