The first chariot had red horses or, as Good News Translation says, “The first chariot was pulled by red horses.” As in 1.8, “brown” is probably a better translation than red in English (see the notes there). In some languages it may be grammatically necessary to state whether each chariot had two horses or more than two. Translators may assume they had two, since this was the usual number. This may be incorporated into the first verse (see the comment above).

The second black horses: This is a short way of saying “the second chariot had black horses.” The noun chariot and the verb had need not be repeated in English in this and the two following clauses, but will need to be repeated in some languages. The color term black did not occur in the description of the horses in 1.8, but its meaning is not in dispute here.

The third white horses: White was also the third color listed in 1.8.

And the fourth chariot dappled gray horses: The Hebrew word here translated dappled is not the same word as that rendered “dappled” in Good News Translation in 1.8. However, both Hebrew words seem to have much the same meaning, and several versions ancient and modern translate them both with the same term (Septuagint, Vulgate, New English Bible, Good News Translation). In other languages translators may well do the same. As in 1.8, we recommend that if technical terms for the colors of horses are not available or not well known, then translators should use a simple term like “gray.” In 1.8 we also suggested that if there is no term for “gray,” translators could mention the colors from which gray is made up, namely black and white. That solution is less desirable here, however, since black and white have already been mentioned separately. Perhaps some expression like “spotted” (New American Bible, New Jewish Publication Society’s Tanakh) could be used, though in English “spotted” applies more readily to dogs or birds than to horses.

The real problem here is the meaning of ʾamutsim, the last word in Hebrew, which as the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, is uncertain. We would expect another color word at this point, and indeed ʾamutsim may be used in verse 7 as parallel with the color words in verse 6. However, elsewhere this Hebrew root carries the meaning “strong.” The difficulty is an ancient one: the Septuagint translates with another word meaning much the same as dappled, the Vulgate translates as “strong,” and the Syriac omits ʾamutsim. All three of these solutions can also be found among modern versions. The Septuagint approach is represented in Revised Standard Version and New Living Translation dappled gray, NJV “spotted–dappled,” and Contemporary English Version “spotted gray” (similarly Traduction œcuménique de la Bible, Bible en français courant, Parola Del Signore: La Bibbia in Lingua Corrente, Biblen: Det Gamle og Det Nye Testamente). The Vulgate approach is found in New Jerusalem Bible “vigorous, piebald,” New American Bible “spotted … strong,” and New International Version “dappled … powerful” (similarly Bible de Jérusalem, Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch). The Syriac approach is followed in Moffatt, New English Bible/ Revised English Bible, and Good News Translation. No solution is fully satisfactory, but as Critique Textuelle de l’Ancien Testament notes, the least unsatisfactory is the second, especially if the meaning “strong” is applied to all the horses and not just those on the fourth chariot. This view is supported by Meyers & Meyers. Such a solution is found in New American Bible “all of them strong horses” and New International Version “all of them powerful” (similarly Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch).

Quoted with permission from Clark, David J. & Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Zechariah. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2002. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .