Zechariah 4:1-3
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 4
Fourth Vision: The Lampstand and the Two Olive Trees. 1 Then the angel who spoke with me returned and aroused me, like one awakened from sleep. 2 He said to me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a lampstand[a] all of gold,(A) with a bowl on top of it. There are seven lamps on it, with seven spouts on each of the lamps that are on top of it. 3 And beside it are two olive trees,[b] one on the right of the bowl and one to its left.”
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- 4:2 Lampstand: receptacle for lamps and one of the furnishings of the main room of the Temple. This visionary object does not correspond to the biblical descriptions of the menorah in either the tabernacle (Ex 25:31–40) or the Solomonic Temple (1 Kgs 7:49) but rather has properties of both. Seven lamps…seven spouts: seven lamps, each with seven pinched wick holes. Such objects were part of the repertoire of cultic vessels throughout the Old Testament period. Here they symbolize God’s eyes, i.e., divine omniscience; see v. 10.
- 4:3 Olive trees: visionary image that picks up the botanical language describing the Israelite cultic lampstands, with the olive trees specifically connoting fertility, permanence, and righteousness.
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