Zechariah 4:1. _came again and waked me_ Or, _returned and waked_me, i.e. waked me again. Comp. Zechariah 5:1. "The prophet intimates that he lay as one weighed down with ecstatic sleep, through wonder and astonishment at the preceding vision." Rosenm. Comp. Daniel 8:18; Daniel 8:27; Luke 9:32... [ Continue Reading ]
The Fifth Vision. _The Golden Candlestick_, Zechariah 4:1-14. Roused by the Interpreting Angel from a sleep or stupor, into which he appears to have fallen, Zechariah 3:1, the prophet sees a golden candlestick or lamp-stand. Like that originally placed in the Tabernacle, it has seven lamps, but they... [ Continue Reading ]
_I have looked_ Rather, I HAVE SEEN, the word being the same as in the Angel's question, What seest thou? _A candlestick all of gold_ The word here used for candlestick (though not restricted to that, 2 Kings 4:10) is always used of the candlestick in the Tabernacle. That too, like this, was "all of... [ Continue Reading ]
_two olive trees_ We learn afterwards (Zechariah 4:11-12) that each of these had a fruit-bearing "branch," which "emptied itself" (its oil) by a golden tube into the oil-bowl of the candlestick. Human agency is again set aside. The berries become oil without the aid of man.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Not by might_, &c. This is the teaching of the vision, its message from Jehovah to Zerubbabel. Fed "without hands" (Daniel 2:34) with oil the lamp in the vision shone brightly. So without the resources of human "might and power," which to "these feeble Jews" (Nehemiah 4:2) were altogether wanting,... [ Continue Reading ]
_great mountain_ Comp. Isaiah 40:4; Isaiah 49:11; Matthew 17:20; Mat 21:21; 1 Corinthians 13:2. So had the mountain-like obstacles of the power of their captors (Ezra 1:1), and the unwillingness of the people, first to return (Zechariah 4:5), and then to persevere in the work (Haggai 1:14), already... [ Continue Reading ]
_thou shalt know_, &c. It is again asserted that the divine mission of the angel shall be proved by the accomplishment of that which he predicts. Comp. Zechariah 2:11; Deuteronomy 18:22.... [ Continue Reading ]
_with those seven_ Rather, EVEN THESE SEVEN, as in R. V. The meaning of the verse is: _For who hath despised the day of small things?_(comp: Haggai 2:3) _For_(_seeing that) these seven eyes of Jehovah, which run to and fro throughout all the earth, shall rejoice to see the plummet in the hand of Ze... [ Continue Reading ]
_olive branches_ Having seen the vision (1 3), and received a general explanation of it (4 10), Zechariah now desires a further explanation of one particular feature (11 14). What, he asks, are the two olive trees (11)? and then, immediately recasting his question in more exact terms, the two olive... [ Continue Reading ]
_the two anointed ones_ Rather, SONS OF OIL (as in R. V.). "Probably not as themselves anointed (for another word is used for this, and the whole vision has turned on the use of oil as an instrument of light, not of anointing) but as themselves abundantly ministering the stream which is the source o... [ Continue Reading ]