Revelation 11:4

Revelation 11:4. First, the witnesses are described as the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the Lord of the earth. The figure is taken from Zechariah 4, with this difference, that there we have only one candlestick with an olive tree on either side of it, while here we have two candlesticks as well as two olive trees. Clear indication is thus given that, whoever the two ‘witnesses' may be, each combines in himself the functions both of the olive tree and of the candlestick, and that they are not, the one, one of these objects, and the other, the other. They stand ‘before the Lord of the earth,' before the universal Ruler and King. They too, therefore, must be sought in something universal. Their ‘standing before the Lord' indicates their acceptance in His sight and their readiness to act for Him (comp. Revelation 7:9; Luke 21:36).