Zechariah 4:4

So I answered, and spake to the angel that talked with me,.... The same that awoke him out of sleep, and asked him what he saw: saying, What [are] these, my lord? that is, what do they signify? what do they represent?

So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What are these, my lord? What are these, my lord?

So, after that I had seen and discerned, I answered: see . Spake to the angel that talked with me: see 2:3. What are these? see . So, after that I had seen and discerned, What are these? see .

Zechariah 4:4 So I answered and spake to the angel that talked with me, saying, What [are] these, my lord?Ver. 4. What are these, my lord?] Or, Sir; which English word comes from Cyrus, the Persian word for a lord or great prince, as H. Stephanus will have it; others fetch it from κυρος, authority, or κυριος, a lord, and so the word Adoni in the text is usually rendered. Others think our word Sir comes from the French Sieur, whence Monsieur, my lord; as the word Lord from the old Saxon Laford, which cometh of Laef, to sustain; like as the Hebrew Adonai, from Eden, a foundation or pillar, that sustaineth the whole building. It is written sometimes with Camets, or long a, in the end, and then it is proper to God (as having the vowels of Jehovah), and is given to him 134 times in the Old Testament. Sometimes it is written with Pathach, or short a, and then it is applied to the creatures, as here to the angel: Hinc Hispanorum Don, saith Drusius. What are these] The prophet had been before warned by the angel to behold and heed the vision. This he had done, and yet was to seek of the sense and meaning of it; as a man may look on a trade and never see the mystery of it; or look on the hand dial, and never understand the curious clock works within. None can understand the mystery of Christ but such as have the mind of Christ, 1 Corinthians 2:7; 1 Corinthians 2:11; 1 Corinthians 2:16, such as are spiritually rational and rationally spiritual; such as are taught of God, and conducted by his Spirit into all truth, John 16:13. No understanding God’ s riddles but by ploughing with his heifer, as I may say. This the prophet here knew; and therefore applies himseff to the angel for information; so did Daniel, Daniel 8:15; Daniel 9:22.

(4) These does not refer merely to the olive-trees, though in Zechariah 4:11-12 they are shown to be the salient point in the vision, but to everything described in Zechariah 4:2-3.

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 are fed by a bowl placed above them, from which the oil is conveyed into them by pipes, Zechariah 4:2. The bowl itself is supplied with oil by two olive-trees, standing one on either side of the lamp, which empty their oil into the bowl, each through a golden tube, Zechariah 4:3; Zechariah 4:12. At the request of Zechariah, Zechariah 4:4, the Interpreting Angel, with some show of surprise that explanation should be needed, Zechariah 4:5, explains to him the meaning of the vision. It is intended to encourage Zerubbabel in the work of re-building the Temple, by impressing upon him the truth, that as that candlestick gave forth its light, in silent, ceaseless splendour, unfed and untended by human agencies, so the work in which he was engaged, of restoring the material Temple and setting the golden candlestick in its place again, and so preparing the way, first for the Jewish Church, and then for the Christian Church, which that candlestick symbolised (Revelation 1:20), to shine in the world, should be accomplished, not by human resources, but by the Spirit of God, Zechariah 4:6. The great principle involved in the symbol and thus enunciated is now applied to the case in hand. The mountain of difficulty, which stands in the way of Zerubbabel, shall sink down into a plain. With shouts of festive joy he shall set in its place the crowning stone of the edifice, Zechariah 4:7 Yet again, by a repeated assurance conveyed to the prophet through the Angel, Zechariah 4:8, Jehovah confirms the promise to Zerubbabel, that his hands which have begun shall complete the work, and prove in doing so the divine mission of the angel, Zechariah 4:9. Despicable as it might appear in its feeble beginnings in the sight of man, the eyes of Jehovah, which were not only fixed upon it with unceasing watchfulness (Zechariah 4:9), but ran to and fro through the whole earth to take cognisance of and deal with every hindering and every helping influence, rejoiced to see the progress of that house, Zechariah 4:10. Not satisfied with this exposition of its main scope, the prophet asks for information as to some of the details of the vision. What, he would fain know, is the significance of the two olive-trees, Zechariah 4:11, or yet more precisely, of the two branches of them, which through the two golden tubes empty their oil into the bowl of the lamp, Zechariah 4:12. The answer, again given with some show of surprise at the question, Zechariah 4:13, by the Interpreting Angel, is calculated by its obscurity rather to fix attention on the chief lesson of the vision, than to interpret the details to which reference is made.

Osorius: “Awakened from his state of sleep, even thus the prophet seemed slowly to understand what was shown him. He asks then of the instructing angel.

4, 5. The prophet fails to understand the vision, and he turns to his companion for an explanation. Answered — See on Zechariah 1:10. These — The contents of the entire vision, not only the trees.