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Fifth Vision: The Lampstand and Olive Trees

The angel who talked with me came again, and wakened me, as one is wakened from sleep. ²He said to me, “What do you see?” And I said, “I see a lampstand all of gold, with a bowl on the top of it; there are seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps that are on the top of it. ³And by it there are two olive trees, one on the right of the bowl and the other on its left.” ⁴I said to the angel who talked with me, “What are these, my lord?” ⁵Then the angel who talked with me answered me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” ⁶He said to me, “This is the word of the L ord to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the L ord of hosts. ⁷What are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain; and he shall bring out the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’ ”

⁸ Moreover the word of the L ord came to me, saying, ⁹“The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this house; his hands shall also complete it. Then you will know that the L ord of hosts has sent me to you. ¹⁰For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel.

“These seven are the eyes of the L ord, which range through the whole earth.” ¹¹Then I said to him, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the lampstand?” ¹²And a second time I said to him, “What are these two branches of the olive trees, which pour out the oil through the two golden pipes?” ¹³He said to me, “Do you not know what these are?” I said, “No, my lord.” ¹⁴Then he said, “These are the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of the whole earth.”

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

The same vision is again related, at least one similar to that which we have just explained; only there is given a fuller explanation, for the Prophet says that he asked the angel what was meant by the two olive-trees which stood, one on the right, the other on the left side of the candlestick, and also by the two pipes of the olive-trees. Some render שבלים, shebelim,ears of corn, thinking that the branches of the olive-trees are compared to ears of corn, because they were full and loaded with berries; but the metaphor seems to me immaterial. The word in Hebrew is indeed ambiguous; but it often means a pipe, or a running or flowing; and this sense best suits this passage; and I wonder that this meaning has been overlooked by all interpreters; for no doubt necessity constrained them to retake themselves to this metaphor, however unnatural it was. But we know that this spectacle was presented to Zechariah in order to show that the olive-tree continually supplied abundance of oil, lest the wick should become dry, and lest the lamps should thus fail. Since then on every side there were pourers or pipes, and three tubes received the oil from one olive-tree, and four received it from the other, so that great abundance thus flowed from the two olive-trees, and since there were also seven pipes, we see how suitable it was that they should be between the olive-trees on the right and on the left, and also that their tubes for the oil should be between the pourers and the two pipes. As then the oil ran through the pourers and passed through the two pipes, he asks the angel what these flowing meant? The answer was, These are the two sons of oil, who stand before the Lord of all the earth; that is, they are the two fountains which supply oil from God himself, lest the lamps should fail through the want of it. ⁵³⁵³ The second questions, which seems to be a modification of the first, has been variously explained. The word [שבלים], except in the feminine gender, has not the meaning attached to it by Calvin. It is rendered, “branches,” κλαδοι, by the Septuagint, Piscator, Newcome, Henderson, and by our own version; “berries,” by Jun. and Trem., Drusius and Pemble; and “tubes” by Grotius. As it is a repetition of the former question, it is probable that the branches in immediate connection with the candlestick are intended: the oil proceeded from them by means of tubes or pipes to the bowl or the reservoir at the top of the candlestick, and hence by means of seven tubes, or pourers to the seven lamps. The question now is respecting the olive-trees or the branches from which the oil proceeded; and the answer is, that they are “the sons of oil.”
What is said of these “sons of oil,” that they “stand with (or before) the Lord,” can hardly comport with the explanation given by Calvin: but it is more suitable to regard them as persons annointed, as rendered in our version, and by Kimchi, Drusius, Dathius, Newcome, and Henderson. They are considered here to mean Zerubbabel and Joshua; but yet as types of Christ in his twofold character of a king and priest. Blayney takes another view; he renders [שבלים], “orderers,” deriving it from the Syriac, in which language the verb signifies to direct, to guide in the way. He conceives them to be two persons, guiding the oil to the channels or tubes which conveyed it to the lamps, and that they were types of Moses and of Christ, the authors of the two dispensations. The preceding view seems the most probable. — Ed. This is the import of the whole.

⁵³ The second questions, which seems to be a modification of the first, has been variously explained. The word [שבלים], except in the feminine gender, has not the meaning attached to it by Calvin. It is rendered, “branches,” κλαδοι, by the Septuagint, Piscator, Newcome, Henderson, and by our own version; “berries,” by Jun. and Trem., Drusius and Pemble; and “tubes” by Grotius. As it is a repetition of the former question, it is probable that the branches in immediate connection with the candlestick are intended: the oil proceeded from them by means of tubes or pipes to the bowl or the reservoir at the top of the candlestick, and hence by means of seven tubes, or pourers to the seven lamps. The question now is respecting the olive-trees or the branches from which the oil proceeded; and the answer is, that they are “the sons of oil.” What is said of these “sons of oil,” that they “stand with (or before) the Lord,” can hardly comport with the explanation given by Calvin: but it is more suitable to regard them as persons annointed, as rendered in our version, and by Kimchi, Drusius, Dathius, Newcome, and Henderson. They are considered here to mean Zerubbabel and Joshua; but yet as types of Christ in his twofold character of a king and priest. Blayney takes another view; he renders [שבלים], “orderers,” deriving it from the Syriac, in which language the verb signifies to direct, to guide in the way. He conceives them to be two persons, guiding the oil to the channels or tubes which conveyed it to the lamps, and that they were types of Moses and of Christ, the authors of the two dispensations. The preceding view seems the most probable. — Ed.