Text -- Zechariah 4:1-5 (NET)

Vision Five: The Menorah

4:1 The angelic messenger who had been speaking with me then returned and woke me, as a person is wakened from sleep. 4:2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a menorah of pure gold with a receptacle at the top and seven lamps, with fourteen pipes going to the lamps. 4:3 There are also two olive trees beside it, one on the right of the receptacle and the other on the left.” 4:4 Then I asked the messenger who spoke with me, “What are these, sir?” 4:5 He replied, “Don’t you know what these are?” So I responded, “No, sir.”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: Zec 4:1

¹ tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in 1:9.

NET Notes: Zec 4:2

¹ tc The present translation (along with most other English versions) follows the reading of the Qere and many ancient versions, “I said,” as opposed to the MT Kethib “he said.”

NET Notes: Zec 4:3

¹ sn The vision apparently describes two olive trees providing olive oil by pipes to a large basin atop the menorah. From this basin two pipes extend to each of the seven lamps of the menorah, for a total of fourteen pipes in all. See vv. 11-12.

NET Notes: Zec 4:4

¹ sn Here these must refer to the lamps, since the identification of the olive trees is left to vv. 11-14.