Zechariah 4:4

4:4 Then I asked the messenger who spoke with me, “What are these, ¹  sir?”

Zechariah 4:11

4:11 Next I asked the messenger, “What are these two olive trees on the right and the left of the menorah?”

Zechariah 4:13

4:13 He replied, “Don’t you know what these are?” And I said, “No, sir.”

Zechariah 5:6

5:6 I asked, “What is it?” And he replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain ²  that is moving away from here.” Moreover, he said, “This is their ‘eye’ ³  throughout all the earth.”

Zechariah 5:10

5:10 I asked the messenger who was speaking to me, “Where are they taking the basket?”

Zechariah 6:4

6:4 Then I asked the angelic messenger ⁴  who was speaking with me, “What are these, sir?”

Zechariah 13:5

13:5 Instead he will say, ‘I am no prophet – indeed, I am a farmer, for a man has made me his indentured servant since my youth.’ ⁵ 

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

² tn Heb “[This is] the ephah.” An ephah was a liquid or solid measure of about a bushel (five gallons or just under twenty liters). By metonymy it refers here to a measuring container (probably a basket) of that quantity.

³ tc The LXX and Syriac read עֲוֹנָם (’avonam, “their iniquity,” so NRSV; NIV similar) for the MT עֵינָם (’enam, “their eye”), a reading that is consistent with the identification of the woman in v. 8 as wickedness, but one that is unnecessary. In 4:10 the “eye” represented divine omniscience and power; here it represents the demonic counterfeit.

³ tn See the note on the expression “angelic messenger” in 1:9.

⁴ tn Or perhaps “for the land has been my possession since my youth” (so NRSV; similar NAB).