4:1 Zechariah's guiding angel roused the prophet from his visionary slumber. Evidently when the last scene of his vision ended Zechariah remained in a sleep-like condition. Even in an ecstatic state human beings remain dull and obtuse to divine revelation and must receive supernatural enlightenment.
4:2-3 The angel asked the prophet what he saw, and Zechariah replied that he saw a golden lampstand with a bowl above it. Lampstands generally, and the lampstands in the tabernacle and temple particularly, held removable lamps (Exod. 25:31; 1 Kings 7:49). Their purpose was to support these light-bearers. Symbolically a lampstand represents what supports whatever bears light (cf. Matt. 5:16; Rev. 1:20; 2:5).86In this case the lampstand represents the temple and the Jewish community, which were to hold the light of Israel's testimony to Yahweh up to the rest of the world. The bowl on top of this lampstand contained oil that constantly replenished the lamps (cf. v. 12).
"Lamp pedestals excavated from Palestine cities were . . . cylindrical in shape, hollow, and looked rather like a tree trunk. They were usually made of pottery, and had a hole in the side, into which a spout could have been fixed. . . . Zechariah's lampstand (menora) was probably just a cylindrical column, tapered slightly towards the top, on which was a bowl. Innumerable pottery versions of bowl lamps show how the rim was pinched together to form a holder for the wick, the better the light needed the more the places for wicks, seven being the most popular number. . . . The picture is of seven small bowls, each with a place for seven wicks, arranged round the rim of the main bowl. . . . What would be unusual would be such a lampstand in gold. With its seven times seven lights it would be both impressive and effective."87
There were seven lamps, one resting on each of the seven branches of the lampstand, and each lamp had seven spouts (lips). Most such earthenware lamps that archaeologists have found had only one spout for a wick. Here the picture is of a full complement of lamps (seven) that manifested the full complement of light (seven flames from each lamp).
There were also two olive trees standing one on either side of the bowl. Human maintenance of the lamps was unnecessary since the oil flowed from the trees to the reservoir to the lamps. This important feature of the vision stresses God's singular provision of the oil (cf. v. 6).
4:4-5 Zechariah asked the angel for an explanation of what he saw. The angel asked if he did not understand what these things represented, but Zechariah said he did not (cf. v. 13).
