Zechariah 4

New International Reader's Version

A Vision of the Gold Lampstand and Two Olive Trees

4 Then the angel who was talking with me returned. He woke me up. It was as if I had been asleep. ² “What do you see?” he asked me.

“I see a solid gold lampstand,” I answered. “It has a bowl on top of it. There are seven lamps on it. Seven tubes lead to the lamps. ³ There are two olive trees by the lampstand. One is on its right side. The other is on its left.”

⁴ I asked the angel who was talking with me, “Sir, what are these?”

⁵ He answered, “Don’t you know what they are?”

“No, sir,” I replied.

⁶ So he said to me, “A message from the Lord came to Zerubbabel. The Lord said, ‘Your strength will not get my temple rebuilt. Your power will not do it either. Only the power of my Spirit will do it,’ says the Lord who rules over all.

⁷ “So nothing can stop Zerubbabel from completing the temple. Even a mountain of problems will be smoothed out by him. When the temple is finished, he will put its most important stone in place. Then the people will shout, ‘God bless it! God bless it!’ ”

⁸ Then a message from the Lord came to me. His angel said, ⁹ “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this temple. His hands will also complete it. Then you will know that the Lord who rules over all has sent me to you.

¹⁰ “Do not look down on the small amount of work done on the temple so far. The seven eyes of the Lord look over the whole earth. They will see Zerubbabel holding the most important stone. They will be filled with joy when they see it.”

¹¹ Then I said to the angel, “I see two olive trees. One is on the right side of the lampstand. The other is on the left. What are these trees?”

¹² I continued, “I also see two olive branches. They are next to the two gold pipes that pour out golden olive oil. What are these branches?”

¹³ He answered, “Don’t you know what they are?”

“No, sir,” I said.

¹⁴ So he told me, “They are Zerubbabel and Joshua. The Lord of the whole earth has anointed them to serve him.”