¹Then the angel I had been talking to returned and got my attention, like waking someone from sleep.[#4:1. Clearly Zechariah was not actually asleep, only deep in thought.]

²“What do you see?” he asked me.

“I see a lampstand made of solid gold with a bowl at its top having seven lamps on it, each with seven lips.

³I also see olive trees, one to the right and one to the left of the bowl.”

⁴Then I asked the angel I was talking to, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵“Don't you know what these are?” the angel replied.

“No, my lord,” I responded.

⁶Then he told me, “This is the Lord's message to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, says the Lord Almighty.

⁷Even obstacles as big as mountains will be flattened before Zerubbabel. Finally he will bring out the capstone to shouts of ‘Blessings on it!’”[#4:7. Probably meaning the topmost stone of the rebuilt Temple.]

⁸Then the Lord gave me another message.

⁹Zerubbabel with his own hands laid the foundations for this Temple, and it will be completed the same way. Then you will know the Lord Almighty has sent me.[#4:9. “You” here is singular, and so is taken to mean Zerubbabel.]

¹⁰For who dares look down on this time of small beginnings? They will be happy when they see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's hand.

“The seven lamps represent the eyes of the Lord which see all over the world.”

¹¹Then I asked the angel, “What are the two olive trees that stand to the right and the left of the lampstand?”

¹²And I also asked him, “What are the two olive branches from which the golden oil pours out from through golden pipes?”

¹³“Don't you know?” the angel replied.

“No, my lord,” I responded.

¹⁴“These are the two who have been anointed who stand by the Lord of all the earth,” he replied.[#4:14. The identity of these two beings is debated. Some see them as heavenly beings, while others identify them as Joshua and Zerubbabel.]