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Chapter 4:The Fifth Vision

The interpreting angel wakens Zechariah to see another vision -- it
seems the visions were coming at night. Zechariah saw a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top, and seven lamps on it, with seven lips on each of the lamps which are on top of it. Also, two olive trees one on the right, one on the left of the bowl. This seems to mean seven small bowls each with places for seven wicks - these are olive oil lamps. The fact that there are seven seems to stress that oil is abundant. The oil probably stands for God's power through His Spirit. The two olive trees seem to stand for the offices of priest and king in Israel. As we gather from later in this passage, that is, from verses 12-14, the two olive branches are the two who are anointed to serve the Lord, that is Zerubbabel (civil authority), and Joshua (high priest). The usual translations call them the anointed ones. The Hebrew, of same sense, calls them sons of oil.

They are responsible for the restored community, and assured of God's
power.

Faith in God's power - now turning to verse 7 - can overcome even a
mountain of opposition to rebuilding the temple and the community. So v. 8 says the hands of Zerubbabel laid the foundation, the same hands will
complete it.

But the temple under construction was rather small in comparison to the
temple of Solomon, as verse 10 shows. But one should not look down on the day of small things. In Haggai 2.9 (contemporary with Zechariah), we hear that the glory of the new house will be greater than that of the old. That was not true in the material sense, but in the sense that the divine Messiah was to enter the new house.

In the last part of verse 11 we read of seven eyes - the eyes of the Lord
who sees all things.