Zacharias 4:2
And he said to me: What seest thou? And I said: I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, and its lamp upon the top of it: and the seven lights thereof upon it: and seven funnels for the lights that were upon the top thereof.
The verse in its languages
- Vulgate (Clementine)
- Et dixit ad me : Quid tu vides ? Et dixi : Vidi, et ecce candelabrum aureum totum, et lampas ejus super caput ipsius, et septem lucernæ ejus super illud, et septem infusoria lucernis quæ erant super caput ejus.
- Septuagint (Swete)
- καὶ εἶπεν πρὸς μέ Τί σὺ βλέπεις; καὶ εἶπα Ἑόρακα, καὶ ἰδοὺ λυχνία χρυσῆ ὅλη, καὶ τὸ λαμπάδιον ἐπάνω αὐτῆς, καὶ ἑπτὰ λύχνοι ἐπάνω αὐτῆς, καὶ ἑπτὰ ἐπαρυστρίδες τοῖς λύχνοις τοῖς ἐπάνω αὐτῆς,
- Hebrew (WLC)
- וַיֹּ֣אמֶר אֵלַ֔י מָ֥ה אַתָּ֖ה רֹאֶ֑ה ויאמר רָאִ֣יתִי וְהִנֵּ֣ה מְנוֹרַת֩ זָהָ֨ב כֻּלָּ֜הּ וְגֻלָּ֣הּ עַל רֹאשָׁ֗הּ וְשִׁבְעָ֤ה נֵרֹתֶ֨יהָ֙ עָלֶ֔יהָ שִׁבְעָ֤ה וְשִׁבְעָה֙ מֽוּצָק֔וֹת לַנֵּר֖וֹת אֲשֶׁ֥ר עַל רֹאשָֽׁהּ
Haydock's commentary
A candlestick, &c. The temple of God that was then in building; and in a more sublime sense, the Church of Christ. (Challoner)
Some, with the Jews, apply this to the synagogue: but most explain it of the Church, the lamp denoting Christ, and the seven lights all his pastors; the two olives, Enoch and Elias, Apocalypse xi. (Worthington)
The angel explains the latter of Jesus and Zorobabel, ver. 14. The lights are the same with the angels, (ver. 10) and eyes, (chap. iii. 9.) subservient to these great men. Perhaps no candlestick of this description ever existed, though it alludes to that of Moses in some respects, Exodus xxxvii. (Calmet)
Lamp. Hebrew gullah, (Haydock) a round vessel for oil. (Menochius)
It was filled from the two olive-trees, and supplied the seven lights by tubes. (Haydock)
From Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859, in the transcription made by Todd Easton and kept online by John Paul Wohlschied at johnblood.gitlab.io/haydock.
The Fathers on this verse
St Methodius The Banquet of the Ten Virgins; or Concerning Chastity, Chapter VI
Moreover, Zechariah shows that the olive shadows forth the law of Moses, speaking thus: “And the angel that talked with me came again and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep, and said unto me, What seest thou? And I said, I have looked, and behold a candlestick all of gold, with a bowl upon the top of it.…And two olive-trees by it, one upon the right side of the bowl, and the other upon the left side thereof.” And after a few words, the prophet, asking what are the olives on the right and left of the candlestick, and what the two olive-boughs in the hands of the two pipes, the angel answered and said: “These are the two sons of fruitfulness which stand by the Lord of the whole earth,” signifying the two first-born virtues that are waiting upon God, which, in His dwelling, supply around the wick, through the boughs, the spiritual oil of God, that man may have the light of …
St Victorinus of Pettau On the Creation of the World
Behold the seven horns of the Lamb, the seven eyes of God, the seven eyes are the seven spirits of the Lamb; seven torches burning before the throne of God seven golden candlesticks, seven young sheep, the seven women in Isaiah, the seven churches in Paul , seven deacons, seven angels, seven trumpets, seven seals to the book, seven periods of seven days with which Pentecost is completed, the seven weeks in Daniel , also the forty-three weeks in Daniel ; with Noah , seven of all clean things in the ark; seven revenges of Cain , seven years for a debt to be acquitted, the lamp with seven orifices, seven pillars of wisdom in the house of Solomon .
St Jerome The Letters of St. Jerome, To Paulinus
8. Genesis, we shall be told, needs no explanation; its topics are too simple, the birth of the world, the origin of the human race, the division of the earth, the confusion of tongues, and the descent of the Hebrews into Egypt! Exodus, no doubt, is equally plain, containing as it does merely an account of the ten plagues, the decalogue, and sundry mysterious and divine precepts! The meaning of Leviticus is of course self-evident, although every sacrifice that it describes, nay more every word that it contains, the description of Aaron’s vestments, and all the regulations connected with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly! The book of Numbers too, are not its very figures, and Balaam’s prophecy, and the forty-two camping places in the wilderness so many mysteries? Deuteronomy also, that is the second law or the foreshadowing of the law of the gospel, does it not, while exhibiting …