Reading for November 20th

Read Zechariah 4.1-14 The fifth vision: The golden lamp stand and Judah's leadership.
This vision may originally have been the central vision in a seven-vision sequence.
In verse 2 the lamp stand (Heb., "menorah") in the Temple is unusually elaborate and difficult to describe, though it is related to the lamp stand in the tabernacle (Ex 25.31-37).
The bowl may have contained the oil for the lamps, and the lips held the lamps wicks.
In verse 3 images of trees adorned the walls of Solomon's Temple (1 Kings 6.29).
In verses 6-10a this  speech to Zerubbabel, encouraging him in the rebuilding of the Temple
(Hag 2.1-4; Ezra 5.1-2), interrupts the vision narrative and may be a later addition.
In verse 10b the vision narrative resumes with the explanation that the seven lamps represent
God's  eyes, watching the entire earth.
In verse 14 the anointed ones, symbolized in the vision by the two olive trees (vv. 3, 11),
represent Judah's leadership, shared by a religious figure (the high priest Joshua; 3.1-10)
and by a political figure (Zerubbabel; 4.6-10a).
Comments or Questions...