It appears from the tenth verse, that the stone sculptured with seven eyes was yet present: consequently this part of the vision is a continuation of the latter part of the former, not passing on to other times or to a different dispensation, but intended only to explain what had been before exhibited, by presenting it to view under other emblems of a grander description, of more extensive application, or of more striking significancy.

away" though it must certainly mean the fifteenth day, the eighth day of the second septenary, that is to say, the day after its close. In 2 Chronicles, vii, the same festival is recorded; and in verse 9, we are informed, that the distribution was made into seven days for the feast of dedication and seven more for the feast of tabernacles. Accordingly here the fourteen lamps are distributed into seven and seven; seven for one side and seven for the other side of the candlestick. I may also cite the authority of our English translators for rendering the Vau in a distributive sense; but I can concur with them no farther, for they have rendered the words by a construction so difficult and perplexed, that no example of a like one can be produced; nor will any one, I suppose, adhere to it, if a tolerable meaning can be made out in an easier way. This is what I have attempted. Dr. Blaney also has removed this grammatical difficulty, by disjoining the pronominal affix from the preposition y and annexing it, as the emphatic article, to the following word; whence he produces the following rendering; "Over the seven (lamps) also seven pipes." But this mode of connecting one clause of a sentence with another, by Vau in the middle of the latter, is certainly very unusual; and the construction is farther liable to objection, as it throws great difficulties in the way of attaining to a clear conception of the symbol, as will be shewn at length in the commentary. I feel therefore no scruple in proposing the new rendering and the new division of the sentence given above, the advantages of which will afterwards appear.

The principal object that met the eyes of Zechariah, was a candelabrum, a candlestick or lamp-bearer, entirely of gold, consisting of a tall upright shaft, surmounted by a bowl, and of a number of branches, each of which supported a lamp, springing out of it, as boughs from the trunk of a tree, not however indiscriminately or all round, but only on two sides, each being op posite to each. A candlestick of like form was placed in the tabernacle of Moses and temple of Solomon, having "six branches* going out of the sides thereof; three branches of the candlestick out of the one side thereof and three

* Exodus, xxv. 32, and following, xxxvii. 17, and following. In Solomon's temple there were ten candlesticks, as appears from I Kings, vii. 49, 2 Chronicles, iv. 7. But Josephus, in Antiq. Jud. b. 8, cap. 3, § 7, tells us, that although Solomon made a vast number of candlesticks, pvpias, according to the commandment of Moses, yet that he dedicated ONE only for the holy place, εξ ων μιαν ανέθηκεν εις τον vaov, that it might be lighted every day agreeably to the law. Abijah, king of Judah, also, in 2 Chronicles, xiii. 11, where he is extolling the fidelity and piety of his own subjects, in opposition to the idolatry of the Israelites, and particularizing the instances in which they kept the charge of the Lord, mentions the candlestick and its lamps, as one only. Perhaps the disagreement may best be reconciled by supposing, that though ten candlesticks were placed in the sanctuary, one only was lighted. At any rate it is plain, that the ten were regarded, as being only one in point of use and signification; so that the increase of number had not, and was not intended to have, any other effect, than to augment the grandeur of the sanctuary. In like manner and to the same end, several other utensils, which were single in the tabernacle, were ten in the temple. 2 Chronicles, iv. 6, 8.

branches of the candlestick out of the other side thereof: " and on each of these was a lamp, with a central one on the summit of the shaft.

1

Zechariah, having noticed and described the objects before him, inquired the meaning of the mystic imagery, "what are these my Lord?" that is, what are they intended to represent? for what they actually were, he plainly saw. The reply is made by another question, reproving the prophet for his ignorance in much the same terms, as those, in which our Lord rebuked Nicodemus upon a like occasion. "Knowest thou not what these be?" as if it were a reproach and shame to him to be slow of heart in the apprehension of such intelligible symbols. And truly it was to be expected, that Zechariah, a master in Israel, a priest and a prophet, studious of scripture, familiar with types, versed in prophetic language, and with a mind illuminated by the preceding emblems; should readily have penetrated the veil of a figure, which had been familiar to the Jews from the time of Moses. The leniency of the angel's rebuke, under such circumstances, would be as remarkable, as the dulness of the prophet, if we did not collect from Zechariah's words, as he enumerates the objects presented to his view, that not only was the emblem attended by some extraordinary accompa

niments, but that in its parts and make it differed widely from the candlesticks, that were placed in the tabernacle and temple.

not

In the first place he remarked a bowl or basin on the top of the candlestick, meaning the top of the shaft*, intended to contain oil for the nourishment of the lights of the lamps. It is not indeed expressly stated here, that the bowl was intended to answer this purpose. But since it is to devise easy any other, and this is obvery vious, it may fairly be presumed, that Zechariah would immediately perceive it. From the eleventh and twelfth verses it certainly appears, that such was the use of the bowl; yet what is said there is designed, not so much to explain its use, as to shew the nature of the oil, with which it was filled, and the sources and the means of its supply. The very existence and position of the bowl with its pipes is deemed sufficient to declare the purpose, which it was intended to answer. This bowl was the first particular which attracted and arrested the attention of the prophet; and this it did so the more forcibly, because the golden candlesticks in the tabernacle and temple had no such vessel and because it filled the place, which in them was occupied by the central lamp.

* In like manner the candlestick is put for the shaft only in Exodus, xxxvii. 20.

It is expressly noticed to be on the top of the candlestick, at once marking the surprise of Zechariah at the circumstance and directing the observation of the reader to that circumstance, that the shaft was not surmounted by a lamp, but by a golden bowl.

Having mentioned the bowl, the prophet proceeds, as if he were describing an object well known and familiar to him, "and its seven lamps;" for this use of the possessive pronoun plainly indicates his recognition of the emblem and bis assured expectation that it would be found to bear that exact number of lamps, as being proper and essential parts of it. But as he went on speaking, he observed with increased surprise, that the number of lamps was greater than seven, was even double. He therefore immediately corrected his error, respecting the number, "seven and seven!" I do not pretend to assert, that this was certainly the process, which took place in Zechariah's mind. His expressions may also be accounted for by supposing, that he at first spake of the number of lamps, as being seven only, in order to shew what it ought regularly to have been, or what he expected it would have been, thus hinting to us one principal reason of his inability to comprehend the meaning of the symbol.