¹ The angel who was talking to me came back and roused me as though rousing someone who was asleep.

² And he asked me, 'What do you see?' I replied, 'As I look, there is a lamp-stand entirely of gold with a bowl at the top of it; it holds seven lamps, with seven openings for the lamps on it.

³ By it are two olive trees, one to the right and the other to the left.'

⁴ I then said to the angel who was talking to me, 'What are those things, my lord?'

⁵ The angel who was talking to me replied, 'Do you not know what they are?' I said, 'No, my lord.'

⁶ He then gave me this answer,'These seven are the eyes of Yahweh, which range over the whole world.'

⁷ 'What are you, great mountain? Beside Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! He will bring out the keystone while it is cheered with Hurrah! Hurrah!'

⁸ The word of Yahweh was addressed to me as follows,

⁹ 'The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this Temple; his hands will finish it. (Then you will know that Yahweh Sabaoth has sent me to you.)

¹⁰ A day of little things, no doubt, but who would dare despise it? How they will rejoice when they see the chosen stone in the hands of Zerubbabel!'

¹¹ Then I went on to ask him, 'What is the meaning of these two olive trees, to right and left of the lamp-stand?'

¹² (And I went on to ask him further, 'What is the meaning of the two olive branches discharging oil through the two golden openings?')

¹³ He replied, 'Do you not know what they are?' I said, 'No, my lord.'

¹⁴ He said, 'These are the two anointed ones in attendance on the Lord of the whole world. This is the word of Yahweh with regard to Zerubbabel, 'Not by might and not by power, but by my spirit' -- says Yahweh Sabaoth.

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The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) is a Catholic translation of the Bible published in 1985. The New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) has become the most widely used Roman Catholic Bible outside of the United States. It has the imprimatur of Cardinal George Basil Hume.

Like its predecessor, the Jerusalem Bible, the New Jerusalem Bible (NJB) version is translated "directly from the Hebrew, Greek or Aramaic." The 1973 French translation, the Bible de Jerusalem, is followed only "where the text admits to more than one interpretation." Introductions and notes, with some modifications, are taken from the Bible de Jerusalem.

Source: The Very Reverend Dom (Joseph) Henry Wansbrough, OSB, MA (Oxon), STL (Fribourg), LSS (Rome), a monk of Ampleforth Abbey and a biblical scholar. He was General Editor of the New Jerusalem Bible. "New Jerusalem Bible, Regular Edition", pg. v.

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