to the world, which is made up of contraries, are the seven planets; and the world has also six sides and three planes (dimensions), but the master of the sides is the seventh, and that is the centre; and thus it is with the body of every thing. But the author of the book of Jetzirah attributes to the world six sides, answering to the six points, and the holy temple situate in the middle.† He mentions the thing most honoured among all creatures.

"Thereon," i. e., on the candlestick; and the bowl was above them; and he showed him this vision to inform him, that God, blessed be He, gives light to Israel, which is the contrary of their having been in darkness.

"Seven and seven pipes to the lamps." —The whole had seven pipes; one pipe to each lamp. And Rashi, of

dageshed letters, were created the things that are strong, as life, peace, riches, seed, grace, dominion, wisdom; and by means of the undageshed letters, were created the opposites of these. (Comment. in Sepher Jetzirah, edit. Mantua, fol. 88, col. 1.)

* According to the Jewish astronomers, the seven planets are, the Sun, Venus, Mercury, the Moon, Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, which were, according to Saadiah, in the place just cited, created by means of the seven double letters, and have, therefore, a double power of good and evil, according to their position with respect to the signs of the Zodiac. The rabbies believe in astrology, as may be seen abundantly in the commentaries to this book of Jetzirah, and in Aben Ezra's Commentary on the Tenth Commandment, &c. &c. They also believe that the heavenly bodies and spheres are living and intelligent beings, to whom is committed the management of things here below, as may be seen in Maimonides. (Hilchoth Jesode Torah, c. iii., and Moreh Nevuchim, part ii. c. 5.)

The passage to which Kimchi alludes is as follows, "The seven double letters, л, answer to the seven extreme points. Of these six are, the zenith and the nadir, the east and the west, the north and the south, and the holy temple is placed in the centre, and it bears them all." The Commentary on which passage tells us, that "the holy temple is a mystical expression to signify the Creator." (Sepher Jetzirah, edit. Mantua, fol. 77, col. 1. Compare also fol. 103, col. 1.) (Marginal Translation.)

Seven several pipes.

blessed memory, has explained that there were seven pipes to each lamp.

"Pipes," nip, pourers; an adjective instead of a verb,* and this name was used, because they were pouring oil from lamp to lamp.

3. And two olive-trees.”—And again I saw two olivetrees, either on the candlestick or on the bowl, but this is much the same.

"One upon the right of the bowl, and the other upon the left thereof." (p-by.)-The same as DWD, i. e., ↳y has the same force as . But he says, they were upon the bowl, and in a following verse (11) he says, "Upon the right of the candlestick, and on the left thereof;" the sense, however, is the same.

4. "So I answered," is clear.

5. "And the angel answered," is clear.

6. "Then he answered - Not by might, nor by power." -As thou hast seen the work of the candlestick, that it was done of itself, and without any man or thing arranging the lamps, or pouring oil into them, thus shall the building of the temple be effected without the power of man, solely by the Spirit of God, blessed be He, and by his good pleasure. But he afterwards explains to him the vision in detail.

7. "Who art thou, O great mountain."-He says, in reference to Sanballat and his companions who were opposing, Though thou be like a great mountain, before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain, and shall not be able to stand before him to stop the work.

"And he shall bring forth the head-stone."+ As he brought forth the head-stone, when he began the building, in the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, so he shall finish the work.

* The Michlal Jophi reads, "the active participle." Kimchi

צוק,Gesenius says : יצק makes the root

Kimchi takes in the past time.

"With shoutings, Grace, grace." When Zerubbabel laid the head-stone in the building, he laid it with shoutings and a great tumult, and all the people said, Grace, grace, to this stone from God, blessed be He. The repetition of the word is to increase the force, as "Peace, peace, to him that is far off." (Isaiah lvii. 19.) 8, 9. "Moreover the word of the Lord came. The hands of Zerubbabel shall make an end of it," i. e., shall finish it. And thus the verb yy is used in Isaiah x. 12, "Wherefore it shall come to pass, when the Lord hath performed his whole work upon mount Zion," i. e., finished.

10. "For who hath despised the day of small things?" For when they began to build, their enemies stopped the work, and, behold, that day was the day of small shoutings, and they despised that day during all the years that the work was interrupted, but now, when they see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel, they will rejoice.

"The plummet," i. e., "the stone," the tin perpendicular, which is in the hand of the builder, to make the building straight. The governing word to "tin," is left out; the complete form is 72 128 1287, "The stone, the stone of tin." The perpendicular weight was made of tin or lead, and is called a stone, as the weights are called stone in Deut. xxv. 13, “Thou shalt not have in thy bag a stone and a stone," i. e., divers weights.

"These seven."-The same as he said above; "Upon one stone seven eyes." (iii. 9.) "They are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through all the earth,” and he sees those who persecute Israel, and he will keep them from their hand, that they should not rule over them.

11. "And I answered." +-He had understood the matter of the candlestick, for it had been exhibited to him to show him light and joy, and the angel had exKimchi supplies shoutings; the Michlal Jophi has the same.

† Zechariah did not ask for an explanation of the candlestick.

plained to him concerning the candlestick, that it was made of itself, to show him, that it was not by might nor by power and now he asked him about the signification of the two olive-trees, and the two branches of the olivetrees, and the two golden pipes; and though his question (about the latter) is not mentioned in the vision, we learn that he saw them. The angel replied to the two questions briefly and mystically, "These are the two sons of oil;" and the prophet understood his answer.

12. "And I answered the two olive-branches."From these two olive-trees proceeded two olive-branches, which were pressed" in the hand, T, of the two golden pipes," and they were pressed* of themselves. The meaning of "in the hand" is, In the midst (through, as in English); and behold, the olive-trees were pressed in the midst of the golden pipes, and the oil fell from the pipes into the bowl; and from the bowl it went forth to the tubes; and from the tubes to the lamps. And he

,(שְׁבָּלִים) to ears of wheat (שִׁבְּלִי) compares these branches

because they were full of olive-berries, as the ears are full of grains of wheat.

"Pipes," is, are vessels of the cruse-species (n). Jonathan has rendered this word by 1970 (phials); and so Onkelos has rendered wafers, Exod. xvi. 31) by the same word.†

asɔ (like

"Which empty the golden oil out of themselves.”— Oil clear as gold: and similar to this is the verse in Jer. li. 7, "Babylon hath been a golden cup in the hand of the Lord," i. e., the wine was clear and pure.

14. "And he said, These are the two sons of oil."

* i. e., The oil pressed out of them.

In Hebrew, no signifies a cruse, and ns, which is only a different form of the same word, signifies "a cake, wafer." In Chaldee the one word, pos, signifies both, though sometimes a distinction is made by the insertion of after 8. (See Buxtorf Lex. Talm. in radic.

(.אסק

is the same as 1, oil, as in Deut. xxviii. 5, corn, wine, or oil." Therefore he called them olivetrees, and they are Zerubbabel and Joshua; and he calls them "sons of oil," because they were anointed with the oil of anointing, the one to the kingdom, and the other to the priesthood.

"That stand by the Lord of the whole earth," for they are appointed to do his pleasure.-Jonathan has interpreted thus, "These are the two sons of princes, who stand before the Lord of the whole earth." But as to the matter of the two olive-trees and the two olive-branches, no explanation is given of what they signified. And, behold, the olive-trees represent Zerubbabel and Joshua, and the two branches that proceed from them represent their deeds, for with their hands they began the building of the temple. The two golden pipes represent Ezra and Nehemiah, who came after them, and by the hands of these four, light and good went forth to Israel.