What Does Zechariah 6:4 Mean in the King James?
Then I answered and said unto the angel that talked with me, What are these, my lord?
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The vision becomes legible when the seer asks the messenger speaking with him to name what he sees.
THE MEANING
You meet an image that does not explain itself, and your question is part of its disclosure. The messenger speaking with you is already present as the voice that can open what the image holds. Not knowing yet is a place where meaning can be spoken.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
You do not have to understand a vision immediately for your seeing to be real; here, asking is part of how its meaning emerges.
THE ROOT
הַדֹּבֵר
haddōvēr
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; in its noun form, a spoken word or matter.
The Hebrew phrase can be heard literally as “the one speaking in me,” though it is naturally rendered “that talked with me.” The same root gives דָּבָר (dābār, “word” or “matter”), linking the voice that explains the vision with the reality it contains.
ALSO GROWS
dābār: Word, matter, or thing.
דָּבָר
The same root joins what is spoken with the matter under discussion: the messenger’s words give the vision intelligible shape.
dibbēr: Spoke or declared.
דִּבֶּר
This verb names the act of speaking; the verse presents the messenger as the one whose speech accompanies the seer’s encounter with the image.
THE PATTERN
What is seen becomes intelligible when a question brings it to the one who can interpret it.
I came near unto one of them that stood by, and asked him the truth of all this. So he told me, and made me know the interpretation of the things.And when he was alone, they that were about him with the twelve asked of him the parable. And he said unto them, Unto you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God: but unto them that are without, all these things are done in parables:And Philip ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esaias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him.THE THREAD
Then said I, O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said unto me, I will shew thee what these be.The same Hebrew root for “talked” appears as the messenger speaks with Zechariah, and the question “What are these?” is followed by the promise, “I will shew thee.” The repeated wording makes the question a hinge between the image and its understanding.
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