What Does Zechariah 4:5 Mean?
Then the messenger who spoke with me answered and said to me, Do you not know what these are? And I said, No, my lord.
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Then the angel that talked with me answered and said unto me, Knowest thou not what these be? And I said, No, my lord.THE KEY
The first clear sight in the vision is an honest admission that what is shown is not yet understood.
THE MEANING
What is shown can remain unclear to you without being covered over by a claim of understanding. Your “No, my lord” gives that limit a truthful voice within the encounter.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
Not understanding means the encounter has failed. Here, the speaker’s honest “No” is still part of the encounter.
THE ROOT
יָדַעְתָּ
yādaʿta
GROWS FROM
י־ד־ע
y-d-ʿ
To know, perceive, or recognize.
“know” in this verse is yādaʿta. The question uses yada for knowing what is in front of the speaker: whether he perceives what the vision shows. This root can carry knowing through encounter, so his “No” honestly names the limit of his perception.
ALSO GROWS
daʿat: Knowledge, perception.
דַּעַת
This noun from the same root shows knowing as something perceived, echoing the messenger’s question about what is before the speaker.
yōdēaʿ: One who knows or perceives.
יֹדֵעַ
This form turns the root into a person who knows, keeping the verse’s focus on perception rather than information alone.
הַדֹּבֵר
ha-dōvēr
GROWS FROM
ד־ב־ר
d-b-r
To speak; from the same root, davar can mean word, matter, or thing.
“talked” in this verse is ha-dōvēr. The messenger is described as the one speaking with the speaker, and that verb shares its root with davar, “word” or “matter.” Speech and the matter spoken belong to one word-family: the messenger’s question is itself a word that brings the gap in understanding into the open.
ALSO GROWS
dāvār: Word, matter, thing.
דָּבָר
The shared root links the messenger’s speech to the matter the speaker is asked to perceive.
dibbēr: Spoke, declared.
דִּבֵּר
This speaking form shares the root of the participle describing the messenger, making his speech central to the scene.
THE PATTERN
Naming what is not yet understood leaves room for the next thing to be shown.
Who is this who covers counsel without knowledge? Therefore I lay out what I cannot tell apart, things too wonderful for me, which I do not know.And he said, How can I, unless someone show me the way? And he urged Philip to come up and sit with him.He answered, Whether he misses the mark or not, I do not know. One thing I know, that I was blind, and now I see.THE THREAD
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David. O LORD, you probe me, and you perceive me.“Knowest” in Zechariah and “known” in this verse share the root yada (י־ד־ע, y-d-ʿ: know, perceive). The root reaches from an honest admission of not perceiving the vision to being known through searching and encounter.
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