divine hierarchy. His task is to search out and report to Jehovah the
misdeeds of men. In Zechariah's vision, however, the divine judge acquits
Joshua of the charge, and causes him to be clad with clean garments, thus
proclaiming the divine approval of the modest yet devoted service of the
Judean community.

V. Preparations for the Crowning of Zerubbabel. Regarding Zerubbabel,
Zechariah declares, in language highly figurative, that he shall yet be
crowned and rule over a happy and prosperous people. He is spoken of as
Jehovah's servant, the Branch. The term is probably original with
Zechariah, although again used in the supplementary passages in Jeremiah
23:5 and 33:15. The word is akin to the term "shoot of the house of Jesse"
used in Isaiah 11, to describe a certain scion of the house of David, who
in all probability was the young Zerubbabel. Zechariah's figure describes
the prince as an offshoot of the same royal tree. The obscure passage
seems to mean that upon the stone, with its seven facets, which was to be
set in the crown prepared for the head of Zerubbabel, Jehovah himself
would engrave a fitting title.

In Zechariah's fifth vision he defined the relations between the civil
and priestly authorities. The golden candlestick represented the temple
and its service. The two olive trees beside it stood for Zerubbabel, the
civil ruler, and for Joshua, the high priest. The duty of each was to
contribute his part toward the support of the temple service. They were
both Jehovah's Messiahs, that is, men anointed as a symbol of the task
which each was to perform.

In this connection Zechariah declared that Jehovah would remove all
obstacles from before Zerubbabel, and that he who had begun the work
should live to see its completion. In an address recorded in the latter