Zechariah 4:11

"Then answered I and said unto him, What are these two olive trees upon the right side of the candlestick and upon the left side thereof? And I answered the second time, What are these two olive branches, which are beside the two golden spouts, that empty the golden oil out of themselves?"

The fact of the question here being repeated emphasizes the importance of this feature of the vision. We reject as without authority and without any reasonable basis whatever the inclination of critics to eliminate Zechariah 4:12 as an interpolation. No textual evidence whatever sustains such a subjective perversion of the word of the Lord. One thing evidently clearly understood by Zechariah was that the function of the olive trees was that of supplying the vital oil to the candlestick, a fact which, to judge from erroneous interpretations, many of the exegetes failed to catch, Verse 12 stresses that function by calling attention to the movement of the golden oil. That is why the question was repeated.