Zechariah Chapter 5

From The Open Bible Project

5:1 Then again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying scroll.

5:2 He said to me, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits."

• (a) Because the Jews had provoked God’s plagues by condemning his word, and casting off all judgment and equity, he shows that God’s curses written in this book had justly happened both to them and their fathers. But now if they would repent, God would send the same among the Chaldeans and their former enemies.

5:3 Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.

• (b) That is, does any injury toward his neighbour.
• (c) Meaning, wherever he is in the world.
• (d) He that transgresses the first table of the ten commandments, and does not serve God correctly but abuses his name.

5:4 I will cause it to go out," says Yahweh of Armies, "and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the midst of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones."

5:5 Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, "Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that is appearing."

5:6 I said, "What is it?" He said, "This is the [3] ephah [See Zechariah Footnotes 3] basket that is appearing." He said moreover, "This is their appearance in all the land

• (e) Which was a measure in dry things, containing about five gallons.
• (f) That is, all the wickedness of the ungodly is in God’s sight, which he keeps in a measure, and can shut it or open it at his pleasure.

5:7 (and behold, a [4] talent [See Zechariah Footnotes 4] of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah basket."

• (g) To cover the measure.
• (h) Which represents iniquity, as in the next verse.

5:8 He said, "This is Wickedness;" and he threw her down into the midst of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth.

• (i) Signifying that Satan would not have such power against the Jews to tempt them, as he had in times past, but that God would shut up iniquity in a measure as in a prison.

5:9 Then lifted I up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there were two women, and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky.

• (k) Which declared that God would execute his judgment by the means of the weak and infirm.

5:10 Then said I to the angel who talked with me, "Where are these carrying the ephah basket?"

5:11 He said to me, "To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place."

• (l) To remove the iniquity and affliction that came from Judah because of the judgment, to place it forever in Babylon.