Zechariahchapter 5
11 verses · Zechariah · 520 to 518 BC · The Twelve
Key verse
Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
It stands in A flying scroll that lodges in the thief's house, verses 1 to 4.
The chapter
Chapter summary
Two visions of sin removed rather than merely forgiven. A flying roll twenty cubits by ten sails over the land ('this is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land') entering the house of the thief and of the man who swears falsely by God's name, consuming it, timber and stones. Then a measuring basket comes out with a lead cover, and inside sits a woman: 'This is Wickedness.' She is shoved down and the lead weight slammed on the mouth of it. Two winged women lift the basket between earth and heaven, and Zechariah asks where: 'To build her a house in the land of Shinar': evil deported to Babylon's plain, where Revelation 17 finds it again.
Context
Prophecy · Zechariah · Zechariah overview
The world behind this chapter
Zechariah 5The history
A scroll flies through the air, thirty feet by fifteen, the size of a public proclamation blown up to billboard scale, and by some readings the same proportions as the porch of Solomon's temple. It is written on both sides and it is a curse going out over the whole land against thieves and against those who swear falsely.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
Those two sins are not random. Theft and perjury are the two crimes that destroy a small community's ability to function: you cannot trade if goods disappear and you cannot hold court if oaths mean nothing. The curse enters the thief's house and consumes it, timber and stones.
The next vision is an ephah, a standard dry-measure basket, the container a merchant used to sell grain. Honest weights and measures were a repeated demand in Israel's law, and shaving a measure was the most ordinary form of commercial fraud there was.
Inside the basket sits a woman named Wickedness, and a heavy lead weight is thrown over the opening to seal her in. Two women with wings like a stork carry the basket away to the land of Shinar, Babylon, to build it a house and set it on its own base, like an idol in a temple.
That last image is the point. Wickedness is not destroyed here; it is deported and given a shrine in Babylon, where it belongs, and removed from the land of God's people.
What it meant to them
The returnees' temptation was to think that finishing the building was the whole assignment. These two visions say the land itself has to be cleaned out, the cheating in the market as much as the idolatry on the hills.
The comfort in it is that the removal is God's work, carried out over their heads. They did not have to carry the basket. They had to stop opening it.
Sources cited
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets
- Alfred Edersheim, Sketches of Jewish Social Life (public domain)
Where the chapter sits
Zechariah 5 falls in Eight night visions and the crown (chapters 1–6). The horses among the myrtle trees; the measuring line; Joshua the high priest and the Branch; the lampstand and the two olive trees; the flying scroll; the ephah; the four chariots; the royal-priestly crown.
After it: Fasts and future, chapters 7–8.
The whole shape of Zechariah→The structure of this chapter
Places1
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. A flying scroll that lodges in the thief's house
1. (vv. 1-2)
Zechariah 5:1
“As the previous visions intimated God's favor in restoring the Jewish state, so this vision announces judgment, intimating that God, notwithstanding His favor, did not approve of their sins. Being written on both sides, "on this and on that side" (Zec 5:3) [VATABLUS] connects it with the two tables of the law (Ex 32:15), and implies its comprehensiveness.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 5:2
“And he - (the interpreting angel) said unto me It cannot be without meaning, that the dimensions of the roll should be those of the tabernacle , as the last vision was that of the candlestick, after the likeness of the candlestick therein. The explanations of this correspondence do not exclude each other.”
lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll: The prophet lifts his eyes to see an unrolled scroll flying like a bird, its size given at once, twenty cubits by ten. Keil notes those are the exact dimensions of the holy place before the temple's porch in Solomon's building, the curse measured to the very sanctuary it protects, a scroll large enough to be read from a distance and to cover the land it flies over.
2. (vv. 3-4)
Zechariah 5:3
“Over the face of the whole earth - primarily land, since the perjured persons, upon whom the curse was to fall Zec 5:4, were those who swore falsely by the name of God: and this was in Judah only. The reference to the two tables of the law also confines it primarily to those who were under the law. Yet, since the moral law abides under the Gospel, ultimately these visions related to the Christian Church, which was to be spread over the whole earth.”
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 5:3
“But two sorts of sinners are here specified as the objects of this curse:-- (1.) Thieves; it is for every one that steals, that by fraud or force takes that which is not his own, especially that robs God and converts to his own use what was devoted to God and his honour, which was a sin much complained of among the Jews at this time, Mal. iii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zechariah 5:3
“From this place . . . from this place (repeated twice, as "the house" is repeated in Zec 5:4) [MAURER]; so "hence" is used, Ge 37:17 (or, "on this and on that side," that is, on every side) [HENDERSON]. None can escape, sin where he may: for God from one side to the other shall call all without exception to judgment [CALVIN].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 5:4
“Into the house of him - Babylon, the house or city of Nebuchadnezzar, who was a public plunderer, and a most glaring idolater.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 5:4
“While they were in their strength and beauty they supported, sorely against their will, the sinner's pride and security; but, when they are consumed, their ruins will, to their satisfaction, be standing monuments of God's justice and lasting witnesses of the sinner's injustice. Note, Sin is the ruin of houses and families, especially the sins of injury and perjury.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: The angel names the roll the curse going out over the whole land, cutting off the thief on the one side and the false swearer on the other, theft against neighbor and perjury against God's own name standing for the two tables of the law together. The curse does not merely condemn on paper; it enters the offender's house and consumes it with its own timber and stones, the same active, dwelling judgment Leviticus pictures in the house infected with leprosy. Henry reads the two sins as representative rather than exhaustive, covering the whole law under its two halves, duty to neighbor and duty to God.
B. The ephah, the woman named Wickedness, and a house in Shinar
1. (vv. 5-6)
Zechariah 5:5
“And he gives him this account of it: I see a flying roll, and as near as he can guess by his eye it is twenty cubits long (that is, ten yards) and ten cubits broad, that is, five yards. The scriptures of the Old Testament and the New are rolls, in which God has written to us the great things of his law and gospel. Christ is the Master of the rolls.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Zechariah 5:6
“And I said, What is it?.... After he had lifted up his eyes and seen it, he desires to know both what it was, and what was the meaning of it: and he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth; which was a measure much in use with the Jews, Exo 16:36 it is the same with the "bath", and held above seven wine gallons.”
3 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 5:6
“This is an ephah that goeth forth - This, among the Jews, was the ordinary measure of grain. The woman in the ephah is supposed to represent Judea, which shall be visited for its sins; the talent of lead on the ephah, within which the woman was enclosed, the wrath of God, bending down this culprit nation, in the measure of its sins; for the angel said, “This is wickedness;” that is, the woman represents the mass of iniquity of this nation.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Zechariah 5:6
“Goeth forth - Out of the temple. Their resemblance - This is an emblem of this people everywhere. Thus there is limited time and measure for them, while they sin, and are filling the ephah with their sins, they will find that the ephah of wrath is filled up also, to be poured out upon them.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Zechariah 5:6
“This is their resemblance--literally, "eye" (compare Eze 1:4, 5, 16). HENGSTENBERG translates, "Their (the people's) eye" was all directed to evil. But English Version is better.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Then the angel that talked with me went forth: A second vision is announced at once, an ephah, an ordinary measure of grain, going forth as the resemblance of the whole land, its trade and daily dealing summed up in one household object. Gill reads the ordinary measure turned symbol as the point: the vision touches common commerce and daily life, not only the great crimes of the roll just seen.
2. (vv. 7-8)
Zechariah 5:7
“And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead,.... By the angel; since he is afterwards said to cast it upon the mouth of the "ephah". A cicar, or talent of silver, with the Jews, was equal to three thousand shekels, as may be gathered from Exo 38:24 and weighed a hundred and twenty five pounds (a); or, as others, a hundred and twenty (b), and, according to the more exact account of Dr. Arbuthnot, a hundred and thirteen pounds, ten ounces, one pennyweight, and ten and two seventh grains of our Troy weight.”
1 more voice on this verse
Zechariah 5:7
“And behold there was lifted up a talent of lead - the heaviest Hebrew weight, elsewhere of gold or silver; the golden talent weighing, 1,300,000 grains; the silver, 660,000; here, being lead, it is obviously an undefined mass, though circular , corresponding to the Ephah. The Ephah too was the largest Hebrew measure, whose compass cannot now, with certainty, be ascertained . Both probably were, in the vision, ideal. Theodoret: “Holy Scripture calleth the punishment of sin, lead, as being by nature heavy.”
Zechariah 5:8
“And cast her into the midst of the Ephah - As yet then the measure was not full. Ribera: “She had the lower part within the Ephah, but the upper, especially the head, without. Though the Jews had slain the prophets and done many grievous things, the greatest sin of all remained to be done.”
there was lifted up a talent of lead: A woman sits inside the ephah and is named plainly, this is wickedness, and the angel forces her back down and seals the opening with a heavy weight of lead. The picture is restraint rather than release, wickedness pressed under and shut in rather than let loose on the land, which Pusey reads as judgment holding sin down until its removal is complete in the verses following.
3. (vv. 9-11)
Zechariah 5:9
“There came out two women - It may be that there may be no symbol herein, but that he names women because it was a woman who was so carried; yet their wings were the wings of an unclean bird, strong, powerful, borne by a force not their own; with their will, since they flew; beyond their will, since the wind was in their wings; rapidly, inexorably, irresistibly, they flew and bore the Ephah between heaven and earth. No earthly power could reach or rescue it. God would not.”
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 5:9
“There came out - From the same place whence the ephah came. Their wings - They had wings, like the wings of storks, large and strong, and flew before the wind with great swiftness. The judgments came thus flying, and so bore away with them those that were incorrigible.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Zechariah 5:9
“The "stork" has long and wide wings, for which reason it is specified; also it is a migratory bird. The "wind" helps the rapid motion of the wings. The being "lifted up between heaven and earth" implies open execution of the judgment before the eyes of all.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Zechariah 5:10
“Then said I to the angel that talked with me;.... This the prophet said after he had seen the "ephah" come forth; the woman, wickedness, cast into it, and the talent of lead upon her; and the two women lifting up the ephah between heaven and earth: Whither do these bear the ephah? he neither asks what the ephah signified, nor who were the women that bore it, but only whither they bore it.”
Zechariah 5:11
“To build it an house in the land of Shinar - The name of Shinar, though strictly Babylonia, carries back to an older power than the world-empire of Babylon; which now too was destroyed. “In the land of Shinar” Gen 11:2 was that first attempt to array a world-empire against God, ere mankind was ye dispersed. And so it is the apter symbol of the antitheist or anti-Christian world, which by violence, art, falsehood, sophistry, wars against the truth.”
2 more voices on this verse
Zechariah 5:11
“To build - Not in mercy, but in judgment. Of Shinar - Of Babylon whither many of the Jews fled, and others of them were forced by the Romans. Set there - There they shall be confined without hope of release.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Zechariah 5:11
"Wickedness" being cast out of Judah, shall for ever dwell with the antichristian apostates (of whom Babylon is the type), who shall reap the fruit of it, which they deserve.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings: Two women with the wings of a stork, an unclean bird by the law's own list, lift the ephah between earth and heaven and carry it away to Shinar, to build it a house and set it on its own base. Shinar is the plain of Genesis eleven, the tower's own ground, and Keil reads the deportation as wickedness returned to the land where organized rebellion against God first took a name for itself, exiled from the covenant land back to the world it came from. The vision closes without further comment: no verdict is drawn on any later application, only the sign that the removal is deliberate, carried, and given a settled home of its own.
This page carries no textual note on Zechariah 5. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.