Zechariah 5:10
in Zechariah 5“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
KJV
Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
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This verse in Zechariah 5
Commentary
5 notes on this verse(Verse 9 and following) And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw, and behold, two women coming forth, and a spirit was on their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite, and they lifted up an amphora between the earth and the sky. And I said to the angel who spoke to me: Where are these taking the amphora? And he said to me: To build a house for it in the land of Shinar, and it will be established and placed there upon its base.
This site's exposition
there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings
on Zechariah 5:9-11
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.
The record, by era
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
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.
(2.) That their iniquity shall continue too, and their hearts shall be hardened in it. Blindness has happened unto Israel, and they are settled upon the lees of their own unbelief; their wickedness is established upon its own basis.
How the passage was read
What the Jewish commentators add
On the verses either side of this one
and it will be prepared, and they shall place it there And the house shall be prepared, and the ephah shall be placed there with the wicked that are within it.
This section is reception history: how the passage was read and kept in the Jewish tradition. Where a reading parts from an essential of the Christian faith, the section says so at that point.
Texts and citation data: Sefaria; each excerpt follows its version’s licence. 6 further sources are cited on this chapter that carry no English text this site may quote or only restate the verse.
The words behind it
10 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וָאֹמַ֕ר | vaomar | and I said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| הַמַּלְאָ֖ךְ | hamalakh | the angel | H4397 → | 213 times |
| הַדֹּבֵ֣ר | hadover | who was speaking | H1696 → | 1141 times |
| בִּ֑י | bi | with me | ||
| אָ֛נָה | ʾanah | where? | H575 → | |
| הֵ֥מָּה | hemah | [are] they | H1992 → | 553 times |
| מֽוֹלִכ֖וֹת | molikhot | taking | H1980 → | 1546 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| הָאֵיפָֽה׃ | haeifah | the ephah | H374 → | 40 times |
וָאֹמַ֕רand I said
vaomarH559 →5305 times
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
הַמַּלְאָ֖ךְthe angel
hamalakhH4397 →213 times
הַדֹּבֵ֣רwho was speaking
hadoverH1696 →1141 times
בִּ֑יwith me
bi
אָ֛נָהwhere?
ʾanahH575 →
הֵ֥מָּה[are] they
hemahH1992 →553 times
מֽוֹלִכ֖וֹתtaking
molikhotH1980 →1546 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
הָאֵיפָֽה׃the ephah
haeifahH374 →40 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
About Zechariah
This page draws on Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.