Zechariah 5:7
in Zechariah 5And behold, the cover of lead was raised, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
(and, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah.
KJV
And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
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This verse in Zechariah 5
Commentary
9 notes on this verse(Verse 5 seq.) And an angel came out who spoke to me, and said to me: Lift up your eyes and see what is coming. And I said: What is it? And he said: This is a departing vessel; and he said: This is their eye in all the land. And behold, a weight of lead was being carried, and behold, a woman sitting in the middle of the vessel. And he said: This is wickedness, and he threw her into the middle of the vessel, and he put a lead mass in her mouth.
This site's exposition
there was lifted up a talent of lead
on Zechariah 5:7-8
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers2 voices
For virtue is a light and buoyant thing, and all who live in her way "fly like clouds," as Isaiah says, "and as doves with their young ones"; but sin is a heavy affair, "sitting," as another of the prophets says, "upon a talent of lead." If, however, this reading of the history appears to any forced and inapplicable, and the miracle at the Red Sea does not present itself to him as written for our profit, let him listen to the Apostle: "Now all these things happened unto them for types, and they are written for our admonition."
The deserts of each one of us are suspended in the balance, which a little weight either of good works or of degenerate conduct sways this way or that; if the evil preponderate, woe is me! if the good, pardon is at hand. For no man is free from sin; but where good preponderates, the evil flies up, is overshadowed, and covered. Wherefore in the Day of judgement our works will either succour us, or will sink us into the deep, weighed down as with a millstone.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
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.
And behold - Here is another part of this vision. Lifted up - Brought thither to cover it. A talent - A piece of lead of a talent weight, as large as the mouth of the ephah.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
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.
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
lifted up--The cover is lifted off the ephah to let the prophet see the female personification of "wickedness" within, about to be removed from Judea.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וְהִנֵּ֛ה | vehineh | and there! | H2009 → | 843 times |
| כִּכַּ֥ר | kikar | a round cover of | H3603 → | |
| עֹפֶ֖רֶת | ʾoferet | lead | H5777 → | |
| נִשֵּׂ֑את | niset | [was] raised | H5375 → | 656 times |
| וְזֹאת֙ | vezot | and this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| אִשָּׁ֣ה | ʾishah | woman | H802 → | 781 times |
| אַחַ֔ת | ʾachat | one | H259 → | 971 times |
| יוֹשֶׁ֖בֶת | yoshevet | [was] sitting | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| בְּת֥וֹךְ | betokh | in [the] midst of | H8432 → | 418 times |
| הָאֵיפָֽה׃ | haeifah | the ephah | H374 → | 40 times |
וְהִנֵּ֛הand there!
vehinehH2009 →843 times
כִּכַּ֥רa round cover of
kikarH3603 →
עֹפֶ֖רֶתlead
ʾoferetH5777 →
נִשֵּׂ֑את[was] raised
nisetH5375 →656 times
וְזֹאת֙and this
vezotH2063 →603 times
אִשָּׁ֣הwoman
ʾishahH802 →781 times
אַחַ֔תone
ʾachatH259 →971 times
יוֹשֶׁ֖בֶת[was] sitting
yoshevetH3427 →1079 times
בְּת֥וֹךְin [the] midst of
betokhH8432 →418 times
הָאֵיפָֽה׃the ephah
haeifahH374 →40 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
5 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 22:11You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago.
it leads to
- Jeremiah 33:2–3
“Thus says the LORD who made the earth, the LORD who formed it and established it, the LORD is His name:
- Micah 7:7
But as for me, I will look to the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation. My God will hear me.
- 2 Kings 25:4
Then the city was breached; and though the Chaldeans had surrounded the city, all the men of war fled by night by way of the gate between the two walls near the king’s garden.…
- Isaiah 31:1
Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, who rely on horses, who trust in their abundance of chariots and in their multitude of horsemen. They do not look to the Holy…
- Isaiah 17:7
In that day men will look to their Maker and turn their eyes to the Holy One of Israel.
- Jeremiah 33:2–3
About Zechariah
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Ambrose of Milan, Letter 2; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Gregory of Nyssa, On Virginity 18; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Zechariah; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.