Zechariah 5:6
in Zechariah 5“What is it?” I asked. And he replied, “A measuring basket is going forth.” Then he continued, “This is their iniquity in all the land.”
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their appearance in all the land
KJV
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
⋯
This verse in Zechariah 5
Commentary
10 notes on this verseAnd 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.
This site's exposition
Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward
on Zechariah 5:5-6
The angel announces a second vision: “A measuring basket is going forth”, the ephah. He names it plainly, “This is their iniquity in all the land”. Gill notes that a household measure becomes the sign, so the vision reaches common dealing as well as the great crimes of the scroll.
This site's exposition
A measuring basket is going forth
The measuring basket is an ephah, which Gill put at over seven gallons of grain. Wesley read the basket as their iniquity in all the land, filling until the wrath of the LORD was poured out. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown gave “their eye” as the Hebrew.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(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.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
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.
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.
Unavoidable, and what they cannot escape; they are bound over to it, concluded under sin, and shut up under the curse, as this woman in the ephah; he would fain flee out of his hand ( Job xxvii. It is insupportable, and what they cannot bear up under. Guilt is upon the sinner as a talent of lead, to sink him to the lowest hell.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
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.
2 more voices on this verse
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
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.
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
This is the ephah that goeth forth - Theodoret: “We too are taught by this, that the Lord of all administers all things in weight and measure. So, foretelling to Abraham that his seed should be a sojourner and the cause thereof, He says, “for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full” Gen 15:16, that is, they have not yet committed sins enough to merit entire destruction, wherefore I cannot yet endure to give them over to the slaughter, but will wait for the measure of their iniquity.” The relation then of this vision to the seventh is, that the seventh tells of God’s punishment on individual sinners; this, on the whole people, when the iniquity of the whole is full. This is their resemblance, as we say, their look, that is, the look, appearance, of the inhabitants “in all the land.” This then being the condition of the people of the land, at the time to which the vision relates, the symbolical carrying away of the full measure of sin cannot be its forgiveness, since there was no repentance, but the taking away of the sin with the sinner. Cyril: “The Lord of all is good and loving to mankind; for He is patient toward sinners and endures transgressors, waiting for the repentance of each; but if one perseveres long in iniquity, and come to the term of the endurance allowed, it remains that he should be subjected to punishment, and there is no account of this long forebarance, nor can he be exempt from judgment proportioned to what he has done. So then Christ says to the Jewish people, rushing with unbridled phrensy to all strange excess, “Fill ye up the measure of your fathers” Mat 23:32. […]
The words behind it
12 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וָאֹמַ֖ר | vaomar | and I said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| מַה־ | mah- | what? | H4100 → | 752 times |
| הִ֑יא | hi' | [is] it | H1931 → | 1879 times |
| וַיֹּ֗אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| זֹ֤את | zot | this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| הָֽאֵיפָה֙ | haeifah | [is] the ephah | H374 → | 40 times |
| הַיּוֹצֵ֔את | haiyotzet | which is going forth | H3318 → | 1067 times |
| וַיֹּ֕אמֶר | vaiyomer | and he said | H559 → | 5305 times |
| זֹ֥את | zot | this | H2063 → | 603 times |
| עֵינָ֖ם | ʾeinam | [is] appearance their | H5869 → | 887 times |
| בְּכָל־ | bekhol | in all | H3605 → | 5413 times |
| הָאָֽרֶץ׃ | haaretz | the land | H776 → | 2504 times |
וָאֹמַ֖רand I said
vaomarH559 →5305 times
מַה־what?
mah-H4100 →752 times
הִ֑יא[is] it
hi'H1931 →1879 times
וַיֹּ֗אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
זֹ֤אתthis
zotH2063 →603 times
הָֽאֵיפָה֙[is] the ephah
haeifahH374 →40 times
הַיּוֹצֵ֔אתwhich is going forth
haiyotzetH3318 →1067 times
וַיֹּ֕אמֶרand he said
vaiyomerH559 →5305 times
זֹ֥אתthis
zotH2063 →603 times
עֵינָ֖ם[is] appearance their
ʾeinamH5869 →887 times
בְּכָל־in all
bekholH3605 →5413 times
הָאָֽרֶץ׃the land
haaretzH776 →2504 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
Amos 8:5asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us…
it leads to
- Nehemiah 13:15–21
In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being…
- Micah 6:10–11
Can I forget any longer, O house of the wicked, the treasures of wickedness and the short ephah, which is accursed?
- Hosea 12:7
A merchant loves to defraud with dishonest scales in his hands.
- Deuteronomy 25:13–16
You shall not have two differing weights in your bag, one heavy and one light.
- Leviticus 19:36
You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.
- Nehemiah 13:15–21
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies1
About Zechariah
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); 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 Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.