Zechariah 5:6

What is it? — i.e., What does it symbolise? For, of course, he could see that it was an ephah.

This is an ephah... all the earth. — Better, This, the ephah that cometh forth, this, continued he, is their resemblance throughout the whole lands: i.e., this is a symbol of the sinners mentioned above. (For “resemblance” the LXX., by the change of one letter, read iniquity.) The nature of the comparison is seen by some to be as follows. As in an ephah the separate grains are all collected together, so will the individual sinners over the whole length and breadth of the land be brought into one confused heap. (Comp. Matthew 13:30.) It is not mentioned till later that they are to be carried away.