Zechariah 5:1

Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll. The fraudulent and prejuring transgressors of the law shall be extirpated from Judea. BEHOLD, A FLYING ROLL - of papyrus or dressed skins, used for writing on when paper was not known. It was inscribed with the words of the curse (; ). Being written implied that its contents were beyond all escape or repeal (). Its "flying" shows that its curses were ready swiftly to visit the transgressors. It was unrolled, or else its dimensions could not have been seen (). Being open to all, none could say in excuse he knew not the law and the curses of disobedie...

The angel shows in this chapter, that whatever evils the Jews had suffered, proceeded from the righteous judgment Of God; and then he adds a consolation — that the Lord would at length alleviate or put an end to their evils, when he had removed afar off their iniquity. Interpreters have touched neither heaven nor earth in their explanation of this prophecy, for they have not regarded the design of the Holy Spirit. Some think that by the volume are to be understood false and perverted glosses, by which the purity of doctrine had been vitiated; but this view can by no means be received. There is no doubt but that God intended to show to Zechariah, that the Jews were justly punished, because the whole land was full of thefts and perjuries. As then religion had been despised, as well as equity and justice, he shows that it was no wonder that a curse had prevailed through the whole land, the...

1-4 The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament are rolls, in which God has written the great things of his law and gospel; they are flying rolls. God's word runs very swiftly, Psalms 147:15. This flying roll contains a declaration of the righteous wrath of God against sinners. Oh that we saw with an eye of faith the flying roll of God's curse hanging over the guilty world as a thick cloud, not only keeping off the sunbeams of God's favour, but big with thunders, lightnings, and storms, ready to destroy them! How welcome then would the tidings of a Saviour be, who came to redeem us from the curse of the law, being himself made a curse for us! Sin is the ruin of houses and families; especially the doing hurt to others and false witness. Who knows the power of God's anger? God's curse cannot be kept out by bars or locks. While one part of the curse of God ruins the substance of the sinner...

CHAPTER V _The vision of the large flying roll, with the angel's_ _explanation_, 1-4. _The vision of the ephah, and of the woman sitting on it, with_ _the signification_, 5-11. NOTES ON CHAP. V Verse Zechariah 5:1. _BEHOLD A FLYING ROLL._] This was _twenty cubits long_, and _ten cubits broad_; the prophet saw it expanded, and _flying_. Itself was the catalogue of the crimes of the people, and the punishment threatened by the Lord. Some think the crimes were those of the _Jews_; others, those of the _Chaldeans_. The _roll_ is mentioned in allusion to those large rolls on which the Jews write the _Pentateuch_.

Hitherto all had been bright, full of the largeness of the gifts of God; of God’s favor to His people ; the removal of their enemies ; the restoration and expansion and security of God’s people and Church under His protection ; the acceptance of the present typical priesthood and the promise of Him, through whom there should be entire forgiveness : the abiding illumining of the Church by the Spirit of God . Yet there is a reverse side to all this, God’s judgments on those who reject all His mercies. Augustine, de Civ. Del. 17:3. Ribera: “Prophecies partly appertain to those in whose times the sacred writers prophesied, partly to the mysteries of Christ. And therefore it is the custom of the prophets, at one time to chastise vices and set forth punishments, at another to predict the mysteries of Christ and the Church.” AND I TURNED AND - Or, “Again I lifted up my eyes” Gen 26:18

EXPOSITION ZECHARIAH 5:1 § 8. _The sixth vision: the flying roll._ ZECHARIAH 5:1 THEN I TURNED, AND LIFTED UP MINE EYES; _i.e. _I lifted up mine eyes again, and saw the vision that follows. The prophet had seen, in the fourth vision, how in the new theocracy the priesthood should be pure and holy; in the fifth how the Church should be restored; he is now shown that sinners should be cut off, that no transgression should be left in the kingdom of God. A FLYING ROLL; _volumen volans _(Vulgate): comp. Ezekiel 2:9, Ezekiel 2:10

THEN I TURNED, AND LIFT UP MINE EYES, AND LOOKED,.... The prophet turned himself from looking upon the candlestick and olive branches, having had a full and clear understanding of them, and looked another way, and saw another vision: AND BEHOLD A FLYING ROLL, a volume or book flying in the air; it being usual for books, which were written on parchment, to be rolled up in the form of a cylinder; whence they were called rolls or volumes....

FLYING ROLL A "roll," in Scripture symbolism, means the written word whether of God or man (Ezekiel 6:2); (Jeremiah 36:2); (Jeremiah 36:4); (Jeremiah 36:6); etc: (Ezekiel 3:1). Zechariah's eighth vision is of the rebuke of sin by the word of God. The two sins mentioned really transgress both tables of the law. To steal is to set aside our neighbor's right; to swear is to set aside God's claim to reverence. As always the law can only curse (Zechariah 5

CHAPTER 5 _ 1. The sixth vision (Zechariah 5:1) _ 2. The seventh vision (Zechariah 5:5) Zechariah 5:1. The three remaining night visions are of a different character. The first visions the prophet had were visions of comfort for Jerusalem and the dispersed nation, the overthrow of Babylon and all their enemies, divine forgiveness and the theocracy restored. Now follow the last three visions, and these are visions of judgment. Judgment precedes Israel's restoration, and is very prominently connected with it. The sixth night vision is the one of the flying roll. The prophet's eyes seem to have been closed after the fifth vision, for we read, “And I lifted up my eyes again.” The flying ro

A FLYING, _I.E._ UBIQUITOUS ROLL CONTAINING AN EFFECTUAL CURSE AGAINST THIEVES AND PERJURERS. In ZECHARIAH 5:3_ b_ RV does violence to the Heb. Wellhausen with a slight emendation reads: for everyone that stealeth hath for a long time past been held guiltless, and everyone that sweareth falsely hath for a long time past been held guiltless. Zechariah here answers the complaint that, while the righteous suffer, sin is not punished, and affirms that henceforth the Lord's curse will show itself active against all thieves and perjurers. [For the power of self-fulfilment inherent in a curse see Genesis 9:25 *. A. S. P.]...