Zechariah 5:7

Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. Wickedness and idolatry removed from the Holy Land to Babylon, there to mingle with its kindred elements.-The ephah was the Hebrew dry measure containing about a bushel, or seven and a half gallons. Hereby the allusion is to the previous vision as to theft and perjury: the ephah which, by falsification of the measure, they made the instrument of defrauding, shall be made the instrument of their punishment (Grotius). Compare "this is their resemblance" (Zechariah 5:6) - i:e., this is a representation of what the Jews have done, and what they shall suffer. Their total dispersion ("the land of Shinar" being the emblem of the various Gentile lands of their present dispersion) is herein foretold, when the measure (to which the ephah a...

Now the Prophet says that wickedness, when first seen, was in mid air, and in a measure; but at the same time he calls the measure the eye of the ungodly, for though wickedness extends itself to all parts, yet God confines it within a hidden measure; and this he designates by eyes, whereby he seems to allude to a former prophecy, which we have explained. For he had said that there were seven eyes in the stone of the high priest, because God would carry on by his providence the building of the temple. So also he says, that God’s eyes are upon all the ungodly, according to what is said in the book of Psalms — “The eyes of the Lord are over the wicked, to destroy their memory from the earth.” (Psalms 34:17.) And this mode of speaking often occurs in Scripture. The meaning then is, that though wickedness spreads and extends through the whole earth, it is yet in

5-11 In this vision the prophet sees an ephah, something in the shape of a corn measure. This betokened the Jewish nation. They are filling the measure of their iniquity; and when it is full, they shall be delivered into the hands of those to whom God sold them for their sins. The woman sitting in the midst of the ephah represents the sinful church and nation of the Jews, in their latter and corrupt age. Guilt is upon the sinner as a weight of lead, to sink him to the lowest hell. This seems to mean the condemnation of the Jews, after they filled the measure of their iniquities by crucifying Christ and rejecting his gospel. Zechariah sees the ephah, with the woman thus pressed in it, carried away to some far country. This intimates that the Jews should be hurried out of their own land, and forced to dwell in far countries, as they had been in Babylon. There the ephah shall be firmly pla...

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. This the divine David teacheth us, “mine iniquities are gone over my head: as an heavy burden, they are too heavy for me” Psalms 38:4. The divine Zechariah seeth sin under the image of a woman; for most evils are engendered by luxury. But he seeth the punishment, like most heavy lead, lying upon the mouth of iniquity, according to a Psalm, “all iniquity shall stop

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

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 Exodus 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. A Babylonish talent, according to Aelianus c, weighed seventy two Attic pounds; and an Attic mina, or pound, weighed a hundred drachmas; so that it was of the weight of seven thousand two hundred such drachmas. An Alexandrian talent was equal to twelve thousand Attic drachmas; and these the same with a hundred and twenty five Roman libras or pounds; which talent is supposed to be th...

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

THE TRANSFERENCE TO BABYLONIA OF JUDAH'S GUILT (_i.e._ the cause of calamity). For their resemblance (Zechariah 5:6) read with LXX their iniquity (_mg.)_ or rather their guilt. By the transference of Judah's guilt to Shinar (an intentional archaism for Babylon, see Genesis 11:1) Zechariah foretells both the deliverance of Judah and the ruin of the great empire. But he looks for the removal not only of the guilt, the cause of the calamity, but also of wickedness, the cause of the guilt. Wickedness, being feminine in Heb., is naturally symbolised by a woman. It is remarkable that Haggai and Zechariah make no mention of Persia, but only of Babylonia, probably because the Jews were still in captivity in the latter country....

BEHOLD. lo. Figure of speech _Asterismos_. App-6. TALENT. See App-51. Hebrew. _kikkar,_. round disk, evidently fitting the ephah like. lid....

_a talent of lead_ Rather, A CIRCLE OF LEAD, i.e. a thick circular plate or lamina of lead, which formed the lid or cover of the ephah, Zechariah 5:8; _round piece_, R. V. margin. This the prophet saw in the act of being "lifted up" from the mouth of the ephah, in order to give him a view of its contents. _and this_ which now comes into view as the lid is raised. To indicate the raising of the cover just at this moment, the R. V. prints the first part of Zechariah 5:7 within brackets....