Zechariah 5:8

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 angel adds, that _a thin piece of lead was cast over the mouth of the measure, and that wickedness was cast into the measure_. The expression, that wickedness was thrown into the measure, may be explained in two ways — either that God would not permit so much liberty to the devil to lead the Jews to sin as before; for how comes it that men abandon themselves to every evil, except that God forsakes them, and at the same time delivers them up to Satan, that he may exercise his tyranny over them? or, that a bridle would be used to restrain foreign enemies, that they might not in their wantonness oppress the miserable people, and exercise extreme violence. God, then, intending to deliver them from their sins, or to check wrongs, shuts up wickedness, as it were, in a measure; and then he adds a cover; and it is said to have been a thin piece, or a weight of lead, because it was heavy;...

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 CAST HER INTO THE MIDST OF THE EPHAH - As yet then the measure was not full. Ribera: “She had the lower part within the Ephah, but the upper, especially the head, without. Though the Jews had slain the prophets and done many grievous things, the greatest sin of all remained to be done. But when they had crucified Christ and persecuted the Apostles and the Gospel, the measure was full; she was wholly within the Ephah, no part remained without, so that the measure was filled.” AND HE CAST THE WEIGHT OF LEAD UPON THE MOUTH THEREOF - that is, doubtless of the Ephah; as in Genesis, “a great stone was on the mouth of the well” Genesis 29:2, so that there should be no access to it....

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 HE SAID, THIS [IS] WICKEDNESS,.... A representation of wicked men, who are wickedness itself, as their inward part is, Psalms 5:9 and particularly of the wicked one, the man of sin and son of perdition, the Roman antichrist and apocalyptic beast; who, though he is called by this title, "his Holiness", his true and proper name is "wickedness"; ο ανομος, that wicked lawless one, 2 Thessalonians 2:8 yea, wickedness itself, being extremely wicked, a sink of sin and of all abominations, Revelation 17:5. AND HE CAST IT INTO THE MIDST OF THE EPHAH; that is, wickedness; that it might be kept within bounds, and not exceed its measure to be filled up: this seems to denote some restraint on sinners,

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....

WICKEDNESS. the lawless [one]. Hebrew. _rasha',_ App-44. Adjective, feminine, singular. the embodiment of the principle of lawlessness. The religions aspect of 2 Thessalonians 2:8.Revelation 17. IT: i.e. the talent, which had been "lifted up "for the prophet to see, and then cast back "into" the ephah. WEIGHT. stone; i.e. weight. This was "upon" the ephah, and is to be distinguished from the "talent", which was within....

_This is wickedness_ This woman that thou seest sitting in the ephah represents the wickedness of the whole land, gathered up, as it were, into one and personified. _the weight of lead_ Lit. THE STONE OF LEAD; so called, either because stones were used as weights (comp. our English word "stone"), or because the leaden lid on the mouth of the ephah suggested by its size and weight the stone cover of a well. Genesis 29:2. _upon the mouth thereof_ Lit. UPON HER MOUTH; but rightly rendered _thereof_, as the reference seems plainly to be to the ephah, on which the angel firmly fixed the lid, when he had cast down the woman into it. A different, but less satisfactory, view of the vision has been taken. According to this the woman is seen "having in her hand the leaden weight with which she was wont to traffic, and sitting crouched down in an empty bushel