Zechariah 5:9

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...

The Prophet says here that such would be the change of things, that God would in turn afflict the Chaldeans, who had so cruelly treated the chosen people. And this is the reason why I think that iniquity is to be taken for the violent injustice and plunder which heathen enemies had exercised towards the Jews. For when he says that a _house _would be for _iniquity in the land of Shinar_, it is as though he had said, “as Judea has been for a long time plundered by enemies, and has been exposed to their outrages, so the Chaldeans in their turn shall be punished, not once, nor for a short time, but perpetually; for God will fix a habitation for wickedness in their land.” We hence see the design of the vision, that is, that when God had mercy on his Church its enemies would have to render an account, and that they would not escape God’s hand, though he had employed them to chastise his people...

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...

Verse Zechariah 5:9. _THERE CAME OUT TWO WOMEN_] As the _one woman_ represented the _impiety_ of the Jewish nation; so these _two_ women who were to _carry the ephah_, in which the woman INIQUITY was shut up, under the _weight_ of a _talent of lead_, may mean the desperate UNBELIEF of the Jews in rejecting the Messiah; and that IMPIETY, or universal _corruption_ of manners, which was the consequence of their _unbelief_, and brought down the wrath of God upon them. The strong _wings_, like those of _a stork_, may point out the _power_ and _swiftness_ with which Judea was carried on to fill up the _measure_ of her iniquity, and to meet the punishment which she deserved. _BETWEEN THE EARTH AND THE HEAVEN._] Sins against GOD and MAN, sins which _heaven_ and _earth_ contemplated with h

THERE CAME OUT TWO WOMEN - It may be that there may be no symbol herein, but that he names women because it was a woman who was so carried; yet their wings were the wings of an unclean bird, strong, powerful, borne by a force not their own; with their will, since they flew; beyond their will, since the wind was in their wings; rapidly, inexorably, irresistibly, they flew and bore the Ephah between heaven and earth. No earthly power could reach or rescue it. God would not. It may be that evil spirits are symbolized, as being like to this personified human wickedness, such as snatch away the souls of the damned, who, by serving them, have become as they....

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 LIFTED I UP MINE EYES, AND LOOKED,.... This is not a new vision, but a continuation of the former, as appears from the "ephah" seen in it: AND, BEHOLD, THERE CAME OUT TWO WOMEN; out of the same place the "ephah" did. The Targum explains these "two women" by two provinces; and Kimchi interprets them of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who had been carried captive into Babylon; and others of the two kings, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, who were the cause of the captivity; but Jarchi understands by them the Babylonians and Chaldeans, two nations as one, joined in Nebuchadnezzar's armies, which carried them captive: others think the two reformers, Ezra and Nehemiah, are meant, who were instruments of purging the Jews, returned from captivity, though but weak ones, and therefore are compared to "women"; yet what they did they did swiftly, and therefore are said to have "wings", and under...

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....

TWO WOMEN. Perhaps denoting two nations. WIND. Hebrew. _ruach._ App-9. LIKE THE WINGS OF. STORK. Evidently. symbol of velocity rather than of character. STORK. An unclean bird, fond of its young, and. bird of passage....