Compare Translations for Zechariah 5:4

Commentaries For Zechariah 5

  • Chapter 5

    The vision of a flying roll. (1-4) The vision of a woman and an ephah. (5-11)

    Verses 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, Ps. 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, another part will rest on the soul, and sink it to everlasting punishment. All are transgressors of the law, so we cannot escape this wrath of God, except we flee for refuge to lay hold on the hope set before us in the gospel.

    Verses 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 placed, and their sufferings shall continue far longer than in their late captivity. Blindness is happened unto Israel, and they are settled upon their own unbelief. Let sinners fear to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; for the more they multiply crimes, the faster the measure fills.


    Zechariah 5:1-4 . SIXTH VISION. THE FLYING ROLL. The fraudulent and perjuring transgressors of the law shall be extirpated from Judea.

    1. 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 ( Deuteronomy 27:15-26 , 28:15-68 ). Being written implied that its contents were beyond all escape or repeal ( Ezekiel 2:9 ). 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 ( Zechariah 5:2 ). Being open to all, none could say in excuse he knew not the law and the curses of disobedience. As the previous visions intimated God's favor in restoring the Jewish state, so this vision announces judgment, intimating that God, notwithstanding His favor, did not approve of their sins. Being written on both sides, "on this and on that side" ( Zechariah 5:3 ), VATABLUS connects it with the two tables of the law ( Exodus 32:15 ), and implies its comprehensiveness. One side denounced "him that sweareth falsely ( Zechariah 5:4 ) by God's name," according to the third commandment of the first table, duty to God; the other side denounced theft, according to the eighth commandment, which is in the second table, duty to one's neighbor.

    2. length . . . twenty cubits . . . breadth . . . ten cubits--thirty feet by fifteen, the dimensions of the temple porch ( 1 Kings 6:3 ), where the law was usually read, showing that it was divinely authoritative in the theocracy. Its large size implies the great number of the curses contained. The Hebrew for "roll" or "volume" is used of the law ( Psalms 40:7 ).

    3. curse . . . earth--( Malachi 4:6 ). The Gentiles are amenable to the curse of the law, as they have its substance, so far as they have not seared and corrupted conscience, written on their hearts ( Romans 2:15 ).
    cut off--literally, "cleared away."
    as on this side . . . as on that side--both sides of the roll [VATABLUS]. From this place . . . from this place (repeated twice, as "the house" is repeated in Zechariah 5:4 ) [MAURER]; so "hence" is used, Genesis 37:17 (or, "on this and on that side," that is, on every side) [HENDERSON]. None can escape, sin where he may: for God from one side to the other shall call all without exception to judgment [CALVIN]. God will not spare even "this place," Jerusalem, when it sins [PEMBELLUS]. English Version seems to take VATABLUS' view.
    according to it--according as it is written.

    4. The "theft" immediately meant is similar sacrilege to that complained of in Nehemiah 13:10 , Malachi 3:8 . They robbed God by neglecting to give Him His due in building His house, while they built their own houses, forswearing their obligations to Him; therefore, the "houses" they build shall be "consumed" with God's "curse." Probably literal theft and perjury accompanied their virtual theft and perjury as to the temple of God ( Malachi 3:5 ). Stealing and perjury go together; for the covetous and fraudulent perjure themselves by God's name without scruple (see Proverbs 30:9 ).
    consume . . . timber . . . stones--not leaving a vestige of it. So the "stones" and "timber" of the house of a leper (type of the sinner) were to be utterly removed ( Leviticus 14:15 ; compare 1 Kings 18:38 ).

    Zechariah 5:5-11 . SEVENTH VISION. THE WOMAN IN THE EPHAH. Wickedness and idolatry removed from the Holy Land to Babylon, there to mingle with their kindred elements.



    6. This is their resemblance--literally, "eye" (compare Ezekiel 1:4 Ezekiel 1:5 Ezekiel 1:16 ). HENGSTENBERG translates, "Their (the people's) eye" was all directed to evil. But English Version is better. "This is the appearance (that is, an image) of the Jews in all the land" (not as English Version, "in all the earth"), that is, of the wicked Jews.

    woman--for comparison of "wickedness" to a woman, Proverbs 2:16 , Proverbs 5:3 Proverbs 5:4 . In personifying abstract terms, the feminine is used, as the idea of giving birth to life is associated with woman.

    8. wickedness--literally, "the wickedness": implying wickedness in its peculiar development. Compare "the man of sin," 2 Thessalonians 2:3 .


    11. To build . . . house in . . . Shinar--Babylonia ( Genesis 10:10 ), the capital of the God-opposed world kingdoms, and so representing in general the seat of irreligion. As the "building of houses" in Babylon ( Jeremiah 29:5 Jeremiah 29:28 ) by the Jews themselves expressed their long exile there, so the building of an house for "wickedness" there implies its permanent stay.