Zechariah 5

General context

Zechariah turns, lifts up his eyes and sees a flying roll. Asked what he sees, he answers that it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad. The interpreter tells him, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth, and says that every one that steals will be cut off on one side according to it and every one that swears will be cut off on the other. The Lord of hosts says he will bring the curse forth so that it enters the house of the thief and the house of the man who swears falsely by his name, remains in the midst of that house, and consumes it with its timber and its stones. The angel that talked with Zechariah then goes forth and tells him to lift up his eyes and see what is going out. Zechariah asks what it is and is told, This is an ephah that goeth forth, and, This is their resemblance through all the earth. A talent of lead is lifted up and a woman is sitting in the midst of the ephah. The angel says, This is wickedness, casts her into the middle of the ephah and throws the weight of lead on its mouth. Two women then come out with wind in their wings, which are like the wings of a stork, and lift the ephah up between the earth and the heaven. Zechariah asks where they are carrying it, and the angel answers that they go to build it a house in the land of Shinar, where it will be established and set upon its own base.

Cited passages: Zechariah 5:1, Zechariah 5:2, Zechariah 5:3, Zechariah 5:4, Zechariah 5:5, Zechariah 5:6, Zechariah 5:7, Zechariah 5:8, Zechariah 5:9, Zechariah 5:10, Zechariah 5:11

Zechariah 5 (KJV)

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Historical context

The chapter has no date and no named person. The roll is given measurements in cubits and nothing else; the text does not say what is written on it, only what it does. Two offences are named, stealing and swearing, and the second is specified in verse 4 as swearing "falsely by my name." The ephah is a measure, and the only explanations offered for it are the angel's two sentences, "This is an ephah that goeth forth" and "This is their resemblance through all the earth"; the text does not say whose resemblance. The woman in the ephah is identified by the angel with three words, "This is wickedness," and is given no name, speech or history. The two winged women are not identified and are not said to be angels. "The land of Shinar" is named as the destination without any description, and the chapter does not say who will build the house there or when. The lead weight, the wings of a stork and the base on which the ephah is set are described without further comment.

Cited passages: Zechariah 5:2, Zechariah 5:3, Zechariah 5:4, Zechariah 5:6, Zechariah 5:7, Zechariah 5:8, Zechariah 5:9, Zechariah 5:11, Zechariah 5:1, Zechariah 5:10

Literary context

Two sights are placed side by side and both are about removal. The first travels toward houses, entering, remaining and consuming from the inside; the second travels away from the land, lifted between earth and heaven. The roll is measured before it is explained, so the reader sees the size of the thing before learning what it carries, and the curse is described as going forth "over the face of the whole earth" while it ends up inside one thief's timber and stones. The second vision is told almost entirely in the angel's short declarative sentences, with the prophet reduced to two questions, What is it and Whither do these bear the ephah. The woman is shut in with a lead lid rather than destroyed, and the closing detail is a house built for her elsewhere, which leaves wickedness housed instead of ended. Both scenes keep the question-and-answer frame of the earlier visions but give the interpreting angel most of the words, and the stork wings are given without any explanation at all.

Cited passages: Zechariah 5:1, Zechariah 5:2, Zechariah 5:3, Zechariah 5:4, Zechariah 5:6, Zechariah 5:8, Zechariah 5:9, Zechariah 5:10, Zechariah 5:11, Zechariah 5:7

Key moments

1. A flying roll (Zechariah 5:1). Zechariah sees a roll flying and gives its measurements.
2. The curse over the earth (Zechariah 5:3). The angel says the roll is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole earth.
3. It consumes the house (Zechariah 5:4). The curse enters the thief’s house and consumes its timber and stones.
4. An ephah goes forth (Zechariah 5:6). The angel tells Zechariah to look at an ephah and calls it their resemblance.
5. This is wickedness (Zechariah 5:8). A woman in the ephah is named wickedness and shut in under a weight of lead.
6. Wings like a stork (Zechariah 5:9). Two winged women lift the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
7. A house in Shinar (Zechariah 5:11). The ephah is carried to the land of Shinar to be set on its own base.

For reflection

Wickedness is weighted shut and carried off to a house built for it in another land, rather than destroyed. What does that ending leave unsettled about the curse announced in the first half of the chapter?