Zechariah 5:6 Kommentar

Hitherto we have seen visions of peace only, and all the words we have heard have been good words and comfortable words. But the pillar of cloud and fire has a black and dark side towards the Egyptians, as well as a bright and pleasant side towards Israel; so have Zechariah's visions; for God's prophets are not only his ambassadors, to treat of peace with the sons of peace, but heralds, to proclaim war against those that delight in war, and persist in their rebellion. In this chapter we have two visions, by which "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." God will do great and kind things for his people, which the faithful sons of Zion shall rejoice in; but "let the sinners in Zion be afraid;" for, I. God will reckon severely with those particular persons among them that are wicked and profane, and that hated to be reformed in these times of reformation; while God is showing kindness to the body of the nation, and loading that with his blessings, they and their families shall, notwithstanding that, lie under the curse, which the prophet sees in a flying roll (Zac 5:1-4). II. If the body of the nation hereafter degenerate, and wickedness prevail among them, it shall be carried off and hurried away with a swift destruction, under the pressing weight of divine wrath, represented by a talent of lead upon the mouth of an ephah, carried upon the wing I know not where (Zac 5:5-11).

INTRODUCTION TO ZECHARIAH 5 This chapter treats of the judgments of God upon the wicked Jews for their sins and impieties, the measure of which was filled up, and of the execution of them, which are represented in two visions: the first is of a flying roll, which signifies the curse of God, and is described by its measure, the length being twenty cubits, and the breadth ten; and by the extent of it, it reaching to the whole earth, and particularly to thieves and false swearers, who shall be cut off by it; and by the certainty of its coming into the houses of such, and the utter desolation it should there make, Zac 5:1 and the other is the vision of an ephah, and a woman sitting in it, and a talent of lead cast upon the mouth of it, which signified wickedness, Zac 5:5 this "ephah" is seen to be lifted up between earth and heaven by two women, who are said to have wings like the wings of storks, and the wind to be in them; and who are said by the angel to carry the "ephah" into the land of Shinar, to build it a house, that it might be established and settled upon its own base, Zac 5:9.

And I said, What is it?.... After he had lifted up his eyes and seen it, he desires to know both what it was, and what was the meaning of it: and he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth; which was a measure much in use with the Jews, Exo 16:36 it is the same with the "bath", and held above seven wine gallons. The Targum interprets this of such who dealt in false measures, whose sin is exposed, and their punishment set forth; but rather it designs the measure of iniquity filling up, either in Judea, particularly in the times of Christ, Mat 23:32 or in the whole world, and especially in the antichristian states, Rev 18:5, and He said moreover, this is their resemblance through all the earth; or "this is their eye" (z); what they are looking at, and intent upon, namely, this ephah; that is, to fill up the measure of their iniquity: or, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, this ephah, which thou seest, shows that there is an eye upon them which sees their works; and this is the eye of the Lord, which sees and takes notice of all the evil actions of men, not as approving them, but as observing them, and avenging them. Cocceius, by the "ephah", understands an abundance of temporal good things bestowed upon the Christian church in Constantine's time and following, on which the eyes of carnal men were looking. (z) "haec est oculus eorum", Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius, Cocceius.

(Verse 5 seq.) And an angel came out who spoke to me, and said to me: Lift up your eyes and see what is coming. And I said: What is it? And he said: This is a departing vessel; and he said: This is their eye in all the land. And behold, a weight of lead was being carried, and behold, a woman sitting in the middle of the vessel. And he said: This is wickedness, and he threw her into the middle of the vessel, and he put a lead mass in her mouth. LXX: And the angel who spoke with me came out and said to me: Lift up your eyes and see what is coming out. And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the measure that is coming out. And he said, This is their iniquity in all the land. And behold, a talent of lead was lifted up: and behold, a woman was sitting inside the measure, and he said, This is wickedness, and he threw her into the midst of the measure, and he threw a lead stone into her mouth. The amphora, or measure, was being carried out and was seen in the air. And so that we would not doubt by what proper term it is called, the angel himself, who showed the amphora, or measure, gives it a name and says, according to the Septuagint, 'This is their wickedness in all the earth'; according to the Hebrews, 'This is the eye, that is, the manifestation of all sins.' And behold, a woman was sitting in the middle of the amphora, or measure, which is called 'Epha' by the Hebrews, and it is often translated by the Seventy as 'οἴφι'; and this very woman was called wickedness. When she saw these things, behold, a talent of lead, that is, a mass the size of a stone, was being carried either by its own force or by the command of the Lord, or it was being carried by another whose name remains unspoken. But this angel who was speaking through the prophet, and coming out of him, showed all these things, seized the woman who was called impiety, and threw her headlong into the middle of the amphora, which was previously being carried freely, and sitting on top of the amphora, he appeared to everyone. Acne forte rursum elevaret caput, et sua iniquitate et impietate gauderet, talentum plumbi in modum gravissimi lapidis mittit in os amphorae: ut impietatem in medio opprimat atque concludat, ne quoquo modo possit erumpere. Haec quasi umbras quasdam et lineas futurae imaginis duximus, ut quod reliquum est suis coloribus impleamus. Angelus qui loquebatur in propheta, egressus de eo, et quasi cominus loquens, praecipit illi ut levet oculos suos, et videat peccata populi Israel in mensuram coacervata perfectam, et impleta delicta cunctorum: et hanc esse oculum eorum, quod Hebraice dicitur Enam (), et scribitur per Ain, Jod, Nun, Mem: Sive iniquitatem eorum; quae si per Vau litteram scripta esset, recte legeretur Onam (), ut LXX putaverunt: et hic error in editione Vulgata frequenter inolevit, ut quia Vau et Jod litterae eadem forma, sed mensura diversae sunt, altera legatur pro altera. This amphora or measure, their eye is in the whole earth, that is, a display of sins, so that the vices of those scattered and hidden might be gathered together and exposed to the eyes of all, to show what kind of people Israel was and how it had been in its land. And behold, a talent of lead was carried. For the talent of lead, we read in the following passage a lead stone. Chachar is called a talent (); Aben a stone. He is, therefore, the lead stone, which we, expressing it more clearly, have interpreted as the mass or sphere of lead, from which the heaviest weight of sins is signified. And above this measure and vessel of all sins, impiety sat in the middle, which we can also call by another name, idolatry, and denial of God. Hence, the Savior said to the Jews: 'Fill up the measure of your fathers' (Matthew 23:32). This wickedness, which sat upon the sins of Israel and boasted in its own wickedness, is later cast into the midst of Babylon and pressed down by the bad of captivity. Or according to Theodotion, it throws itself and hides in the midst of a jar, and places upon itself the heaviest weight of lead, so that it may have its mouth sealed shut and cannot boast any longer. Or surely it is oppressed by the angel of God, so that what previously rejoiced in wickedness may be silenced in eternal silence. But the following reading teaches to what place and by whom it is brought to a close.

The vision of the large flying roll, with the angel's explanation, Zac 5:1-4. The vision of the ephah, and of the woman sitting on it, with the signification, Zac 5:5-11.

This is an ephah that goeth forth - This, among the Jews, was the ordinary measure of grain. The woman in the ephah is supposed to represent Judea, which shall be visited for its sins; the talent of lead on the ephah, within which the woman was enclosed, the wrath of God, bending down this culprit nation, in the measure of its sins; for the angel said, "This is wickedness;" that is, the woman represents the mass of iniquity of this nation.

SIXTH VISION. THE FLYING ROLL. The fraudulent and perjuring transgressors of the law shall be extirpated from Judea. (Zac 5:1-4) 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 (Deu 27:15-26; Deu. 28:15-68). Being written implied that its contents were beyond all escape or repeal (Eze 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 (Zac 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" (Zac 5:3), VATABLUS connects it with the two tables of the law (Exo 32:15), and implies its comprehensiveness. One side denounced "him that sweareth falsely (Zac 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.

This is their resemblance--literally, "eye" (compare Eze 1:4-5, Eze 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. This--Here used of what was within the ephah, not the ephah itself.

Sixth Vision: The Flying Roll, and the Woman in the Ephah - Zac 5:1-11 These two figures are so closely connected, that they are to be taken as one vision. The circumstance, that a pause is introduced between the first and second view, in which both the ecstatic elevation and the interpreting angel leave the prophet, so that it is stated in Zac 5:5 that "the angel came forth," furnishes no sufficient reason for the assumption that there were two different visions. For the figure of the ephah with the woman sitting in it is also divided into two views, since the prophet first of all sees the woman and receives the explanation (Zac 5:5-8), and the further development of the vision is then introduced in Zac 5:9 with a fresh introductory formula, "And I lifted up my eyes, and saw." And just as this introductory formula, through which new and different visions are introduced in Zac 2:1 and Zac 2:5, by no means warrants us in dividing what is seen here into two different visions; so there is nothing in the introduction in Zac 5:5 to compel us to separate the vision of the flying roll (Zac 5:1-4) from the following vision of the ephah, since there is no such difference in the actual contents of the two as to warrant such a separation. They neither stand in such a relation to one another, as that the first sets forth the extermination of sinners out of the holy land, and the second the extermination of sin itself, as Maurer supposes; nor does the one treat of the fate of the sinners and the other of the full measure of the sin; but the vision of the flying roll prepares the way for, and introduces, what is carried out in the vision of the ephah (Zac 5:5-11), and the connection between the two is indicated formally by the fact that the suffix in עינם in Zac 5:6 refers back to Zac 5:3 and Zac 5:4.