Zechariah 5:1-4

Zechariah’s Sixth Vision

1 {I looked up again}, and I saw, and look!--a flying scroll!
2 And he asked me, "What [are] you seeing?" And I said, "I [am] seeing a flying scroll twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide."
3 And he said to me, "This [is] the curse going out over the surface of the whole earth. For everyone who steals has gone unpunished according to it, and [likewise] everyone who swears [falsely] has gone unpunished according to it.
4 'I have sent it out,' {declares} Yahweh of hosts, 'and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of the one swearing {falsely by my name}, and it will spend the night in that house and will destroy it, with its timber and its stone.'"

Zechariah 5:1-4 Meaning and Commentary

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, Zec 5:1-4 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, Zec 5:5-8 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, Zec 5:9-11.

Footnotes 6

  • [a]. Literally "I did again, I lifted up my eyes"
  • [b]. That is, thirty feet by fifteen feet
  • [c]. Many translations render this verb as "will be cut off"
  • [d]. Literally "declaration of"
  • [e]. Literally "by my name to lie"
  • [f]. Hebrew "his"
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.