Zechariah 5:5-11

Seventh night vision

5 Then the messenger speaking with me came forward and said, "Look up and see what's approaching."

6 I said, "What's this?" He said, "This is the basket that is going out. This is how it appears throughout the entire land."

7 Then a lead cover was lifted, showing a woman sitting in the middle of the basket.

8 He said, "This is wickedness." He shoved her back into the basket, and he put the lead stone over its opening.

9 I looked up again and saw two women going out. There was a wind in their wings; their wings were like the wings of a stork. They carried the basket between the earth and the sky.

10 I said to the messenger speaking with me, "Where are they taking the basket?"

11 He said to me, "To build a house for it in the land of Shinar. It will be firmly placed there on its base."

Zechariah 5:5-11 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

• [a]. Heb ephah, a basket measuring approximately twenty quarts
• [b]. Or their eye
• [c]. Heb uncertain