Zechariah 5:1-10

1 Then again lifting up my eyes I saw a roll in flight through the air.

2 And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, A roll going through the air; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.

3 Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone without punishment, and long enough has every taker of false oaths gone without punishment.

4 And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who takes a false oath by my name: and it will be in his house, causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its stones.

5 And the angel who was talking to me went out and said to me, Let your eyes be lifted up now, and see the ephah which is going out.

6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah which is going out. And he said further, This is their evil-doing in all the land.

7 And I saw a round cover of lead lifted up; and a woman was seated in the middle of the ephah.

8 And he said, This is Sin; and pushing her down into the ephah, he put the weight of lead on the mouth of it.

9 And lifting up my eyes I saw two women coming out, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they took the ephah, lifting it up between earth and heaven.

10 And I said to the angel who was talking to me, Where are they taking the ephah?

Zechariah 5:1-10 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.