Vv 1-4: The flying scroll. The priests and the kings in Israel
were responsible for justice in the nation (cp Deu 17:9; 2Sa 15:2-3). The sixth
(vv 1-4) and seventh visions (vv 5-11) deal with the removal of wickedness. This
sixth one deals with the elimination of lawbreakers, and the next one with the
removal of wickedness from the land. What God promised in the preceding two
visions required the purging predicted in these two visions.
"Before the blessing of the first five visions will be
actualized, there will intervene in the life of the nation a period of moral
declension and apostasy. God must and will purge out all iniquity, though He has
promised untold glory for the godly in Israel" (Feinberg).
Zec 5:2
A FLYING SCROLL, THIRTY FEET LONG AND FIFTEEN FEET
WIDE: Or, in Heb, 20 cubits by 10 cubits. He replied to the interpreting
angel who asked him what he saw that he saw a flying scroll that was 20 cubits
long and 10 cubits wide (30 feet by 15 feet). There is a plain connection
between this scroll and the tabernacle and the temple -- since these were the
dimensions of the holy place of the tabernacle (Exo 26:8) and the porch in front
of the holy place of Solomon's temple (1Ki 6:3).
The scroll was open and large so people could read it easily.
During the restoration period the returnees demonstrated an increased interest
in the Mosaic Law, which was written on scrolls (cp Neh 8). No one could plead
ignorance because the scroll in Zechariah's vision was large enough for all to
see.
Zec 5:3
THIS IS THE CURSE THAT IS GOING OUT OVER THE WHOLE
LAND: The angel explained that the scroll represented the curses that God
had decreed against the Israelites who stole and who swore falsely in the Lord's
name (v 4; cp Deu 28; Jer 29:18). According to what God had previously written
in the Law, those who stole and profaned His name would die, thus purging the
land of sin (the Heb "eretz" may sig a particular "land", in this case the Land
of Israel.)
ACCORDING TO WHAT IT SAYS ON ONE SIDE, EVERY THIEF WILL BE
BANISHED, AND ACCORDING TO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE OTHER, EVERYONE WHO SWEARS
FALSELY WILL BE BANISHED: Writing was on both sides of the scroll, as it had
been on the stone tables that contained the Ten Commandments (Exo 32:15). On one
side there was a curse against Israelites who broke the eighth commandment (Exo
20:15), and on the other side was a curse for breaking the third commandment
(Exo 20:7). These two commandments, from the first part of the Decalogue and the
second part, which Zechariah's contemporaries were apparently breaking
frequently, are probably intended to represent the whole Law (cp James 2:10:
"THIS IS THE CURSE THAT IS GOING OUT OVER THE WHOLE LAND: The angel explained
that the scroll represented the curses that God had decreed against the
Israelites who stole and who swore falsely in the Lord's name (v 4; cp Deu 28;
Jer 29:18). According to what God had previously written in the Law, those who
stole and profaned His name would die, thus purging the land of sin (the Heb
"eretz" may sig a particular "land", in this case the Land of Israel.)
ACCORDING TO WHAT IT SAYS ON ONE SIDE, EVERY THIEF WILL BE
BANISHED, AND ACCORDING TO WHAT IT SAYS ON THE OTHER, EVERYONE WHO SWEARS
FALSELY WILL BE BANISHED: Writing was on both sides of the scroll, as it had
been on the stone tables that contained the Ten Commandments (Exo 32:15). On one
side there was a curse against Israelites who broke the eighth commandment (Exo
20:15), and on the other side was a curse for breaking the third commandment
(Exo 20:7). These two commandments, from the first part of the Decalogue and the
second part, which Zechariah's contemporaries were apparently breaking
frequently, are probably intended to represent the whole Law (cp James 2:10:
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of
breaking all of it").
Zec 5:4
I WILL SEND IT OUT, AND IT WILL ENTER THE HOUSE OF THE
THIEF AND THE HOUSE OF HIM WHO SWEARS FALSELY BY MY NAME: Yahweh personified
the curse and pictured it going throughout the land, even into homes, to seek
out law-breakers. God's Word still had its ancient power even in post-exilic
Judaism. Even the privacy of their homes would not afford protection from the
judgment that the LORD would send on those of His people who broke His
law.
This passage is very valuable as a commentary on the nature of
Christ's rule in righteousness in the millennial period as well as the severity
of His dealing with sinners during the last great judgment time. Like the
plagues in Egypt, these judgments pictured here seem to require no human agency
to implement.
IT WILL REMAIN IN HIS HOUSE AND DESTROY IT, BOTH ITS
TIMBERS AND ITS STONES: "Look, your house is left to you desolate" (Mat
23:33,36-39). Being a "leprous" or sinful house, it was to be taken apart, stone
by stone, and its pieces carried out into an unclean place (Lev 14:45). And so
it finally happened, in 70 AD. Cp Jer 8:11,12; Luk 19:44.
Zec 5:5
Vv 5-11: The woman in the basket. The preceding vision
described the future removal of individual sinners from the land through divine
judgment, and this one pictures the eventual removal of all wickedness from the
future "holy land" (Zec 2:12; cp Zec 3:9).
At the same time, it appears that the wickedness that is sent
out of the Land of Israel finds residence elsewhere, ie the land of Shinar, or
Babylon.
Zec 5:6
IT IS A MEASURING BASKET: An ephah, a basket that held
about a half bushel (or five gallons) [some experts say it held more] of dry (or
liquid) material (cp 1Sa 1:24; Ruth 2:17).
THIS IS THE INIQUITY OF THE PEOPLE THROUGHOUT THE LAND:
Lit, "the eye" or "appearance" of iniquity. The people of Israel was all
focussed upon iniquity, intent upon self-satisfaction in every form, and even
intent upon the financial gain (see v 7n) necessary to acquire it -- all to the
exclusion of service to Yahweh.
Zec 5:7
THEN THE COVER OF LEAD WAS RAISED, AND THERE IN THE BASKET
SAT A WOMAN: A lead cover would be heavier than the customary stone cover
and would guarantee that what was inside would not get out -- this also suggests
that, at this time, the evil is mostly hidden from public view. Either the ephah
was oversized, like the flying scroll, or the woman was a miniature in
Zechariah's vision. Possibly God used an ephah in the vision simply because it
was a standard container that people used to carry things in, similar to a
barrel. Or the ephah may be a particular allusion to commercial malpractice; it
may even suggest those wicked ones who make "merchandise" of religion (2Pe 2:3;
Mal 1:10; Amos 8:5).
LEAD: A base metal (Jer 6:28,29) in contrast to the
gold of the lampstand.
A WOMAN: That this wickedness was symbolized by a woman
is God's way of suggesting an ecclesiastical, or religious entity. Since Israel
was the wife of God (as the church, or ecclesia, is the bride of Christ), then
Israel (or the ecclesia) -- in a corrupt state -- might be represented by a
harlot, or a woman of wickedness.
Zec 5:8
HE SAID, "THIS IS WICKEDNESS," AND HE PUSHED HER BACK INTO
THE BASKET AND PUSHED THE LEAD COVER DOWN OVER ITS MOUTH: The angel picked
her up, threw her down into the middle of the basket, and shut the lead cover
over her -- in this way the power of sin was "hindered" or "restrained" (cp 2 Th
2:6-8). Obviously some conflict was involved; "Wickedness" did not want to be
restricted. Here the woman represents the sum total of Israel's sins, wickedness
being the opposite of righteousness (cp Pro 13:6; Eze 33:12).
Zec 5:9
A STORK: An unclean bird (Lev 11:19). A bird that
migrates -- and thus symbolic of evil and wickedness going forth from one
country to another, or of apostate Jewry wandering throughout the
earth.
"When the Apostasy in Judea was fully matured, the Ephah
contained the Woman under the Talent of Lead; and when the Mosaic Law and
institutions had vanished away as the result of the desolation of the Temple,
all that were not slain or imprisoned, became sojourners in the lands of the
Little Horn of the Goat. This national dispersion of the Jews was the flight of
the two women into the countries of the Fourth Beast dominion, then pagan. In
their flight, the Judaic Apostasy from the Christian Faith was not left in
Judea, to grow up into a papacy there. But having been formed and organized in
that country, and propagated from that centre, it was expelled from thence, and
driven by the national calamity, the wind in the storklike wings of the two
women, out of Canaan, that 'they might build for her a house in the land of
Shinar' " (Eur 1:71,72).
Zec 5:11
TO THE COUNTRY OF BABYLONIA: Or Shinar: cp Gen 10:10;
11:2; 14:1,9) -- antagonistic to God and His Truth from practically the very
beginning.
WHEN IT IS READY, THE BASKET WILL BE SET THERE IN ITS
PLACE: Set atop a pedestal as an object of worship, an idol (cp Rev 17 --
18).
"The two cleansing acts of this chapter are complementary,
like the two goats on the Day of Atonement, Lev 16, of which the first must give
its blood as an expiation before the LORD, while the second carries away the
guilt of the people, and the impurity springing from it, to the region of the
impure [ie, the wilderness]. The cleansing judgment, despite the terror, is a
benefit to the land, which is thus purified and fitted to receive the blessing
pictured in the former visions" (C von Orelli, "The Twelve Minor Prophets"
335).