Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
The "theft" immediately meant is similar sacrilege to that complained of in Nehemiah 13:10; Malachi 3:8. They robbed God by neglecting to give Him His due in building His house, while they built their own houses, forswearing their obligations to Him; therefore, the "houses" they build shall be "consumed" with God's "curse." Probably literal theft and perjury accompanied their virtual theft and perjury as to the temple of God (Malachi 3:5). Stealing and perjury go together; for the covetous and fraudulent perjure themselves by God's name without scruple (see Proverbs 30:9).
enter . . . the house—In vain they guard and shut themselves up who incur the curse; it will inevitably enter even when they think themselves most secure.
consume . . . timber . . . stones—not leaving a vestige of it. So the "stones" and "timber" of the house of a leper (type of the sinner) were to be utterly removed (Leviticus 14:15; compare I Kings 18:38).
The "ephah" is the Hebrew dry measure containing about thirty-seven quarts. Alluding to the previous vision as to theft and perjury: the ephah which, by falsification of the measure, they made the instrument of defrauding, shall be made the instrument of their punishment [GROTIUS]. Compare "this is their resemblance" (Zechariah 5:6), that is, this is a representation of what the Jews have done, and what they shall suffer. Their total dispersion ("the land of Shinar" being the emblem of the various Gentile lands of their present dispersion) is herein fortetold, when the measure (to which the ephah alludes) of their sins should be full. The former vision denounces judgment on individuals; this one, on the whole state: but enigmatically, not to discourage their present building [PEMBELLUS]. Rather, the vision is consolatory after the preceding one [CALVIN]. Idolatry and its kindred sins, covetousness and fraud (denounced in the vision of the roll), shall be removed far out of the Holy Land to their own congenial soil, never to return (so Zechariah 3:9; Isaiah 27:9; Isaiah 52:1; Isaiah 60:21; Jeremiah 50:20; Zephaniah 3:13). For more than two thousand years, ever since the Babylonian exile, the Jews have been free from idolatry; but the full accomplishment of the prophecy is yet future, when all sin shall be purged from Israel on their return to Palestine, and conversion to Christ.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing Zechariah 5:4:
Zechariah 5:1
Zechariah 5:1
Zechariah 5:3
Revelation 18:11
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