Zechariah 5:4

Zechariah 5:4

2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” So I answered, “I see a flying scroll. Its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.”

3 Then he said to me, “This is the ^acurse that goes out over the face of the whole earth: ‘Every thief shall be expelled,’ according to this side of the scroll; and, ‘Every perjurer shall be expelled,’ according to that side of it.”

4 “I will send out the curse,” says the Lord of hosts;
“It shall enter the house of the ^athief
And the house of ^bthe one who swears falsely by My name.
It shall remain in the midst of his house
And consume ^cit, with its timber and stones.”

Vision of the Woman in a Basket

5 Then the angel who talked with me came out and said to me, “Lift your eyes now, and see what this is that goes forth.”

6 So I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “It is a¹ basket that is going forth.” He also said, “This is their resemblance throughout the earth:

7 Here is a lead disc lifted up, and this is a woman sitting inside the basket”;

8 then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he thrust her down into the basket, and threw the lead¹ cover over its mouth.

9 Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a ^astork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.

10 So I said to the ^aangel who talked with me, “Where are they carrying the basket?”

11 And he said to me, “To ^abuild a house for it in ^bthe land of Shinar; when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base.”

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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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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Zechariah 5:5 >>

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