Chapter Five

1–4. Sixth vision: the flying scroll. 5–11. Seventh vision—the ephah.

Zechariah 5:1. Again I lifted my eyes and looked: and there, a scroll was flying. In a new vision the prophet beholds a flying scroll. The LXX, instead of the Hebrew meghilla—scroll, read maggal—sickle; hence the prophet came to be called “the seer of the sickle.”

Zechariah 5:2. And he said to me: “What do you see?” I answered: “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its width is ten cubits. The scroll was of enormous size: twenty cubits long and ten wide. Some scholars attribute symbolic significance to the scroll’s dimensions, pointing to the correspondence of its measurements with the dimensions of the vestibule of the first temple (1 Sam 6:3); according to others, the dimensions of the scroll only indicate its immensity and have no symbolic significance.

Zechariah 5:5. And the angel who had spoken with me came forth and said to me: “Lift your eyes again and look at what appears. After an interval following the sixth vision, the interpreting angel appears again and urges the prophet to prepare himself for beholding a new vision, which forms a natural continuation of the previous one, yet is nevertheless separate and independent.

Zechariah 5:6. When I said: “What is it?” He answered: “This is an ephah that appears.” And he said: “This is their image throughout the land. The prophet sees an ephah appearing before his eyes: this is the largest measure for dry goods among the Hebrews, one that existed in fact. According to the angel’s explanation, it is meant to signify that the measure of the sinfulness of unrepentant sinners throughout the land has been filled up. Here are represented those who embody wickedness, upon whom judgment has already been pronounced and whom inescapable punishment awaits, as was shown in the previous vision of the flying scroll.

Zechariah 5:7. And there, a round weight of lead rose, and there sat a woman inside the ephah. Zechariah 5:8. And he said: “This woman is wickedness itself,” and he cast her into the midst of the ephah, and cast the weight of lead upon its opening. The opening of the ephah, after the prophet had seen the woman inside the vessel, who personified wickedness, was closed with a round weight of lead (kikkar’ ophereth).

Zechariah 5:9. Then I lifted my eyes and looked: and there, two women came forth, and the wind was in their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a stork; and they lifted the ephah and carried it between the earth and the heaven. Then two winged women appeared, whose wings were capable of rapid movement over vast distances. The phrase “the wind was in their wings” is obscure in itself; and the comparison to the wings of a stork indicates, according to the interpreters, that the women must undertake a distant journey, for which the wings of a stork are necessary—the bird that accomplishes its great flights without fatigue (Marti 417). The vessel was lifted by the women, and they carried it between the earth and the heaven, that is, through the air (the Hebrews have no word corresponding to “air”).

Zechariah 5:10. And I said to the angel who spoke with me: “Where are they carrying the ephah? Zechariah 5:11. Then he said to me: “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar, and when that is prepared, it will be set there on its base. To the prophet’s question about the purpose of the symbolic journey, the angel answered that for the vessel with the personification of wickedness enclosed in it a house will be prepared in the land of Shinar, and it will be set there forever. Under Shinar we may best understand Babylon, and the meaning of the whole vision is this: wickedness is removed from the Jews to their enemies in Babylon, where and it shall be the constant dwelling place of wickedness, which shall have no place in the holy land. Note. Some commentators (Keil, Kliefoth, Orelli, Rougemont) treat chapter V as a single vision (the sixth), not finding sufficient grounds for dividing it into two parts, describing two independent visions (sixth and seventh), as does the majority of interpreters (Carpzov, Kohler, Kuenen, Driver, Brodovich, Nowack, Smith, Marti, Streeter, Bishop Palladius, and others). The opinion of the majority should be recognized as more solid, since those holding the opposite view do not fully consistently prove their idea of an inseparable connection between the first half of chapter V and the second. Thus, for example, Keil, discoursing on two pictures (Bilder) constituting a single vision (Gesicht), and calling the vision of chapter five a Doppelvision, a double vision (pp. 560 and 565), evidently makes a certain concession to the opinion he is refuting. Rougemont counts seven visions and a symbolic action in the second revelation to the prophet Zechariah (p. 176), but speaks also of eight visions (p. 210), falling into contradiction with himself.