Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Zechariah 5:6
And I said, What [is] it? And he said, This [is] an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This [is] their resemblance through all the earth.
6. an ephah ] Lit. the ephah. Though it seems impossible to fix accurately the size of the Hebrew ephah ( Dict. of Bible, Weights and Measures), there can be no doubt that it was not large enough to contain a woman (Zec 5:7). “This,” then, says the angel, “is the (ideal) ephah, or ephah-like vessel, that is coming forth to view.” Comp. for the connection of sin with a measure, Mat 23:32, and see Gen 15:16; Jer 51:13.
This is their resemblance ] Lit. their eye. So we read of the manna, “its eye (i.e. appearance) was as the eye of bdellium,” Num 11:7. Comp. Lev 13:55; Eze 1:4; Eze 1:16.
This is understood by some to mean: “this” ephah, which thou seest is “their resemblance” (i.e. the resemblance of the wicked) “in all the land,” inasmuch as they are now no longer scattered over it, as in the preceding vision, but gathered up in one, like the grains of corn in a measure. It is better, however, to give a wider meaning to the word “this,” viz. this ephah, with all that you will see in the vision regarding it, is the resemblance or representation of the wicked through all the land, and of what shall befall them.
the earth ] Rather, the land.
This is the ephah that goeth forth – Theodoret: We too are taught by this, that the Lord of all administers all things in weight and measure. So, foretelling to Abraham that his seed should be a sojourner and the cause thereof, He says, for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full Gen 15:16, that is, they have not yet committed sins enough to merit entire destruction, wherefore I cannot yet endure to give them over to the slaughter, but will wait for the measure of their iniquity. The relation then of this vision to the seventh is, that the seventh tells of Gods punishment on individual sinners; this, on the whole people, when the iniquity of the whole is full. This is their resemblance, as we say, their look, that is, the look, appearance, of the inhabitants in all the land. This then being the condition of the people of the land, at the time to which the vision relates, the symbolical carrying away of the full measure of sin cannot be its forgiveness, since there was no repentance, but the taking away of the sin with the sinner. Cyril: The Lord of all is good and loving to mankind; for He is patient toward sinners and endures transgressors, waiting for the repentance of each; but if one perseveres long in iniquity, and come to the term of the endurance allowed, it remains that he should be subjected to punishment, and there is no account of this long forebarance, nor can he be exempt from judgment proportioned to what he has done. So then Christ says to the Jewish people, rushing with unbridled phrensy to all strange excess, Fill ye up the measure of your fathers Mat 23:32. The measure then, which was seen, pointed to the filling up of the measure of the transgression of the people against Himself. Jerome: The angel bids him behold the sins of the people Israel, heaped together in a perfect measure, and the transgression of all fulfilled – that the sins, which escaped notice, one by one, might, when collected together, be laid open to the eyes of all, and Israel might go forth from its place, and it might be shown to all what she was in her own land. Ribera: I think the Lord alluded to the words of the prophet, as though He would say, Fill up the measure of sins which your fathers began of old, as it is in Zechariah, that is, ye will soon fill it; for ye so haste to do evil, that ye will soon fill it to the utmost. Verse 6. This is an ephah that goeth forth.] This, among the Jews, was the ordinary measure of grain. The woman in the ephah is supposed to represent Judea, which shall be visited for its sins; the talent of lead on the ephah, within which the woman was enclosed, the wrath of God, bending down this culprit nation, in the measure of its sins; for the angel said, “This is wickedness;” that is, the woman represents the mass of iniquity of this nation. And I said, What is it? Zechariah knew not what this was tie saw, so far was. he from knowing what it meant. And he, the angel, said, This is an ephah; the greatest, say some, of measures with the Hebrews, but their corus was much greater: it was a great measure, and many times taken for any measure; when strictly taken, it held some three bushels. That goeth forth, out of the temple of Jerusalem. He said moreover; having told the prophet what the thing was, the angel addeth once and above, This is their resemblance through all the earth; this, how dark soever it may seem to be, is a clear emblem of this people every where. Thus there is a limited time and measure for them; whilst they sin and are filling up the ephah with their sins, they will find that the ephah of wrath is filled up also to be poured out upon them. Or as the Hebrew, This their eye; as the Gallic version, This the eye I have upon them, &c.: i.e. Gods eye observes how they fill their ephah with sin, that he may suitably punish, that his ephah of wrath may fill also. 6. This is theirresemblanceliterally, “eye” (compare Eze 1:4;Eze 1:5; Eze 1:16).HENGSTENBERG translates,”Their (the people’s) eye” was all directed to evil. ButEnglish Version is better. “This is the appearance (thatis, an image) of the Jews in all the land” (not asEnglish Version, “in all the earth“), thatis, of the wicked Jews. ThisHere used of whatwas within the ephah, not the ephah itself. And I said, What [is] it?…. After he had lifted up his eyes and seen it, he desires to know both what it was, and what was the meaning of it:
and he said, This [is] an ephah that goeth forth; which was a measure much in use with the Jews, Ex 16:36 it is the same with the “bath”, and held above seven wine gallons. The Targum interprets this of such who dealt in false measures, whose sin is exposed, and their punishment set forth; but rather it designs the measure of iniquity filling up, either in Judea, particularly in the times of Christ, Mt 23:32 or in the whole world, and especially in the antichristian states, Re 18:5: and
He said moreover, this [is] their resemblance through all the earth; or “this is their eye” z; what they are looking at, and intent upon, namely, this ephah; that is, to fill up the measure of their iniquity: or, as Kimchi and Ben Melech interpret it, this ephah, which thou seest, shows that there is an eye upon them which sees their works; and this is the eye of the Lord, which sees and takes notice of all the evil actions of men, not as approving them, but as observing them, and avenging them. Cocceius, by the “ephah”, understands an abundance of temporal good things bestowed upon the Christian church in Constantine’s time and following, on which the eyes of carnal men were looking.
z “haec est oculus eorum”, Pagninus, Montanus, Munster, Vatablus, Junius & Tremellius, Piscator, Tarnovius, Cocceius.
Then the angel answered, This is the measure that goes forth, and this is their eye in all the earth. By saying that the measure is their eye, he no doubt means that the ungodly could not thus be carried away at their own pleasure, but that God restrained them whenever it seemed good to him; for they could not escape his sight. For by their eyes he understands passively the power of seeing in God, by which he notices all the sins of the ungodly, that he may check them when he pleases, when they hurry on without restraint. (59)
But that the meaning of the Prophet may be made more clear, let us first see what wickedness means, — whether it is to be taken for those sins which provoked God’s wrath against the Jews, — or whether for those wrongs which heathen enemies had done. The last is the view I prefer, though if we take it for the wickedness which had previously reigned in Judea, the meaning would not be unsuitable. For as wickedness is hateful to God, his vengeance against the Jews could not have ceased except by cleansing them from their sins, and by renewing them by his Spirit. For they had carried on war with him in such a way, that there was no means of pacifying him but by departing from their sins. And whenever God reconciles himself to melt, he at the same time renews them by his Spirit; he not only blots out their sins, as to the guilt, but also regenerates those who were before devoted to sin and the devil, so that he may treat them kindly and paternally.
With regard then to the subject in hand, both views may be suitably adopted. We may consider the meaning to be, — that God would take away iniquity from Judea by cleansing his Church from all defilements, since the Jews could not partake of his blessing except iniquity were driven afar off and banished. As God then designed to be propitious to his people, he justly says, that he would cause wickedness to disappear from the midst of them. Yet the other view, as I have said, is more agreeable to the context, — that wickedness would not be allowed freely to prevail as before; for we know that loose reins had been given to the cruelty of their enemies, inasmuch as the Jews had been exposed to the wrongs of all. As then they had been so immoderately oppressed, God promises that all unjust violence should be driven afar off and made to depart into the land of Shinar, that is, that the Lord would in turn chastise the Babylonians and reward them as they had deserved. The import of the whole is, that God, who had chosen the seed of Abraham, would be propitious to the Jews, so as to put an slid at length to their calamities.
(59) Respecting this “eye” there are various opinions. Newcome and Blayney follow the Septuagint and the Syriac, and render it, “their iniquity,” [ עונם ]; the difference being only of a vau instead of a iod; and there is one MS. in which it is so found. Then the sentence would be “This is their iniquity in all the land.” But Castalio, Grotius, Dathius, and Henderson follow the received text, only they give to [ עיז ] a similar meaning to that of our version, — form, appearance, resemblance, or emblem, that is, what is seen, what the eye observes; and this sense it evidently has in Lev 13:55; Num 11:7; Pro 23:31; Eze 1:4. “The meaning is,” says Grotius, “that which thou seest symbolizes those things which the Jews have done and which they have suffered.”— Ed.
(6) What is it?i.e., What does it symbolise? For, of course, he could see that it was an ephah.
This is an ephah . . . all the earth.Better, This, the ephah that cometh forth, this, continued he, is their resemblance throughout the whole lands: i.e., this is a symbol of the sinners mentioned above. (For resemblance the LXX., by the change of one letter, read iniquity.) The nature of the comparison is seen by some to be as follows. As in an ephah the separate grains are all collected together, so will the individual sinners over the whole length and breadth of the land be brought into one confused heap. (Comp. Mat. 13:30.) It is not mentioned till later that they are to be carried away.
Zec 5:6. This is an ephah that goeth forth The ephah that is going forth. An ephah was a dry measure containing somewhat less than our bushel, consequently too small for a woman to sit in; we must therefore understand here a measure in the form only of an ephah, but of a larger size. And this is implied in its not being said in the original to be an ephah, but “the ephah that is going forth;” doubly corresponding with the iniquities that prevailed in the land, both as exceeding the ordinary measure, and also continually increasing, so as already to have risen to such a pitch, as made it necessary to repress them. This is the ephah that is going forth, and such both in their extent and in their progressive state are iniquities over the land.
This is their resemblance, &c. This is their iniquity through all the land. Houbigant, after the LXX and many other versions. See also Zec 5:8 where it is said, This is wickedness, or iniquity; that is to say, “This is their theft, their perjury, when they sell by a false measure of the ephah what they swear to be true and exact.”
Zec 5:6 And I said, What [is] it? And he said, This [is] an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This [is] their resemblance through all the earth.
Ver. 6. And I said, What is it? ] i.e. What meaneth it? for the vision is very hard and mysterious lest (saith one) the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple and state might discourage them too much to go forward in the present restoration of both. Hugh Broughton, on Dan 2:4 , observeth that while the visions are general, and cause the Jews no danger, so far Daniel writeth in the Syriac tongue, general over the East. But when the oppressors be named, and the Jews plainly described the people whom God defendeth, then the eighth chapter and all after he writes in Hebrew (a tongue less known and studied), and hath commandment to keep close the plain exposition Dan 12:4 . There is a great deal of wisdom required of those that are intrusted with the dispensation of divine truths. Our Saviour spake as the people could hear, and not as he could have spoken. See Heb 5:11-12 .
This is an ephah that goeth forth
This is their resemblance through all the earth This. Hebrew. zoth. Feminine. Singular.
ephah. See App-51.,
resemblance = aspect. Heb eye. Put by Figure of speech Metonymy (of Adjunct), App-6, for their Look: i.e. appearance, or colour, as in Lev 13:55. Num 11:7. Eze 10:9. Compare Ez ek Zec 1:4, Zec 1:7, Zec 1:16, Zec 1:27. Dan 10:6, &c. Septuagint and Syriac read “iniquity” (App-44.) i.e. (Vau = v) instead of (Yod = y).
What is it
In the vision of the ephah local and prophetic elements are to be distinguished. The elements are: an ephah or measure; a woman in the ephah; a sealing weight upon the mouth of the ephah confining the woman, and the stork-winged women whose only function is to bear the ephah and woman away into Babylonia (Shinar). The thing thus symbolized was “through all the land” (Zec 5:6).
Symbolically, a “measure” (or “cup”) stands for something which has come to the full, so that God must judge it 2Sa 8:2; Jer 51:13; Hab 3:6; Hab 3:7; Mat 7:2; Mat 23:32. A woman, in the bad ethical sense, is always a symbol of that which, religiously, is out of its place. The “woman” in Mat 13:33 is dealing with doctrine, a sphere forbidden to her 1Ti 2:12. In Thyatira a woman is suffered to teach Rev 2:20. The Babylon phase of the apostate church is symbolized by an unchaste woman, sodden with the greed and luxury of commercialism.; Rev 17:1-6; Rev 18:3; Rev 18:11-20.
The local application of Zechariah’s ninth vision is, therefore, evident. The Jews then in the land had been in captivity in Babylon. Outwardly they had put away idolatry, but they had learned in Babylon that insatiate greed of gain Neh 5:1-9; Mal 3:8 that intense commercial spirit which had been foreign to Israel as a pastoral people, but which was thenceforward to characterize them through the ages. These things were out of place in God’s people and land. Symbolically He judged them as belonging to Babylon and sent them there to build a temple–they could have no part in His. The “woman” was to be “set there upon her own base” (Zec 5:11). It was Jehovah’s moral judgment upon Babylonism in His own land and people.
Prophetically, the application to the Babylon of the Revelation is obvious. The professing Gentile church at that time condoning every iniquity of the rich, doctrinally a mere “confusion,” as the name indicates, and corrupted to the core by commercialism, wealth, and luxury, falls under the judgment of God (Revelation 18.).
earth
Lit. land, i.e. Palestine.
This is an ephah: “The meaning of this vision,” says Archbishop Newcome, “seems to be, that the Babylonish captivity had happened on account of the wickedness of the Jews, and that a like dispersion would befall them if they relapsed into like crimes.” The woman who sat in the ephah was an emblem of the Jewish nation; the casting the weight of lead on the mouth of the ephah seems to mean the condemnation of the Jews, after they had filled up the measure of their iniquities by crucifying the Messiah; the “two women, with wings like a stork, and the wind in their wings,” seem emblematical of the Roman armies and the rapidity of their conquests; and their lifting up the ephah and carrying it through the air, to build it a house in Shinar or Babylon, where it was fixed on its own basis, represents the taking of Jerusalem, the dispersion of the Jews, and the long continuance of that calamity, as a just punishment of their unbelief. Eze 44:10, Eze 44:11, Amo 8:5
Reciprocal: Amo 8:2 – Amos Zec 4:4 – What Zec 6:4 – unto Mat 23:32 – the measure 1Th 2:16 – to fill Rev 14:15 – ripe
Zec 5:6. The prophet is usually induced to inquire for the meaning of all the visions. He is told in the present case that what he sees is an ephah which means a measuring device. Their resemblance means the evils that had been committed by the false dealers were as great as this measuring unit of the ephah.
5:6 And I said, What [is] it? And he said, This [is] an {e} ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This [is] their {f} resemblance through all the earth.
(e) Which was a measure in dry things, containing about five gallons.
(f) That is, all the wickedness of the ungodly is in God’s sight, which he keeps in a measure, and can shut it or open it at his pleasure.
The prophet asked what he saw was, and the angel replied that it was an ephah, a basket that held about a half bushel (or five gallons) of dry (or liquid) material (cf. 1Sa 1:24; Rth 2:17). Some authorities contend that an ephah was slightly more than a bushel. The ephah was the largest dry measure among the Hebrews, and its use here suggests that Israel’s sins had accumulated greatly in Zechariah’s day. [Note: The New Scofield . . ., p. 967.] The angel lifted up the lead cover on top of the basket and revealed a woman sitting inside. A lead cover would be heavier than the customary stone cover and would guarantee that what was inside would not get out. Either the ephah was oversized, like the flying scroll, or the woman was a miniature in Zechariah’s vision. Perhaps 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. Some commentators have seen in the ephah a particular allusion to commercial malpractice, since the ephah was used in commerce, but this may be over exegeting the text.
"The woman, made visible by the lifting of the lead cover, is still, like the evil she represents, mostly hidden from sight." [Note: Baldwin, p. 128.]
The angel further explained that this is what the ephah and its contents would resemble as they went forth in all the earth.
"As in the preceding vision, the earth (ha’arets) designates not merely Palestine, although this is the primary reference, and the removal of godless commercialism is first and foremost from ’the land,’ which will then be in reality ’the Holy Land’ (Zec 2:12 [16]); but more broadly the term points to the entire millennial earth." [Note: Unger, p. 94.]
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
Fuente: Scofield Reference Bible Notes
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Fuente: Combined Bible Commentary
Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes
Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)