1 Then again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying scroll. 2 He said to me, "What do you see?" I answered, "I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits." 3 Then he said to me, "This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side. 4 I will cause it to go out," says Yahweh of Armies, "and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the midst of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones." 5 Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, "Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that is appearing." 6 I said, "What is it?" He said, "This is the ephah basket that is appearing." He said moreover, "This is their appearance in all the land 7 (and behold, a talent of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah basket." 8 He said, "This is Wickedness;" and he threw her down into the midst of the ephah basket; and he threw the weight of lead on its mouth. 9 Then lifted I up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there were two women, and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky. 10 Then I said to the angel who talked with me, "Where are these carrying the ephah basket?" 11 He said to me, "To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place."
The vision of the large flying roll, with the angel's explanation, Zac 5:1-4. The vision of the ephah, and of the woman sitting on it, with the signification, Zac 5:5-11.
INTRODUCTION TO ZECHARIAH 5
This chapter treats of the judgments of God upon the wicked Jews for their sins and impieties, the measure of which was filled up, and of the execution of them, which are represented in two visions: the first is of a flying roll, which signifies the curse of God, and is described by its measure, the length being twenty cubits, and the breadth ten; and by the extent of it, it reaching to the whole earth, and particularly to thieves and false swearers, who shall be cut off by it; and by the certainty of its coming into the houses of such, and the utter desolation it should there make, Zac 5:1 and the other is the vision of an ephah, and a woman sitting in it, and a talent of lead cast upon the mouth of it, which signified wickedness, Zac 5:5 this "ephah" is seen to be lifted up between earth and heaven by two women, who are said to have wings like the wings of storks, and the wind to be in them; and who are said by the angel to carry the "ephah" into the land of Shinar, to build it a house, that it might be established and settled upon its own base, Zac 5:9.
(Zac 5:1-4) The vision of a flying roll.
(Zac 5:5-11) The vision of a woman and an ephah.
Sixth Vision: The Flying Roll, and the Woman in the Ephah - Zac 5:1-11
These two figures are so closely connected, that they are to be taken as one vision. The circumstance, that a pause is introduced between the first and second view, in which both the ecstatic elevation and the interpreting angel leave the prophet, so that it is stated in Zac 5:5 that "the angel came forth," furnishes no sufficient reason for the assumption that there were two different visions. For the figure of the ephah with the woman sitting in it is also divided into two views, since the prophet first of all sees the woman and receives the explanation (Zac 5:5-8), and the further development of the vision is then introduced in Zac 5:9 with a fresh introductory formula, "And I lifted up my eyes, and saw." And just as this introductory formula, through which new and different visions are introduced in Zac 2:1 and Zac 2:5, by no means warrants us in dividing what is seen here into two different visions; so there is nothing in the introduction in Zac 5:5 to compel us to separate the vision of the flying roll (Zac 5:1-4) from the following vision of the ephah, since there is no such difference in the actual contents of the two as to warrant such a separation. They neither stand in such a relation to one another, as that the first sets forth the extermination of sinners out of the holy land, and the second the extermination of sin itself, as Maurer supposes; nor does the one treat of the fate of the sinners and the other of the full measure of the sin; but the vision of the flying roll prepares the way for, and introduces, what is carried out in the vision of the ephah (Zac 5:5-11), and the connection between the two is indicated formally by the fact that the suffix in עינם in Zac 5:6 refers back to Zac 5:3 and Zac 5:4.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.