Zechariah 5:5, commentary and pictures

The angel bids the prophet to lift his eyes and look at what goes forth, opening a new vision after the flying roll. What goes forth is an ephah measure covered with lead, holding a woman who is lifted out to be seen and then shut back inside and carried by two winged women through the air to Shinar to be set on its base. The woman inside under the heavy weight is wickedness under guilt and condemnation, and the ephah is her likeness throughout the earth. The ephah going forth is God's just measure with His eye upon fraud in weights and measures, supplementing the flying roll against stealing and false swearing. Carried to Shinar, the land of Babylon, it is corruption coming among God's people through a corrupt church and its idolatry, to be established there and at last made desolate and burned.

Vision Setting and Symbols

The angel who was speaking with the prophet bids him lift his eyes and look at what is going forth, opening a new vision that follows the vision of the flying roll. The flying roll displays God's law and the curse that arises from sin going out over the whole earth, and then wickedness is shown carried away to be established in Shinar. What goes forth is an ephah covered with lead, and when the lead is taken away a woman is found inside, lifted out to be seen distinctly, then put back inside and covered again with the lead. Two winged women carry the ephah through the air to Shinar, where a house is to be built for it and it is to be set upon its base.

The ephah is a common bushel-like measure, about a bushel in ancient times and later about half a bushel. It is called their likeness throughout the earth, meaning the wickedness contained in it has the same appearance throughout the earth. The woman sits inside it with wickedness placed upon her and a heavy weight of lead set over her.

The going forth of the ephah represents a just measure and acts as the eye of God, condemning fraud in weights and measures. It supplements the flying roll, for both pronounce God's judgment on the same classes, since those who steal or swear falsely also defraud in their measures. In contrast with the flying roll, which represents God's standard of measure, the ephah represents another standard sent out over the earth.

Judgment on Ancient Israel

The command to lift the eyes opens a vision about Jerusalem's first destruction and the Jews' captivity, recalling their sin and warning them so that Jerusalem's later destruction and the nation's final dispersion might be avoided. The woman shut inside the ephah represents the Jewish nation as a helpless captive. She pictures in particular the few survivors left after Jerusalem's destruction, the small remnant of the nation carried captive to Babylon, crushed beneath a mass of lead. The ephah is a bushel-like measure, and the heavy lead cover shutting the woman inside is guilt and condemnation.

The two winged women are the Babylonians and Assyrians, united under Nebuchadnezzar, who carried the Jews away. Their wings signify the speed and reach of conquering nations, while unlike them the captive woman has no wings and cannot escape, contrasting Israel's former triumph in entering the promised land with its helpless removal from the land because of its sins. The warning was not permanently heeded, so Jerusalem was later destroyed and the Jews dispersed by the Romans under Titus in A.D. 70. That the ephah is lifted between heaven and earth by women with stork-like wings shows that the vision of mystic Babylon applies to the time before the Christian age. The ephah is linked to Babylonian idolatry, its name traced to the Babylonian pitu and its elevation associated with Babylon's teaching about heaven, air, and earth.

Wickedness and Corrupt Religion

The angel's call to lift the eyes and see what goes forth opens a new vision that begins with an ephah, a bushel-like measure, described as a likeness throughout the earth. Inside sits a woman with wickedness placed within her and a heavy weight of lead set over her to shut her in, picturing guilt and condemnation. This wickedness has the same appearance throughout the earth.

The ephah represents corruption coming among God's people through a corrupt church. The woman in the ephah is called wickedness and is carried to Shinar, the land of Babylon, where she is set in her own place. The vision thus portrays Babylon and its corruptions, also described in Revelation 18.

What goes forth is a corrupt religious power as a woman in an ephah, associated with commercialism and Babylonian idolatry. After God patiently gave light for seventy years through Daniel and others, guilt brings condemnation. Rebellion against God's dealings is then turned into an organized religion that continues in spirit to the end of time. The light and truth God gave through faithful servants is blended with Babylonian idolatry. The same pattern appears in the mingling of Christianity with paganism in Christ's time and, in the last days, in the union of spiritualism with apostate Protestantism. These powers give the woman authority and sustain her rebellion.

In contrast with the flying roll, which represents God's standard of measure, the ephah represents another standard sent out over the earth. The ephah was a common measure, about a bushel in ancient times and later about half a bushel. The woman within it symbolizes a church, applied to the Roman Catholic Church, which surrounded itself with and spread its own standard of religious practice. That ephah is a false religious standard that Catholics and Protestants unite to establish. Building it a house in Shinar means giving that standard a permanent legal basis through laws compelling Sunday observance.

The flying roll reveals God's law and the curse arising from sin going out over the whole earth, followed by the vision of wickedness carried away to be established in Shinar. That establishment is not permanent. The woman is ultimately made desolate and burned.