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. 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.
The ephah going forth is a measuring vessel, the largest dry measure among the Jews, like a bushel, and its resemblance is its likeness or common character found throughout the earth. A woman called wickedness is seen shut inside it under a weighty lead cover, and it is carried to the land of Shinar where Babylon was centered, to be housed there in a house built for it and set upon its base. As the flying roll is God's law and standard of measure, the ephah is the opposing false standard of those who oppose that law, whose full measure of corruption bears the same appearance and character throughout the earth and seeks to make everyone conform to its likeness. The woman seated in the measure is iniquity embodied as a corrupt church, identified with the Roman Catholic Church surrounded by the standard it sends out over the earth, resting under sin, guilt and condemnation. That worldwide system will not last forever but, when iniquity has reached the measure of divine forbearance, will ultimately be condemned and destroyed, with God's people delivered and the wicked cut off.
Words and Vision Setting
The object shown is an ephah, a measuring vessel and standard Jewish measure of capacity, the largest dry measure used by the Jewish people, like a bushel. The prophet is told to look, and what he sees going forth is this ephah, whose resemblance is its likeness or common character found throughout the earth.
The wording for their resemblance is also given as their iniquity throughout the earth, because whatever is out of harmony with God's law is sin. It is also given as their eye, a searching power sent out to find those who do not conform to the standard. Inside the ephah is seen a woman, with wickedness cast inside it and a weight of lead placed over it to shut it in.
The ephah is carried to the land of Shinar, where Babylon was situated and centered, to be housed there and set on a base in a house built for it. Its going forth is the going forth of a just measure, like the sanctuary shekel kept as a standard under the priest's care. In this it shows God's watchful judgment against fraud in weights and measures, condemning thieves and false swearers, since such wrongdoing goes with dishonest measuring.
Wickedness and False Standard
The ephah going forth belongs to a picture of wickedness, for wickedness is placed inside it and it is carried to the land of Shinar where a house is built for it. It is the full measure of corruption, whose appearance and character are the same in every place throughout the earth. As the flying roll is God's law and character and standard of measure, so the ephah is the character and opposing standard of those who oppose that law. It is a false standard going forth through the earth that seeks to make everyone conform to its likeness, just as God seeks conformity to His own. Its wording is also their iniquity throughout the earth, because whatever is out of harmony with God's law is sin, and their eye sent out to find those who do not conform to it.
The woman seated inside the measure is iniquity and a corrupt church whose corruption enters among God's people. With the woman seated inside it, the ephah with the standard it sends out over the earth is the Roman Catholic Church. The weighty lead cover that shuts the measure in is sin and guilt and condemnation resting on its people. Carried between heaven and earth, the ephah is the corrupt, commercial religion of mystic Babylon, rooted in Babylonian idolatry and established before the Christian age. It made idolatry into a religious system that let people persist in evil without conscience, to continue afterward in different outward forms while keeping the same spirit.
In it God's light and truth given through faithful servants are blended with Babylonian idolatry. The two women represent this corruption in Zechariah's time, its later blending of Christian apostasy with paganism, and its final form as a union of spiritualism and apostate Protestantism. That union depicts sin and rebellion and gives power and authority to spread it. The ephah is the false religious standard promoted by Catholics and Protestants as they unite to press for Sunday laws, representing their character and the conformity they seek to impose. That false standard will be enforced, bringing tribulation and a death decree against those loyal to God's law, while God's people will be delivered and the wicked cut off.
History and Final End
The ephah with the woman inside it is the Jewish nation made helpless after Jerusalem was destroyed and carried captive to Babylon. The woman herself is the captive, and the two winged women are her captors, the Babylonians and Assyrians united under Nebuchadnezzar. Their wings denote the speed and far reach of conquering nations, while her lack of wings shows she cannot escape. The smallness of the measure holding her shows how greatly the nation had been diminished, with only a small remnant of survivors crushed inside it and carried away from a nation that had numbered millions when Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Jerusalem. The vision was given after that first destruction of Jerusalem and captivity to recall sin and to warn, so that Jerusalem would not be destroyed again and the nation dispersed. That warning was not heeded, and the later destruction of Jerusalem and dispersion of the Jews was carried out by the Romans under Titus in A.D. 70.
The ephah is the character and opposing standard of those it represents, a false standard seeking to make all conform to its likeness, which is iniquity throughout the earth because whatever is out of harmony with God's law is sin. The woman in the measure is iniquity shut in under a weight of lead and carried to Babylon to be established there, a corrupt commercial religion rooted in Babylonian idolatry made into a religious system that let men persist in evil without conscience. That system continues in different outward forms with the same spirit and extends across the earth. After the light of truth shone at Babylon for seventy years and was rejected, guilt and condemnation rested upon its people and their iniquity reached the measure of divine forbearance. That worldwide system will not last forever but will ultimately be condemned and destroyed. Its false standard will be enforced to bring tribulation and a death decree against those loyal to God's law, yet God's people will be delivered while the wicked are cut off.