And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
The ephah is a standard bushel measure and the talent a standard weight, and the woman sits inside the measure with the lead weight lifted above her before it is set over the opening to shut her in as wickedness itself. She is forced down and crowded into a space too small to hold her because buying and selling by false measure stands condemned by the just standard under God's eye. The lifting of the lead uncovers her and its placing over her confines her, showing God's hand punishing sin with guilt and condemnation. Her place in the midst of the measure shows corruption coming among God's people, and her carrying to Shinar to be established there marks her as a corrupt church belonging to Babylon. That false church surrounds itself with an altered standard of God's law and sends it through the earth to demand conformity by force, until the crushing weight of truth threatens to destroy both her and her standard. Those who held the other teaching hold that she is the Jewish nation crushed small beneath calamity in the Babylonian captivity, helpless without wings while her captors triumph.
Vision Picture and Setting
The lifted cover reveals a woman seated inside the midst of the ephah, with a talent of lead raised above it. She is wickedness, cast in and crowded down within the measure. The heavy piece of lead is then set over the opening of the ephah, enclosing and weighing her down.
The ephah is a standard measure of capacity, a common bushel measure and the largest dry measure used by the Jewish people. The talent is a standard weight. These visions were given in 520 and 518 B.C., in the period of restoration, to encourage confidence and earnest effort. The prophecy looks forward to the final restoration when Christ comes.
The ephah is a just standard of measure under God's eye, representing the character or standard that goes out through the earth. This representation has the same appearance throughout the earth. By exposing and condemning fraud in buying and selling and cheating in measures, it supplements the curse of the roll against thieves and those who swear falsely.
Wickedness Exposed and Confined
The woman in the midst of the ephah is wickedness shut inside because of fraud in buying and selling, which the just measure condemns. Wickedness is cast in, crowded down, enclosed and weighed down in the ephah, which is the full measure of corruption. Her confinement is a terrible punishment because the ephah is too small to hold a woman unless she is crushed.
The talent of lead is lifted up to reveal her and then placed over the ephah to force her down and confine her. That act signifies God's hand punishing her sin. The weighty lead cover that shuts her in pictures guilt and condemnation, with sin shutting the measure in.
The lead weight is accumulated guilt and condemnation shutting people in after they have refused the light of truth for seventy years. Their rebellion turns iniquity into an organized religion that lets people continue in evil without conscience. That corrupt religious institution is established to endure in changing outward forms, but it will ultimately be destroyed.
Prophetic Identities and Fulfillments
The woman in the midst of the ephah is the Jewish nation, crushed and greatly diminished by the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. The small space of the ephah is the few thousand survivors carried captive to Babylon, a remnant of a nation that had numbered millions, and the lead lifted above her is her being crushed beneath that calamity. Beneath that mass of lead she is a helpless captive, the Hebrews sent out of their land because of their sins and carried to Babylon. Unlike the winged women who carry her away, who are the conquering Babylonians and Assyrians, she has no wings to escape, while her captors triumph and she is carried away. Her confinement in the small ephah reflects how only a small remnant was taken captive, with the lead expressing the helplessness of the nation crushed beneath it.
The vision recalled Jerusalem's first destruction and the captivity of the Jews as a warning against sin, intended to prevent a later destruction and dispersion. That warning was not heeded, and Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed by the Romans under Titus in A.D. 70. The woman seated inside the ephah is also a corrupt church, for she is wickedness, and her place in the ephah shows corruption coming among God's people. Her later transport to Shinar to have a house built for her and be established there identifies her with Babylon and its corruptions, since Shinar's center was Babylon.
She is mystic Babylon, whose corrupt religious system of commercialism with Babylonian origins existed before the Christian age. The ephah raised between heaven and earth echoes the Babylonian religious ordering of heaven, air, and earth. As a standard of measure, the ephah pictures a church surrounding itself with a standard and sending it throughout the earth, fulfilled in history by the Roman Catholic Church. That church surrounded itself with a standard based on God's law but altered by omitting the second commandment, replacing the seventh-day Sabbath in the fourth commandment with Sunday, and dividing the tenth commandment into two. It demands that people conform to this false standard so that wickedness grows within its enclosure, and it seeks to impose its teachings on the world by force.
The talent of lead placed over the ephah is the Reformation as a crushing weight that threatened to destroy both that church and its false standard. The woman also symbolizes the corruption of the light and truth given through faithful servants by blending it with Babylonian idolatry in successive forms. In Christ's time this was Christianity blended with paganism, and in the present application it is Spiritualism united with apostate Protestantism, unions that give her power and authority to continue in sin and rebellion. The ephah itself is a false standard of measure and a symbol of commercialism, lifted up by the religious bodies depicted as they seek to establish it as a lasting legal standard.
The ephah is a standard bushel measure and the talent a standard weight, and the woman sits inside the measure with the lead weight lifted above her before it is set over the opening to shut her in as wickedness itself. She is forced down and crowded into a space too small to hold her because buying and selling by false measure stands condemned by the just standard under God's eye. The lifting of the lead uncovers her and its placing over her confines her, showing God's hand punishing sin with guilt and condemnation. Her place in the midst of the measure shows corruption coming among God's people, and her carrying to Shinar to be established there marks her as a corrupt church belonging to Babylon. That false church surrounds itself with an altered standard of God's law and sends it through the earth to demand conformity by force, until the crushing weight of truth threatens to destroy both her and her standard. Those who held the other teaching hold that she is the Jewish nation crushed small beneath calamity in the Babylonian captivity, helpless without wings while her captors triumph.
Vision Picture and Setting
The lifted cover reveals a woman seated inside the midst of the ephah, with a talent of lead raised above it. She is wickedness, cast in and crowded down within the measure. The heavy piece of lead is then set over the opening of the ephah, enclosing and weighing her down.
The ephah is a standard measure of capacity, a common bushel measure and the largest dry measure used by the Jewish people. The talent is a standard weight. These visions were given in 520 and 518 B.C., in the period of restoration, to encourage confidence and earnest effort. The prophecy looks forward to the final restoration when Christ comes.
The ephah is a just standard of measure under God's eye, representing the character or standard that goes out through the earth. This representation has the same appearance throughout the earth. By exposing and condemning fraud in buying and selling and cheating in measures, it supplements the curse of the roll against thieves and those who swear falsely.
Wickedness Exposed and Confined
The woman in the midst of the ephah is wickedness shut inside because of fraud in buying and selling, which the just measure condemns. Wickedness is cast in, crowded down, enclosed and weighed down in the ephah, which is the full measure of corruption. Her confinement is a terrible punishment because the ephah is too small to hold a woman unless she is crushed.
The talent of lead is lifted up to reveal her and then placed over the ephah to force her down and confine her. That act signifies God's hand punishing her sin. The weighty lead cover that shuts her in pictures guilt and condemnation, with sin shutting the measure in.
The lead weight is accumulated guilt and condemnation shutting people in after they have refused the light of truth for seventy years. Their rebellion turns iniquity into an organized religion that lets people continue in evil without conscience. That corrupt religious institution is established to endure in changing outward forms, but it will ultimately be destroyed.
Prophetic Identities and Fulfillments
The woman in the midst of the ephah is the Jewish nation, crushed and greatly diminished by the destruction of Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar. The small space of the ephah is the few thousand survivors carried captive to Babylon, a remnant of a nation that had numbered millions, and the lead lifted above her is her being crushed beneath that calamity. Beneath that mass of lead she is a helpless captive, the Hebrews sent out of their land because of their sins and carried to Babylon. Unlike the winged women who carry her away, who are the conquering Babylonians and Assyrians, she has no wings to escape, while her captors triumph and she is carried away. Her confinement in the small ephah reflects how only a small remnant was taken captive, with the lead expressing the helplessness of the nation crushed beneath it.
The vision recalled Jerusalem's first destruction and the captivity of the Jews as a warning against sin, intended to prevent a later destruction and dispersion. That warning was not heeded, and Jerusalem was destroyed and the Jews dispersed by the Romans under Titus in A.D. 70. The woman seated inside the ephah is also a corrupt church, for she is wickedness, and her place in the ephah shows corruption coming among God's people. Her later transport to Shinar to have a house built for her and be established there identifies her with Babylon and its corruptions, since Shinar's center was Babylon.
She is mystic Babylon, whose corrupt religious system of commercialism with Babylonian origins existed before the Christian age. The ephah raised between heaven and earth echoes the Babylonian religious ordering of heaven, air, and earth. As a standard of measure, the ephah pictures a church surrounding itself with a standard and sending it throughout the earth, fulfilled in history by the Roman Catholic Church. That church surrounded itself with a standard based on God's law but altered by omitting the second commandment, replacing the seventh-day Sabbath in the fourth commandment with Sunday, and dividing the tenth commandment into two. It demands that people conform to this false standard so that wickedness grows within its enclosure, and it seeks to impose its teachings on the world by force.
The talent of lead placed over the ephah is the Reformation as a crushing weight that threatened to destroy both that church and its false standard. The woman also symbolizes the corruption of the light and truth given through faithful servants by blending it with Babylonian idolatry in successive forms. In Christ's time this was Christianity blended with paganism, and in the present application it is Spiritualism united with apostate Protestantism, unions that give her power and authority to continue in sin and rebellion. The ephah itself is a false standard of measure and a symbol of commercialism, lifted up by the religious bodies depicted as they seek to establish it as a lasting legal standard.