Zechariah 5:5-11

CHAPTER XXXIII

A VISION OF A WOMAN IN A FLYING BASKET

Zechariah 5:5-11

RV. Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth. And I said; What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their appearance in all the land (and, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah. And he said, This is Wickedness: and he cast her down into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof. Then lifted I up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, there came forth 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 between earth and heaven. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah? And he said unto me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar: and when it is prepared, she shall be set there in her own place.

LXX. And the angel that talked with me went forth, and said to me, Lift up thine eyes, and see this that goes forth. And he said, This is their iniquity in all the earth. And behold a talent of lead lifted up: and behold a woman sat in the midst of the measure. And he said, This is iniquity. And he cast it into the midst of the measure, and cast the weight of lead on the mouth of it. And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, two women coming forth, and the wind was in their wings; and they had stork's wings: and they lifted up the measure between the earth and the sky. And I said to the angel that spoke with me, Whither do these carry away the measure? And he said to me, To build it a house in the land of Babylon, and to prepare a place for it; and they shall set it there on its own base.

COMMENTS

WHAT THE PROPHET SAW

The angel commands Zechariah to lift his eyes to receive the seventh in the series of visions, It, like the one just previous, will be seen in the sky.
In preceding visions the prophet occasionally had difficulty grasping the meaning of what appeared. This time he cannot believe his eyes! What is it. ? is his exclamation. There in the sky is a flying basket and in it sits a woman! Pressing upon her is a talent of lead weight. (An ephah is a basket of approximately 3¼ pecks. A talent weighs approximately 118 lbs. troy.)
The angel informs the prophet that this is the appearance of the ephah and the woman as they go forth over all the land.
So saying, he declares the woman to be Wickedness and, forcing her into the basket, he casts the lead weight in on top of her. Whereupon two winged women appear and lift the basket up into the sky.
In answer to the prophet's inquiry, the angel says that they are bearing her away to build her a house in Shinar where she will set up her own place,

WHAT THE VISION MEANT!

Unlike the previous visions of Zechariah, the angel gives us very little explanation of the meaning of this vision, other than to say that the woman is wickedness (Zechariah 5:8) and that the ephah bearing her is going forth over the whole land. We must therefore proceed with caution in our attempt to explain its meaning.

It has been. suggested that we have here a picture of Judah sending her sin to Babylon (Shinar. cp. Genesis 10:10, Daniel 1:2) where the ephah will be worshipped. This latter is based upon the assumption that house in verse eleven means temple. The ephah, whose liquid capacity is about six gallons, is taken to mean the base of an image upon which the woman will stand as a goddess.

Another interpretation sees the ephah as a small barrel with a leaden disk as a lid. The woman is trying to escape, which is why the angel pushes her into the ephah and casts the lead on top of her. The two flying females are considered demonic. Shinar, or Babylon, becomes the site of a temple where the woman will be worshipped as personified evil.

Yet another interpretation has the ephah alluding to the previous vision of theft and falsification. This is their appearance (Zechariah 5:6) is thus seen as representing what the Jews have done and what they shall suffer.

Shinar is here seen, not as Babylon, but as the total Gentile world into which the Jews are to be totally dispersed.

In all this is seen the total removal of sin from the holy land. The house is seen as the capital of the world of wickedness as opposed to the kingdom of God and the woman is somehow identified as the man of sin. (2 Thessalonians 2:3)

What such interpretations show, more than anything else, is the ludicrous extremes to which men's theological systems take them in the study of apocalyptic Scriptures.

The angel does give us some insight into this vision, and it is here we must begin to understand it. In verse six he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth.

The ephah, as previously indicated, was a basket with the capacity of 3¼ pecks, just less than our standard bushel. The law made strict provision for its use, giving interpretation regarding just measure in trade. (Leviticus 19:36) The ephah that goeth forth is the measure used in the trading or selling of such commodities as are sold at a certain price per ephah.

The angel indicates that the ephah is their appearance in all the land. The word appearance in the original is literally eye.
There was then lifted up a talent (literally a disc) of lead.
Concerning the woman, the angel said, This is wickedness. So saying he put her in the basket and placed the lead upon it. Notice, the woman is wickedness as an abstract principle, not wicked people.
So we have a legal measure filled with wickedness and upon it a heavy (118 lb.) lid, Obviously, the reason for such a lid is to prevent the escape of the basket's content, which is evil. This much is plain,
The angel gives no explanation as to the identity of the two women with stork's wings. He does say they are bearing the full measure of evil to the land of Shinar where a house (or temple) is to be built in which the woman (evil) will be set in her own place (literally on her own base).

There is Scriptural evidence that Shinar is synonymous with Babylon. (cp. Genesis 10:10) The term Shinar is used for obvious reasons, Babylon was now in the hands of Darius, ruler of the Medo-Persian empire. To have used the common name would have been to incur, unnecessarily, the wrath of the emperor whose good offices had permitted the return of the exiles and who was encouraging the reconstruction of the temple. For our purposes, it is important only to know that Shinar is Babylon.

Babylon is used throughout the apocalyptic literature of the Bible to depict the false religion which is inevitably the source of evil and therefore the enemy of God and His people. She is associated with enforced evil and idolatry.

In Revelation 17:5 she is called mother of harlots, dressed in haughty splendor and drunken with the blood of the martyrs. The evils which have come out of her idol worship and opposition to God's people are called the wine of her fornication. Her name there is Mystery, Babylon, the Great, Mother of Harlots and of the abominations of the Earth.

Mystery alludes to the mystery religions which originated in Babylon. (See Chapter 4, Baal Worship) Babylon the Great to her temporal power (which in Revelation becomes symbolic of Rome), Mother of Harlots to the fact that she had spawned the false religions of the world, and the abominations of the earth to the overall offensiveness of Babylon before God.

So the full measure of the wickedness which spread across the land of Judah was to be sent back to its source where it would be set up on a pedestal and worshipped, as indeed it had always been, wickedness and immorality being the soul and expression of the idolatry throughout the ancient world.
Keeping in mind that the writing of the book of Zechariah was intended to move the people to the rebuilding of the temple, the force of this vision is obvious. The wickedness which the people have brought with them from Babylon must be recognized for what it is. It must be sent on the wings of the wind back, full measure, where it came from. In Babylon, wickedness is the object of worship. In God's land among God's people it has no place at all. It must therefore be removed.

Chapter XXXIIIQuestions

A Vision of a Woman in a Flying Basket

1.

Describe Zechariah's seventh vision.

2.

What is an ephah?

3.

What is the weight of the talent?

4.

Where did the woman in the flying ephah go?

5.

The woman in the ephah is declared by the angel to be _______________.

6.

What is the significant difference between this and the other visions as recorded by Zechariah?

7.

Discuss several possible interpretations of this vision as suggested above.

8.

What is shown by such interpretations?

9.

What is the significance of the fact that the ephah was a legal measure?

10.

Shinar is Scripturally synonymous with __________________.

11.

Babylon, throughout the Bible, especially in apocalyptic literature, is used to depict ___________________.

12.

Mystery alludes to _________________.

13.

The full measure of wickedness was to be sent ________________________.

14.

What was the force of this vision to those who had the task of rebuilding the temple?