Zechariah 5:8-11 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Zechariah 5:5-11

The foregoing vision was very plain and easy, but in this are things dark and hard to be understood; and some think that the scope of it is to foretel the final destruction of the Jewish church and nation and the dispersion of the Jews, when, by crucifying Christ and persecuting his gospel, they should have filled up the measure of their iniquities; therefore it is industriously set out in obscure figures and expressions, ?lest the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple and state... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:8

And he said, This is wickedness ,.... A representation of wicked men, who are wickedness itself, as their inward part is, Psalm 5:9 and particularly of the wicked one, the man of sin and son of perdition, the Roman antichrist and apocalyptic beast; who, though he is called by this title, "his Holiness", his true and proper name is "wickedness"; ο ανομος , that wicked lawless one, 2 Thessalonians 2:8 yea, wickedness itself, being extremely wicked, a sink of sin and of all... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:9

Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked ,.... This is not a new vision, but a continuation of the former, as appears from the "ephah" seen in it: and, behold, there came out two women ; out of the same place the "ephah" did. The Targum explains these "two women" by two provinces; and Kimchi interprets them of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who had been carried captive into Babylon; and others of the two kings, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, who were the cause of the captivity; but Jarchi... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:10

Then said I to the angel that talked with me ;.... This the prophet said after he had seen the "ephah" come forth; the woman, wickedness, cast into it, and the talent of lead upon her; and the two women lifting up the ephah between heaven and earth: Whither do these bear the ephah ? he neither asks what the ephah signified, nor who were the women that bore it, but only whither they bore it. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:11

And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar ,.... That is, in the province of Babylon, as the Targum paraphrases it; for Babel, or Babylon, was in the land of Shinar, Genesis 10:10 whither the Jews were carried captive, Daniel 1:2 Isaiah 11:11 , and the bearing of the "ephah" thither may denote the cause of their captivity, the measure of sins filled up by them: though this some understand of the like injuries, oppressions, and vexations, brought upon the Chaldeans... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:9

There came out two women - As the one woman represented the impiety of the Jewish nation; so these two women who were to carry the ephah, in which the woman Iniquity was shut up, under the weight of a talent of lead, may mean the desperate Unbelief of the Jews in rejecting the Messiah; and that Impiety, or universal corruption of manners, which was the consequence of their unbelief, and brought down the wrath of God upon them. The strong wings, like those of a stork, may point out the power... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:11

To build it a house in the land of Shinar - The land of Shinar means Babylon; and Babylon means Rome, in the Apocalypse. The building the house for the woman imprisoned in the ephah may signify, that there should be a long captivity under the Romans, as there was under that of Shinar or Babylon, by which Rome may here be represented. That house remains to the present day: the Jewish woman is still in the ephah; it is set on its own base - continues still as a distinct nation; and the talent... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:8

Verse 8 Now the angel adds, that a thin piece of lead was cast over the mouth of the measure, and that wickedness was cast into the measure. The expression, that wickedness was thrown into the measure, may be explained in two ways — either that God would not permit so much liberty to the devil to lead the Jews to sin as before; for how comes it that men abandon themselves to every evil, except that God forsakes them, and at the same time delivers them up to Satan, that he may exercise his... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:9

Verse 9 The Prophet says here that such would be the change of things, that God would in turn afflict the Chaldeans, who had so cruelly treated the chosen people. And this is the reason why I think that iniquity is to be taken for the violent injustice and plunder which heathen enemies had exercised towards the Jews. For when he says that a house would be for iniquity in the land of Shinar, it is as though he had said, “as Judea has been for a long time plundered by enemies, and has been... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - Zechariah 5:5-11

§ 9. The seventh vision: the woman in the ephah. read more

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Zechariah 5:5-11

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:8

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:9

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:10

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Zechariah 5:11

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:9

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:11

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:8

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - Zechariah 5:9

The Pulpit Commentary - Zechariah 5:5-11

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