Zechariah 5:3

"Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole land: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off on the one side, according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off on the other side according to it."

We take the passage as an interpretation of the vision as a divine curse of evildoers, as clearly indicated in our version. Scholars have sought by various methods to make the passage have an opposite meaning. "The translation curse has committed the passage to a sense which the original text does not necessarily support; it could be blessing!"[6] Much as we might wish it so, the light available to this writer requires its consideration as a curse.

"Everyone that sweareth ..." A number of scholars would make this a reference to making a vain oath in God's name, or swearing falsely against a neighbor, but we must identify it with the common vice of profane swearing, commonly called "cursing." According to Watts, there is an exact quotation here from the Third Commandment of the Decalogue, "Whoever takes his name in vain. The vision obviously refers to Exodus 20:7, and even quotes exactly this law."[7]

"Shall be cut off ..." All sinners would be measured that they might be cut off from the congregation of the Lord."[8]

The word rendered "curse" in this passage "is used several times in connection with `covenant' (Genesis 24:41; 26:28; Deuteronomy 29:12; Ezekiel 16:59, etc.)."[9] From this, it would appear to be a valid deduction that the covenant relationship between God and the remnant who had returned from Babylon was primarily the thing in view. Some have therefore understood the vision to mean that, whereas the whole nation was punished for the sins of Israel which resulted in their captivity, God would now punish, not the whole nation but only individual sinners. This is an unacceptable view; because, when a whole nation falls generally into gross sin, the judgment of God inevitable falls upon such a nation; and this flying scroll indicated no change in that principle.

What does seem to be the lesson from the vision is that the returned remnant should be careful to live up to the holy terms of their covenant with God, which was at that time, and ever was, contingent upon their obedient faith in God.

The near-total destruction of Israel had just occurred as a result of the vast majority of the people having indulged themselves in wholesale violations of the sacred law. Now that God had rescued a remnant and reestablished them in Canaan, it was imperative that they should not get the idea that God no longer was concerned about their obedience of divine law. This vision was a dramatic reminder that God most certainly did care. The law of God, so long despised and flouted, was not a dead letter after all; like a flying scroll overshadowing the whole nation, his word was living, active, and judgmental with regard to every single violator of it. Dummelow understood the vision in this sense, saying, "The flying roll signifies the sin of the evildoer coming home to roost."[10] It was a most necessary vision. The great error of pre-exilic Israel was their unwarranted assumption that they were "God's chosen people" no matter what they did.

We agree with Homer Hailey and others that in its primary intention the expression, face of the whole land, "indicates not the whole earth, but the land of God's people, wherever they may be."[11] However, the truth here revealed reaches far beyond that. As Matthew Henry noted:

It goes forth over the face of the whole earth, not only of the land of Israel, but the whole world; for those that have sinned against the law written in their hearts only shall by that law be judged, though they have not the book of the law. All mankind are liable to the judgment of God; and, wherever sinners are, anywhere upon the face of the whole earth, God can and will find them out and seize them.[12]

Gill discussed this at length, basing his arguments upon Paul's writings in the first two chapters of Romans, and fully supported the conclusion reached by Henry. This appears to us to be correct.

"No individual, whether he accepts the written law or becomes a law unto himself, consistently does in every situation of life what he believes to be right ... he proceeds to violate even his own understanding of right and wrong ... Thus the curse of the law covers the whole earth."[13]

Certainly the passage can have this meaning, as indicated in the Douay and King James Version; and even the American Standard Version does not forbid this understanding of it.