Zechariah 5:7

"(And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah."

This verse brings out additional features of the vision: the heavy lead cover, being lifted, and a woman seated on the inside! "An ephah basket is much too small for a full-sized person; so the vision either has a very small woman or a woman-like figure, that is, an idol."[20] Interpreters either enlarge the basket, as Hailey: "It was larger than a bushel-basket ... the word was used only to designate the shape ... not the size";[21] or reduce the figure of a woman as did Watts. Our own preference here is the interpretation that makes "the woman" to be the figure of one of the popular female goddesses of the day. Ishtar or Ashteroth could have been meant. This certainly avoids what seems to us the error of making womanhood to be the essence and personification of Sin. After all, it was to be "the Seed of Woman" who would redeem all mankind. Additionally, it was precisely the worship of pagan idols with their regiments of sacred prostitutes that had been the undoing of Israel in the catastrophe that led to their captivity. We cannot resist the conviction that idolatry is the thing meant by this woman in a basket.

"A talent of lead ..." Note that the basket was shut with this heavy lid. Gill says that "A talent weighs approximately 118 pounds troy."[22] However, Deane affirmed that the word here rendered "talent" is actually "a round," having reference to the shape of the lid and not to its weight.[23]