Zechariah 5:5-6

5, 6. The interpreting angel is the first to appear.

Went forth As in Zechariah 2:3. The several visions were separated from one another by intervals of inactivity, during which the prophet meditated upon the things seen and heard. During these intervals the angel was lost sight of, but when the moment for a new vision arrived he stood forth. The expression may mean, therefore, simply that the prophet again became aware of his presence. The vision itself is presented in a manner somewhat different from the preceding. Zechariah is exhorted to look; when he does so he becomes conscious of something, but fails to understand what it is; then his companion explains.

This is an ephah that goeth forth A free translation would express the thought more clearly, “that which goeth forth (that is, appears, comes into sight) is an ephah.” It is difficult to determine the exact capacity of the ephah (see on Amos 8:5), but, speaking in general terms, it may be compared to a bushel (compare Hastings’s Dictionary of the Bible, iv, p. 912). Since a measure of the size of a bushel cannot contain a woman, the word must be used here of an ephah-shaped measure, without reference to size.

Recognizing the mysteriousness of the vision, the angel immediately proceeds to explain it.

This is their resemblance through all the earth R.V., “This is their appearance in all the land.” Of the two, R.V. is to be preferred. Much ingenuity has been expended in the interpretation of this peculiar expression. Two attempts may be mentioned. “The ephah is the shape, that is, represents the figure displayed by sinners in all the land, after the roll of the curse has gone forth over the land; that is, it shows into what condition they have come through that anathema.… Just as in a bushel the separate grains are all collected together, so will the individual sinners over the whole earth be brought into a heap, when the curse of the end goes forth over the whole earth” (Keil). A slightly different interpretation is suggested by Perowne: “This, namely, the ephah with all that you will see in the vision regarding it, is the resemblance or representation of the wicked through all the land and of what shall befall them.” These are only two out of a great number of suggested interpretations, all of which are more or less artificial and require a stretch of the text and of the imagination. The difficulty is entirely removed if we accept the LXX. reading, “their transgression,” for “their resemblance”; the whole clause, “this is their transgression in all the land.” The pronoun is explained by “in all the land,” equivalent to “the transgression of the inhabitants of all the land.” This transgression is symbolized by the ephah and its contents, though the latter have not yet been revealed to the prophet. This translation and interpretation of Zechariah 5:5-6 seem to give a satisfactory sense, though it may be admitted that the reading is not as smooth as it might be. The apparent awkwardness of the text leads Nowack and others to alter it so as to read, following Lift up now thine eyes, and see “what is this ephah that goeth forth? And I said, What is it? And he said, That is their transgression in all the land.”