Zechariah 5:5-11

5 The angel who was speaking with me came forward. He said, "Look up, and see what's coming."

6 "What is it?" I asked. "A basket is coming," he said. Then he added, "This is what the people's sins look like all over the earth."

7 A lead cover [on the basket] was raised, and a woman was sitting in the basket.

8 The angel said, "This is wickedness," and he pushed her back into the basket and forced the lead cover down on top of it.

9 I looked up and saw two women coming forward with wind in their wings. They had wings like those of a stork. They carried the basket into the sky.

10 I asked the angel who was speaking with me, "Where are they taking the basket?"

11 He answered me, "They are going to build a house for it in Shinar [Babylonia]. When the house is ready, they will set the basket there on a stand."

Zechariah 5:5-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO ZECHARIAH 5

This chapter treats of the judgments of God upon the wicked Jews for their sins and impieties, the measure of which was filled up, and of the execution of them, which are represented in two visions: the first is of a flying roll, which signifies the curse of God, and is described by its measure, the length being twenty cubits, and the breadth ten; and by the extent of it, it reaching to the whole earth, and particularly to thieves and false swearers, who shall be cut off by it; and by the certainty of its coming into the houses of such, and the utter desolation it should there make, Zec 5:1-4 and the other is the vision of an ephah, and a woman sitting in it, and a talent of lead cast upon the mouth of it, which signified wickedness, Zec 5:5-8 this "ephah" is seen to be lifted up between earth and heaven by two women, who are said to have wings like the wings of storks, and the wind to be in them; and who are said by the angel to carry the "ephah" into the land of Shinar, to build it a house, that it might be established and settled upon its own base, Zec 5:9-11.