Zechariah 5:1-11 Chavurah Shalom Saturday 3/2/19

Zechariah 5:1 Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.” 3 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side. 4 “I will make it go forth,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.” 5 Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.” 6 I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah going forth.” Again he said, “This is their appearance in all the land 7 (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.” 8 Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. 9 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. 10 I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the ephah?” 11 Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” Our next chapter presents us with two visions. First is the Flying Scroll and Second is the Ephah with Wickedness Inside. Most will join the two visions together in their discussions. Visions six and seven are twin messages in the chiastic arrangement detailed in our introduction. The sixth vision reveals that the wicked will be purged from Israel, while the seventh demonstrates that wickedness itself will as well be removed from Israel; Zechariah 5:1–4 warns that individual sinners will be judged, while Zechariah 5:5–11 promises that the very principle of evil will be removed from Israel.--Kaiser, Jr., Walter C.. The Preacher's Commentary - Vol. 23: Micah / Nahum / Habakkuk / Zephaniah / Haggai / Zechariah / Malachi .

- 1 - Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. We began our study of the vision with the Chaistic Pattern: a - 1:7-17 The Horsemen b- 1:18-21 The Four Horns b- 2:1-13 The Glory of ADONAI Returns to Jerusalem c- 3:1-10 Messiah Our High Priest c-4:1-14 Messiah Our Great King b- 5:1-4 The Flying Scroll b- 5:5-11 The Ephah with Wickedness Inside a- 6:1-15 The Four Chariots Our 6th Vision connects with the Glory of ADONAI returning to Jerusalem of the 3rd Vision, and describes the purging of the wicked from Israel. The 7th Vision connects with the Four Horns which pushed against Israel, as the Four Craftsman then push the Four Horns and throw them down, and describes the complete removal of wickedness itself from Israel. The main point of our present teaching concerns the ongoing need for Holiness in every aspect of our life. One major work for ADONAI, such as the present building of the Temple for the contemporaries of Zecharaiah does not eliminate this need for Holiness in every other area of life as well. Two areas seem to be at issue in the camp of Israel: theft and using the Name of ADONAI in vain. These two sins reflect that not all who had returned were in a right relationship with ADONAI. Sin was still in the camp, and it would be dealt with. This will be true of the final community of Israel in the Acharit Haymim, "The End of Days." Vv. 1-2 The Flying Scroll Zechariah 5:1 Then I lifted up my eyes again and looked, and behold, there was a flying scroll. 2 And he said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.” Our text refers literally to a "flying megillah," the typical Hebrew word for Scroll. The typical scroll was made from either papyrus or parchment. This scroll was of unusual size, being 20 cubits by 10 cubits, or approximately 30 feet long and 15 feet wide, a cubit measuring approximately 18 inches. While the text makes no

- 2 - special importance to these dimensions, many point out that this is the same size as the Porch of Solomon's Temple, 1 Kings 6:3; and of the Holy Place of the Mishkan, Exodus 26:15-28. The main point of the size of the scroll seems to have been to instill fear and trepidation in the hearts and minds of Israel. Some infer from the size that Judgment has come to the people of the House of God since these dimensions are similar. We know that Judgment will begin at the House of God. Ezekiel 9:6 “Utterly slay old men, young men, maidens, little children, and women, but do not touch any man on whom is the mark; and you shall start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the elders who were before the temple. 1Peter 4:17 For it is time for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God? With these thoughts in mind, our vision seems to be preparatory to the coming of Yeshua for the final battle as we began to examine last night in our study of Revelation. In the devastation of Babylon which we have already viewed in that study, this picture of The Wickedness will then also be totally removed from God's Chosen People. There is, however, more to consider concerning the Scroll: The scroll’s size is an integral part of the concept of a full scroll as embodied in this vision. While the length of the scroll (20 cubits = ca. 10 m.) may not be outrageous in terms of the length of actual scrolls (cf. the Isaiah scroll from Qumran, which is 7.34 m. long), the height (10 cubits — ca. 5 m.) is surely a preposterous figure. [here is our 30 ft by 15 ft] The association in this vision of the ’ûlâm or temple forecourt area with the flying scroll would represent the revival of the priestly role in the administration of justice. The progressive encroachment of monarchic juridical authority upon the priestly sphere of jurisdiction was virtually complete by the time of Jehoshaphat, whose reform made the priestly role in justice fully subordinate to that of the monarch (Whitelam 1979:45). The postexilic Yehudites, lacking a dynastic authority, renewed the ancient meshing of the sacral and judicial spheres. The priests were now called upon “to render judgment in my House” (Zech 3:7), a process which presumably took place between the altar and 'ûlâm (cf. Joel 2:17, the precise location of the priestly presence needed to secure God’s

- 3 - favorable judgment of his people). Further, the basis for the divine justice to be effected by the priestly office is God’s law or covenant, as represented by the “flying scroll.” The expanded priestly responsibilities, already attested by the designation “high priest” (see Note to Zech 1:1) and by the attention to Joshua in Zechariah 3, are here linked specifically to the legal sphere of Yehudite life. [In other words, this note is referring us to the original intent of the repository of the Torah with the priests, with any necessary pursuit of a final answer from God coming through the priesthood. What the note is suggesting is that the various kings of Israel and Judah took that role from the priests and deposited it in themselves, and their counsel which they gathered around them. With King David, we find a very close relationship remained between himself as King and with the High Priest. In other words, David remained open to a word from God through His appointed Priest.] A second dimensional connection between the Fifth Vision and temple, also based on the absolute value of the numbers, appears in the size of the two cherubim, those fanciful composite creatures whose wings were spread out over the ark within the dëbîr, or Holy of Holies. The text of 1 Kgs 6:23-26 explains carefully that each cherub stood ten cubits high and that one wing of each was five cubits long. That is, each cherub was ten cubits wide, wing tip to wing tip, and ten cubits tall. Since the cherubim were identical in size and shape, and since they were positioned next to each other with their outer wings touching the walls of the dëbîr and with their wings on the side next to each other just touching in the middle of the dëbîr, the cherubs together occupied a space twenty cubits wide and ten cubits high. Just as for the dimensions of the 'ûlâm, the size of the cherubim can also be related to Israelite legal traditions. The outstretched wings of the cherubim sheltered “the ark of the covenant of Yahweh” (1 Kgs 8:6-7) which contained the “two stone tablets which Moses placed there at Horeb, where Yahweh made a covenant with the people of Israel” (1 Kgs 8:9). If the cherubim represent divine presence and transport (Freedman and O’Connor 1984) in association with God’s word on tablets, a twenty-by-ten flying scroll (a covenant document of some kind; cf. Note above to “scroll” in v 1) would be a postexilic equivalent. The scroll itself has replaced the ark and its tablets, which have disappeared from Israel, as the source of God’s word; and its twenty-by-ten airborne size conjures up the winged guardians of the Mosaic tablets. [This is a bit of a stretch since the dimensions are different, albeit in the same kind

- 4 - of numerical arrangement of length to width. The connection with the concept of the Torah Scroll kept in the Ark of the Covenant however, is food for thought. The main point is that there is never another reference to the Ark of the Covenant, nor the Mercy Seat after the Babylonian Exile. However, here we do have a very distinct reference to "A Scroll," which we may well make out to be The Torah Scroll, just as we have a Scroll of the whole Torah in our own Aaron Kodesh, or Holy Ark.] A second set of possibilities for understanding the scroll’s dimensions emerges from considering the size in relationship to actual scrolls and to what Zechariah would have seen in his vision. The scroll was flying—that is, it was up in the sky—and it must have looked like a scroll because the prophet identified it as such. How is a scroll to be recognized? Its distinctive feature and the source of the Hebrew term denoting it (cf. Note to “scroll,” 5:1) is that it is rolled. In other words, Zechariah did not see a twenty-by-ten billboard, a scroll completely unrolled, which then would not have looked like a scroll and would have had the wrong proportion for a scroll. Nor did he see an entirely closed or rolled-up scroll, since he apparently is able to read from it. In other words, Zechariah sees in his vision a partly unrolled scroll. The dimensions, therefore, are not that of a completely unrolled scroll. Although the height of ten cubits would be the same whether the scroll was unrolled or not, the other figure of twenty cubits would depend on how much of the scroll was unrolled. Does the twenty cubit length give us any clues as to what the prophet saw? There are two possibilities, both based upon the ratio of length to height as two to one rather than on the absolute value of the figures, and we thank the editor for drawing our attention to them. Both these possibilities concern how much of the writing of the partially unrolled scroll was visible to the prophet. The smallest amount of unrolling to be done if someone is to be able to read some thing from the scroll would be that which would expose one column. One situation thus would be that Zechariah saw a scroll with one column exposed. Later evidence shows that scrolls were written in columns, and it can be assumed that scrolls in Zechariah’s day were written that way since such traditions tended to be conservative. Scrolls were read by rolling one end and unrolling the other, leaving one or more columns visible in between the two rolls that were formed at either end as the scroll was read. The minimum that the prophet could have seen, therefore, would have been a column. The biblical scrolls, unlike the other scrolls found at

- 5 - Qumran—and the Isaiah scroll is a good example—always have a ratio of length to width, or height to width, of two to one. The Isaiah scroll is just over ten inches high (that is, the scroll itself and not the column), and the columns are about five inches wide. This two-to-one ratio, which is verifiable from archaeological sources and perfectly applicable to biblical scrolls, could underlie the two-to-one ratio of length and width in Zechariah’s vision. Rules for writing biblical scrolls must have been standardized for Qumran scribes and could easily have been the practice several centuries before the earlier Qumran fragments (some Samuel fragments, e.g., are probably from the third century B.C.E.). This solution is very tempting but it ignores the fact that Zechariah says he sees a scroll and not a column of a scroll. A partially unrolled scroll would have to include the rolled-up parts on either side of the exposed writing. Those rolls would change in size relative to each other but their combined thickness would remain constant and would have to be added to the width of the exposed text if the width of the scroll is to be calculated. A second solution would preserve the two-to-one ratio by having the larger dimension be the width of the exposed text plus the two rolled-up parts, with the smaller dimension representing the height of the scroll rather than the width of a single column. If this were the case, how many columns would be exposed? The width of three columns of the Isaiah scroll, including margins, would be about sixteen inches, since the whole scroll is twenty-four feet long and contains fifty-four columns. The width of the rolled- up portion would then be four inches, which seems like a reasonable size for a thickness that cannot otherwise be calculated because it would depend upon variables such as how tightly the scroll is rolled and how long it is. If four inches is too small a number, then two columns of writing could have been exposed, allowing for about eleven inches of text and rolls totaling about nine inches. In either case, the visions would show a total scroll, partially unrolled, and not just a single column of writing. Arguments in favor of a three-column exposure or a two-column exposure are speculative but worth considering. A case for the latter might propose that the two exposed columns constitute an imitation of the decalogue, which was written on two tablets. Such an explanation would coincide well with the suggestion offered above, that the twenty-by-ten image recalls the cherubim surmounting the ark and its stone tablets. Alternatively, the two columns could represent the two cases, that of the thief and peijurer, cited in verses 3 and 4 of the vision. An argument for the three-column width, in addition to the fact that the size of the

- 6 - rolled-up portions would be smaller and hence more likely than the rather large nine-inch measurement of the two-column possibility, is based upon the rabbinic traditions about how many columns should be visible when a Torah scroll is read. Three columns should be visible, at least when a scroll is read in a synagogue.--Anchor Yale Bible Commentary, p. 281-283. For those who don't attend our Shabbat Morning Prayer Time, you miss the visual on this explanation. We remove the Scroll, unroll to the appropriate place, and read the Scripture. After the reading of the Torah, the Scroll is lifted up where everyone can see it, with two or three columns open for all to view, while specific blessings are chanted over the Scroll. Once that is finished, then the Torah Scroll is rolled up, dressed, and eventually returned to the Ark. This is quite a thought with this Flying Scroll in our text. The image of a Flying Scroll is unprecedented in the Scripture and in non-Biblical sources. The Scroll is flying through mid-air, suggesting both its speed and its source, coming from God. A question for us to ponder...Does this represent God's own copy of the Torah, thus holding Israel to its obligations? If this is the case, it is the assertion of God fulfilling His obligations to the Torah to deal with the Sin in Israel, and a call for the individual Israelites in the Land to deal with their own obligations to turn away from sin and to return unto God. It also suggests the comprehensiveness of its message, with its large size placarding its message to all who are in the Land. But this brings us to our next verses... Vv. 3-4 The Message of the Scroll Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going forth over the face of the whole land; surely everyone who steals will be purged away according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears will be purged away according to the writing on the other side. 4 “I will make it go forth,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night within that house and consume it with its timber and stones.” The Scroll is identified in being in the form of a curse, based upon the Covenant which they have made with ADONAI, Deuteronomy 29:10 “You stand today, all of you, before the LORD your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who

- 7 - draws your water, 12 that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today, 13 in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 14 “Now not with you alone am I making this covenant and this oath, 15 but both with those who stand here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God and with those who are not with us here today 16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed; 17 moreover, you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which they had with them); 18 so that there will not be among you a man or woman, or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of those nations; that there will not be among you a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. 19 “It shall be when he hears the words of this curse, that he will boast, saying, ‘I have peace though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart in order to destroy the watered land with the dry.’ 20 “The LORD shall never be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and His jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse which is written in this book will rest on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 “Then the LORD will single him out for adversity from all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant which are written in this book of the law. The basic meaning is taking an oath, and .אָלַה ,The Hebrew word for curse is alah so becomes a curse based upon the sworn statement to abide by the Torah with all of its stipulations lest certain sanctions be brought against them. This is the word used throughout the Deuteronomy passage above for "curse." This Flying Megillah then is representative of the Scroll of the Torah, with it representing a curse from the fact that there are those within the Returning Remnant who persist in their violation of the Torah. We find out that the Scroll is written on front and back, just like the one in Ezekiel 2:8-10 “Now you, son of man, listen to what I am speaking to you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I am giving you.” 9 Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me; and lo, a scroll was in it. 10 When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were lamentations, mourning and woe. Similarly this

- 8 - scroll has a curse written on it for all of the Wicked People still a part of Israel. Two kinds of evil doers are maligned on the scroll: Thieves, and Those who Swear Falsely in God's Name. This outlines violation of the Torah in relationship to ADONAI and the relationship to their fellow man. Exodus 20:7 “You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain. Exodus 20:15 “You shall not steal. Much like our Lord Yeshua summarized the whole of the Torah in two commandments, it is likely this is the impact of these two sins, Matthew 22:36-40 “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” 37 And He said to him, “‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ 38 “This is the great and foremost commandment. 39 “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ 40 “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” When we are in violation of the Torah, no matter what "good work" we think we are accomplishing for God, we are in need of Teshuvah before our LORD. While they were building the Temple, we have these two sins apparently a common thing among some of those who had returned and were actually in the process of this construction. Some have suggested that "all the Land" means "all of the earth." This is possible with the Hebrew HaAretz, but this curse is directed towards Israel. With the return to Jerusalem, and the building of the Temple, it was time to fully return to God and to His Torah. Both priest and prophet were being drawn back into their service to the Torah, with Haggai and Zechariah reflecting this work of returning the people to the Torah. The Blessings for the Land and the People were contingent upon their returning whole heartedly to the Torah and living by this Outline of Holiness. This was a warning of impending judgment for those who persisted in their sins. Ezra the Scribe when he returned came to teach the Torah and the proper understanding and Halachah. The use of the two terms together here probably means that they are interrelated matters, that the peijury in this passage is the so-called “oath of acquittal,” in which the person under oath is the defendant. In certain cases an individual charged with a crime for which there are no witnesses is permitted to swear his way out of jeopardy. The writer of the decalogue clearly has such a situation in

- 9 - mind as the Sitz im Leben for the third commandment, with the separate issue about a witness giving false testimony being covered by the ninth commandment. The point of the third commandment is that Yahweh will not acquit a perjurer even if the miscreant swears himself innocent and is allowed to go free since there is no one to testify otherwise. The decalogue warns against those who use this technique to avoid punishment when they are guilty. It must have been a great temptation for those guilty of theft, or any other crime, to abuse this process and to go free when evidence sufficient for a conviction was lacking.-- Anchor Yale Biblical Commentary, p. 284. The Torah was a system of Divine Government which protected the innocent, and would be effective through the divine intervention of God's power against those who might abuse the system. Zechariah and Haggai were involved in establishing social stability under the Torah for which it was designed. This would be through the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the High Priest, but with the Word of God through His Prophets, restoring them to the Torah. This would be the primary role of Ezra as he returns to Jerusalem in Ezra 7. The Covenant was to be upheld by the King, the High Priest, and the Elders of all the Tribes, and communities where people lived. When a case could not be decided at the local level, then the concerned people were to appear before ADONAI at Jerusalem, with the priests providing the means to a final resolution through seeking a word from God via the Urim and the Thumim. It is suggested by the Anchor Yale Commentary that it was at the Ulam, the porch of the Temple, that such adjudication would be meted out. This was to symbolize the final word on a matter belonging to ADONAI Himself. The Curse on the Flying Scroll will enter the houses where those guilty reside, and they will be purged, expelled, or cleansed from the community. They would be removed in order to cleanse the Land. This is apparently the wording on one side for the thief, and on the other side for the False Swearer. Further, this Flying Scroll will enter the houses of the guilty parties, and will remain there, and will consume the timber and the stones. This indicates the severity of the judgment, and its consuming nature. The main point is that God will pursue the guilty into the privacy of their own homes, and deal with them and their sins in a very personal way. Vv. 5-11 The Wickedness in the Ephah

- 10 - Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.” 6 I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah going forth.” Again he said, “This is their appearance in all the land 7 (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.” 8 Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. 9 Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. 10 I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the ephah?” 11 Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” This 7th Vision has to do with the removal of Wickedness from Israel, and transporting it unto Babylon. Sin, symbolized as a woman, since wickedness is a feminine word, is thrust into an ephah, sealed with a lead disc, and carried by two women to the ancient land of Shinar which was Babylon, and is now modern day Iraq. As in vision six, God will move against evil in two dramatic acts. These two acts are: A. Wickedness Will Be Placed Under Wraps 5:5–8 B. Wickedness Will Be Housed in Babylon 5:9–11.--Kaiser, Jr., Walter C.. The Preacher's Commentary - Vol. 23: Micah / Nahum / Habakkuk / Zephaniah / Haggai / Zechariah / Malachi . Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. With this outline in view, we deal first with Wickedness Placed Under Wraps! The seventh vision varies slightly in form from the other visions. The angel initiates the conversation by calling the prophet’s attention to an approaching object. The prophet asks about its identity and is told that an ephah is coming. The heavy lid of the ephah is raised slightly and a woman can be seen sitting in the ephah. The woman represents wickedness. She appears to try to escape. She is thrust back into the ephah and the heavy cover is put back in place. Like the second vision of the horns and the smiths this vision has two parts. In the second part of the vision the prophet lifts his eyes again and sees two other women coming with wind in their wings to carry the ephah to the land of Shinar far away from Israel where “wickedness” is enshrined in a temple and made an object of worship. The setting appears to be the same as that of the previous visions, the temple courtyard which has cosmological overtones.

- 11 - In the seventh vision “wickedness” personified is removed from Judah to Babylon where a temple is built for it as an object of worship. If the ephah is understood literally to be a basket holding no more than five to nine gallons of grain, it would not be large enough to contain a normal size woman. Therefore some have suggested that the woman in the basket was a fertility goddess that had to be kept “bottled” up. Why is “wickedness” represented here as a woman? The text does not say but many writers have speculated about the subject. Joyce Baldwin (129) says simply, “Because the Hebrew word is feminine, wickedness is personified as a woman.”--Word Biblical Commentary, p. 211. What is an Ephah? It is a term of dry measure referring to a specific amount of grain, or to the vessel holding that specific amount of grain. This is further identified as one tenth of a homer. Ezekiel 45:11. The Homer, chomer in Hebrew, also a term of dry measure equaling either 10 ephahs or 10 baths. The word is ,חֹמֶר found twenty-seven times in the Hebrew Bible, “ephah” in every case, but this word is clearly a technical designation for a volume or dry We speak in terms of bushels in our own country. A bushel is equal to 4 pecks, 8 dry gallons, or 64 pints. More confusion! If you did not grow up around farming or country areas or go to farmer's markets which sold in such a quantity, then you will be lost. The same is true of the Ephah and the Homer. By every one who has given an estimate, it is too small for a woman to fit into. But that is not the point. It is a figure of a container that could be sealed, and this seems to be the importance for us to consider. When Zechariah asked the Angel, "What is it?", his response was "Wickedness." This is a feminine noun and is personified as a woman. However, this word has the definite article with it, so it is The Wickedness. Wickedness is the opposite of Righteousness. The language of the last verse in particular supports the idea of a sacral context, and certain other elements (see N o te s below) such as the presence of a figure in the Ephah, the identity of that figure as Wickedness, the pair of winged beings, and the lead object, all have temple connotations. Those connotations would appear to be non-Yehudite, a situation appropriate to the Mesopotamian destination (see N o te to “land to Shinar” below, v 11) of the Ephah. Because of these associations with pagan cultic elements, a suggestion made decades ago by Marenof (1931-32) seems worthy of reconsideration, especially now that the

- 12 - technical elements of temple restoration in the ancient Near East, as made known to us through Mesopotamian deposits and inscriptions, can be related to many details of Zechariah’s visions and oracles, particularly in chapters three and four. Marenof points out that the Sumerian word for one of the ziggurats in Mesopotamia, the shrine of the goddess Nin-Girsu at Lagash, is E-pa, “summit house.” He suggests that this name became incorporated into the Assyrian language and from there into other Semitic languages in a manner related into Hebrew as hêkâl (= House of Yahweh or main room of the temple; see N o te to Hag 2:18). Further, he calls attention to the Assyrian nouns a-pu (“cave”) and a-ptu (“room”) as well as the Arabic afta (“room”), and also to the denominative verb apu meaning “to build,” which can be found in association with building a shrine. Specifically, Marenof proposes that Ephah designates the little room, an enclosed shrine or cella, which surmounted a ziggurat, a conclusion not far removed from the suggestion of Mitchell (1912:175) that verse 11 implies such a shrine. It is unlikely that an ephah measure would represent that cella: the possibility is precluded if *êpâ can linguistically be connected with the larger container— i.e., a cult room for the statue of a god atop a Mesopotamian temple edifice.--The Anchor Yale Biblical Commentary, p. 296. This would not be completely far fetched for God to use such a symbol to reflect the return of Wickedness to its source to be dealt with appropriately. We have made the point on Friday nights with Babylon representing the seat and beginning of all rebellion of man against God. There is also an irony to be perceived in the notion of a measure of the temple cereal offering being turned around, containing instead the idol for whom the grain may have been intended, and being taken away. To make the image of personified wickedness even more vivid, wickedness is depicted as “a woman sitting inside [a] basket” (v. 7). The picture is reminiscent of a kind of genie in a jar. This woman’s influence would be capped by the “lead disc” (v. 7). Surely that would be God’s concluding act of placing wickedness under wraps. Kaiser, Jr., Walter C.. The Preacher's Commentary - Vol. 23: Micah / Nahum / Habakkuk / Zephaniah / Haggai / Zechariah / Malachi . Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. Perhaps the inappropriateness of lead for a cover is meant to emphasize the fact

- 13 - that an extraordinary device is being used to enclose forcefully and unalterably the is related to a verb ,כִּכַּר ,Ephah’s strange contents. The word for “weight,” kikkar denoting circular motion and is used to indicate a round object. Here it indicates the idea of the basic round shape of a weight. Verses 7 and 8 constitute a compact chiastic unit, introduced and concluded by the “lead” weight or stone and presenting the woman = Wickedness forcibly contained within the Ephah by that heavy lid. Those verses describe something that would have had to have taken place before the prophet raised his eyes and saw the Ephah. The logical chronology would have the action of verses 7 and 8 preceding the prophet’s seeing the closed Ephah being carried off to Shinar. The introduction of “lead” in connection with “weight” may be an example of prophetic irony. Instead of the valuable metals usually meted out by the talent for temple building, the shrine for Wickedness is here associated with a metal which was relatively useless in the ancient world and which was considered to be a kind of worthless silver. Its heaviness simultaneously connotes its effective use in keeping the Ephah’s inhabitant weighted down, captive in this container. Lead’s peculiar properties also lent it a special magical role in the ancient world, a role that emerges in the second appearance of the word “lead” in this vision, in verse 8. The magical aspect is that it can actually seal up The Wickedness and it is unable to escape. If it is in fact a statue of a (seated) goddess (so Marenof 1931-32) such as would have been the sole occupant of the cella of a pagan shrine, the accompanying figures of winged beings transporting the deity represented in this way would be appropriate to the idolatrous imagery. In such a case, the female gender of the symbol of non-Yahwistic worship would have been determined by the female gender of the word (“Wickedness”) that personifies this abhorrent practice. The transfer of a woman, or goddess, to Babylon and the establishment there of a shrine for her (cf. below, 5:11), balances the restoration of the temple in Jerusalem and the countermovement of Yahweh back to his land and his earthly dwelling. The identity of such a goddess is not revealed, but the equation of “woman” with “Wickedness” provides a clue (see below, first Note to 5:8). The word “woman" in the Sixth Vision, with its focus on the removal of idolatry, can thus refer to two things: the causes of such “Wickedness,” namely the integration of members of groups serving other gods into Yehudite families; and

- 14 - the result, idolatry. In either case the root of this disruptive situation, the woman and/or goddess, is about to be restored back to her proper position in the “land of Shinar.” The use of the word “woman” rather than a more specific word for goddess or name of a deity is ambiguous enough, as befits the visionary mode, to allow for both meanings. The choice of the term härifä to personify the “woman” of verse 7 who sits in the “Ephah” provides the key to understanding the overall meaning of the vision. This noun occurs thirteen times in the Bible, but this is the only instance in which it is preceded by the definite article. We have rendered it here with a capital “W” to indicate the force of the definite article in personifying the noun. The female figure here thus can represent idolatry not because of inherent female wickedness or impurity, but rather because of the historical contamination of Yahwism caused by intermarriage with foreign women. Therefore the chances are that insofar as the woman in the Ephah represents a deity, she would be one of the great Semitic goddesses, Ishtar (= Astarte), the reigning goddess of Babylon, or Asherah. The name of either one of those הָרִשְׁעָ֔ה divinities, but especially Asherah, constitutes an anagram of “wickedness.” Jeremiah’s concern about worship of the Queen of Heaven (Jer 7:18; 44:17,19,25) apparently refers to the cult of Ishtar (Bright 1965:56), which was very popular in Judah in the late monarchic period.--Anchor Yale Biblical Commentary. While we can certainly understand the more common expression of Idolatry in the Land of Israel in the figures of Ishtar or Asherah, the real seat of The Wickedness is none other than HaSatan. He has sought to destroy God's Plan for Man from Gad Eden until today. God's Plan involves Israel as His Servant, and the critical Servant Yeshua our Messiah, who is of Israel. These two feminine false deities were quite rampant in the Land during the times of the Kings and on up to the Babylonian Exile, so it is not too difficult for us to make this connection. In regards to the suggestion of the intermarriage with foreign women, we know that this was an ongoing issue even with this returning remnant as we shall see later in both Ezra and Nehemiah. The foreign intermixing was forbidden so that

- 15 - Israel would not go after the other gods of the various nations who had given vent to Satan's enticements. It was about a mixing of false gods with the Real God, and false worship with the Worship which God commanded and taught His People. The phrase "lead stone" which occurs almost at the end of verse 8 forms an envelope with “lead weight," which appears near the beginning of verse 7. The information of verses 7-8 composes a unit providing a retrospective view of why the Ephah is an important object in this vision; it allows the prophet to see inside it. In this instance “lead" appears with “stone” and not “weight.” The combination “lead-stone,” like the “tin-stone” of 4:10, refers to a piece of metal and not to a lead-bearing rock or piece of ore. It is to be noted that the pairing of “lead" and “stone” in this verse is achieved by a construct chain, the use of which may be intended to put “lead” in a position of emphasis. The emphasis is obviously to keep Wickedness contained in order that she not contaminate God's people anymore as she is being transported out of the country. Vv. 9-11 Wickedness Will be Housed in Babylon Zechariah sees “two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork.” The Hebrew word for “stork” is hasîdâ, meaning “faithful one,” and is similar to the Hebrew word for “grace,” hesed. The faithful one—the stork—may symbolize God’s gracious removal of sin and iniquity from His people, just as God had removed the sin of the dung-spattered High Priest Joshua by His “grace” (Zech. 3:4). The woman in the ephah will be removed to “Shinar,” the ancient name for that part of Babylon that contained such cities as Babel (Babylon), Erech, Accad, and Calneh (Gen. 10:10; 11:2; Dan. 1:2). This was the area that from earliest times was opposed to the will of God (Gen. 11:1–9). In this land, which had also served most recently as the place of Judah’s captivity, God would “build a house for [wickedness]” (v. 11). God would give wickedness a home far removed from His people. A home like the ancient ziggurats, exhibited first, perhaps, in the tower of Babel. “When it is ready, the basket will be set there on its base” (v. 11c). Once located on its “base,” or “pedestal,” wickedness would be worshipped like the idol it was for those who had so consistently resisted God’s will. Given the part that Babylon plays in the eschatological drama of the closing days of this present age, the removal of wickedness to Babylon might have been in preparation for the final

- 16 - conflict between good and evil. Isaiah 13–14, and, especially, Jeremiah 50–51, place a revived Babylonian empire at the center of the final contest between God and “all the nations of the earth” that have been gathered into the Near East for history’s finale. But God will triumph, for He has full control over evil. That can be seen in His ability to pack up evil and literally ship it to the center of wickedness where He is able to deal with it conclusively at the end of the age.-- Kaiser, Jr., Walter C.. The Preacher's Commentary - Vol. 23: Micah / Nahum / Habakkuk / Zephaniah / Haggai / Zechariah / Malachi . Thomas Nelson. Kindle Edition. The image of the two women with wings like storks however, have different possible connotations. Since the Ephah as a shrine or cella and the woman as idolatrous Wickedness both strongly suggest the cultic presence of a pagan deity, à pair of winged beings fits well with the imagery already established. Furthermore, composite winged beasts are often associated with mobility (Freedman and O’Connor 1984), specifically with the transportation of divine beings as in the instance of Yahweh riding on a cherub (Ps 18:11 [RSV v 10] = 2 Sam 22:11) or as in the strange image of composite beasts and wheels in Ezek 1-3. It seems quite appropriate that a figure representing foreign religion and idolatry should be transported by flying creatures of the type suggested by Zechariah.--The Yale Anchor Bibical Commentary. These two "women with stork wings" are said to have the wind in their wings. The first thought is simply that they have their purchase with appropriate wind to enable to take flight and maintain a pattern of flight for the distance that is given, from Israel to Babylon. It is interesting that like The Wickedness the noun denoting this bird is also feminine. The noun denoting this bird is feminine, and the connotations associated with the stork in the Bible (as well as in Western tradition) are of maternal behavior (Ps 104:17). The very name of the bird may be derived from the root hsd, “to be good, kind,” because of the reputation of the stork for being affectionate and caring toward its young (BDB:334). The stork, it is to be noted, does not hatch its eggs in Palestine but rather is a migratory bird that produces its young elsewhere (Feliks 1971). It follows a north-south migratory pattern, flying north away from Palestine in the spring and back southward into the land of Israel in the fall. The reference in Jeremiah to the stork (8:7) demonstrates an awareness of the bird’s habits. The simile of Zechariah’s vision would appear to utilize these aspects of the stork’s behavior.

- 17 - The stork’s biological continuity involves hatching its young elsewhere, and the ongoing life of the Wickedness (= idolatry) is carried elsewhere as well by these stork-like creatures. Similarly, the bird’s exit from Palestine is to the north, and the winged minions of this vision are bound for Babylon, following a northerly route as they leave Palestine, for travelers must head north before finally turning eastward in order to skirt the Syrian desert (cf. Note to “land of the north,” 2:10).--Anchor Yale Biblical Commentary. This is reminiscent of the Scapegoat in Leviticus 16:8 “Aaron shall cast lots for the two goats, one lot for the LORD and the other lot for the scapegoat." The The precise .עֲזָאזֵל ",word here for "scapegoat" is actually the word "aza'zel meaning of Hebrew ʿazaʾzel, found nowhere else in the Bible, has been disputed since antiquity and remains uncertain even to the present time. Over the centuries, exegesis of this name has followed three lines of interpretation. According to the first, Azazel is the name of the place in the wilderness to which the scapegoat was dispatched; the term is taken as synonymous with ʾerets gezerah, “inaccessible region,” in verse 22. Verse 10 may also suggest this interpretation. When translated literally it reads: “and send it [the he-goat] off to Azazel, to the wilderness.” Yoma 67b understands ʿazaʾzel as “a fierce, difficult land,” taking the first part of the word to mean ʿazz, “strong, fierce.” According to the second line of interpretation, Azazel describes the goat. The word ʿazaʾzel is a contraction (notarikon) comprised of ʿez, “goat,” and ʾazal, “to go away,” hence “the goat that goes away.” This interpretation occurs in both the Septuagint and the Vulgate and underlies the rabbinic characterization saʿir ha- mishtalleah, “the goat that is dispatched,” in Mishnah Yoma 6:2. This is, in fact, the interpretation that led to the English rendering “scapegoat” (from “escape- goat”), which first appeared in Tyndale’s English translation of the Bible in 1530. Both of the above interpretations are contrived. The third line of interpretation is preferable. Azazel in later myth was the name given to the demonic ruler of the wilderness. The derivation of the word is uncertain, but the thematic relationship of Azazel to the seʿirim, “goat-demons,” of 17:7 suggests that the word ʿez, “goat,” is represented in it. The form ʿazaʾzel may have developed through reduplication of the letter zayin: ʿez-ʾel, “mighty goat,” was pronounced ʿezezʾel and, finally, ʿazaʾzel. The scapegoat was not an offering to Azazel; it was being

- 18 - dispatched to his realm, the wilderness.--The JPS Torah Commentary. The point of the Ephah is to completely remove The Wickedness away from Israel, and to deposit it into the realm where it belongs. To deposit Wickedness in Babylon is to prepare it for a final and complete destruction, so as to remove it from ever infecting Israel or any of God's people again. The building of a house indicates that the woman is to dwell there permanently, and is ,בַּיִת refers to הוּכַן .as is still more clearly expressed in the second hemistich not to be taken hypothetically, in the sense of “as soon as the house shall be restored,” but is a perfect with Vav consec.; and hū khan, the hophal of kū n, is not to be taken in the sense of restoring, but, in correspondence with mᵉkhunâ h, in the sense of establishing or building on firm foundations. Mᵉkhunâ h: the firmly established house. In this the woman of sin is brought to rest. The land in which the woman of sin carried away out of the holy land is permanently to dwell, is the land of Shinar. This name is not to be identified with Babel, so as to support the conclusion that it refers to a fresh removal of the people of Israel into exile; but according to Gen. 10:10 and 11:2, Shinar is the land in which Nimrod founded the first empire, and where the human race built the tower of Babel which was to reach to the sky. The name is not to be taken geographically here as an epithet applied to Mesopotamia, but is a notional or real definition, which affirms that the ungodliness carried away out of the sphere of the people of God will have its permanent settlement in the sphere of the imperial power that is hostile to God. The double vision of this chapter, therefore, shows the separation of the wicked from the congregation of the Lord, and their banishment into and concentration within the ungodly kingdom of the world. This distinction and separation commenced with the coming of the Messiah, and runs through all the ages of the spread and development of the Christian church, until at the time of the end they will come more and more into outward manifestation; and the evil, having been sifted out by the judicial power of God and His Spirit, will form itself into a Babel of the last days, as Ezek. 38 and 39 clearly show, and attempt a last struggle with the kingdom of God, in which it will be overcome and destroyed by the last judgment.Keil & Delitzsch.

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