Zechariah 5:3 Commentary and Bible Study

This scroll goes out in judgment to the whole earth. So the message of the vision is very simply that God will judge the earth, and judgments – that is what these verses are going to be about – are meted out on nations and on individuals. The scroll has writing on both sides, and both sides are visible. In this respect the scroll is very much like the Ten Commandments which were written on both sides of the two tablets (Exodus 32:15). What Zechariah sees are selected sins that have been marked out for judgment. On one side is written, ‘For everyone that stealeth shall be cut off’, and on the other side is written ‘and everyone that sweareth’ – that is, lies to excuse himself, commits perjury to get out of the charge of stealing – ‘shall be cut off.’ So this great flying scroll, which represents the holiness and the justice of God and which condemns the world, is the basis of the judgment of God. One commandment has been selected from one tablet – swearing (the 3^rd commandment), and another from the other (stealing (the 8^th commandment). The law hangs as a curse over the ungodly. This does not surprise us – ‘Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them’ (Galatians 3:10).