Zechariah 5:5 Commentary and Bible Study

Then in verse five the scene changes a little for the seventh vision which is another judgment vision – the vision of the woman in the ephah. An ephah was a unit of dry measure, but the precise capacity is not significant. However much an ephah normally held, here it is capable of holding a woman inside it. We might think of this as the vision of the woman in the barrel or the basket. The ephah ‘goes forth’, that is, it is an effect that operates under the government of God throughout the earth. The words ‘this is their resemblance’ are translated by some versions as ‘this is their iniquity’ based on the Septuagint rendering which altered the Hebrew word, apparently because of the difficulty of the original words (Leupold). But the Hebrew word means ‘eye’, and indicates how God sees this ephah as it goes throughout the earth – this is their appearance through all the earth. Who are they? They are those who practice wickedness throughout the world, those who steal and those who swear falsely by God, as the previous vision has said. The woman is sitting in the ephah and at first she can be seen because it has no lid on it yet. The woman, we are told, is wickedness personified, and she or wickedness itself (wickedness is a feminine noun in Hebrew) is thrown or pushed down into the barrel and a heavy lid placed on it with her inside. The lid is heavy to indicate the woman inside the ephah cannot remove it. She is being restrained in what she can do by the judgment of God. So the woman equals wickedness; the lid represents containment, and wickedness is being held back by God from breaking out everywhere and limited in what it can do. There is a constant measure of judgment operating in the world, because this is a scene which identifies the sin, the active judgment of God, and a measure of punishment, or woe, or terror that will be meted out to all people. The presence of a woman in the barrel may suggests that there is going to be some leniency in the meting out of these judgments which are operating throughout the whole earth, for a woman or a mother, if you like, is placed in the middle of the measure of punishments. But equally this woman could represent a prostitute, since all prophets use this symbol. So the vision is this: that there is a judgment due round the whole earth, and a measure of punishment – implying not the whole punishment, but a measure of it – is accorded to various nations and individuals throughout the world. But for the present, there is leniency in the distribution of the measure of punishment, and it is contained in a vessel and there is a heavy leaden lid put on it; wickedness is limited by the restraining power of God. Judgment in the main is at the end of time. There are judgments meted out throughout time upon certain nations, but they are only partial judgments, they not fully what is deserved. All these things are orchestrated and determined by God. This is also the explanation for what has happened to Judah in being taken into exile. The spiritual remnant are being taught that the nation has been judged by God for its wickedness, but he has allowed them to return because he still has a purpose for the nation. Eventually a time is coming when the special arrangement with the nation, the typical people of God, will come to an end, and then although Israelites will be in the kingdom of God, it will be on an entirely different basis, because the church of Jesus Christ will admit none but those who are born again.