Zechariah 5


Zechariah 5 is the fifth of the 14 chapters in the Book of Zechariah in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet Zechariah. In the Hebrew Bible it forms a part of the Book of the Twelve Minor Prophets. This chapter records the sixth and seventh of the eight visions of Zechariah, the flying scroll and the woman in a basket, which are compiled in a section consisting of Zechariah 1–8.

Text

The original text was written in the Hebrew language. This chapter is divided into 11 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text, which includes the Codex Cairensis, the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, and Codex Leningradensis.
Fragments containing parts of this chapter were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls, that is, 4Q80 with extant verses 8–11.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus and Codex Marchalianus.

Vision of the flying scroll (verses 1–4)

These verses contain the sixth vision. The shortest of the visionary accounts recalls a flying scroll, which biblical scholar Katrina Larkin calls "the word of the Lord in materialized form". The prophet Ezekiel also has a vision of a scroll: in his case, the prophet is commanded to eat the scroll. The scroll is an instrument of judgment used against those who break the commandments, those who steal and those who swear falsely. Larkin explains that "the invocation of the covenant curse shows that the covenant does remain in force despite having once been broken".

Vision of a woman in a basket (verses 5–11)

The seventh of the eight visions uncovers a woman in a basket, who symbolises the iniquity of the people, and then another two women "with the wind in their wings". A feminine idol is to be symbolically exiled to Babylon while Judaism becomes fully a YHWH-alone religion.
The German commentators Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch argue that the sixth and the seventh visions are parts of a single vision, and therefore they only enumerate seven visions in all.

Verse 7

  • "Talent" : may denote a 'circle' as in for an area where the Jordan was the center, or in for 'a round loaf', but here it refers to a 'disc or circular plate' forming the cover of the round shaped ephah. In the next verse it is called, "the weight of lead."
  • "A talent of lead": A kikkar, or "talent of silver" in the Jewish tradition was equal to 3,000 shekels. The sitting may represent her abiding tranquil condition in her sins, according to the climax in Psalm 1:1-6, "and hath not sat in the seat of the scornful" ; and, "thou sittest and speakest against thy brother".

    Verses 10-11

The two women "with the wind in their wings" will take the basket and the woman within it to Babylon, where a temple dedicated to wickedness is to be constructed. In doing so, Jerusalem will be rid of wickedness.

Jewish

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