Zechariah 5:6
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goes forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
American King James Version (AKJV)
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goes forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
American Standard Version (ASV)
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their appearance in all the land;
Basic English Translation (BBE)
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah which is going out. And he said further, This is their evil-doing in all the land.
Webster's Revision
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
World English Bible
I said, "What is it?" He said, "This is the ephah basket that is appearing." He said moreover, "This is their appearance in all the land
English Revised Version (ERV)
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance in all the land:
Definitions for Zechariah 5:6
Clarke's Zechariah 5:6 Bible Commentary
This is an ephah that goeth forth - This, among the Jews, was the ordinary measure of grain. The woman in the ephah is supposed to represent Judea, which shall be visited for its sins; the talent of lead on the ephah, within which the woman was enclosed, the wrath of God, bending down this culprit nation, in the measure of its sins; for the angel said, "This is wickedness;" that is, the woman represents the mass of iniquity of this nation.
Barnes's Zechariah 5:6 Bible Commentary
This is the ephah that goeth forth - Theodoret: "We too are taught by this, that the Lord of all administers all things in weight and measure. So, foretelling to Abraham that his seed should be a sojourner and the cause thereof, He says, "for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" Genesis 15:16, that is, they have not yet committed sins enough to merit entire destruction, wherefore I cannot yet endure to give them over to the slaughter, but will wait for the measure of their iniquity." The relation then of this vision to the seventh is, that the seventh tells of God's punishment on individual sinners; this, on the whole people, when the iniquity of the whole is full.
This is their resemblance, as we say, their look, that is, the look, appearance, of the inhabitants "in all the land." This then being the condition of the people of the land, at the time to which the vision relates, the symbolical carrying away of the full measure of sin cannot be its forgiveness, since there was no repentance, but the taking away of the sin with the sinner. Cyril: "The Lord of all is good and loving to mankind; for He is patient toward sinners and endures transgressors, waiting for the repentance of each; but if one perseveres long in iniquity, and come to the term of the endurance allowed, it remains that he should be subjected to punishment, and there is no account of this long forebarance, nor can he be exempt from judgment proportioned to what he has done. So then Christ says to the Jewish people, rushing with unbridled phrensy to all strange excess, "Fill ye up the measure of your fathers" Matthew 23:32. The measure then, which was seen, pointed to the filling up of the measure of the transgression of the people against Himself." Jerome: "The angel bids him behold the sins of the people Israel, heaped together in a perfect measure, and the transgression of all fulfilled - that the sins, which escaped notice, one by one, might, when collected together, be laid open to the eyes of all, and Israel might go forth from its place, and it might be shown to all what she was in her own land." Ribera: "I think the Lord alluded to the words of the prophet, as though He would say, "Fill up the measure of sins" which your fathers began of old, as it is in Zechariah, that is, ye will soon fill it; for ye so haste to do evil, that ye will soon fill it to the utmost."
Wesley's Zechariah 5:6 Bible Commentary
5:6 He - The angel. An ephah - A measure which held about three bushels. Goeth forth - Out of the temple. Their resemblance - This is an emblem of this people everywhere. Thus there is limited time and measure for them, while they sin, and are filling the ephah with their sins, they will find that the ephah of wrath is filled up also, to be poured out upon them.
