In this chapter we have two visions, by which "the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men." God will do great and kind things for His people, which the faithful sons of Israel shall rejoice in, but "let the sinners in Zion be afraid;" for God will reckon severely with those among them that are wicked and profane. While God is showing kindness to the faithful of the nation
and blessing them. The wicked and profane and their families shall be under the curse Zechariah sees in a flying scroll.
Zechariah saw a large scroll of parchment which had been rolled up flying upon the wings of the wind, carried swiftly through the air in open view. The angel asked Zechariah, “What do you see? Zechariah said, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.”
The angel told Zechariah “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.”
The flying scroll contains a declaration of the righteous wrath of God against those sinners who by swearing affront God’s majesty or by stealing invade their neighbor’s property. Let every Israelite rejoice in the blessings of his country with trembling; for if he swear, if he steal, if he lives in any course of sin, he shall not have the comfort of them.
The flying scroll goes over the face of the whole earth, not only the land of Israel. It goes over the
face of the whole earth because those that have revolted against the law written in their hearts
shall be judged by that law. All mankind are liable to the judgment of God; and, wherever sinners are, any where upon the face of the whole earth, the curse of God can and will find them and seize them.
The sinners this curse is leveled against is thieves. Every one that by fraud or force takes that which is not his own and especially that robs God and converts to his own use what was devoted to God and his honor this curse is leveled against. Those that robs their fathers and mothers and say it is not transgression (Proverbs 28:24) this curse is leveled against.
Swearers. The curse is leveled against those who swears rashly and profanely. They bring the curse upon themselves by their perjury. The curse will be leveled against those who use God’s name to confirm a lie.
The enforcer of this curse is the Lord of hosts. This denotes it is a righteous curse, for He is righteous. He brings it forth with power. Who can put aside or resist the curse which a God of almighty power brings forth?
The effect of this curse; it is very dreadful. Every one that steals shall be cut off, not corrected, but destroyed, cut off from the land of the living. God will not spare the sinners He finds among His own people, nor shall the holy city be a protection to the unholy. They shall be cut off from the face of the whole earth, over which the curse flies. They shall all be cut off according to the curse, for the judgments of God’s hand are exactly agreeable with the judgments of his mouth.
God’s curse comes with a warrant to break open doors, and cannot be kept out by bars or locks. Where the sinner is most secure, and thinks himself out of danger in his own house the curse of God will seize him. It shall fall not only upon him but upon his family. It shall not only beset his house but it shall remain in the midst of his house. It shall dwell where he dwells, and be his constant companion at bed and board, to make both miserable to him. Having got possession of him it shall keep it unless he repents.
The curse shall consume the house even though the timber be the heart of oak and the stones rigidly set they shall not be able to stand before the curse of God. Their ruins will be standing monuments of God’s justice and lasting witnesses of the sinner’s injustice. Sin is the ruin of houses and families, especially the sins of injury and perjury.
The vision of the flying scroll was very plain and easy to understand. In the vision of the woman in the ephah things are dark and hard to understand. Some scholars believe it foretells the final destruction of the temple and the nation and the dispersion of the Jews following the crucifixion of Jesus and the persecution of His followers. Therefore these events are revealed in obscure figures and expressions, "lest the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple and state might discourage those who were restoring the temple.
Zechariah contemplating the power and terror of the curse which consumes the houses of thieves and swearers is told, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.” It seems Zechariah could not tell what it was he was seeing, so he asked the angel, “What is it? The angel told Zechariah, “This is the ephah going forth.” A barrel used in commerce to measure corn. Here the ephah is used to represent the
Israelites, who filling up their measure of iniquity, which God has set for them, and when it is full,
as the ephah of corn, they shall be delivered into the hands of those to whom God has sold them for their sins. They are measured for destruction, as an ephah of corn is measured to be sold at the market or to be milled.
In the ephah Zechariah saw a woman. The woman represents the sinful state of the religion of Israel and the nations. He that weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance measures nations and churches as in an ephah. He is exact in His judicial dealings.
The angel told Zechariah, “This is Wickedness! And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening.” The angel is telling Zechariah, Israel is a wicked nation. If she was not a wicked nation God would not reject her. The wickedness of Israel is an abominable wickedness. No wickedness is more abominable, scandalous, detestable, and
outrageous, as when it is found among professors of religion.
The purpose of the vision is to show the people the wrath of God against impenitent sinners is,
unavoidable, and they cannot escape it. They are bound over to it and shut up under the curse, as this woman in the ephah. Guilt is upon the sinner as a talent of lead, to sink him to the lowest level of hell. The ephah with the woman in it is carried away into some far country. The instruments employed to carry the ephah and woman into some far country were two women.
These two women had large and strong wings that enabled them to fly swiftly. They had the wind in their wings denoting the great violence and expedition with which the Romans destroyed the Jewish nation. God has not only winged messengers in heaven, but He can, when He pleases, give wings to those also whom He employs in this lower world; and, when He does so, He sends them with the wind in their wings.
The two women lifted up the ephah and the woman between earth and the heavens denoting the terrors which will pursue the wicked Jews, and their being a public example of God’s vengeance to the world. The lifting up the ephah and the woman between the earth and the heavens implies the ephah and the woman in the ephah were unworthy of the earth and the heavens and
abandoned by both.
The carrying away of the ephah indirectly implies that the punishment of the Jews should be a final dispersion. They will be driven out of their country and forced to dwell in foreign countries, particularly in the country of Babylon, where many of the scattered Jews went after the destruction of their country by the Romans.
In Babylon the woman will be set on her own pedestal. This implies the distress of the Jews will continue from generation to generation, and that they shall be so dispersed that they shall never unite or incorporate again. They shall settle in a perpetual unsettlement, and Cain’s doom shall be theirs, to dwell in the land of shaking. Their iniquity shall continue and their hearts shall be hardened in it. Blindness has happened to the Jews and they are settled upon the fruits of their unbelief. God has given them a spirit of slumber, lest at any they should confess and be healed (Romans 11:8).
