Zechariah 5:11

5:5-11 In this vision the prophet sees an ephah, something in the shape of a corn measure. This betokened the Jewish nation. They are filling the measure of their iniquity; and when it is full, they shall be delivered into the hands of those to whom God sold them for their sins. The woman sitting in the midst of the ephah represents the sinful church and nation of the Jews, in their latter and corrupt age. Guilt is upon the sinner as a weight of lead, to sink him to the lowest hell. This seems to mean the condemnation of the Jews, after they filled the measure of their iniquities by crucifying Christ and rejecting his gospel. Zechariah sees the ephah, with the woman thus pressed in it, carried away to some far country. This intimates that the Jews should be hurried out of their own land, and forced to dwell in far countries, as they had been in Babylon. There the ephah shall be firmly placed, and their sufferings shall continue far longer than in their late captivity. Blindness is happened unto Israel, and they are settled upon their own unbelief. Let sinners fear to treasure up wrath against the day of wrath; for the more they multiply crimes, the faster the measure fills.

And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar,.... That is, in the province of Babylon, as the Targum paraphrases it; for Babel, or Babylon, was in the land of Shinar, Genesis 10:10 whither the Jews were carried captive, Daniel 1:2 Isaiah 11:11 , and the bearing of the "ephah" thither may denote the cause of their captivity, the measure of sins filled up by them: though this some understand of the like injuries, oppressions, and vexations, brought upon the Chaldeans in the land of Shinar, which they before exercised towards and upon the Jews; and others of the rejection of wicked men from among the Jews, by Ezra and Nehemiah, transporting them as it were back to Babylon again: others of the dispersion of the Jews by the Romans, who chiefly settled after that in the eastern parts of the world; though indeed the whole world was a land of Shinar, or "shaking out" (n) unto them; they being shook out of their own land, and scattered about everywhere; which dispersion has been long and lasting, notorious and conspicuous; and they are now settled upon their own base, established upon their former principles of legality and self-righteousness, and rejection of the true Messiah; or rather this may be understood of the transfer of the ephah, or whole measure of iniquity, into mystical Babylon.

The antichristian church of Rome is called Babylon; she is represented as a sink of sin, a mystery of iniquity, Revelation 17:5 and a house being built for this man of sin, antichrist, denotes the continuance of him; and being established on its own base, shows the false foundation on which the church of Rome is built, and her carnal security. So Cocceius, by the "two women", understands the two kingdoms or powers of antichrist, the civil and ecclesiastical powers; which support the man of sin, lift him up, and give him the highest place in the church, and fix his seat where idolatry and persecution reign, as formerly did in Babylon, in the land of Shinar. Though the whole may very well be applied to the last and everlasting punishment of sin and sinners, when the whole measure is filled up. The end of sin and sinners is death and everlasting destruction. The ephah, and the woman in it, are carried, not upwards to heaven, nor to the New Jerusalem, but to the land of Shinar, the land of shaking; to hell, where are utter darkness, weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; where a house is built for them, which denotes their continuance there; and which, being established on its own base, shows their punishment shall forever remain; their worm never dies; their fire is not quenched; the smoke of it ascends for ever and ever; their destruction is an everlasting destruction. (n) "terra excussionis", Menoch ins.

The angel gives him an answer fuller than his question, and first tells the prophet what was to be done with it. To build it a house, not in mercy, but in judgment, as intending the next deportation should not be, as the first, for seventy years, but for ever. they should never return. In the land of Shinar; of Babylon, whither many of the Jews fled, and so by voluntary exile fulfilled this prophecy; Whither other’s of them were forced by the Romans. It shall be established, and set there; there they shall be confined without hope of release. Upon her own base; not on the foundation of God’s promise and covenant, but the base of their sins.

11 . To build it a house ] The word “it” is feminine (lit. her ), and may refer either to the ephah or to the woman, as the words, on her own base , at the end of the verse may also do. It is perhaps simplest to understand the reference in both cases to be to the woman, whose destination was by implication asked in the prophet’s question, Zechariah 5:10 . The house may be either a dwelling-place, or possibly a temple, “as Dagon ( 1 Samuel 5:2-5 ), or Ashtaroth ( Ib . 1 Samuel 5:10 ), or Baal ( 2 Kings 10:23 ), had their houses or temples, a great idol temple in which the God of this world should be worshipped.” Pusey. in the land of Shinar ] i.e. Babylonia, with a reference perhaps to “that first attempt to array a world-empire against God,” which took place in “the land of Shinar.” Genesis 11:2 . it shall be established ] i.e. the house. and set there ] Rather, and she (the woman) shall be made to rest there. The whole verse will then read, as in R. V., To build her an house in the land of Shinar: and when it is prepared, she shall be set there in her own place . The Eighth Vision. The Four Chariots , Zechariah 6:1-8 . In this vision four chariots appear to the prophet coming upon the scene, along the valley or defile between two mountains of brass or copper, Zechariah 5:1 . The chariots are drawn by horses of different colours, Zechariah 5:2-3 .

In answer to the prophet’s enquiry, Zechariah 5:4 , the Interpreting Angel informs him that these chariots represent the four spirits or winds of heaven, which are coming forth from the immediate presence of God, charged with the commands which He had there laid upon them, Zechariah 5:5 . Of three of these chariots, distinguishing them by the colours of the horses which are yoked to them, the angel then announces the destination. Passing by the first chariot to which red horses were attached, he says that the second which had black horses was on its way to “the north country,” the land of Babylon, to be followed thither by the third which was drawn by white horses. The fourth chariot, with its speckled, or piebald horses, was about to visit “the south country,” Zechariah 5:6 ; but inasmuch as its horses were specially “strong,” their commission was extended, and the whole earth granted them for their course, Zechariah 5:7 . Upon this the Interpreting Angel cries aloud to the prophet in the name of Jehovah, that by the mission of these His messengers of wrath, His sore displeasure (chap. Zechariah 1:15 ) against His enemies and the enemies of His people in the north country is appeased, and His spirit quieted, Zechariah 5:8 .

11. To build … house in … Shinar—Babylonia (Ge 10:10), the capital of the God-opposed world kingdoms, and so representing in general the seat of irreligion. As the "building of houses" in Babylon (Jer 29:5, 28) by the Jews themselves expressed their long exile there, so the building of an house for "wickedness" there implies its permanent stay. set … upon her own base—fixed there as in its proper place. "Wickedness" being cast out of Judah, shall for ever dwell with the antichristian apostates (of whom Babylon is the type), who shall reap the fruit of it, which they deserve.

Verse 11. - To build it ( her ) an house. The LXX. refers the pronoun to the ephah, but it seems more natural to refer it to a person, the woman. The feminine gender of the original would apply to either. She is carried away from Judaea to have a permanent dwelling in a land more suited to her. Pusey thinks that possibly a temple may be intended, "a great idol temple, in which the god of this world should be worshipped." In the land of Shinar; i.e. the ideal land of unholiness, where the world power first arrayed itself against God in the attempt at Babel. Septuagint, ἐν γῇ Βαβυλῶνος , ( Genesis 11:2 , etc.). Shinar , equivalent to Sumer in the Assyrian monuments, denotes Lower or Southern Babylon; Accad , Upper or Northern Babylon. And it shall be established. The house shall be firmly fixed there. Others render, "when it is ready." And set there. The gender shows that the woman is meant, not the house: "And she shall be set there in her own place." Thus from the spiritual Zion all wickedness shall be abolished ( Zechariah 3:9 ) and sent to its own place prepared for the enemies of God and holiness. Doubtless, too, a warning is here conveyed to those Jews who still lingered in Babylon, that they were dwelling in a land accursed of God, and were liable to be involved in the fate which pursues ungodliness.

To build it an house in the land of Shinar - The name of Shinar, though strictly Babylonia, carries back to an older power than the world-empire of Babylon; which now too was destroyed. "In the land of Shinar" Genesis 11:2 was that first attempt to array a world-empire against God, ere mankind was ye dispersed. And so it is the apter symbol of the antitheist or anti-Christian world, which by violence, art, falsehood, sophistry, wars against the truth. To this great world-empire it was to be removed; yet to live there, no longer cramped and confined as within an Ephah, but in pomp and splendor. A house or temple was to be built for it, for its honor and glory; as Dagon 1 Samuel 5:2-5 or Ashtaroth 1 Samuel 31:10 , or Baal 2 Kings 10:23 had their houses or temples, a great idol temple, in which the god of this world should be worshiped. And it - - "The house," "shall be established" firmly on its base, like the house of God, and it, (wickedness) shall be tranquilly rested on its base, as an idol in its temple, until the end come. In the end, the belief of those of old was, that the Jews would have great share in the antagonism to Christ and His empire. At the first, they were the great enemies of the faith, and sent forth, Justin says, , those everywhere who should circulate the calumnies against Christians, which were made a ground of early persecutions.