Zechariah 5 explained: A Flying Curse and Banished Wickedness

A huge flying scroll (vv. 1-2)

Zechariah sees a scroll about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide flying through the air, big enough for everyone to see. Some point out that these match the measurements of the porch of Solomon's temple, though that link is not certain.

The curse on thieves and liars (vv. 3-4)

The scroll carries a curse against thieves and against people who swear falsely in God's name, perhaps standing for wrongs against neighbors and wrongs against God. The Hebrew about how they are 'cut off' is unclear (it may mean by one side of the scroll and the other, or 'from here'), but the curse will enter the guilty person's house and stay until even its beams and stones are destroyed.

A woman in the container (vv. 5-8)

The container is an ephah, the standard measure for grain (some translations say 'basket'), with a heavy lead lid, and the angel links it to the people's wrongdoing, though the Hebrew there is uncertain. Inside sits a woman called Wickedness, and the angel pushes her back in and presses the lead lid down, a picture of evil being trapped.

Carried off to Babylon (vv. 9-11)

Two women with large wings like a stork's lift the container and fly it to Shinar, an old name for Babylonia, the land where the people had been exiled. A house is built there and the container set in its place, which many scholars read as a shrine, so wickedness is removed from the land and given a home far away.

Key verse: Zechariah 5:8

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether these visions mainly describe God cleansing Zechariah's own community after the return from exile, or point ahead to a final removal of evil at the end of history.

Something to think about

Which do you think does more to curb wrongdoing in a community: the certainty of consequences, or removing what draws people toward it in the first place?