In this chapter, Zechariah receives two more visions, which relate to God removing sin from His people. First, he sees a flying scroll, Zechariah 5:1, and when asked what he sees, Zechariah 5:2, he replies by saying he sees a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide, Zechariah 5:2, which pictures God judging those who steal and swear falsely, Zechariah 5:3.
The size of the scroll is the same size as the Holy of Holies, which was located within Solomon’s temple, Exodus 26:15-28. We also know that the porch of the temple was this same size, 1 Kings 6:3.
The measurement of the scroll may symbolise the many curses that were written on it, or it may symbolise that people can’t measure the extent and results of their own sin, 1 Samuel 2:3 / Romans 7:7-12.
Since the ‘flying scroll’ originated from God, this tells us that the coming judgment was from God upon those who steal and swear falsely. Many people understand the ‘flying scroll’ to be the Ten Commandments, since they were written on both sides, Exodus 32:15, and contained these two sins mentioned, Exodus 20:15-16. They are probably used to represent the whole law, James 2:10.
The word ‘curse’, Zechariah 5:3, is used often in connection with the covenant, Genesis 24:41 / Genesis 26:28 / Deuteronomy 28 / Deuteronomy 29:12 / Ezekiel 16:59.
Notice that the curse is going out over ‘the whole land’, Zechariah 5:3. God is going to curse the people who commit these sins and their household, Proverbs 3:33.
The land will be cleansed of every thief and liar and God’s judgment would remain on the house in which it entered until, Zechariah 5:3, there was repentance and thus cleansing, Zechariah 5:4 / 1 Kings 14:10 / 1 Kings 21:21 / Haggai 1:3-6.
Constable, in his commentary, says the following concerning Zechariah 5:4.
‘Yahweh then promised to cause His curse to seek out the guilty and to bring judgment on them. He personified the curse and pictured it going throughout the land, even into homes, to seek out law-breakers. God’s Word still had its ancient power even in post-exilic Judaism. Even the privacy of their homes would not afford protection from the judgment that the Lord would send on those of His people who broke His law.’
Secondly, when asked what it is that is appearing, Zechariah 5:5, he replies, a basket, Zechariah 5:6, which pictures God judging the culture of wickedness which is in God’s people. Zechariah sees a basket with a woman sitting in it, Zechariah 5:7, which represents the iniquity of the land.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following concerning Zechariah 5:7.
‘The heaviest Hebrew weight, elsewhere of gold or silver; the golden talent weighing 1,300,000 grains, the silver, 660,000, here, being lead, it is obviously an undefined mass, though circular, corresponding to the Ephah. The Ephah, too, was the largest Hebrew measure, whose compass cannot now, with certainty, be ascertained. Both probably were, in the vision, ideal.’
This woman is personified as wickedness, Zechariah 5:8 / 2 Chronicles 24:7, and is trying to escape from the basket. Then figuratively speaking is transported to Babylon by the symbol of two other women, Zechariah 5:9.
The two women had wings like the wings of a stork, Zechariah 5:9, which means the women in Zechariah’s vision had big wings, strong enough to take this basket back to Babylon.
Zechariah asks the angel, where are they taking the basket? Zechariah 5:10. In Bible times, women often used baskets to carry out their daily tasks, and so here the angel uses women as the symbolic characters that would carry out the actions of the vision. The symbolism was to women whose task it was to carry the basket of wickedness to Babylon, Zechariah 5:11.
Dummelow, in his commentary, says the following concerning Zechariah 5:11.
‘God not only forgives the sins of His people, but carries them altogether away from their land, that they may deceive them no more. Sin is typified by the figure of a woman, but it is worthy of note that it is through women that the land is purified from its sin.’
The idea is simply this: the woman in the basket is the personification of sin, and so, sin is taken out of the land. Sin was taken from the land of God’s people to the land that was representative of sin and idolatry, which is Babylon, Zechariah 5:11 / Revelation 18:4, or Shinar, as some translations have it, Genesis 10:10.
Babylon would be used to symbolise other evil nations who suppress God’s people, Revelation 16:17-21. When the Messiah arrives and His church is established, sin will be removed from His people through the precious blood of Jesus, Romans 8:1-4 / 1 John 1:9.