Zechariah 5:5–11

5 5:5Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift your eyes and see what this is that is going out.” 6 5:6And I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the basket¹ that is going out.” And he said, “This is their iniquity² in all the land.” 7 5:7And behold, the leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting in the basket! 8 5:8And he said, “This is Wickedness.” And he thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening.

9 5:9Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven. 10 5:10Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are they taking the basket?” 11 5:11He said to me, “To the land of Shinar, to build a house for it. And when this is prepared, they will set the basket down there on its base.”

1 Hebrew ephah; also verses 7–11. An ephah was about 3/5 bushel or 22 liters

2 One Hebrew manuscript, Septuagint, Syriac; most Hebrew manuscripts eye

Section Overview

With close connections to the previous vision, the seventh vision pictures wickedness being removed from the land and transported to Babylon. The vision contains direct allusions to Ezekiel 1–11, where the Lord departs from his temple in Jerusalem on a throne chariot attended by winged creatures riding on the wind. He departed due to iniquity (Ezek. 4:4, ESV mg.), wickedness (Ezek. 3:18–19; 5:6), and idolatry (Ezekiel 8), and his departure meant the destruction of the city and temple and exile of the people. With the Lord’s return to Jerusalem portrayed in visions 1–5, this vision portrays the removal of iniquity, wickedness, and idolatry—an “anti-ark” borne by “anti-cherubs” is put in an “anti-temple” and transported to an “anti-Jerusalem.”¹

Section Outline

II.G. Zechariah’s Seventh Vision: A Woman in a Basket (5:5–11)
1. 1. The Woman-Idol Representing Wickedness (5:5–8)
2. 2. The Basket Transported to Shinar in a House Built for That Purpose (5:9–11)

1 M. R. Stead, The Intertextuality of Zechariah 1–8, LHBOTS 506 (New York: T&T Clark, 2009), 197.

Response

This vision promises the eradication from the land of all that is opposed to God and his good purposes. Wickedness will be sent back to where it belongs. There is also an echo of the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16, when, after the temple is cleansed (cf. Zechariah 3–4), the scapegoat bearing the sins of the people is sent far away (Lev. 16:22).

This vision points to the second coming of Jesus. In his first coming, Jesus’ death on the cross won forgiveness and cleansing from sin. When he returns and the final judgment takes place, iniquity, wickedness, and idolatry will be eradicated from the world. He will remove from his presence all who reject him and thereby continue in wickedness, and they will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction (cf. 2 Thess. 1:6–10). The response this vision calls for is repentance and obedience to Jesus.

In the Bible, “Shinar” or “Babylon” comes to represent proud human ingenuity and skill expressed in opposition to God, as at the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 (cf. Response section on Zech. 2:1–13). In Revelation 17, Babylon is a prostitute that seduces people with her glamour, but who in the end turns out to be a hideous beast that only destroys. A great threat for Christians today is the same as it was in Zechariah’s day: the seductiveness of the wickedness and idols of the Babylon of our age. God’s people must see through this deception and resist.