Zech. 5 By the flying roll is showed the curse of thieves and of false swearers, Zech. 5:1–4. By a woman in an ephah, pressed under a weight, and carried away to Shinar, is denoted wickedness, and the judgment of it, Zech. 5:5–11.

Then, or And, Heb. i.e. after I had seen those comfortable visions, and been instructed in the true meaning of them. I turned; changed his posture, though the occasion of it be not mentioned, nor the posture into which he put himself.

And he; the angel, Zech. 4:1, Zech. 4:5. What seest thou, O Zechariah? The length thereof is twenty cubits; that is, ten yards long; by this it appears the roll was spread out, for had it been rolled up he could not have seen the length, though he did the breadth, five yards.

Then said he; the angel, which instructed the prophet. This is the curse; this roll or book containeth the curse, the menaced punishment due to sinners, of which too many were still among the Jews. That goeth forth; that goeth speedily, for it flieth.

I will bring it forth; so exemplarily will I execute this judgment, that it shall appear I do it, my hand, saith God, shall be seen in it. It shall enter, none shall be able to keep it out, this curse shall come with commission from me, into the house of the thief, where he laid up that he got by…

Went forth; or went on, proceeded, or, as we read it, went forth from some more retired place, though he do not tell us what it was, or where he was with the prophet when the last vision appeared.

And I said, What is it? Zechariah knew not what this was tie saw, so far was. he from knowing what it meant. And he, the angel, said, This is an ephah; the greatest, say some, of measures with the Hebrews, but their corus was much greater: it was a great measure, and many times taken for any…

Here is another part of this vision. There was lifted up, either lifted up from out of the ephah, or brought thither to cover it, a talent of lead; a large piece of lead of a talent weight, large as the mouth of the ephah. This is a woman; a woman, the third in the vision or emblem.

And he said; the angel unfolds the riddle. This, this woman that sits in the ephah, represents the sinful nation of the Jews, is emblem of their wickedness. Is wickedness, in the abstract, to express the greatness of the Jews’ wickedness, they will grow up to be most wicked.

Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked: see Zech. 5:1. There came out, from the same place whence the ephah came, two women: the sinful nation was resembled to a woman, and now, to keep a decorum in the vision, they who are to be God’s executioners, to punish that wicked woman, are called women: it…

Then, when I saw the ephah, woman imprisoned, and lead too, on the wings of those two women in motion, said I, Zechariah, Whither, to what place, and how far, do these bear the ephah? not as a nurse carrieth the child, but as criminals are carried to punishment.

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.