Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 5

Until now, all had been bright: it was full of the abundance of God's gifts and of God’s favor to His people. This brightness also included the removal of their enemies; the restoration, expansion, and security of God’s people and Church under His protection; the acceptance of the present typical priesthood and the promise of Him through whom there would be complete forgiveness, culminating in the abiding illumination of the Church by the Spirit of God.

Yet there is a reverse side to all this: God’s judgments on those who reject all His mercies. Augustine addresses this . Ribera also observes: “Prophecies partly pertain to those in whose times the sacred writers prophesied, partly to the mysteries of Christ. And therefore it is the custom of the prophets, at one time to chastise vices and set forth punishments, at another to predict the mysteries of Christ and the Church.”

And I turned and— Or, Again I lifted up my eyes (Genesis 26:18; 2 Kings 1:11, 13; Jeremiah 18:14), having again sunk down in meditation on what he had seen, and behold a roll flying; just as to Ezekiel was shown a hand with a roll of a book therein, and he spread it before me. Ezekiel’s roll also was written within and without, and there was written therein lamentation and mourning and woe (Ezekiel 2:9–10).

It was a wide, unfolded roll, as its flying implies; but its “flight signified the very swift coming of punishment; its flying from heaven that the sentence came from the judgment-seat above” (Ribera).

And he—(the interpreting angel) said to me: It cannot be without meaning that the dimensions of the roll should be those of the tabernacle, as the last vision was that of the candlestick, in the likeness of the candlestick within it.

The explanations of this correspondence do not exclude each other.

It may be that judgment shall begin at the house of God (1 Peter 4:17); that the punishment on sin is proportioned to the nearness of God and the knowledge of Him; that the presence of God, which was for life, might also be to death, as Paul says; God maketh manifest the savor of this knowledge by us in every place; for we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ in them that are saved and in them that perish; to the one we are the savor of death unto death, and to the other the savor of life unto life (2 Corinthians 2:14–16); and Simeon said, This child is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel (Luke 2:34).

Over the face of the whole earth - primarily land, since the perjured persons, upon whom the curse was to fall (Zechariah 5:4), were those who swore falsely by the name of God: and this was in Judah only. The reference to the two tables of the law also confines it primarily to those who were under the law. Yet, since the moral law abides under the Gospel, ultimately these visions related to the Christian Church, which was to be spread over the whole earth. The roll apparently was shown, as written on both sides; the commandments of the first table, in which perjury is forbidden, on the one side; those relating to the love of our neighbor, in which stealing is forbidden, on the other. Theodoret: “He calls curse that vengeance, which goes through the whole world, and is brought upon the workers of iniquity.

“But by this both prophets and people were taught, that the God of all is the judge of all people, and will exact fitting punishment from all, bringing utter destruction not only on those who live ungodly toward Himself, but also on those who are unjust to their neighbors. For let no one think that this threat was only against thieves and false-swearers; for He gave sentence against all iniquity. For since all the law and the prophets hang on this word, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and thy neighbor as thyself, He comprised every sort of sin under false swearing and theft. The violation of oaths is the head of all ungodliness. One who does so is devoid of the love of God. But theft indicates injustice to one’s neighbor; for no one who loves his neighbor will endure to be unjust to him.

“These heads then comprehend all the other laws.”

Shall be cut off - Literally, “cleansed away,” as something defiled and defiling, which has to be cleared away as offensive: as God says, I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, until it be all gone (1 Kings 14:10; also 1 Kings 21:21), and so often in Deuteronomy, thou shalt put the evil away from the midst of thee (Deuteronomy 13:5 (verse 6 in Hebrew); Deuteronomy 17:7; Deuteronomy 19:19; Deuteronomy 21:21; Deuteronomy 22:21, 22:24; Deuteronomy 24:7), or “of Israel” (Deuteronomy 17:12; Deuteronomy 23:22), and in Ezekiel, I will disperse thee in the countries and will consume thy filthiness out of thee (Ezekiel 22:15). Set it empty upon the coals thereof, that the brass of it may be hot and may burn, and the filthiness of it may be molten, that the scum of it may be consumed (Ezekiel 24:11).

I will bring it forth - Out of the treasure-house, as it were; as he says, He bringeth forth the wind out of His treasures (Jeremiah 10:13; Jeremiah 51:16); and, Is not this laid up in store with Me, sealed up among My treasures? (Deuteronomy 32:34). To Me belongeth “vengeance and recompense” (Deuteronomy 32:35). And it shall remain, literally, “lodge for the night,” until it has accomplished that for which it was sent, its utter destruction.

Lapide comments: “So we have seen and see in our day powerful families, which attained to splendor by plunder or ill-gotten goods, destroyed by the just judgment of God, so that those who see it are amazed how such wealth perceptibly yet insensibly disappeared.” (Compare to Chrysostom, On the Statues, 15, no. 13, p. 259).

The Oxford Translation states: “Why doth it overthrow the stones and the wood of the swearer’s house? In order that the ruin may be a correction to all. For since the earth must hide the swearer, when dead, his house, overturned and become a heap, will by the very sight be an admonition to all who pass by and see it, not to venture on the like, lest they suffer the like, and it will be a lasting witness against the sin of the departed.”

Paganism was impressed with the doom of one who consulted the oracle whether he should perjure himself for gain. “Swear,” was the answer, “since death awaits the man who keeps the oath as well; yet Oath has a son, nameless, handless, footless; but swift he pursues, until he grasps together and destroys the whole race and house.” “In the third generation, there was nothing descended from him,” who had consulted about this perjury, “nor hearthstone reputed to be his. It had been uprooted and effaced.” A pagan orator relates, as is well known, that “the perjurer does not escape the vengeance of the gods, and if not himself, then the sons and whole race of the perjured fall into great misfortunes.” God did not leave Himself without witness.

Lapide further states: “The prophet speaks of the curse inflicted on the thieves and false swearers in his own day; but a fortiori he includes that which came upon them for slaying Christ. For this was the greatest of all, which utterly overthrew and consumed Jerusalem, the temple, and polity, so that that ancient and glorious Jerusalem exists no longer, as Christ threatened. They shall lay thee even with the ground, and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another (Luke 19:44). This rests upon them these “1800” years.”

Then the angel went forth - From the choirs of angels, among whom, in the interval, he had retired, as before (Zephaniah 2:3 (verse 7 in Hebrew)) he had gone forth to meet another angel.