Albert Barnes Commentary Zechariah 5:6

"And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their appearance in all the land" — Zechariah 5:6 (ASV)

This is the ephah that goes forth—Theodoret states: “We too are taught by this, that the Lord of all administers all things in weight and measure. So, foretelling to Abraham that his seed should be a sojourner and the reason for it, He says, ‘for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full’ (Genesis 15:16), that is, they have not yet committed sins enough to merit entire destruction; therefore I cannot yet endure to give them over to the slaughter, but will wait for the measure of their iniquity.” The relation of this vision to the seventh, then, is that the seventh tells of God’s punishment on individual sinners, while this one tells of His punishment on the whole people, when the iniquity of the whole is full.

This is their resemblance (or, as we might say, their look), that is, the appearance of the inhabitants in all the land. This then being the condition of the people of the land at the time to which the vision relates, the symbolical carrying away of the full measure of sin cannot be its forgiveness, since there was no repentance, but rather the removal of the sin along with the sinner. Cyril states: “The Lord of all is good and loving to mankind, for He is patient toward sinners and endures transgressors, waiting for the repentance of each. But if one perseveres long in iniquity and reaches the limit of the endurance allowed, it remains that he must be subjected to punishment, and no allowance is made for this long forbearance, nor can he be exempt from judgment proportioned to what he has done. So then Christ says to the Jewish people, rushing with unbridled frenzy to every strange excess, ‘Fill ye up the measure of your fathers’ (Matthew 23:32). The measure, then, which was seen, pointed to the filling up of the measure of the people’s transgression against Himself.”

Jerome writes: “The angel tells him to behold the sins of the people of Israel, heaped together in a perfect measure, and the transgression of all fulfilled—so that the sins, which escaped notice one by one, might, when collected together, be laid open to the eyes of all, and Israel might go out from its place, and it might be shown to all what she was in her own land.” Ribera comments: “I think the Lord alluded to the words of the prophet, as if He would say, ‘Fill up the measure of sins’ which your fathers began long ago, as it is in Zechariah. That is, you will soon fill it, for you so hasten to do evil that you will soon fill it to the utmost.”