John Gill Commentary Zechariah 5

Then I turned, and lift up mine eyes, and looked The prophet turned himself from looking upon the candlestick and olive branches, having had a full and clear understanding of them, and looked another way, and saw another vision: and behold a flying roll , a volume or book flying in the air; it being usual for books, which were written on parchment, to be rolled up in the form of a cylinder; from which they were called rolls or volumes.

And he said to me
That is, the angel: What do you see? and I answered, I see a flying roll, the length
of which is twenty cubits, and the breadth of which ten cubits ;
so that it was a very large one, a volume of a very uncommon size, especially it may so seem to us; but in other nations they have very long rolls or volumes, even longer than this: the Russians write their acts, protests, and other court matters, on long rolls of paper, some twenty ells, some thirty, and some sixty, and more ^F24 : and this being the length and breadth of the porch before the temple, (1 Kings 6:3) hence the Jewish writers conclude that this flying roll came from thence.

It may design either the roll or book in which the sins of men are written; which is very large, and will quickly be brought into judgment, when it will be opened, and men will be judged according to it; which shows the notice God takes of the sins of men; the exact knowledge he has of them; his strict remembrance of them; and the certain account men must give of them another day: or, the book of God's judgments upon sinners, such as was Ezekiel's roll, (Ezekiel 2:9Ezekiel 2:10) which are many and great; are rolled up, and not at present to be searched into; but are flying, coming on, and will be speedily executed: or rather the book of the law, called a roll or volume, (Psalms 40:7) (Luke 4:17Luke 4:20) and which will be a swift witness against the breakers of it, as more fully appears from the explanation of it in the next verse (Zechariah 5:3) .

It is a mere fancy and conceit of some that the Talmud is meant by this roll, the body of the Jewish traditions, which make void the commands of God, take away the blessing, and leave a curse in the land, as they did in the land of Judea.

FOOTNOTES:

• F24: Eskuche apud Burkium in loc.

Then he said to me, This [is] the curse
So the law of Moses is called, because it has curses written in it (Deuteronomy 27:15–26, 28:15-26, 29:19-20, 30:19). This curse is not causeless, but is according to law and justice; it is from the Lord, and is no other than the wrath of the Almighty; and, wherever it lights, it will remain and continue forever. Vitringa, on (Isaiah 24:6) says, this is the curse which Isaiah there prophesies of, which had its accomplishment in the times of Antiochus; but there the prophet is speaking, not of the land of Judea, but of the antichristian states.

That goes forth over the face of the whole earth :
over the whole land of Judea, and the inhabitants of it, for their breach of the law, contempt of the Gospel, and the rejection of the Messiah; and which had its accomplishment when wrath came upon them to the uttermost, in the destruction of their nation, city, and temple; and is the curse God threatened to smite their land with (Malachi 4:6). This curse also reaches to the whole world, and the inhabitants of it, who lie in wickedness; and to all sorts of sinners, particularly those next mentioned:

for everyone that steals shall be cut off [as] on this side,
according to it ;
as it is written and declared on one side of the roll: and everyone that swears shall be cut off [as] on that side
according to it ;
as is written and declared on the other side of the roll;

which two sins of theft and false swearing, the one being against the second, and the other the first table of the law, show that the curse of the law reaches to all sorts of sins and sinners; to all who do not keep it in every respect. Indeed, it reaches to all but those who are redeemed from it by the blood of Christ; and it is proportioned according to a man's sins. These two are particularly mentioned, because they are sins which prevailed among the Jews at the time Christ was on earth. Theft did, both in a literal and figurative sense (Matthew 23:14, Romans 2:21, Luke 11:52, John 10:8, 10:10), and so did vain swearing (Matthew 5:33–36, 23:16-22).

I will bring it forth, says the Lord of hosts
The roll was come forth, and was flying abroad; but the curse and wrath of God, signified by it, is what God would bring forth out of his treasures, according to his purposes and declarations, and execute upon sinners; which shows the certainty of it, and that there is no escaping it: and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the
house of him that swears falsely by my name; and it shall remain
in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber
thereof, and the stones thereof ;
when wrath is gone forth from the Lord, there is no stopping it; and where it takes place it will remain, there is no getting rid of it; it makes an utter desolation of goods and estates, and entirely destroys both body and soul in hell.

There seems to be an allusion to the plague of the leprosy, (Leviticus 14:45) . So the son of Sirach says, ``a man that swears much shall be full of iniquity, and the plague shall not depart from his house:'' and again, ``if a man swears in vain, he shall not be innocent or justified, for his house shall be full of calamities ^F25 .'' So the oracle in Herodotus ^F26 , which Grotius has observed, makes an utter destruction of a man's house and family, to be the punishment of the sin of perjury.

Moreover, by the house of the thief and swearer may be meant the temple, as in the times of Christ, which was become a den of thieves and perjurers, and for their sins, became desolate, (Matthew 21:13) (23:38) .

FOOTNOTES:

• F25: Ecclesiasticus xxiii. 11.
• F26: Erato, sive l. 6. c. 86.

Then the angel that talked with me went forth
From the place where he was, and had been interpreting the vision of the flying roll, to another more convenient for showing and explaining the following one; and, as it should seem, took the prophet along with him: and said to me, Lift up now your eyes, and see what [is] this
that goes forth ;
either out of the temple or out of heaven, into some open place, where it might be seen.