Flying Scrolls and Wicked Women: When God’s Justice Gets Weird
What’s Zechariah 5 about?
Zechariah sees two bizarre visions – a massive flying scroll that brings curses on thieves and liars, followed by a woman sitting in a basket who gets transported to Babylon by two winged women. It’s God’s way of showing that justice will be served and wickedness will be removed from the promised land.
The Full Context
Zechariah 5:1-11 comes during one of the most pivotal moments in Jewish history. The year is around 520-518 BC, and the Jewish exiles have returned from Babylon to rebuild Jerusalem and the temple. But the work is slow, the people are discouraged, and frankly, not much seems to be going according to plan. Enter Zechariah, a young priest-prophet who receives eight night visions designed to encourage God’s people that He’s still in control and His promises still stand.
This fifth vision sits right in the middle of Zechariah’s sequence, and it tackles something every returning exile would have wondered about: What about justice? What about all the corruption and covenant-breaking that led to the exile in the first place? How can we be sure it won’t happen again? Zechariah’s two visions in chapter 5 answer these concerns with typical biblical imagery that’s both startling and profound – showing that God’s justice operates on a cosmic scale, and wickedness itself will be physically removed from the holy land.
What the Ancient Words Tell Us
The Hebrew text of Zechariah 5:1 opens with Zechariah lifting his eyes and seeing a megillah – a scroll – but not just any scroll. This thing is ta’uph, literally “flying” or “floating.” The dimensions given are twenty cubits by ten cubits – roughly 30 by 15 feet. That’s not a scroll you’d casually unroll for your morning devotions.
Grammar Geeks
The Hebrew word for “curse” here is ’alah, which doesn’t just mean “bad things happen.” It’s specifically a covenant curse – the kind of divine judgment that comes when you break your sacred promises. When this scroll “goes out,” it’s using the same verb (yatsa’) that describes armies marching to war.
The second vision introduces us to an ’ishah (woman) sitting in an ’ephah (basket). But here’s where it gets interesting – the Hebrew text calls her rish’ah, which means “wickedness” personified. She’s not just a wicked woman; she’s Wickedness herself, sitting in a commercial measuring basket like she owns the place.
What Would the Original Audience Have Heard?
Picture yourself as a returned exile in 520 BC Jerusalem. You’ve spent decades in Babylon, watching your neighbors get rich through dishonest business practices while you tried to stay faithful to Torah. Now you’re back in the promised land, but guess what? The same problems are showing up again. People are cutting corners, lying in business deals, stealing from their neighbors.
When Zechariah describes this massive flying scroll carrying curses against thieves and false swearers, you’d immediately think of the covenant curses in Deuteronomy 28. This isn’t random divine anger – it’s covenant enforcement. The scroll targets two specific sins: stealing (violating the eighth commandment) and swearing falsely by God’s name (violating the third commandment).
Did You Know?
The dimensions of the flying scroll – 20 by 10 cubits – are exactly the same as the porch of Solomon’s temple. This isn’t coincidence. Zechariah is showing that God’s justice operates from the same cosmic courtroom where His presence dwells.
For the second vision, your ancient audience would have immediately recognized the symbolism. Babylon had become synonymous with commercial corruption and spiritual rebellion. When Wickedness gets shipped back to Babylon in a basket, it’s God saying, “This doesn’t belong in my holy land. Let it go back where it came from.”
But Wait… Why Did They Choose These Specific Sins?
Here’s something that might puzzle modern readers: Why focus specifically on theft and false swearing? Why not murder, adultery, or idolatry – the “bigger” sins?
The answer lies in understanding post-exilic community life. The returned exiles were trying to rebuild not just buildings, but social trust. In a small community where everyone depends on everyone else, the two things that destroy trust fastest are dishonesty in business (theft) and dishonesty in speech (false oaths).
Think about it: If you can’t trust your neighbor’s measuring scales or their word when they swear by God’s name, how can you build a community? These sins might seem “smaller” to us, but they’re actually the foundation destroyers – the termites that eat away at social cohesion from the inside.
Wrestling with the Text
The second vision raises some genuinely puzzling questions. Why is Wickedness portrayed as a woman? And what’s with the two women with stork wings who transport the basket?
Let’s tackle the gender issue first. In Hebrew, the word for wickedness (rish’ah) is grammatically feminine, which partially explains the imagery. But there’s likely more going on. In ancient Near Eastern literature, cities and nations were often personified as women – think “daughter of Zion” or “virgin daughter of Babylon.” Wickedness as a woman might represent the corrupted culture that needs to be removed.
The two winged women present their own interpretive challenges. The Hebrew describes them as having wings “like the wings of a stork” (chasidah). Ironically, the word chasidah comes from the root chesed (loving-kindness), yet storks were considered unclean birds in Leviticus 11:19.
Wait, That’s Strange…
These winged women seem to be doing God’s work by removing wickedness, yet they’re described with imagery of unclean birds. It’s as if God is saying, “I’ll even use impure agents to accomplish my pure purposes.” Sometimes the agents of divine justice don’t look like what we’d expect.
How This Changes Everything
Here’s what Zechariah 5 teaches us that we might otherwise miss: God’s justice is both cosmic and personal. The flying scroll doesn’t just pronounce general judgment – it enters the houses of specific lawbreakers and dismantles them beam by beam. Divine justice isn’t some abstract principle floating around in heaven; it has street addresses.
But equally important is what happens to wickedness itself. Notice that the woman in the basket isn’t destroyed – she’s relocated. God doesn’t annihilate evil; He removes it from the places where it doesn’t belong. The holy land is being prepared for holiness, which means wickedness has to go somewhere else.
“God’s justice doesn’t just punish wrongdoing – it actively removes the capacity for wrongdoing from the places He’s setting apart for Himself.”
This vision would have been incredibly encouraging to Zechariah’s audience. They were worried about repeating the mistakes that led to exile. God’s response? “Don’t worry. I’m not just going to punish individual sins – I’m going to remove the very spirit of rebellion from your land.”
Key Takeaway
God’s justice isn’t just about punishment – it’s about purification. He actively works to remove corruption from the places and people He’s setting apart for His purposes, sometimes using methods that surprise us.
Further Reading
Internal Links:
External Scholarly Resources:
- The Minor Prophets: An Exegetical and Expository Commentary by Thomas McComiskey
- Zechariah: The Communicator’s Commentary by Kenneth Barker
- A Commentary on the Book of Zechariah by Mark Boda
Tags
Zechariah 5:1-11, Justice, Covenant, Judgment, Holiness, Purification, Wickedness, Divine Justice, Post-Exilic, Flying Scroll, Babylon, Social Trust, Covenant Curses
