Глава 5

1–4. Vision six: a flying scroll. 5–11. Seventh vision - ephah. Zechariah 5:1. And again I raised my eyes and saw: behold, a scroll was flying. In a new vision, the prophet contemplates a flying scroll. LXX, instead of Heb. meghilla – scroll, read – maggal – sickle; hence the prophet received the name “sickle-seer.” Zechariah 5:2. And he said to me: what do you see? I answered: I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth is ten cubits. The scroll was enormous in size: twenty cubits long and ten wide. Some researchers attach symbolic significance to the size of the scroll, pointing to the correspondence of its dimensions with the size of the porch in the first church (1 Kings 6:3), according to others, the size of the scroll only indicates its enormity and has no symbolic meaning. Zechariah 5:5. And the angel who spoke with me came out and said to me: lift up your eyes again and see what comes out? After a certain interval following the sixth vision, the interpreting angel again appears and encourages the prophet to prepare for the contemplation of a new vision, constituting a natural continuation of the previous one, but nevertheless separate and independent. Zechariah 5:6. When did I say: what is this? He answered, “This is an ephah,” and said, “This is their image throughout all the earth.” The prophet sees an ephah appearing before his eyes: this is the largest measure of free-flowing bodies among the Jews that actually existed. According to the Angel's explanation, it should mean that the measure of sinfulness of unrepentant sinners in the entire country has become overflowing. Here we mean representatives of wickedness, on whom a curse has already been pronounced and for whom inevitable punishment awaits, as was shown in the previous vision of a flying scroll. Zechariah 5:7. And behold, a piece of lead rose up, and there sat a certain woman in the midst of an ephah. Zechariah 5:8. And he said, “This woman is wickedness itself,” and he threw her into the middle of the ephah, and threw a piece of lead over the hole of it. The hole of the ephah, after the prophet saw the woman inside the vessel, personifying wickedness, was closed with a round scroll of lead (kikkar' ophereth). Zechariah 5:9. And I lifted up my eyes and saw: behold, two women appeared, and the wind was in their wings, and their wings were like the wings of a stork; and they lifted up the ephah and carried it between earth and heaven. Then two winged women appeared, whose wings were capable of rapid movement to distant spaces. The expression: the wind was in the wings is incomprehensible in itself; and the comparison with the wings of a stork indicates, according to interpreters, that women have a long journey ahead, for which they need the wings of a stork, which makes its flights over considerable distances without fatigue (Marti 417). The vessel was lifted by women, and they carried it between earth and heaven, that is, through the air (the Jews do not have a corresponding word for “air”). Zechariah 5:10. And I said to the angel who spoke with me: Where are they taking this ephah? Zechariah 5:11. Then he said to me, “To build a house for her in the land of Shinar, and when everything is prepared, she will set up there on her foundation.” When asked by the prophet about the purpose of the symbolic journey, the Angel replied that a house would be prepared for the vessel with the personification of wickedness contained in it in the land of Shinar, and it would be placed there forever. By Shinar it is closest to understand Babylon, and the meaning of the whole vision is this: wickedness from the Jews is moving away to their enemies in Babylon, where there will be a permanent residence of wickedness, for which there should be no place in St. earth. Note. Some commentators (Keil, Klifot, Orelli, Rougemont) interpret Chapter V as one vision (sixth), without finding sufficient grounds to divide it into two parts describing two independent visions (sixth and seventh), as most interpreters do (Karptsov, Koehler, Kühnen, Driver, Bradenkamch, Novak, Smith, Marty, Streter, Bishop Palladius, etc.). The opinion of the majority should be considered more reasonable, since those who hold the opposite view do not quite consistently prove their idea about the inextricable connection of the first half of Chapter. V with the second. Thus, for example, Keil, speaking of two pictures (Bilder) constituting one vision (Geseilt), and calling the vision of the fifth chapter of the Doppelvision a double vision (Ss. 560 and 565), obviously makes some concession to the opinion he refutes. Rougemont, in his second revelation to the prophet Zechariah, counts seven visions and symbolic action (p. 176), but also speaks of eight visions (p. 210), falling into contradiction with himself. You might be interested in: