Zechariah 5
About ZechariahWritten by AI
Zechariah was a priest and prophet who began preaching in 520 BC, two months after Haggai, to the Jews rebuilding Jerusalem after the exile. Haggai urged them to build; Zechariah lifted their eyes to what God was doing and would do. Many scholars think chapters 9 to 14 come from later in his life, and some think from a later writer.
The first half has eight night visions, full of horses, horns, lampstands, and a flying scroll, plus a call to justice and mercy. The second half looks further ahead, to a coming King, a rejected Shepherd, and the Day of the LORD. Christians differ on how parts of chapters 12 to 14 will be fulfilled.
Watch for how often the Gospels draw on this book: the King riding a donkey, thirty pieces of silver, the pierced one, the struck Shepherd. And remember the word to Zerubbabel: “Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit.”
Before you read Zechariah 5Written by AI
Two strange visions about removing sin from the land. A huge flying scroll carries a curse against thieves and those who swear falsely. Then a woman called Wickedness is shut in a basket and carried away to Shinar, the land of Babylon. The point is that God does not only bring His people home; He also cleanses the land.
The Vision of the Flying Scroll
Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.
“What do you see?” asked the angel.
“I see a flying scroll,” I replied, “twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”
Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed. I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”
The Vision of the Woman in a Basket
Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is approaching.”
“What is it?” I asked.
And he replied, “A measuring basket is going forth.” Then he continued, “This is their iniquity in all the land.”
And behold, the cover of lead was raised, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.
“This is Wickedness,” he said. And he shoved her down into the basket, pushing down the lead cover over its opening.
Then I lifted up my eyes and saw two women approaching, with the wind in their wings. Their wings were like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.
“To build a house for it in the land of Shinar,” he told me. “And when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its pedestal.”