Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible
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Zechariah
Book: Zechariah
Chapter: 5
Overview:
The
Vision of a flying
Roll.
(1-4) The
Vision of a
Woman and
an
Ephah.
(5-11)
1-4 The Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament are rolls, in
which
God has written the great things of his
Law and
Gospel;
they are flying rolls.
God's
Word runs very swiftly, Ps
147:15. This flying
Roll contains a declaration of the
righteous wrath of
God against sinners. Oh that we saw with an
Eye of
Faith the flying
Roll of
God's
Curse Hanging over the
guilty world as a thick
Cloud, not only keeping off the sunbeams
of
God's favour, but big with thunders, lightnings, and storms,
ready to destroy them! How welcome then would the tidings of a
Saviour be, who came to redeem us from the
Curse of the
Law,
being himself made a
Curse for us!
Sin is the ruin of houses and
families; especially the doing hurt to others and false
Witness.
Who knows the power of
God's
Anger?
God's
Curse cannot be kept
out
By bars or locks. While one part of the
Curse of
God ruins
the substance of the sinner, another part will
Rest On the soul,
and sink it to
Everlasting Punishment. All are transgressors of
the
Law,
So we cannot escape this wrath of
God, except we flee
for
Refuge to lay
Hold On the
Hope set before us in the
Gospel.
5-11 In this
Vision the
Prophet sees an
Ephah, something in the
shape of a
Corn Measure. This betokened the Jewish nation. They
are filling the
Measure of their iniquity; and when it is full,
they shall be delivered into the hands of those to whom
God sold
them for their sins. The
Woman Sitting in the midst of the
Ephah
represents the sinful
Church and nation of the Jews, in their
latter and corrupt
Age. Guilt is upon the sinner as a weight of
lead, to sink him to the lowest
Hell. This seems to mean the
condemnation of the Jews, after they filled the
Measure of their
iniquities
By crucifying
Christ and rejecting his
Gospel.
Zechariah sees the
Ephah, with the
Woman thus pressed in it,
carried away to some far country. This intimates that the Jews
should be hurried out of their own land, and forced to
Dwell in
far countries, as they had been in
Babylon. There the
Ephah
shall be firmly placed, and their sufferings shall continue far
longer than in their late
Captivity. Blindness is happened unto
Israel, and they are settled upon their own unbelief. Let
sinners fear to treasure up wrath against the
Day of wrath; for
the more they multiply crimes, the faster the
Measure fills.