TRV
Translation
King James Version
And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.
Complete Jewish Bible
He answered me, "To build it a shrine in the land of Shin'ar. When it's ready, [the eifah] will be set down there on its base."
Berean Standard Bible
“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.”
American Standard Version
And he said unto me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar: and when it is prepared, she shall be set there in her own place.
World English Bible Messianic
He said to me, “To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.”
Geneva Bible (1599)
And hee saide vnto mee, To builde it an house in the lande of Shinar, and it shall be established and set there vpon her owne place.
Young's Literal Translation
And he saith unto me, `To build to it a house in the land of Shinar.' And it hath been prepared and hath been placed there on its base.
In the KJVVerse 22,948 of 31,102
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Commentary on Zechariah 5 verses 5–11
5 ¶ Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.
6 And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
7 And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
8 And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.
9 Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
10 Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
11 And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.
The foregoing vision was very plain and easy, but in this are things dark and hard to be understood; and some think that the scope of it is to foretel the final destruction of the Jewish church and nation and the dispersion of the Jews, when, by crucifying Christ and persecuting his gospel, they should have filled up the measure of their iniquities; therefore it is industriously set out in obscure figures and expressions, "lest the plain denunciation of the second overthrow of temple and state might discourage them too much from going forward in the present restoration of both." So Mr. Pemble.
The prophet was contemplating the power and terror of the curse which consumes the houses of thieves and swearers, when he was told to turn and he should see greater desolations than these made by the curse of God for the sin of man: Lift up thy eyes now, and see what is here, Zac 5:5. What is this that goeth forth? Whether over the face of the whole earth, as the flying roll (Zac 5:3), or only over Jerusalem, is not certain. But, it seems, the prophet now, through either the distance or the dimness of his sight, could not well tell what it was, but asked, What is it? Zac 5:6. And the angel tells him both what it is and what it means.
I. He sees an ephah, a measure wherewith they measured corn; it contained ten omers (Exo 16:36) and was the tenth part of a homer (Eze 45:11); it is put for any measure used in commerce, Deu 25:14. And this is their resemblance, the resemblance of the Jewish nation over all the earth, wherever they are now dispersed, or at least it will be so when their ruin draws near. They are filling up the measure of their iniquity, which God has set them; and when it is full, as the ephah of corn, they shall be delivered into the hands of those to whom God has sold them for their sins; they are meted to destruction, as an ephah of corn measured to the market or to the mill. And some think that the mentioning of an ephah, which is used in buying and selling, intimates that fraud, and deceit, and extortion in commerce, were sins abounding much among them, as that people are known to be notoriously guilty of them at this day. This is a proper representation of them through all the earth. There is a measure set them, and they are filling it up apace. See Mat 23:32; Th1 2:16.
II. He sees a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah, representing the sinful church and nation of the Jews in their latter and degenerate age, when the faithful city became a harlot. He that weighs the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance measures nations and churches as in an ephah; so exact is he in his judicial dealings with them. God's people are called the corn of his floor, Isa 21:10. And here he puts this corn into the bushel, in order to his parting with it. The angel says of the woman in the ephah, This is wickedness; it is a wicked nation, else God would not have rejected it thus; it is as wicked as wickedness itself, it is abominably wicked. How has the gold become dim! Israel was holiness to the Lord (Jer 2:3); but now this is wickedness, and wickedness is nowhere so scandalous, so odious, and, in many instances, so outrageous, as when it is found among professors of religion.
III. He sees the woman thrust down into the ephah, and a talent, or large weight, of lead, cast upon the mouth of it, by which she is secured, and made a close prisoner in the ephah, and utterly disabled to get out of it. This is designed to show that the wrath of God against impenitent sinners is, 1. Unavoidable, and what they cannot escape; they are bound over to it, concluded under sin, and shut up under the curse, as this woman in the ephah; he would fain flee out of his hand (Job 27:22), but he cannot. 2. It is insupportable, and what they cannot bear up under. Guilt is upon the sinner as a talent of lead, to sink him to the lowest hell. When Christ said of the things of Jerusalem's peace, Now they are hidden from thy eyes, that threw a talent of lead upon them.
IV. He sees the ephah, with the woman thus pressed to death in it, carried away into some far country. 1. The instruments employed to do it were two women, who had wings like those of a stork, large and strong, and, to make them fly the more swiftly, they had the wind in their wings, denoting the great violence and expedition with which the Romans destroyed the Jewish nation. God has not only winged messengers in heaven, but he can, when he pleases, give wings to those also whom he employs in this lower world; and, when he does so, he forwards them with the wind in their wings; his providence carries them on with a favourable gale. 2. They bore it up in the air, denoting the terrors which pursued the wicked Jews, and their being a public example of God's vengeance to the world. They lifted it up between the earth and the heaven, as unworthy of either and abandoned by both; for the Jews, when this was fulfilled, pleased not God and were contrary to all men, Th1 2:15. This is wickedness, and this comes of it; heaven thrust out wicked angels, and earth spewed out wicked Canaanites. 3. When the prophet enquired whither they carried their prisoner whom they had now in execution (Zac 5:10) he was told that they designed to build it a house in the land of Shinar. This intimates that the punishment of the Jews should be a final dispersion; they should be hurried out of their own country, as the chaff which the wind drives away, and should be forced to dwell in far countries, particularly in the country of Babylon, whither many of the scattered Jews went after the destruction of their country by the Romans, as they did also to other countries, especially in the Levant parts, not to sojourn, as in their former captivity, for seventy years, but to be nailed down for perpetuity. There the ephah shall be established, and set upon her own base. This intimates, (1.) That their calamity shall continue from generation to generation, and that they shall be so dispersed that they shall never unite or incorporate again; they shall settle in a perpetual unsettlement, and Cain's doom shall be theirs, to dwell in the land of shaking. (2.) That their iniquity shall continue too, and their hearts shall be hardened in it. Blindness has happened unto Israel, and they are settled upon the lees of their own unbelief; their wickedness is established upon its own basis. God has given them a spirit of slumber (Rom 11:8), lest at any time they should convert, and be healed.
Matthew Henry (1662–1714) — Commentary on the Whole Bible. This section covers verses 5–11. Public domain.
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JeromeAD 420
Commentary on Zechariah
(Verse 9 and following) And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw, and behold, two women coming forth, and a spirit was on their wings, and they had wings like the wings of a kite, and they lifted up an amphora between the earth and the sky. And I said to the angel who spoke to me: Where are these taking the amphora? And he said to me: To build a house for it in the land of Shinar, and it will be established and placed there upon its base. LXX: And I lifted up my eyes, and I saw, and behold, two women coming forth, and a spirit was on their wings, and they themselves had wings like the wings of a hoopoe. And they raised the measure between the earth and the sky. And I said to the angel who spoke in me: Where do they bring this measure? And he said to me: To build a house for him in the land of Babylon, and prepare it, and place it there on its foundation. Two women coming out, the Jews imagine the kingdom of the Medes and Macedonians, both of whom have afflicted the people of Babylon, and there their wickedness has established its seat. However, they craft this in such a way that what is said of themselves may not be understood as being about themselves. For indeed, the two women who depart, there is no doubt that they are to be received by the twelve tribes from the land of Judea: of whom one was taken captive by the Assyrians, the other by the Chaldeans. And in their wings was the spirit, that is, the power of the devil, of whom it is written in Ecclesiastes: If the spirit of the one who has power ascends over you, do not abandon your place (Eccl. X, 4). And in the Gospel, we read about an unclean spirit who, after being cast out from his home, wanders through desolate and dry places, and then comes back to his former home with seven other even more wicked spirits (Luke XI). Therefore, these women, carried away by this spirit as if by a gust of wind, were being borne swiftly, and they had wings; according to the Hebrew word 'Asida' (which Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion translated as 'herodion'), only the LXX translated it as 'hoopoe.' The Hebrews consider 'Asida' to be the kite, a very rapacious bird that always attacks domestic birds; as for 'herodion', those who have written about the nature of birds assume three types: one white, another starry; the third black, which is both the most savage and bloodthirsty, and is fierce and unwilling to mate, to the point that blood bursts from their eyes. But the hoopoe, which we have taken from the similarity of the Greek name (for they themselves call it 'popam' from the fact that it examines human excrement), is said to be the most filthy bird, always dwelling in tombs, always in human dung: finally it is said to build its nest out of it, and to feed its young with decaying worms from the filth. Whatever you want to understand about this bird, it is fitting for those women of Judaea and Israel who, because of their sins of prostitution, were handed over to the power of demons and led into captivity by them. And they brought a jar or measure, in which impiety was enclosed, with a mass of lead placed on top so that it could not escape, and the heaviest weight of all sins between earth and heaven. The prophet, understanding this, did not ask (for it was clear to his prophetic spirit) who these women were, nor what they represented, about which he had been previously instructed; but rather to what do they portend. Finally, it follows: I said to the angel who was speaking with me: To what place are these women carrying the jar? He replied: 'To build a house for him in the land of Shinar.' For this reason, the Seventy translated it as 'in the land of Babylon.' Shinar is indeed the plain of the Chaldeans, where those who had moved their feet from the East and were unable to stand in the service of God, built a tower of pride (Gen. 11). Therefore, the city itself is called Babylon, which means confusion, because there the languages of all were confused and mixed. Therefore impiety is attributed to these women in Babylon, so that there his house may be built, and established, and placed upon its foundation, and find eternal rest. Truly, in Babylon there is a seat of impiety, according to both history and mystical understanding. If you are willing to consider two women, the peoples of heretics and Jews (both of whom turn away from the face of God, and are carried by an uncertain spirit, and have wings like eagles, herons, and hoopoes, while always seeking riches like partridges, not with judgement, and hastening to plunder the Church, and delighting in disputes and quarrels, and leading to destruction those whom they deceive, and rolling in the mire of perpetual lust and filthiness), these women relieve the weight of the most serious impiety, and build their house in confusion, and serve the Babylonian king, so that the peoples of heretics and Jews may dwell there, where idolatry resides, serving wood and stone.
Richard ChallonerAD 1781
The land of Sennaar: Where Babel or Babylon was built, Gen. 11., where note, that Babylon in holy writ is often taken for the city of the devil: that is, for the whole congregation of the wicked: as Jerusalem is taken for the city and people of God.
Source: Quotations drawn from early Church Fathers and historical Christian theologians (AD 100–1500). Some quotes address the surrounding passage context rather than this verse alone.
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SUMMARY
Zechariah 5:11 concludes the fifth of Zechariah's eight night visions, detailing the ultimate destination of "Wickedness" personified within an ephah basket. The angelic interpreter reveals that this embodiment of sin is to be transported to the "land of Shinar" where a permanent "house" will be built for it, ensuring its stable and lasting establishment far away from God's holy people and land. This verse powerfully signifies God's definitive and thorough act of removing all forms of idolatry and ungodliness from His covenant community, banishing them to their proper, unholy domain.
CONTEXT
EXPOSITION AND ANALYSIS
Key Word Analysis
Verse Breakdown
Literary Devices
The primary literary device in Zechariah 5:11 and the broader vision is Symbolism. The "ephah" symbolizes the accumulated sin and wickedness of the land, particularly in its commercial and idolatrous forms. The "woman" inside the ephah is a striking Personification of "Wickedness" (Hebrew: rish'ah), making an abstract concept tangible and subject to removal. The "land of Shinar" is a powerful symbol, representing not just a geographical location (Babylon) but the spiritual realm of rebellion, idolatry, and opposition to God. Sending wickedness there is a symbolic act of returning evil to its source or its natural, unholy habitat. The entire vision functions as an Allegory, where the narrative of the ephah's transport conveys a deeper theological truth about God's active and decisive purification of His people and land. The phrases "build it an house," "established," and "set there upon her own base" use Figurative Language to convey the permanence and stability of this divine act of banishment, assuring the post-exilic community of a lasting cleansing from the defilement that led to their previous judgment.
THEOLOGICAL AND THEMATIC CONNECTIONS
Zechariah 5:11 provides a profound theological statement about God's absolute intolerance for sin within His holy presence and His sovereign power to remove it. It assures the post-exilic community, still grappling with the remnants of idolatry and moral compromise, that God is committed to a thorough cleansing of His people and land. This vision speaks to the divine imperative for holiness and the ultimate separation of light from darkness. It is a prophetic declaration that God will not perpetually tolerate wickedness among those He calls His own, and that He has a plan for its definitive removal and permanent banishment to its proper, unholy domain. This act of purification is foundational for the establishment of His righteous kingdom and the full enjoyment of His covenant blessings.
REFLECTION AND APPLICATION
Zechariah 5:11 offers a powerful assurance to believers today: God is ultimately victorious over sin and wickedness. This vision speaks not only to a historical purification but also to an ongoing spiritual reality. Just as God definitively removed corporate wickedness from His people's land, He works to purify the hearts of individual believers and His Church. We are called to participate in this divine work by actively confessing and repenting of sin, allowing the Holy Spirit to cleanse us from within. This verse reminds us that sin is not something to be tolerated or accommodated; it is an alien entity that God intends to banish. The permanence of "Wickedness" being "established" in Shinar signifies God's complete and final separation of evil from His holy domain. This should instill both a deep sense of security in God's ultimate triumph and a strong conviction to pursue personal and corporate holiness, knowing that our God is a God who purifies.
Questions for Reflection
FAQ
What does "the land of Shinar" symbolize in this verse?
Answer: "The land of Shinar" is the ancient name for Babylonia, specifically the plain where the Tower of Babel was built (Genesis 11:2). Biblically, it symbolizes a place of human rebellion against God, idolatry, and oppressive world systems. In Zechariah 5:11, its selection as the destination for "Wickedness" is highly symbolic. It represents the spiritual "homeland" of sin and rebellion, a realm fundamentally opposed to God's holiness. Sending wickedness there signifies its definitive banishment from God's holy land and people, returning it to its proper, unholy domain.
Is the "house" built for wickedness a literal structure?
Answer: No, the "house" in Zechariah 5:11 is not meant to be understood as a literal physical building. The entire vision of the ephah and the woman "Wickedness" is highly symbolic. The "house" represents a permanent, stable, and established dwelling place for sin. The imagery emphasizes the thoroughness and finality of God's act of removing wickedness from His people and land, ensuring it is securely settled in a place far removed from His holy presence, never to return and defile.
What is the significance of the "ephah" and the "woman" in this vision?
Answer: The "ephah" (Zechariah 5:6) was a large measuring basket, often used for grain, and could symbolize the commercial activity and perhaps the economic injustices or greed prevalent in the land. The "woman" (Zechariah 5:7-8) within the ephah is explicitly identified as "Wickedness" (Hebrew: rish'ah). She personifies the moral and spiritual corruption, particularly the idolatry and covenant unfaithfulness, that had pervaded Israel and led to their exile. Her containment within the ephah and subsequent removal symbolize God's decisive act of gathering up and expelling all forms of sin and ungodliness from His people and the land.
CHRIST-CENTERED FULFILLMENT
Zechariah 5:11, with its vivid imagery of wickedness being permanently banished, finds its ultimate fulfillment in the person and work of Jesus Christ. While the vision in Zechariah speaks to a corporate cleansing of the land and people, Christ's mission was to deal with the root of all wickedness: sin itself. He is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, not merely banishing it but atoning for it through His sacrificial death. On the cross, Jesus bore the full weight of human sin, effectively "building a house" for it in the realm of His judgment, where it was "established" and "set upon its own base"—that is, utterly defeated and disarmed (Colossians 2:15). Through His resurrection, Christ demonstrated His complete victory over sin and death, ensuring that for those who are in Him, sin no longer has dominion (Romans 6:14). This prophetic vision of a purified people and land points forward to the new heavens and new earth, where righteousness dwells and nothing unclean will ever enter (Revelation 21:27), a reality made possible only by Christ's finished work of putting away sin by the sacrifice of Himself (Hebrews 9:26).