Zechariah 5:9 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Zechariah 5:9
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.
to lift · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
eyes
עֵינַ֜י'ei.Nai
H5869
an eye (literally or figuratively) · noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix
looked
וָאֵ֗רֶאva.'E.re'
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 1st person common singular
out
יֽוֹצְאוֹת֙yotz.'Ot
H3318
to go (causatively · verb, qal active participle, feminine plural absolute
two
שְׁתַּ֨יִםshe.Ta.yim
H8147
two · noun, common feminine dual absolute
women
נָשִׁ֤יםna.Shim
H802
a woman · noun, common masculine plural absolute
wind
וְר֣וּחַve.Ru.ach
H7307
wind · conjunction + noun, common feminine singular absolute
wings
בְּכַנְפֵיהֶ֔םbe.khan.fei.Hem
H3671
an edge or extremity · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine plural
had
הֵנָּהhênnâh
H2007
themselves (often used emphatic for the copula
wings
כְנָפַ֖יִםkhe.na.Fa.yim
H3671
an edge or extremity · noun, common feminine dual absolute
wings
כְּכַנְפֵ֣יke.khan.Fei
H3671
an edge or extremity · preposition + noun, common feminine dual construct
stork
הַחֲסִידָ֑הha.cha.si.Dah
H2624
the kind (maternal) bird · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
up
וַתִּשֶּׂ֙אנָה֙va.ti.Se.nah
H5375
to lift · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person feminine plural
ephah
הָ֣אֵיפָ֔הha.'ei.Fah
H374
an ephah or measure for grain · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
earth
הָאָ֖רֶץha.'A.retz
H776
the earth (at large · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
heaven
הַשָּׁמָֽיִםha.sha.Ma.yim
H8064
the sky (as aloft · definite article + noun, common masculine plural absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou sha…
Daniel 9:26-27 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy…
Hosea 8:1 Set the trumpet to thy mouth. He shall come as an eagle against the house of the LORD, because they have transgressed my covenant, and tresp…
Leviticus 11:19 And the stork, the heron after her kind, and the lapwing, and the bat.
Matthew 24:28 For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Zechariah 5:5–end
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 thieve…
The agents to carry away the "woman," are, consistently with the image, "women." God makes the wicked themselves the agents of punishing and removing wickedness. "Two" are employed, as one is not enough to carry such a load [MAURER]. Or, the Assyrians and Babylonians, who carried away idolatry in the persons, respectively, of Israel and Judah [HENDERSON]. As two "anointed ones" (Zac 4:14) stand by the Lord as His ministers, so two winged women execute His purpose here in removing the embodiment of "wickedness": answering to the "mystery of iniquity" (the Septuagint here in Zechariah uses the same words as Paul and "the man of sin," whom the Lord shall destroy with the spirit of His mouth and…
There came out two women - As the one woman represented the impiety of the Jewish nation; so these two women who were to carry the ephah, in which the woman Iniquity was shut up, under the weight of a talent of lead, may mean the desperate Unbelief of the Jews in rejecting the Messiah; and that Impiety, or universal corruption of manners, which was the consequence of their unbelief, and brought down the wrath of God upon them. The strong wings, like those of a stork, may point out the power and swiftness with which Judea was carried on to fill up the measure of her iniquity, and to meet the punishment which she deserved.
Between the earth and the heaven - Sins against God and Man, sins which…
The Church Fathers
(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…
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked,.... This is not a new vision, but a continuation of the former, as appears from the "ephah" seen in it:
and, behold, there came out two women; out of the same place the "ephah" did. The Targum explains these "two women" by two provinces; and Kimchi interprets them of the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who had been carried captive into Babylon; and others of the two kings, Jehoiakim and Zedekiah, who were the cause of the captivity; but Jarchi understands by them the Babylonians and Chaldeans, two nations as one, joined in Nebuchadnezzar's armies, which carried them captive: others think the two reformers, Ezra and Nehemiah, are meant, who were inst…
Zechariah 5:9-11
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.
9. Et extuli oculos meos et aspexi, et ecce duae mulieres egressae, et Spiritus erat in alis ipsarum, et ipsis alae erant quasi alae milvi (alii vertunt, ciconiam; et mihi magis placet, quanquam parum est momenti;) et extulerunt modium inter terram et inter coelum.
10. Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
10. Et dixi angelo qui loquebatur mecum, Quonam istae deferunt modium?
11. And he said unto me, To build…
Zac 5:9. "And I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold there came forth two women, and wind in their wings, and they had wings like a stork's wings; and they carried the ephah between earth and heaven. Zac 5:10. And I said to the angel that talked with me, Whither are these taking the ephah? Zac 5:11. And he said to me, To build it a dwelling in the land of Shinar: and it will be placed and set up there upon its stand." The meaning of this new scene may easily be discovered. The ephah with the woman in it is carried away between earth and heaven, i.e., through the air. Women carry it because there is a woman inside; and two women, because two persons are required to carry so large and heavy…
The depiction of divine or angelic winged creatures as women is unusual in the Old Testament. If the two women are the Lord’s servants, they are unique angels. If they are the attendants of Wickedness (a foreign goddess), their submission to God’s command demonstrates his power over false gods.
Rashi on Zechariah 5:9
two women were coming forth from the house.
the stork the white dayyah (Hullin 63a), voltur in Old French.
