And I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork; and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens.
Zechariah has just seen wickedness as a woman, shut inside a basket — an ephah, a Jewish measure — and sealed in. Now two winged figures lift that basket off the ground and carry evil away, but where do they take it?
Only one woman went into the ephah. Two now come out to carry it. One writer sees a single evil splitting into a pair of linked systems.
The main feature of this vision is that two women come out of the ephah, where there had been only one. Scripture uses a woman as a symbol, so the meaning will be that two systems, joined but distinct, grow out of what the Jewish measure had held. Before, it had a Jewish form as well as a Jewish home. Now its parts separate into two, and a woman pictures each one. And what are these? A look at the state of the Jews, as Scripture unfolds it, leaves little doubt that they are the twin sisters, superstition and unbelief. These are the two our Lord Himself had to contend with in the form of the Pharisees and Sadducees, and they are joined in their harmful work today in the professing church.
Commentators differ on what the pair stands for. Another writer sees the nation's two God-given offices gone bad, set against two men God had appointed in Zechariah's day.
These stand for civil authority and spiritual authority sunk into an evil state. They are the opposite of Zerubbabel (the civil authority) and Joshua (the spiritual authority), whom God appointed for Israel's blessing. These corrupted authorities carry apostate Israel — the woman in the ephah — quickly away from Jerusalem ("the foundation of peace"). The wings of a stork (an unclean bird of the air) show that satanic power energizes these authorities.
The detail that matters is not the flying but the tailwind. The world's own power pushes these carriers along.
The one point that matters is that the wind was in their wings. When the disciples were crossing the sea of Galilee at night, Mark 6 tells us plainly that "the wind was against them." That is surely a picture: all the influences of this world, which Satan rules, are against the Lord's people as they cross the stormy sea of this life. But that same wind always fills the sails of Satan's ships. So in this vision the wind is in the wings of these two symbolic women. It teaches that all the influence and energy of this world were helping them in their plan. All Satan's forces were at their service. This is why wicked men often succeed beyond all expectation in what they do.
Instead of holding evil down, circumstances now speed it on its way.
The prophet sees two women, again a symbol of evil, with the wind in their wings. Nothing holds them back. Instead, God allows circumstances to help them.
A stork's wings are wide. One reference work says they "extend to more than six feet" (Morrish Bible Dictionary). And a stork comes home.
Storks always return to their nests. The two women brought all this unrighteousness back to where it started: to the land of Shinar, that is, to Babylon, where the old Babel lay destroyed forever. Babel is, so to speak, the cradle of idolatry. In the last days the unrighteousness of the Jews will return openly to where it began.
Evil is not destroyed here; it is relocated. It is carried, still sealed and hidden, back to the country where it first organised itself against God.
This is a picture of wickedness — lawlessness. It is hidden — the woman in the ephah — and carried to the land of Shinar, its base, where it began its course. We know this, because Nimrod was the first great representative of the wicked or lawless one. That lawless one will be destroyed in the day of the Lord. This "wickedness" is hidden here in an "ephah," or, as in Matthew 13, in "three measures of flour." It is hidden, I may say, under a profession — whether the religion of Israel or the name of Christendom. But in truth it is Babylon at the end as at the beginning, "the land of Shinar," as we see again in Revelation 17.
One writer connects that base with an older building project.
This calls to mind the plain in the land of Shinar where the tower of Babel was built (Genesis 11:2-4). So carrying the ephah there is the very essence of apostasy — a deliberate turning from the truth of God. It shows that the ungodly in Israel will return to the evil plans that built the tower of Babel. The ephah will be established there on its own base, in contrast to God's foundation, which is in the holy mountains (Psalm 87:1).
- Sealed — wickedness first hides: shut in the basket, covered by a religious front.
- Doubled — one woman becomes two carriers. Commentators read them as superstition and unbelief, or as civil and religious authority gone corrupt.
- Sped — the wind in their wings means the world is not resisting evil but carrying it. This is why wicked plans so often succeed.
- Homing — like a stork returning to its nest, this evil flies straight back to Babylon, the cradle of idolatry.
- Settled — evil is set on a base of its own in Shinar, and that is the very essence of turning from God.
And I said to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these carry the ephah?
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And he said unto me, To build it a house in the land of Shinar; and it shall be established, and set there upon its own base.
In this vision a woman named Wickedness sits sealed inside the basket, or ephah, and two winged women carry her away. Here the angel names where they take her — Shinar, the plain of Babel — and says they will build her a house there.
The place named is where Israel's idolatry first came from. God sends the evil back to its own source.
The ephah was a well-known Hebrew dry measure, almost the size of an English bushel... From Shinar religious corruption came, and there it must go, carried off by force and at speed: that is the measure Jehovah deals out. God's judgment had carried the Jews away to Babylon, but it had not destroyed the sin they were carried there for. This prophet, writing after the captivity, shows us what God does when He has traced the evil to its source. It has to be taken out of His land and set on its own base, in the land of Shinar, the plain on which Babylon was built. That is where it is truly at home.
Shinar is not just any place. It is the plain where builders once raised the tower of Babel.
This calls to mind the plain in the land of Shinar where the tower of Babel was built (Gen. 11:2-4). So carrying the ephah there is the very essence of apostasy — a deliberate turning away from the truth of God. It shows that the ungodly in Israel will go back to the same evil plans and intentions that gave birth to the tower of Babel. The ephah will stand there on its own base — the opposite of God's foundation, which is in the holy mountains (Ps. 87:1). See how closely the greed for dishonest gain — the ephah holding the corrupt woman — is tied to the abhorrent principle of apostasy!
A house means staying, not visiting. God does not just push the evil out; it gets a home and a foundation of its own.
The ephah, as we have seen, stands for a Jewish form of wickedness. It is an organised system of evil that still keeps the outward forms of Judaism. This produces and develops the twin sisters of evil: superstition and unbelief. These then lead on to full apostasy. So they carry the ephah to the land of Shinar, the place and home of open opposition to God (see Genesis 11:2). There this embodiment of wickedness would have a house built for her and be set on her own base. The Jewish nation will become openly apostate, and will then show its real Babylonish character. This means the part publicly owned as the nation; there will still be a true remnant holding that place before God.
Israel is not the only one on this road.
There the house will be established and placed on its foundation. The same will take place with apostate Christendom. In Revelation 17:5 Great Babylon is called the mother of the harlots and of the abominations of the earth. According to verse 11 she will remain in Shinar. But in that condition the judgment will come upon apostasy, both in its Jewish and in its Christian form.
The removal of idolatry really happened. But Jesus spoke of the sin coming back.
This did come to pass in history, as we know. From about that time the Jews have not turned aside to the idols of the nations. Read Matthew 12:43-45, and we see how our Lord referred to this act. Yet He also predicted that in the end this sin will dominate them in a more intense form. But for the time being they were delivered.
The vision leaves evil housed in Shinar and God's land clean. So is anything left of a testimony for Christ?
Will any testimony for Christ remain in the middle of all this unrighteousness? Certainly, for in the previous chapter we saw a faithful remnant... The remnant of Judah will become the core of a future Israel, more in number than the stars of heaven and the sand on the seashore. It will enjoy all the blessings of the Millennium. First God will remember the apostate Jews and apostate Christendom, and Babylon, the great city, will be cast into the sea, to be found no more at all!
- Source. The idolatry came from Shinar, and God traces it back to where it began.
- Removal. God takes the evil out of His land. It was a real cleansing: after the captivity the Jews no longer turned to idols.
- Residence. Evil gets a house and its own base in the plain where Babel once stood. It is settled at home.
- Repetition. At the end the same Babylonish pattern returns in a stronger form — in apostate Christendom as well.
- Remnant. Babylon's house stands only to be judged. A faithful remnant survives to become the core of a blessed Israel.