Zechariah 5 · Verse 1

Zechariah 5:1

Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.
Zechariah 5:1, King James Version

Zechariah 5:1 in other translations

BSBAgain I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.
WEBThen again I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll.
ASVThen again I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and, behold, a flying roll.
YLTAnd I turn back, and lift up mine eyes, and look, and lo, a flying roll.
DARBYAnd I lifted up mine eyes again, and saw, and behold, a flying roll.
BBEThen again lifting up my eyes I saw a roll in flight through the air.
WebsterThen I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

What does Zechariah 5:1 mean?

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

Zec 5:1-4. Sixth Vision. The Flying Roll. The fraudulent and perjuring transgressors of the law shall be extirpated from Judea.

1. flying roll--of papyrus, or dressed skins, used for writing on when paper was not known. It was inscribed with the words of the curse (De 27:15-26; 28:15-68). Being written implied that its contents were beyond all escape or repeal (Eze 2:9). Its "flying" shows that its curses were ready swiftly to visit the transgressors. It was unrolled, or else its dimensions could not have been seen (Zec 5:2). Being open to all, none could say in excuse he knew not the law and the curses of disobedience. As the previous visions intimated God's favor in restoring the Jewish state, so this vision announces judgment, intimating that God, notwithstanding His favor, did not approve of their sins. Being written on both sides, "on this and on that side" (Zec 5:3) [Vatablus] connects it with the two tables of the law (Ex 32:15), and implies its comprehensiveness. One side denounced "him that sweareth falsely (Zec 5:4) by God's name," according to the third commandment of the first table, duty to God; the other side denounced theft, according to the eighth commandment, which is in the second table, duty to one's neighbor.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown, 1871 · public domain

Adam Clarke's Commentary

Introduction

The vision of the large flying roll, with the angel's explanation, Zac 5:1-4. The vision of the ephah, and of the woman sitting on it, with the signification, Zac 5:5-11. Verse 1 Behold a flying roll - This was twenty cubits long, and ten cubits broad; the prophet saw it expanded, and flying. Itself was the catalogue of the crimes of the people, and the punishment threatened by the Lord. Some think the crimes were those of the Jews; others, those of the Chaldeans. The roll is mentioned in allusion to those large rolls on which the Jews write the Pentateuch. One now lying before me is one hundred and fifty-three feet long, by twenty-one inches wide, written on fine brown Basle goat-skin; some time since brought from Jerusalem, supposed to be four hundred years old.

Adam Clarke, 1831 · public domain

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary on Zechariah 5:1-4
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, Psa 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.

Matthew Henry, 1706 · public domain

Zechariah 5:1 in the original Hebrew

Word-by-word with transliteration, English gloss and Strong's number. Tap a number for the full definition and every place the word is used.

וָאָשׁ֕וּבva.'a.Shuvand I returnedH7725
וָאֶשָּׂ֥אva.'e.Sa'and I lifted upH5375
עֵינַ֖י'ei.Naieyes myH5869
וָֽאֶרְאֶ֑הva.'er.'Ehand I sawH7200
וְהִנֵּ֖הve.hi.Nehand there!H2009
מְגִלָּ֥הme.gi.Laha scrollH4039
עָפָֽה\׃'a.FahflyingH5774

Source: STEPBible TAHOT/TAGNT (Tyndale House, CC BY 4.0).

Cross references for Zechariah 5:1

  • Zechariah 5:2

    And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

  • Ezekiel 2:9-10

    And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

  • Isaiah 8:1

    Moreover the Lord said unto me, Take thee a great roll, and write in it with a man’s pen concerning Maher–shalal–hash–baz.

  • Jeremiah 36:1-6

    And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the Lord, saying, Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day. It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil which I purpose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin. Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the Lord, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book. …

  • Revelation 10:8-11

    And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth. And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the little book out of the angel’s hand, and ate it up; and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.

  • Jeremiah 36:20-24

    And they went in to the king into the court, but they laid up the roll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, and told all the words in the ears of the king. So the king sent Jehudi to fetch the roll: and he took it out of Elishama the scribe’s chamber. And Jehudi read it in the ears of the king, and in the ears of all the princes which stood beside the king. Now the king sat in the winterhouse in the ninth month: and there was a fire on the hearth burning before him. And it came to pass, that when Jehudi had read three or four leaves, he cut it with the penknife, and cast it into the fire that was on the hearth, until all the roll was consumed in the fire that was on the hearth. …

  • Revelation 5:1-14

    And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice, Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon. And I wept much, because no man was found worthy to open and to read the book, neither to look thereon. …

  • Jeremiah 36:27-32

    Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah, after that the king had burned the roll, and the words which Baruch wrote at the mouth of Jeremiah, saying, Take thee again another roll, and write in it all the former words that were in the first roll, which Jehoiakim the king of Judah hath burned. And thou shalt say to Jehoiakim king of Judah, Thus saith the Lord; Thou hast burned this roll, saying, Why hast thou written therein, saying, The king of Babylon shall certainly come and destroy this land, and shall cause to cease from thence man and beast? Therefore thus saith the Lord of Jehoiakim king of Judah; He shall have none to sit upon the throne of David: and his dead body shall be cast out in the day to the heat, and in the night to the frost. …

  • Revelation 10:2

    And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth,

Ranked by reader votes · OpenBible.info cross references (CC BY).

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1 By the flying roll is shewn the curse of thieves and swearers;
5 and by a woman pressed in an ephah the final judgment of wickedness.

roll.
2; Isa 8:1; Jer 36:1-6,20-24,27-32; Eze 2:9,10; Re 5:1-14
Re 10:2,8-11

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (Samuel Bagster, c. 1836) · public domain

Context

  • Zechariah 5:1

    Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

  • Zechariah 5:2

    And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

Read all of Zechariah 5

Zechariah 5:1 in other languages

Spanish
Reina-Valera 1909		Y TORNÉME, y alcé mis ojos, y miré, y he aquí un rollo que volaba.
French
Bible J.N. Darby 1885		*Et de nouveau je levai mes yeux, et je vis; et voici un rouleau qui volait.
German
Elberfelder 1871		Und ich hob wiederum meine Augen auf und sah: und siehe, eine fliegende Rolle.
Latin
Clementine Vulgate		Et conversus sum, et levavi oculos meos, et vidi, et ecce volumen volans.