The Woman in the Ephah Zechariah 5

    Zechariah 5, Vision #7 the Woman in the Basket.

   The prophet Zechariah was born in Babylon and left with the first remanent freed by Cyrus the Great after 70 years of captivity. Zechariah returned to Judah in 538 B.C. in the second year of Darius. He was instrumental in stirring the hearts of the Israeli people to complete the rebuilding of the temple 516 - 515 B.C., after a series of failed and forgotten attempts. Before the temple could be built, wickedness had to be removed. 

   Yahweh called Zechariah as a messenger to receive visions of prophecies in the year 520 – 519 B.C., twenty years after the fall of Babylon. Zechariah is in Judah when he receives his visions from the angel. 

     Then the angel who was speaking with me went out and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is going forth.”  I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the ephah going forth (moving, in motion).” Again, he said, “This is their appearance (iniquity) in all the land (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.”  Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening. Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind 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. I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the ephah?” Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.” Zechariah 5:5-11 NASB

   An ephah represents a system of measure; it was a container used to measure volume for dry goods such as barley or fine flour. It was used in commerce and trade for the storing, weighing, buying and selling of dry goods. It wasn’t very big, equal to about a bushel 35 liters or 6 gallons. 

   And I said, what is it? And he said, this is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, this is their resemblance (of wickedness) through all the earth. 

Who Said the Bible Was Boring?

    In the bible you will find: Kings and kingdoms that rise and fall, beasts that rise from the sea and kings that rise from the earth. In the end of days, ten kings will rise from a beast kingdom to entrap the world under a banner of global unity. This happens just before an evil king rises up among them, unleashing global chaos and death.  

  There are queens that were good, queens that were evil and a queen who was thrown from her throne and left to wallow in self pity in the dust. There are also good kings and wicked kings that did evil in the sight of God. There were kingdoms filled with various seers, magicians, sorcerers and wizards performing necromancy and reading entrails, looking for signs. 

   You can read about strange creatures covered in eyes that dwell in heaven, good angels and fallen angels and angels who pretend to be good, but are really not. You will discover  vicious giants that walked the earth who became dark unclean spirits after a giant flood was sent to cleanse the earth. These unclean spirits prowl the earth searching for fleshy homes to inhabit. But, be careful, these are not spirits that you want hanging around your house. If you 'shoo' them away they will return with 7 others, more evil than the first for you to contend with. 

  You will find a woman named wickedness who was trapped in an ephah (basket) designed for commerce. She is secured inside with a lid made of lead so she doesn't escape when carried off to a land far away. Once her appointed time has come, she will have a temple built for her where she will be placed upon a pedestal to be worshiped, and a city will be built around her. Her city will be known for evil and bloodshed in the days when lawlessness will rule the earth.