Zechariah 5:2

And he said unto me,.... That is, the angel: What seest thou?

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.

And he; the angel, ,5. What seest thou, O Zechariah? The length thereof is twenty cubits; that is, ten yards long; by this it appears the roll was spread out, for had it been rolled up he could not have seen the length, though he did the breadth, five yards.

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.Ver. 2. What seest thou?] q.d. Mark it well, and let thine eye affect thine heart; let these things be oculis commissa fidelibus. I see a flying book] Some read it, A double book (according to the Chaldaic signification of the word), as containing double, that is, manifold, menaces and punishments of sin. But the Chaldee paraphrast, Septuagint, and others, render it flying; as hasting and hovering over the heads of wicked persons. The length thereof is twenty cubits, &c.] Ten yards long, and five broad. Neither let men say that words are but wind, as they did, Jeremiah 5:13. For, 1. Even wind, when gotten into the bowels of the earth, may cause an earthquake; as when into the bowels of the body a heartquake. 2. God threateneth those scoffers, Jeremiah 5:14, that he will make that word, which they termed wind, to become fire, and themselves fuel to feed it. And as fire grows quickly upon fuel fully dried, Nahum 1:10, and consumeth it in an instant, so God’ s flying roll will lick up the evildoers, no otherwise than the fire from heaven after it had consumed the sacrifice, the wood, the stones, and the dust, licked up also the water that was in the trench, 1 Kings 18:38. The threatenings of God’ s law (the same with this roll) are (as Erasmus saith of Eze 3:18) fulmina non verba, lightbolts rather than words; or if words, yet they are (as one saith) verba non legenda sed vivenda, words not to be read only, but lived; at least, not to be read as men do the old stories of foreign wars, wherein they are nothing concerned (but as threatening themselves in every threat, cursing themselves in every curse, &c.), nor as they read the predictions of an almanack for wind and weather, which they think may come to pass, and it may be not; but be confident of this very thing, that God who hath denounced it will surely do it, and that he will execute the judgment written in this roll, Psalms 149:9, yea, every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, them will the Lord cause to descend upon the disobedient, until they be destroyed, Deuteronomy 28:61.

(2) He.—The angel-interpreter. (Comp. Zechariah 5:5.) The length . . . and the breadth . . .—These were the dimensions of the holy place of the Mosaic Tabernacle, also of the porch of Solomon’s Temple. If, then, we are to consider the measurement of the scroll as symbolical, we may regard it as indicating that the measure of the sanctuary is the measure of sin: that is, the sinner must not say, “I am not worse than my neighbour,” but should measure his conduct by the standard: “Become ye holy, for I am holy” (Leviticus 11:44; comp. Matthew 5:48).

2. the length thereof &c.] The roll was unfolded and opened out. The dimensions of the roll seem merely to be mentioned as an expression of the prophet’s wonder at its size. The beholder of such a strange apparition in the heavens would not unnaturally say how large he took it to be.

And he - (the interpreting angel) said unto me It cannot be without meaning, that the dimensions of the roll should be those of the tabernacle , as the last vision was that of the candlestick, after

2. The interpreting angel calls the attention of the prophet to the new vision by means of a question (compare Zechariah 4:2, and see references there). The roll was unfolded, so that its immense size could be recognized.