The Vision of the Ephah

The word ‘ephah’ is an English transliteration of the Hebrew hp’yae. It is a measure for a quantity of dry cereals.

Just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hin, shall ye have: I am the Lord your God, which brought you out of the land of Egypt. Lev 19:36

The correct translation of the Hebrew is to transliterate the word as it is a technical name of a measurement of quantity; so while an ‘ephah’ was no doubt a container into which grain or flour was poured for measuring, it is wrong to translate the Hebrew as ‘basket’ (as with the NRSV),

I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘This is a basket coming out.’ And he said, ‘This is their iniquity in all the land.’ Zech 5:6 (NRSV)

The whole point of the vision is that something is quantified. An example of a container-ephah being used would be that of Ruth,

So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley. Ruth 2:17 (KJV)

We could estimate the quantity that an ephah represented by adding how much flour is needed to make a flat loaf because for that a tenth of an ephah was required.

You shall bring in from your dwelling places two loaves of bread for a wave offering, made of two-tenths of an ephah; they shall be of a fine flour, baked with leaven as first fruits to the Lord. Lev 23:17 (NASB)

The NASB has ‘of an ephah’ in italics indicating the words are not in the Hebrew, but this is a natural elision, as shown by the common expression ‘tenth part of an ephah’ (e.g. Exod 16:36).

There is no certainty over the exact quantity that an ephah measured. The Anchor Bible Dictionary (the standard academic dictionary) offers 12 litres; Wikipedia goes for 36.4 litres but offers no evidence.[1] The problem of determining the quantity of an ephah is compounded by time and cultural influences. We shouldn’t assume that an ephah in pre-exilic Judah was the same as an ephah during the Babylonian Exile or afterwards. Further, we shouldn’t assume that an ephah is the same size basket for all the types of grain and flour; we could well have a system in which an ephah of flour was a small basket and an ephah of grain was a larger basket.

For our text, it is important to see and think of an ephah and not a basket because quantity is placed in the foreground of the vision – a quantity to do with wickedness. There are four details about the ephah in this vision:

1. It is large enough to have a figurine thrown down into it.
2. It is shaped and made of a material that can bear a mouth and a lead lid.
3. It can be carried by two women.
4. It can have a base.

We can infer that the ephah of Zechariah is not like a picnic basket or a shopping basket or anything we would call a basket because it was capable of holding up a lead lid and having something thrown down into it – we should be thinking in terms of a storage jar with handles.

Trade and commerce and the tax interests of government in trade and commerce is at the heart of this vision.

The angel ‘comes forward’ just as the ephah ‘goes forward’ – the Hebrew verb is the same and very common. There is also a contrast to note between ‘lift up your eyes’ spoken to Zechariah and ‘This is their eye through all the land’ spoken of the ephah.

The translations differ: the KJV and NASB follow the MT and the NASB has,

I said, ‘What is it?’ And he said, ‘This is the ephah going forth.’ Again he said, ‘This is their appearance in all the land.’ Zech 5:6 (NASB)

The RSV has,

And I said, ‘What is it?’ He said, ‘This is the ephah that goes forth.’ And he said, ‘This is their iniquity in all the land.’ Zech 5:6 (RSV)

The Hebrew is the ordinary word for ‘eye, appearance’ and there is a homonym meaning ‘spring’. The RSV is following the LXX with ‘iniquity’ and amending the MT, but the MT is preferable. We can, however, make sense of the association of eyes and movement through all the land.

For who hath despised the day of small things? For they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven; they are the eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the whole earth. Zech 4:10 (KJV)

The seven eyes run to and fro through the whole land and here in the vision of the Ephah, the ephah is ‘their eye’ in all the land. What we need to do is trace the motif of ‘eyes’ through the visions which supports a revision of the NASB as follows:

I said, ‘What is it?’ And he said, ‘This is the ephah (fem.) going forth.’ Again he said, ‘This (fem.) is their eye (masc.) in all the land.’ Zech 5:6 (NASB revised)

So, the vision assumes that we know the reference of ‘their’ in ‘their eye’, but clearly they are not the eyes of the Lord or even on the side of the Lord. If we track back through the visions, there are those who despise the day of small things (Zech 4:10). And then further back there is ‘the Satan’ standing beside Joshua (Zech 3:1) opposing him.

These opponents are identified in Ezra 5:3,

At the same time came to them Tatnai, governor on this side the river, and Shetharboznai, and their companions, and said thus unto them, ‘Who hath commanded you to build this house, and to make up this wall?’ Ezra 5:3 (KJV)

And a further intertextual link with Zechariah is in v. 5 where have,

But the eye of their God was upon the elders of the Jews, that they could not cause them to cease, till the matter came to Darius: and then they returned answer by letter concerning this matter. Ezra 5:5 (KJV)

We can identify ‘their eye’ in Zech 5:6 to be the eye opposing the eye of Yahweh and to comprise Tatnai, Shetharboznai and their companions. The ‘eye’ of the governor through all the land would be the officials who raise taxes and oversee the local elders of Yehud. The reason for the use of ‘eye’ is that this network of government is seen as a network of hostile intelligence gathering and opposition to Yehud and Jerusalem.

We can see why Zechariah sees an ephah: it is a symbol of the governor and it represents his interests in Yehud, which would concern the raising of taxes and the produce of the land. An ephah is a measure around which taxes would have been calculated. The account in Ezra reads as a neutral enquiry sent to Darius, but the vision sees ‘wickedness’ in the ephah. The political motives of the governor and his companions are wicked – self-serving.

The ephah moves twice: at the beginning of the vision it ‘goes forth’ or ‘comes forth’ and at the end of the vision it is carried to Shinar. This obviously corresponds to the coming to Jerusalem of those opposed to building the temple and then their sending of a letter to Darius in Shinar, carried in the vision by two women.

The description of what the messengers aim to achieve in Shinar is stated as,

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’. Zech 5:11 (KJV revised)

This is an expression of intention. The intention of the women is to validate the ephah: the NASB is a little clearer

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.” Zech 5:11 (NASB)

What we have here is a metaphorical description of diplomacy and the presentation of policy. The intention of the women is clear. They will prepare the ground for presenting the proposals of the governor concerning the Jerusalem temple. This is the building of a ‘temple’. They will then present the concerns – and this is the setting up of the ephah on a pedestal in the ‘temple’. The metaphor is chosen because the historical context revolves around the Jerusalem temple.

The challenge of Tatnai, Shetharboznai, and their companions was about the ‘house’ of Yahweh, that it shouldn’t be built. The outcome of their diplomacy is the opposite of what they wanted. A decree was found in “the house of the rolls” in (Ezra 6:1) to the effect that the temple foundations should be laid and the temple built. Moreover, the governor would have to provide supplies and funds for the completion of the task.

We can now answer some supplementary questions.

The ‘cover of lead’ (NASB) is the round lid of the ephah-jar, but the translation ‘talent’ (KJV) is implausible because this common translation is usually associated with gold and silver. We might well ask why there is this detail. Is it just colour for the vision or is there symbolic significance? The other uses of the word ‘lead’ (not common) offer no help, but there may be an echo with the specification of the composition of the tabernacle vessels which are made with talents of gold and silver. The ephah is to stand on a pedestal in a house and this is clearly a temple metaphor, but ‘lead’ would be a un-temple-like metal and a way of making a scathing comment about the wickedness that was in the ephah.

The NASB renders v. 7 as follows,

… (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is one woman sitting inside the ephah.

I have revised the translation to add the word ‘one’ which is in the Hebrew. Literally, it reads, ‘and this, a woman, one, sitting in the middle of the ephah’. The woman is a figurine which the angel picks up and then throws back into the ephah-jar. And she is given a name ‘Wickedness’. The Hebrew is h[‘v.rI. This word occurs 15x and it carries a sense of civil and societal wickedness. Other texts refer to the ‘wickedness of the nations’ or the ‘fault’ that is brought before the judge.

And it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his fault, by a certain number. Deut 25:2 (KJV)

And she hath changed my judgments into wickedness more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have refused my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them. Ezek 5:6 (KJV)

This is a suitable word to describe the intentions and behaviour towards the Jerusalem temple of the governor of the land beyond the river and his companions – it is civil and societal in its intent and effect.

The ‘two women’ that come for the ephah would represent two cities and we can well hypothesize that they are cities that resent the work in rebuilding Jerusalem. The only other use of ‘two women’ as a symbol is that of Aholah, and Aholibah (Ezekiel 23), but obviously here in Zechariah we don’t know the identity of the two cities that would take the ephah to Shinar. They have the wings of a stork which is one of the abominable unclean birds of the Law of Moses (Lev 11:13-19). It’s a negative characterization of these women. Since the whole episode concerns the Jerusalem temple, the cities are likely other cultic centres with a vested interest in seeing the temple in Jerusalem not rebuilt (cf. the Samaritans of Ezra 4). This means that the one woman in the ephah is also a city and presumably the leading city delegation in opposing the building of the temple. It’s obviously commonplace for cities to make representations to governors in pursuing their interests and these might well be against other cities.