TEXT [Commentary]

  G.   A Flying Scroll (5:1-4)

1 I looked up again and saw a scroll flying through the air.

2 “What do you see?” the angel asked.

“I see a flying scroll,” I replied. “It appears to be about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.[*]”

3 Then he said to me, “This scroll contains the curse that is going out over the entire land. One side of the scroll says that those who steal will be banished from the land; the other side says that those who swear falsely will be banished from the land. 4 And this is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says: I am sending this curse into the house of every thief and into the house of everyone who swears falsely using my name. And my curse will remain in that house and completely destroy it—even its timbers and stones.”

NOTES

5:1 I looked up again. The sixth of eight successive visions that Zechariah experienced in the same night.

scroll flying. A scroll (megillah [TH4039, ZH4479]) was the equivalent of a book in biblical times. It was most often made of rolled parchment (or leather), but sometimes papyrus or metal (like tin or copper) might be used as the writing material. Here the scroll is unfurled like a banner for all to see, much like a banner flown as an advertising trailer behind a small airplane (or perhaps a sort of precursor of the modern “billboard”).

5:3 the curse. The term ’alah [TH423, ZH460] may be understood as an “oath” (e.g., Deut 29:12, NIV) or a “curse” (Deut 29:19). The close relationship between the two meanings of the word stems from the fact that the act of oath-taking in a covenant ceremony binds the parties to the attendant curses threatened for any violation of the agreement. Here the word alludes to the curses invoked against those who violate the stipulations of the Mosaic covenant (Deut 29:20). By means of the literary device of personification, “the curse” is set loose like a law officer to do God’s bidding in the punishment of covenant violations (5:4; cf. Ps 147:15; Isa 55:11).

COMMENTARY [Text]

Zechariah’s vision of the flying scroll was a reminder to the leaders and the people of postexilic Judah that they were still obligated to obey the commandments of the Mosaic covenant. Beyond this, the Hebrew community needed to understand that the conditional curses of the Sinai treaty were still operative. This vision hearkens back to the charge to Jeshua, the high priest, to follow God’s ways and serve him carefully by obeying the priestly prescriptions of the Torah (3:7). It also looks forward to the removal of sin from the community portrayed in the seventh vision (5:5-11) and to Zechariah’s sermons calling for social justice (7:9-10; 8:16-17).

The preterist view understands the vision of the flying scroll as a call to postexilic Judah to return to God in covenant renewal and as a charge to the Levitical priesthood to instruct the people in obedience to the law of Moses (cf. Deut 33:9-10). The futurist view regards the vision as a projection of the righteous rule of Jesus Christ as the “Word of God” in the millennial kingdom when the Messiah will impose the law of God upon the nations (Rev 19–20). Some even suggest that the flying scroll declaring the message of the Mosaic covenant is the foreshadowing of the proclamation of the gospel of Christ via telecommunication satellites.