What Does Zechariah 5:10 Mean?

Then I said to the messenger who spoke with me, Where are these going with the ephah?

Zechariah 5:10 · SDV

Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.

Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.

This verse in the King James

King James wording

King James Version

Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?

THE KEY

The vision makes destination part of the burden: wickedness is not simply lifted away; it is being carried somewhere.

THE MEANING

You see a burden in motion and ask where it is going. The ephah carries wickedness beyond its first enclosure toward a destination where it can be housed. The question makes that destination part of the vision: movement has not yet become release.

WHAT THIS UNDOES

The verse unsettles the belief that moving what is corrupt out of view means it has been dealt with; it asks where the burden is being carried.

THE ROOT

מוֹלִיכִים

molikhim

GROWS FROM

הלך

⁨הלך⁩ (halakh) means to go or walk; in this form, it means to cause to go, lead, or carry.

“going with” in this verse is molikhim. The verb behind “bear” pictures the ephah being made to go onward. The question is not only what is inside the measure, but where this burden is being led.

ALSO GROWS

halakh: go, walk

הָלַךְ

This basic motion is what the carrying form causes the ephah to do.

holikh: lead, bring, cause to go

הוֹלִיךְ

This causative form makes the movement explicit: something is being led onward.

mahalakh: course, movement, process

מַהֲלָךְ

This related noun gives movement a direction and course, fitting the question of where the ephah is headed.

THE PATTERN

What is carried away still has a destination, and that destination can become its dwelling.

And it came to pass, as they pulled up from the sunrise, that they found a cleft in the land of Shinar; and they settled there.

Genesis 11:2 · SDVShinar becomes a place of settlement, the same land named as the ephah’s destination.

Then it said, I will turn back to my house from which I came out, and when it comes, it finds it empty, swept, and adorned.

Matthew 12:44 · SDVThe expelled spirit still has a destination: it returns to a house and seeks to dwell there again.

And he cried out with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great has fallen, has fallen, and has become the place where demons settle, and the holding place of every unclean breath, and the holding place of every unclean and hated bird.

Revelation 18:2 · SDVBabylon becomes a habitation for what it receives, showing how a destination can take the form of a dwelling.

THE THREAD

And he said to me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar, and she shall be set firm and set down there upon her own stand.

Zechariah 5:11 · SDV

The next verse names the destination: the ephah is carried to Shinar so a house can be built for it. The movement ends in settlement, as wickedness is given a structure and a base.

Read the SDV Bible.

Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.

Get Selah Verse

The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.

Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us