What Does Zechariah 5:6 Mean?
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is the ephah going out. And he said again, This is their eye across all the earth.
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.
King James wording
King James Version
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the ephah’s “resemblance” their eye: the measure going out across the land becomes the people’s visible face.
THE MEANING
The image travels in an ephah, a measure used in ordinary exchange, and is named as the people’s visible likeness across the whole land. What moves through common life becomes the face by which the community is seen.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that what a community puts into circulation is too ordinary to reveal its character.
THE ROOT
עֵינָם
ʿênām
GROWS FROM
עין
Eye; in this expression, the visible appearance or likeness.
The Hebrew says “their eye” where the KJV gives “their resemblance”: the ephah presents a visible face, not merely an abstract label. That likeness extends through all the earth, so what goes out in the measure becomes the public appearance of its makers.
ALSO GROWS
ʿayin: Eye; also a spring or source.
עַיִן
The verse’s “their eye” names what is seen; the same word family can also name a spring, where something emerges into view.
maʿyan: Spring, fountain.
מַעְיָן
This related form keeps the sense of a source coming into view, echoing the image that goes forth across the land.
הַיּוֹצֵאת
hayyōṣēʾt
GROWS FROM
יצא
To go out, emerge, or depart.
“the ephah going out” in this verse is hayyōṣēʾt. The participle describes the ephah as already going out: it is a moving image, not a measure held in isolation. The root’s sense of emerging makes the verse’s likeness something that comes into public view.
ALSO GROWS
yatsa: To go out, emerge, depart.
יָצָא
This is the verb’s root form, carrying the same movement expressed by the ephah that goes forth.
motsa: Going out, outlet, point of departure.
מוֹצָא
This noun from the same root keeps attention on what issues outward, matching the image’s movement through the land.
THE PATTERN
The measures people put into circulation make the character of their common life visible.
Are there still storehouses of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the lean measure that seethes?Scales of deceit are an abomination to the LORD, but a whole stone is his delight.Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and spilling over, they will give into your lap. For with the same measure you measure out, it will be measured back to you.THE THREAD
Saying, When will the new moon cross over, that we may sell the grain? And the Sabbath, that we may open out the wheat? Making the measure small and the shekel great, and tilting the scales of deceit?Amos names the ephah as a measure deliberately shrunk to deceive; Zechariah shows an ephah going out as the people’s likeness across the land. The shared image grounds the vision in the everyday measure through which injustice becomes visible.
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