This chapter has been dealt with in many ways by the sacred writers, but we will leave such trivial things and human opinions and tackle the matter ourselves as best we can.
In the previous chapters, the prophet admonished and strengthened the leader, the priest and the people, which we have interpreted enough and more than enough. Then he applied everything to the future and imminent kingdom of Christ, which he described as being a kingdom of joy and supreme rest. etc. In this chapter he will now proceed in the manner of all prophets. This is the characteristic of all prophets, that they not only describe the blessedness of Christ's kingdom in very rich and lovely words, but also add the faithlessness and the terrible fall of Israel, which did not want to receive and acknowledge this King and Savior Christ. And so they preach by visions, by lamentations and many prophecies the eternal and miserable fall of the people.
The apostles also followed this way. Paul and Peter clearly proclaim that after the preaching of the gospel wolves will break in, false teachers, who will rage against the host of the Lord according to their will and trample everything underfoot. So also says the prophet Daniel [Cap. 12, 1O.P. "And the ungodly shall lead ungodly lives" etc. Quite the same as I have said does Zechariah here. Since he had prophesied of the tin measure, he immediately adds at the same time what shall happen to this people, which will not receive this kingdom of Christ. And this is the summa of the whole chapter. Actually, it refers to the Pharisees, Sadducees and the other scribes, whom Christ found among his people when he announced himself as king and savior, whom he also left behind.
V. 1. And I lifted up mine eyes again, and saw.
He had before his eyes the spirit that comforted the prince Zerubbabel and the people, as we
He saw how after the restoration of the kingdom and the priesthood the temple should be rebuilt, but he sees behind sad and terrible things, which would happen soon after, after those exceedingly happy things were over. And this is what the prophet means when he says [in the Vulgate: Et conversus sum] that he turned and saw a flying book, just as Abraham, looking back when he was about to sacrifice Isaac, saw a ram with its horns hanging in the thorns etc. [Gen. 22:13.]
And behold, it was a flying letter (volumen).
The likeness is quite suitable and delicate. A book (volumen) can indicate nothing else than the doctrine or the law, because here is nothing of warlike things, no swords, no horses, no weapons. The prophet therefore sees that after him would come a kind of godless doctrine, for there arose sects, the Sadducees, Pharisees and Essaeans.
V. 2. 1) It is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.
Here some raise a question about the numbers. I simply think that if there is a secret in the numbers, that by the number the width and the length of Solomon's portico is indicated, and that this is alluded to, as if he wants to show that by this book not right things are taught, but only external things, as the portico was outside the temple. Or else I would have the number simply referred to the history of the face, namely, that the heresies and ungodly doctrines creep and spread far, having many who follow their destruction, as Peter says [2 Ep. 2, 2.], that thus the greatness of the book indicates the power and effectiveness of ungodly doctrine. The prophet himself interprets the book, saying:
1) This verse number is missing in Weimar's.
2) Instead of Iiuuk, woU Naue will be read, referring to portieus.
V. 3: This is the curse that goes out over the whole land.
This is, of course, a good price to pay for ungodly doctrine, that he calls it a curse. For it takes away the blessing and the grace that is offered to all through the gospel. Because this is a word to blessedness, therefore it is called a word of blessing, as [Gen. 12:3.], "In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed," that is, blessing shall be proclaimed to them through the gospel, for it takes away wrath and vengeance, and bestows the blessing and favor of God.
And to this passage the apostle seems to have looked more than once, since with such large and vehement words he often attacks doctrine which is not sound, as also in the Epistle to the Galatians [Cap. 3, 10.], "They that deal in the works of the law are under the curse."
Across the country,
Namely, the Jewish one.
For all thieves are spoken of piously according to this letter. 1)
The Hebrew text seems to mean something quite different [from that of the Vulgate), for one reads according to the Hebrew thus: For every thief will be declared innocent after this in such a manner. And such is the proper meaning of the Hebrew word, nor do I remember it ever having any other meaning in Scripture. For it is quite the same verbum Ps. 19:14: "Then shall I be without change, and" be cleansed, or "remain innocent of great iniquity." Therefore also what follows must be translated thus: all [falsely] swearing will be declared equally innocent according to the same, as if he wanted to say: This book is such that it gives freedom to sin, and promises hope of impunity; "it makes the boys free" that they can do anything according to their will. For in this way the papist laws have also given freedom to the missal priests and the
1) Vulgate: Omnis kur, sieut idi seripturn est, juäieabitur.
He [the pope] even allows robbery and theft, if only a part of the booty falls to him, so that he can gather money and goods under the pretext of religion, rightly or wrongly. In this way, perjurers are also absolved. This actually belongs to the doctrine, because all doctrine comes under the name of the Lord, and also all preachers confirm their doctrine with the name of the Lord, saying that they come in the name of the Lord, which is clear from all the prophets. So also Christ confirmed his teaching by an oath. The summa of this passage is therefore this: The doctrine that is to come is of such a nature that it will teach ungodliness, so that by theft will be signified all shameful laws that serve robbery and gain, and by perjury will be signified all ungodly laws that serve ungodliness. This is quite clear when we look at the Pabstium. One part of Pabstism is that it teaches trust in works against Christ and the grace in Christ shown to the world; the other part is that, as I have said, the decrees of Pabst reek only of avarice, which is also confessed by the teachers of the decrees themselves. And so they first rob souls through ungodly doctrine, and then they also rob bodies by sucking out people's possessions and goods through deceit and all kinds of falsifications. This is how this passage can be understood, because the Pharisees also did the same, as is evident from the Gospel history, how they were intent on their belly and their avarice, as Christ punishes them with a very severe rebuke Matth. 23, 14: "You who devour widows' houses" etc. [as he says, v. 16.] of swearing by the gold at the temple etc. Then the ungodly doctrine, namely by teaching trust in works, as all the evangelists are full of, as they always resisted Christ in his teaching. And it cannot be otherwise than that, when we have lost Christ and the right doctrine, we blindly serve our lusts and have the belly to our God, as the apostle says. For in this way all that the monks and the ministers of the Mass have acquired in the most unjust way.
V. 4. But I will bring it forth, saith the Lord of hosts.
I, he says, will bring this book to light, that is, when they have sinned enough with their ungodly doctrine, when they have come to the highest, then I will make known how all theirs is ungodly theft and perjury; I will make known the ungodliness of the doctrine, that under the pretense of the name of God they have only been a ruin of souls and have led my name uselessly, as he says here: ["It shall come] upon the house of those who swear falsely by my name."]. This revelation of error has come through the gospel, which has come to the house of thieves and of those who swear falsely, that is, he has taken vengeance on them by making their ungodly error manifest, and, as they themselves have devoured both the souls and the bodies of men, so shall they in turn be devoured altogether with all that is theirs. Namely so even I will not suffer it unpunished etc. No one could deny that this is clearer than the sun at noon, for the Jews are so exceedingly miserable scattered over the whole world that they do not have even a small place where they can safely dwell; everywhere they are exiled and rejected and blinded by God. And this is the first face, now follows the other.
V. 5 Lift up thine eyes, and behold, what cometh out?
This likeness also goes to the same thing, because this prophet has the way that he almost always uses two visions to one and the same thing, which we have also seen in the previous.
V. 6. 7. 1) [And I said, What is it? but he said, An ephah goeth forth etc.]
So he sees an ephah going out (but it is a common measure with the Jews, as with us it is the bushel; a gomer was the tenth part of an ephah; we might translate it by barrel [metretam]), Secondly, he sees
1) The verse number "6." is in the Weimar only at the following keyword. The verse number "7." is missing.
He sees a penny of lead and a woman sitting in the middle of the barrel, but in such a way that the woman protrudes above the barrel, since she is elevated by her hurried seat. He sees the hundredweight of lead flying towards him, which was so large that it completely covered the mouth of the barrel, as he immediately adds, since the woman was frightened that the hundredweight of lead was thrown at her mouth, that is, at the mouth of the barrel. The prophet himself interprets the woman, but not equally the penny. Very beautifully, however, the godless life is described, therefore the reason or the cause of the parable must be searched, why he had used these things.
This is their figure (oculus) throughout the land.
That is, the appearance and shape of what is in the land. For this is how the Hebrew language uses the word "eye" (oculi). Ps. 6:8 (Vulg.): "My eye is dim with mourning." Likewise in the second book of Moses (Cap. 10, 13. according to the Hebrew]: "The locusts covered the eye of the land," that is, the all-seeing and the surface. It is therefore the same opinion as Paul says [2 Tim. 3, 5.]: "Those have the appearance of a godly being, but his power they deny." By this the prophet meant to indicate that the barrel is the image or figure which follows their doctrine. Thus the appearance of the papist decrees consists in caps, plates, cords with which they gird themselves, ceremonies, certain days, certain formulas of prayer etc. Everything is measured in the most exact way, as it were with a metre, everything is put into certain forms, bound to certain places, times and persons. Thus the form of the measure refers to ungodliness. But the use of the measure goes to avarice, because they are only fit to consume the fruits. "They are gluttons", belly servants, since the belly is their god. But in this measure sits not a man, but a woman, that is human reason. The godless heart and godless delusion governs all this, not the Holy Spirit, while they think to please GOtte. But she sits, that is, she sits on top, she rules, she teaches, as Christ says (Matth. 23, 2.]: "They sit on Mosi's chair" Then, that he says: "in the whole country", means that the godless
Doctrine eats away, not unlike cancer, as Paul says [2 Tim. 2:17].
"The centner of lead" 1) but hovers in the air, that is, hypocrisy is uoch not suppressed, sits still safe, but he sees the future suppression of godlessness, as he adds.
V. 8. and he threw them into the ephah, and threw the lump of lead on top of the hole.
That is, he took away her sitting, he makes her dismayed, since she was pushed into the barrel from the high seat by which she was raised above the barrel before, and so, since the centner of lead was thrown on the mouth of the barrel, she is covered in it. That is, ungodliness is indeed cast down by the gospel, it is put to shame, but it is not ameliorated. Hypocrisy always remains, it cannot be improved, even those who are so devoted to hypocrisy harden themselves even more and sink deeper into their ungodliness, however hard they are overcome and put to shame by the gospel. We see this happening to our lines, just as it happened to the Jews, however much they were punished by Christ. And so they still lie sunk in their error, so that there is no hope that they will come out. Yes, every day they only blaspheme more, therefore they are even more blinded, since they are most miserably rejected by God, have no temple, no kingdom, no priesthood, no public schools. When they teach something, they teach their own; when they teach people, they teach their people, and in their corners they murmur privately, pushed away into this barrel, and so closed that they cannot come out. The same will happen to our 2) despisers of the gospel, in that the gospel will be taken away again if the world should stand any longer.
"The lump of lead" is completely the same, what the prophets call "burden", as when they say [Zech. 12, 1.]: "The burden of the word of the Lord" etc. In short, it is the burden of the judgment of the Lord, by which their heart and
1) In our prelims: auri instead of: pluradi.
2) Instead of nokis we have assumed nostris.
conscience is oppressed, since they, so immersed in hypocrisy, cannot come out. For, as I have said, the Jews who are ruined by the gospel, having completely fallen away from the faith, stick to their works. They stubbornly hold on to them, but still their consciences are so upset and frightened, no matter how much they struggle with many works, that they never dare to lift up their heads freely; so weighed down is their heart and their mind. They never boast and are once happy in God, they never come to taste the goodness and mercy of God; they are most severely pressed by that lead. And this happens with necessity to all hypocrisy, which at first pretends an excellent appearance, as I said above, but it comes to this end etc. And this is what the Psalm says, on this opinion: The wicked will be straitened in their distresses. For this is the way of hypocrisy, that it brings the conscience into 'straits, decisively, and oppressively. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit leads out into the wide space, that is, into freedom; he straightens the heart, and makes the conscience joyful and satisfied. For this word is used in the Scripture Ps. 18, 20: "And he led me out into space." Likewise [Ps. 119, 32. Vulg.], "Thou makest my heart wide," etc. But [Isa. 57, 21.], "The wicked have not peace."
V. 9. And behold, two women came out.
That is, two women were brought in or paraded or walked out.
And had wings that the HErr drove (Vontn8 in rUi8 oarnm).
That is, their wings moved before the wind. They had movable wings, just as Isaiah [Cap. 6, 2.] also saw the seraphim flying with two wings.
But they were wings like stork wings (a1a8
inilvi).
Already several times I have reminded that the Hebrew grammarians are of very different opinion about words which mean things, as one is also doubtful here concerning the word which our Latin interpreter
translated by milvus. I translated: herons, following the passage in the Psalm [Ps. 104, 17.]: "The herons dwell on the firs."
And they led the ephah between earth and heaven.
That is, flying at the same time, they led the ephah thus closed with the lead raised between heaven and earth.
V. 11. 1) That a house may be built for him in the land of Siuear, and prepared.
"In the land of Siuear." Where Sinear was located is clear from Genesis 11:2, where it is described that the children of Noah went towards the east and found the land of Sinear, in which the Babylonian tower was built. In this place it is said that it was a very large and lovely plain. Furthermore, instead of what we read [in the Vulgate]: et stabiliatur, it is more correctly read: "and prepared". Now we will deal with how this face 3) is to be understood. After the ephah was closed by the lead, the prophet saw that it was taken away again out of sight, high up in the air. This indicates that the wickedness will not remain in this people, but will be taken to another place by these two flying women. The leading away is completely reversed. The Jews have been transferred from Babylon to Jerusalem, but the ephah is taken away from Jerusalem to Babylon. In sum, this indicates that they are to be completely eradicated and cast out of the church in whose place we are planted, as Paul abundantly explains in the letter to the Romans [Cap. 11, 17. 19. 23. f.]. But he is led away by wives. But he indicates the office of teaching, for there is no doubt that the two cherubim in Moses and Isaiah signify the office of the word, since in their midst the grace-
1) The Weimar edition has this verse number and keyword only before the next section. This has a certain justification, because in the following the whole face v. 9-11. is summarized.
2) In our original: Oenes. e. 10. For this, however, one can refer to Cap. 10, 10. but not rightly.
3) Instead of verkionis we have assumed visionis.
The word is the chair, that is, Christ, to whom all Scripture is directed, and of whom alone the ministry of the word is concerned. They have wings, because the word flies, runs fast. This is also what the poets wanted to express with their winged god Mercurius, from where he also got his name, why he was called ¸ñìçò 4), as Virgil also depicts the rumor winged, because no other evil has a greater mobility etc. Therefore, just as in the godly service of the pure word this is signified by the wings, here also in the ungodliness the ungodly office of the ungodly word is signified. Therefore, the two winged women mean everything that the Jews teach or their ungodly word. But the women fly, not the men, that is, all their teaching, their sermons and words are carnal. They are two women, as two cherubim are, because the word takes its place between the one who speaks and the one who hears, just as Christ always sent two to preach. The sum of all this is that the misery and misfortune of the Jews is so great that they are not only kept locked up in the ephah, so that they cannot escape, but also that they will never hear the pure word. Godless teachers must be brought together to hold back the people so that they never hear the right word, who are locked in the highest ungodliness, as the Lord also threatens in Isaiah [Cap. 5, 6.]: "I will command my clouds not to rain on them" etc. He describes in a terrifying way the fall of this people, which is so desperate that even no part of the restoration is left; they shall be rejected forever, never be converted, so that they will not be saved. For it indicates that their doctrine touches neither heaven nor earth, that is, that they neither teach nor comprehend the kingdom of God nor that of the world, that they no longer have either the spiritual or the corporal kingdom, that the twofold reign has perished, that is, the spiritual of Joshua the priest and the corporal or temporal of Zerubbabel the prince; in short, that they both teach and comprehend the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world.
4) III of the Weimarschen: 'iwLläe; in the Erlanger:
have lost the kingdom as well as the priesthood. Although the Jews see and know this, they cannot recognize their error because they are so miserably blinded. Thus they allow themselves to be carried high between heaven and earth; their stubbornness makes them insurmountable.
That a house may be built for him in the land of Sinear.
He does not consider it worthy to attach the new name to it, but keeps the old one. For he does not say: in Babylon, but: "in Sinear". There, he says, it will be built and prepared. Here the question arises as to the place, for it is in the comparison of the two places that one must not imagine a certain physical place. The opinion is recently this: The people who are now in the twofold regime, the spiritual and the temporal, who have been brought back from Babylon, will also finally be led into the true Jerusalem. But the others who are lost will not only not remain in Jerusalem, but will even go away to Babylon.
will be led to spiritual (mysticam) Babylon, that is, to a disgraced place, to the greatest blindness, to a place where there is wrath, judgment and vengeance of God, no peace, no grace, no mercy, no Jerusalem. All this follows them wherever they may be.
And prepared (Et dimittatur ibi).
And there it shall be left. This is the most lamentable and frightening thing, that this error cannot be repaired, that this rejection lasts forever, just as everywhere in the Scriptures the threats of the Lord are quite frightening [Hos. 1:6]: "I will no longer have mercy on them", likewise [Hos. 4:6]: "I will forget forever", as one can see everywhere in the prophets. So they are let go, and "are set on the ground," that is, on their hardness, obstinacy and godless stubbornness, that there is no hope to set them right again; they are cut out of the tree, as the apostle says in the letter to the Romans [Cap. 11, 8.ff.] etc.