29. What was exposed as being inside the ephah, and what was the name given thereto?

²⁹ “And, look!” says Zechariah, “the circular lid of lead was lifted up; and this is a certain woman sitting in the midst of the ephah.

Zechariah 5:7, 8.

30. (a) So what did the “woman” inside picture, and her being confined in the ephah suggest? (b) Did the container’s being an ephah used in commercial affairs limit the kind of wickedness symbolized, but in any case where did it belong?

³⁰ So the wickedness of all the inhabitants of the land is symbolized by a woman. But now this “wickedness” has been confined like the woman inside the ephah measure. It itself has been measured off, and the time for its permission in the land has also been measured off by the Sovereign Lord Jehovah. And to keep it confined, a heavy circular lid of lead has been put upon the ephah measure’s mouth. The ephah in being a measure used in trading might suggest something commercial and, correspondingly, contain commercial wickedness, bad business dealings. But not necessarily so! A measure can be taken also of all fields of human relations and activities, and that appears to be how “wickedness” as symbolized here should be viewed.