Commentary on Zechariah

Commentary on Zechariah 5

COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH 5 turned around, lifted up my eyes, and looked, and, lo, a scythe flying. He said to me, What do you see? I replied, I see a scythe flying, twenty cubits in length and ten cubits in breadth. He said to me, This is the curse that issues forth on the face of all the earth, because every thief will be punished from this point to the moment of death, and every perjurer will be punished from this point to the moment of death. I shall bring it forth, says the Lord almighty, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one swearing falsely in my name; it will cause destruction in the middle of his house and topple it, its timbers and its stones (Zec 5.1–4). Turning from the previous vision, I lifted up the eyes of my mind, and I saw a flying scythe twenty cubits long and ten cubits broad.1 Of the scythe the one showing the vision said, “It is the curse—that is, the punishment—imposed on the whole earth to cut down and destroy the thief and perjurer.” Note, for one thing, the extent of the instruction given through revelation, making clear what is not clear from what is clear, spiritual things from material ones. I mean, as by his verdict the just judge examines the righteous and the impious, dealing with all individually according to their behavior and actions , [Scripture] uses for the penalties imposed on unjust and impious people the terms sword and arrows in some cases, axe and scythe in others. For example, when “wicked people and impostors” and along with them the vengeful demons prove hostile and rebellious in their cruelty, swords and javelins are the terms used of the punishment deservedly imposed on them, wielded by the Lord who says of them in the great song in Deuteronomy, “I shall make my arrows drunk with blood, 1. The LXX has seen “scythe” in the Heb. form for “scroll”; Didymus, if unaware of the solecism, at least pauses to rationalize the unlikely metaphor of a flying scythe. 100 and my sword will devour the blood of the fallen,” and again, “I shall inflict my sword on them, and my arrows will destroy them.”2 Since the punishment falls not only on those on earth who sin, but also on the angels who fell into wickedness (Scripture saying, “God did not spare the sinful angels,” who abandoned their heavenly abode), in Isaiah it is said in the person of God, “My sword was intoxicated in heaven.” The painful judgment passed against the impious is conveyed especially in Amos, the second of the Twelve Prophets, in these terms: “All sinners of the people will meet their end with a sword”;3 the prophetic text does not, in fact, refer to a physical weapon of enemies, since in no circumstance were all sinners of the people annihilated by a visible sword. To similar effect in the seventh psalm as well, the singer makes a threat in saying to those summoned to repentance: “Unless you be converted, he will brandish his sword; he has drawn his bow; with it he has also prepared deadly weapons, and made his arrows into flaming shafts.” And in Jeremiah there is mention of the deadly weapons: “How long will you strike, sword of the Lord, how long until you rest? Return to your scabbard.”4 Now that sufficient comment has been made on the weapons of war striking and injuring cruel and rebellious human beings and demons, let us look also at the obscure statements about the trees that do not bear good fruit but are objects of wrath or actual punishment. For instance, “Produce fruits worthy of repentance,” and a little further on, “Already the axe is set at the root of the trees; so every tree not bearing good fruit will be chopped down and thrown into the fire.” It is against plants taken in this sense that the curse is inflicted like a scythe to chop down those said to bear lethal and harmful fruit. “Our enemies are fools: their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom, and their branches from Gomorrah; their grapes are COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH 5 101 2. 2 Tm 3.13; Dt 32.42, 23. 3. 2 Pt 2.4; Jude 6; Is 34.5; Am 9.10 (Amos placed second by the Alexandrian LXX). Didymus, bent on proceeding...