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COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH, CHAPTER FIVE I 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 (348) 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 (vv.1–4). GAIN IN THIS case, in my view, you would not take the phrase I turned around in reference to place, but rather to a change to another vision. After identifying the first vision, remember, and when his sight turned to the next, he used the term turned around to suggest what took place. So he lifts the eyes of his mind on high, and then sees a scythe like a bird raised on high and, as it were, darting across the whole earth. It was very long and broad, twenty cubits long and half that number in breadth. Now, when he proceeded to ask what it was and admitted to not knowing, he said, This is the curse that issues forth on the face of all the earth, inflicting upon the perjurer the punishment befitting him and upon the thief along with him. There is no difficulty as far as a more obvious explanation of the revelation goes: a divine curse will in all its gravity and without reprieve be directed at thieves and in addition to them at those in the habit of taking false oaths; by shearing the violators with a scythe, as it were, it will turn them into thatch for roofs, and feed them as fuel for the fire, enter the house of such a man, proceed to topple and shake it severely. (349) I think it is necessary to busy ourselves in scholarly fashion with the reasons why the present vision in the text before us is 142 COMMENTARY ON ZECHARIAH 5 143 included with the others. Why is it, a fair-minded person might ask, that of the huge number of faults in daily life and as well the actual involvement of the Israel of that time in different crimes, it says that the punishment of the scythe is imposed only on thieves and perjurers, or at least the curse will enter, cutting down those it catches and completely toppling them? Our reply to such questions is that God through the holy prophets makes a response that fits each occasion, always benefiting in some way the current situation. It was therefore necessary for the people of the time in particular that the vision be clarified; we shall provide the reasons, and demonstrate that it was timely.1 The people of Israel had just left Chaldea, remember, had laid aside the yoke of slavery, had returned to Judea, and were in Jerusalem. They should have abandoned those ancient faults, reformed past behavior with recourse to better ways, and given joy to their Redeemer by opting to perform what was pleasing to him; but they continued the same as ever, heedlessly violating the prescriptions of the Law. Though Moses had forbidden them to have relations with foreign women,2 in fact, they paid little attention to his decrees, involving their daughters with the neighboring nations, fathering children to foreigners, and once again filling the holy city with unholy offspring. There were also, however, some of the more conspicuous among them who (350) remained aloof from such faults; Ezra deplored the events, occupying the divine house and offering prayers for the offenders. There then occurred something which we know from what was written by him,3 as follows: “When Ezra was praying and making his confession, weeping and lying on the ground in front of the Temple, there gathered around him a very great crowd from Jerusalem, men and women and youths, for there was great weeping among the multitude. Shechaniah son of Jehiel, one of the men of Israel, called out and said to Ezra, We have sinned against the Lord 1. On this passage, as...

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