Page:Visions and Prophecies of Zechariah (Baron, David).djvu/172

 wings of a stork " coming forth " from the invisible, and the wind was in their wings, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven. On his inquiring of the angel: " Whither do these bear the ephah? " the answer was:

"To build her an house in the land of Shinar: and when (or if } it be prepared (or established } it shall be set there upon her own base."

The Significance of the Symbolism

Let me now try very simply to explain the various items in this vision in the order in which they occur in the text.

(a) The ephah, the same as bath, was the largest measure for dry goods in use among the Jews, though there is still some difference of opinion as to its exact size and capacity. The most general interpretation of this symbol the one which I myself have previously held is that it signified the (full) measure of Israel's sins, beyond which there is to be no more forgiveness, but a carrying away, or banishing from the land, or (as some interpreters will have it) from " the earth." Thus, already one of the, Church Fathers, quoting the solemn words of our Lord, " Fill ye up tfie measure of your fathers" says: " The measure, then, which the prophet saw pointed to the filling-up of the measure of the transgression against Himself"; and another says: "The angel bids him behold the sins of the people Israel heaped together in a perfect measure, and the transgression of all fulfilled, that the sins which escaped notice one by one, might, when collected together, be laid open to the eyes of all, and Israel might go forth from its place, and it might be shown to all what she was in her own land."

A so.mewhat similar interpretation is given by Kliefoth (who is folJowed by Keil and others), who says: " Just as