Lesson 10 - Zechariah 5 & 6
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THE BOOK OF ZECHARIAH
Lesson 10, Chapters 5 and 6

We ended our previous lesson at Zechariah chapter 5, verse 7, and we were
left with a couple of questions to answer. They were: what has a lead lid over
the ephah basket to do with anything, and why would there be a woman inside
that basket? Before we address those matters, keep in mind that chapters 5
and 6 are said by most Bible commentators to be all about the topic of God’s
judgment. My only disagreement is that I dislike the use of the term
“judgment” because as it is thought of in modern times in the Western world
(especially in the religious sphere), judgment always means a negative
decision or outcome. Judgment is taken to mean the dealing out of
punishment for transgressions. A better term that more exemplifies what is
happening is “justice”. Justice is a more neutral term, which Westerners
understand means to consider facts and then render a proper and fair verdict.
The outcome can be negative or positive depending upon the decision of the
judge based on the evidence before him.

So, in chapters 5 and 6, God is rendering justice first upon the Israelites as
individuals. Next it is upon them as a nation of people (a corporate justice).
And finally, justice upon the gentile nations (that is, everyone else except
Israel). In each instance, a case is presented, and a verdict is rendered.
Interestingly, while God is the presiding judge, it is as the Chief Justice of His
Heavenly Council; the Council of divine beings called elohim that are the
administrators of Heaven. They are to carry out God’s will in Heaven, just as
humans are to carry out God’s will on earth. All of this is expressed in ultra-
complex and mysterious symbolism, some of which can rather clearly be
figured out, but the remainder is much tougher, and we can’t be too rigid on
what we think it might be getting to until the prophecy finally plays out. Part
of the reason for this complexity and its several uncertainties is that it deals
with both Zechariah’s present and also his far future; some things even future
to us (though nearer than ever), like the End Times.

In so much of the Bible…the vast majority of it… we can read a few paragraphs
and come to some reasonable conclusions about the point or points being
made. Zechariah is radically different. Going through Zechariah is like working

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our way through a well-constructed murder mystery novel, in which clues are
dropped chapter by chapter, but the reader can’t make full sense of it all until
the end because that’s how the author intends it. We are still fairly early on in
the dropping of clues in Zechariah; but if we don’t carefully examine each clue
(each symbol) then we’ll not be able to properly put the pieces together even
at the end. Or we’ll come to a wrong conclusion. So, hang in there.

Since chapter 5 is short (11 verses), for the sake of context, we’ll re-read it
all.

RE-READ ZECHARIAH CHAPTER 5 all

I’ll mention again that when we examine each symbolic element, we must do
so in light of the knowledge that we must take each element as but part of a
whole, and we must do that as it would be understood in the minds of the
ancient Israelites in the 6
th
century B.C. in a Hebrew culture… as best we can.

In this present symbolism, the woman in the basket represents wickedness.
This same theme gets carried out in much later times (End Times) as the
Harlot of Babylon; a woman again representing wickedness. In the case of the
ephah, it is a Hebrew cultural object, so the ephah represents Israel’s
corporate sins. Here’s the greater point of the combined symbols: as applies to
Zechariah’s day, it is individual grains that are collected together to fill the
ephah basket and so in like kind are individual sinful Israelites brought
together into one basket to be brought to justice before God. As it applies to
future times, the individual grains are likened to individual sinners from every
nation on earth, and they, too, will be collected into one basket to be brought
to justice before God.

The lead lid on top of the ephah held captive the sinners until God was ready
to mete out His justice. In fact, the lead lid seemed to somewhat hide from
Israel the truth of their own sin until God was ready to deal with it. I dare say,
only very few people ever see themselves as wicked no matter how
disobedient to God that they might be. God worshippers, especially, have a
penchant for thinking that if they merely “believe” in God, then they must be
good. And the Constantinian Church has gone a long way towards convincing

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their congregants that once saved by believing in Christ, then your sinning is
of no further consequence and in a sense, is no longer sin. Simply believing in
Jesus is sufficient for The Father to see you and all your actions as righteous.
This is a dangerously erroneous doctrine. What was happening in Israel in
Bible times…what we are seeing via symbolism in Zechariah… is Israel
believing the same way the Church does today. Oh, yes (they think)… there
are wicked people. It just can’t be us. Those who think that way are those
grains in the ephah, and the lead lid prevents them from escaping and from
seeing their own sin as wickedness, despite them having God’s Word that
gives us all His commands and rules. Divine justice is coming in the future for
those who think that way, just as it did for the Israelites who thought
similarly.

If you want to get a good mental illustration of a certain oft quoted passage of
Revelation, to see how it applies directly to God worshippers of every ilk, then
picture Zechariah’s ephah basket as the End Times container and gathering
place of the wicked as I read it to you yet again:

CJB
Revelation 18:4-5
4
Then I heard another voice out of heaven say:
"My people, come out of her! so that you will not share in her sins, so
that you will not be infected by her plagues,
5
for her sins are a sticky
mass piled up to heaven, and God has remembered her crimes.

The only way any of us come out of the ephah basket that is destined for
justice is FIRST to recognize and confess our wicked condition and our error-
filled doctrinal beliefs. Then SECOND, we have to consciously heed God’s call
to “come out of her”, leaving all that sin and heresy behind us regardless of
the personal cost.

Moving to verse 9, we read:

CJB
Zechariah 5:9
9
I raised my eyes and saw two women coming with
the wind in their wings; for they had wings like those of a stork. They
lifted the eifah up between the earth and the sky.

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Next we read that the basket was flown away to Shinar by these female
winged creatures, where a shrine or a temple would be built to it. Why are
these winged creatures specifically female? There is nothing definite to
indicate why that is. Human-like winged creatures are usual fare in the Bible.
Cherubim are perhaps the closest mental picture to these 2 female creatures.
However, the winged Cherubim are decidedly depicted as male in the Bible.
So, these 2 creatures cannot be Cherubs. I lean towards them not being any
more real than the woman in the basket but are only invented figures for use
as symbols. If they are real, they are certainly Heavenly creatures sent by
God, but we can know no more. Some commentators want to draw a
connection between the figure in the basket as being a woman and the winged
creatures as female. Perhaps there is a connection but none I can discern.

Let’s return for a few moments to the woman in the basket, again
remembering the effect this symbol would have had on 6
th
century B.C.
Israelite minds. Theirs was still a world full of gods, goddesses, shrines, priests
and prophets of all kinds, and a world full of people (including most Israelites)
who still worshipped those many gods and goddesses… it is only that Israel
had but one God whose name was Yehoveh. Stay with me, because while
technical it serves to explain more about what is being depicted and how we
are to understand it.

In Hebrew, the word used for wickedness is harishah. It means The
Wickedness (or The Evil), and NOT simply wickedness. In other words, The
Wickedness is the name of the woman. It characterizes her and is the opposite
of righteousness. Importantly, of the 13 times it is used in Scripture, it always
has some connection to idolatry. So, a good way to think of the meaning of
harishah is wickedness associated with idolatry. And, to God, idolatry is the
supreme wickedness.

Because the figure in the ephah is a woman, then in the pagan god systems,
she represents a goddess. Chief among all the goddesses is Ishtar, the fertility
goddess that is married to Ba’al. She is also known in the Bible (such as in
Jeremiah) as the Queen of Heaven, a direct link to the cult of Ishtar. Jeremiah
was very concerned about this cult having gained a foothold in Judah during
the time of the Kings. Therefore, in verse 10 when the Interpreting Angel is

Lesson 10 - Zechariah 5 & 6
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asked by Zechariah where it was that the ephah with the woman in it was
being flown to, the response was “to build a shrine” in the Land of Shinar.
Shrines (or temples) were for gods and goddesses, so indeed the woman in
the basket must have been symbolic of a goddess.

Thus (again symbolically) wickedness in the form of idolatry is being returned
to the place it comes from: Shinar. Or, in later Bible Times and on through the
End Times, it is called Babylon. Babylon, throughout the Old and New
Testaments, stands for the chaos and confusion that idolatry brings with it.
With this knowledge, let’s have Scripture make another connection for us.

CJB
Genesis 10:8-10
8
Kush fathered Nimrod, who was the first
powerful ruler on earth.
9
He was a mighty hunter before ADONAI -
this is why people say, "Like Nimrod, a mighty hunter before
ADONAI."
10
His kingdom began with Bavel (Babylon), Erekh, Akkad and Kalneh,
in the land of Shin'ar.

Here we see that the infamous Nimrod, an adversary of God and idolator on a
grand scale, is the founder of the Land of Shinar and is also historically
credited as a forefather of the pagan god systems of Mesopotamia. Shinar was
eventually called Babylon. And, here in Zechariah, the goddess of fertility that
represents wicked idolatry is being taken back to her place of origin, to a
shrine erected for her in Babylon. That is where she belongs; she does NOT
belong in Israel. Interestingly, in the Torah, the Scapegoat ritual observed on
Yom Kippur does the same thing. One of the two scapegoats is loaded up
with the sin and iniquity for all Israel and sent out to a desert demon called
Azazel… symbolizing sin being packaged up and returned to its demonic
source.

The bottom line is this: this symbolic scene has the idolatrous being separated
from the righteous of God’s people, and then being gathered up in order to be
sent away to the kingdom of the ungodly to be lorded over by the fertility
goddess, Ishtar. I have spoken to you since the first Torah Class teaching in
the Book of Genesis that a most basic God-principle is that Yehoveh deals with
people and nations by means of division, election, and separation. That is what

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is happening here. Yeshua came to do the same, only from a different
perspective. As much as we all cringe at what we see happening within the
Church, within our nations, and within our politics, the polarization of our
societies into distinct pro-God versus anti-God factions leads the way. This
process has made highly visible the God-principle of division, election, and
separation. The righteous and the wicked are being gathered into two groups
and then the two groups are being separated further apart at a slow pace until
Yeshua returns to administer divine justice as warranted to each group.

Let’s move on to chapter 6.

READ CHAPTER 6 all

The vision of the 4 chariots is the 7
th
one. All of Zechariah’s vision/oracles
have (so far) occurred in one night. Biblically, 4 represents universality. That
is, like the 4 compass directions it represents the entirety and the extent of
the earth. Chariots are by nature used for war. They are not used for scouting
out and reporting information. They are sent out for the purpose of taking
action. Most scholars wish to equate these 4 chariots with the 4 horses of
named colors in the first vision. I am troubled by this line of thinking because
only 3 of those 4 horses were sent out to roam the earth. So, while there are
similarities, it is simply not scripturally accurate to tightly connect the first and
the seventh visions merely because they both employed horses. At least it
certainly is not accurate from the standpoint of the number of horses sent out
by God to do something.

If we hope to find some kind of connection between the first and seventh
visions, it is probably this: each has God doing something to demonstrate His
universal interest and sovereignty. He is Lord over ALL the earth… not parts of
it. The many pagan god systems, each associated to a certain nation, more or
less claim territorial authority only over certain parts of the globe, but not all,
because each god system recognizes the validity and sovereignty of the
others. Empire builders, of course, aspire to expanding that influence and
authority. The Israelite God’s claim to be inherently sovereign over the entire
planet was itself a call for confrontation as far as other nations were
concerned. I suspect that this will be the foundational cause of the many

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nations of the world coming to battle Israel at Armageddon. It’s not that these
nations will all join in a strategic alliance and fellowship with one another.
Rather it is that they will gather at a common place, against a common
enemy, mostly in their separate interests to establish and demonstrate their
individual national independence and authority on earth by confronting a God
that says otherwise. Just as Nimrod openly challenged God’s authority over
him, so will the nations do the same in the war to end all wars.

In the first vision, God sent out 3 horsemen, at night, to stealthily scout out
the earth like a divine CIA. In the seventh vision of chapter 6, God sends out 4
chariots to take action on the earth like an unstoppable imperial army. These 2
events symbolically send the message of Yehoveh’s total knowledge and
control over the affairs of humanity, but also that despite the nations’
governments believing that they were each independent and in control of their
own destiny, in fact they existed and operated only by God’s permission. And,
when they have gone too far, He will destroy them.

The meaning of the different colors of the horses pulling the 4 chariots has
been much debated, and some quite creative explanations have been put
forth, but nothing convincing. Just as with the horses of the first vision, I also
can find no significant meaning behind the horse colors listed in this seventh
vision other than it is merely to help identify them one from the other. There
are also a number of commentators who question the meaning of the number
of chariots by saying that they each represents God dealing with one or the
other of the series of 4 world empires in history. Again, unconvincing, since
there have been more than 4 so-called world empires to come and go
(depending on how one wants to define it), and in truth, none of them even
incorporated but a part of the entire world, even of the extent of the known
world as it was in the 6
th
century B.C. let alone the entire world, most of which
was unknown to them in that era.

Still in verse 1, we read that these 4 chariots come from between 2
mountains. The important thing to see here is that there is a definite place and
a direction from which the 4 chariots are sent out. And, what we learn in the
next several verses is that the chariots are sent out from where Yehoveh
resides on earth (explained in vs. 5) to the far-away northlands and also the

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southlands. These mountains made of brass are yet another symbolic element
for which there are a few different interpretations. Some commentators find
these mountains as not stemming from anything real, but rather are just more
invented symbolic elements. For instance, mountains in the ancient Near and
Far East typically represented political entities… governments and kings. They
also represented the abode of the gods and goddesses that were always on
the highest geographical places. Therefore, other scholars believe that these 2
mountains are based on eastern mythology, and probably more specifically
Sun-god mythology. On the other hand, some academics think these 2
mountains are identifiable as actual places… and I agree with that. But in no
way can they be part of any former or current mythological god-system
because it is clear from chapter 6 that it from the Hebrew God’s earthly
abode… which is Jerusalem… that the chariots are being sent. So, which 2
mountains are these, exactly? In my way of thinking they can only be Mt.
Moriah and the Mt. of Olives, which sit opposite one another and are separated
by the Valley of Jehoshaphat in the city of God’s presence, Jerusalem.
Jehoshaphat means Yehoveh judges or perhaps Yehoveh is Judge. And indeed,
it will be from here that God sends forth His judgments (His justice as
symbolized by the 4 chariots) upon the nations. Therefore, it only makes
sense that the chariots are being sent from between Mt. Moriah and the Mt. of
Olives…meaning from the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the place of judging.

But, why mountains of bronze? Because in that era bronze represented
something firm and indestructible. Never would God’s abode get moved to
someplace else by the will of humans. Jerusalem is the capital of His earthly
kingdom, and it will always be so. To my friends in the traditional Church who
are listening and watching, I pray that neither you nor your congregational
leadership nor your denomination is one that supports dividing Jerusalem into
independent Muslim and Jewish sides, thereby making it the capital of 2
religions for what is seen as the sake of fairness and even-handedness. The
Bible tells us over and over…including in the New Testament… that Jerusalem
is Israel’s forever capital and God’s forever earthy dwelling place. For anyone
to determine to split God’s holy city and give part of it to a false god named
Allah is the height of self-destructive folly. It is rebellion and it is idolatry. To
think that 2 Temples to 2 different gods erected upon the Temple Mount in
Yehoveh’s designated Holy City are going to be acceptable to Him is only

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possible if one has no real Bible knowledge, or one simply doesn’t believe that
the Bible is our source of divine truth, and therefore need not be our guide for
our choices and behaviors. So, beware. Ancient Israel attempted such things
and were thrown out of their land, punished severely, and came not far from
extinction on more than one occasion. And, in this, Yeshua will not be rescuing
you should you join in with such blasphemies.

In verse 4, Zechariah reveals his lack of understanding of what it is he is
seeing. So, he asks the Interpreting Angel “What are these, my lord?”. As a
reminder, although many Bibles capitalize the word Lord (meaning to imply
that this Angel is actually Jesus), that is simply incorrect. Rather, the word is
adon and it is a generic and broadly used Hebrew word of respect that means
something like “sir”. Unlike in earlier visions when Zechariah asks this same
question, this time the Angel doesn’t respond with “don’t you know what these
are?”. Instead, he straightaway gives Zechariah the answer. He says that
“these are the 4 winds of the sky that go out”. While that is what the CJB and
a few other versions say, other versions say, “these are the 4 winds of
heaven”. In context, I think “heaven” is more correct.

In the ancients’ way of thinking, there was a fuzzy line between sky and
heaven. Above their heads was “heaven” where the clouds moved by, the
stars hung, and at the top of heaven is where God lived. There were minor
variations of that understanding but this well expresses how they thought of it.
Further, notice that the Hebrew word ruchot (which is the plural of ruach,
and what is used here for winds) also means spirits. So, this helps us to see
the mindset of these ancients about the invisible but powerful qualities of wind
and spirit being connected in some mysterious way. Thus, when the Angel
says, “these chariots are the 4 winds of heaven”, this could be equally as well
translated as the 4 spirits of heaven. Armed with this understanding, we get a
great example of how this thinking works in a Psalm of David.

CJB
Psalm 104:1-4 Bless Yehoveh my soul! Yehoveh my God, you are
very great; you are clothed with glory and majesty,
2
wrapped in light
as with a robe. You spread out the heavens like a curtain,
3
you laid
the beams of your palace on the water. You make the clouds your

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chariots, you ride on the wings of the wind.
4
You make winds your
messengers, fiery flames your servants .

While this is poetry, don’t think that these words are not reflections of how
David and those before and after him thought about the operation of heaven,
clouds, winds, etc. Thus, the idea is that the 4 chariots are as invisible as
wind and spirit, they’re powerful, they are heavenly in source, and they have
free, fast, and easy range over the entire earth…heaven and earth being
Yehoveh’s realm and the two operating in some mysterious tandem.

Back to verse 5. The first half says that the chariots are the 4 winds of heaven,
and the last half says that they go out AFTER presenting themselves to the
Lord of the land. Since the ONLY earthly abode of the Lord of the land is
Jerusalem (and here, as in most places in the Bible, Lord of the land is
referring to the Lord of the land of Israel as opposed to Lord of all the Earth),
then this is where we have confirmed that the chariots are being sent out from
Jerusalem.

Verse 6 says where the chariots are being sent, and it explains it by pointing
to the color of the horse pulling each chariot. However, the verse is
problematic because only 3 of the 4 are mentioned. We’re told that the black
horse (or horses) is sent to the northlands, and the dappled to the southlands.
The white horse is not given a direction and so some translations word it such
that the white horse follows the black horse towards the northlands. This
seems mostly unlikely. So, some scholars say that there was a copyist error in
the transmission of the ancient text, and it should say that the white horse
with its chariot went to the west. Nice attempt, but that is pure speculation
backed up by no evidence. Also notice that the 4
th
horse, the red one, is not
mentioned at all. Again, some scholars say this was a copyist error but there is
no evidence for such a conclusion other than the scholar assuming that surely
all 4 chariots dispersed into the 4 compass directions. That is possible.

So, of the 2 directions that are given (the north and the south), who or what
might this represent? Once again, we must always unpack this from the mind
of a 6
th
century B.C. Israelite and not from how we view the world today. For
Israel, the north was Mesopotamia and Asia. More specifically, this is the land

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beyond the Euphrates River that during Israelite history has alternately been
governed primarily by Babylon and Assyria. Should Persia be included in this?
Only in the sense that Persia conquered Babylon and took over their empire,
however they were largely beneficent rulers over Judah and so wasn’t so much
looked at as an arch enemy. To the south was Egypt where that nation was
alternately an enemy and a friend, but primarily an enemy.

Verse 7 throws a curve ball at us, and it has been most difficult to decipher it
to any level of confidence. The CJB says it this way:

CJB
Zechariah 6:7 Then the gray ones went out and were seeking to go
and wander throughout the whole earth, when he said, "Wander
throughout the whole earth"; and they did wander throughout the
whole earth.

The NAS says:

NAS
Zechariah 6:7 "When the strong ones went out, they were eager
to go to patrol the earth." And He said, "Go, patrol the earth." So they
patrolled the earth.

The RSV says:

RSV
Zechariah 6:7 When the steeds came out, they were impatient to
get off and patrol the earth. And he said, "Go, patrol the earth." So
they patrolled the earth.

The same Hebrew word is being translated to English as gray ones, strong
ones, and steeds…quite the variation. Various other Bible versions say
something along these lines but with further deviations. A solution was offered
by Eric Meyers that I think has merit. The word that is translated variously as
dappled, gray and even steeds is in Hebrew beruddim. Not really knowing for
certain what color this is, most translators going back at least 1000 years
decided it was some mix of colors. Meyers says that perhaps we ought not to
think of it as a color but rather as a pattern (like spotted, stripped or plaid
speaks in terms of a pattern or a collection of colors rather than a specific

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color). Furthermore, the word amussim immediately follows beruddim and
amussim means something like “strong ones” or “the mighty”. Possibly those
2 words were meant to be used together as an expression that essentially
means a collective… a conglomerate of mighty ones. If his proposal is correct,
it does make more sense when we read it and dismisses the most popular
academic idea that the verse was corrupted at some point in history. To
summarize, the idea is that these horses and chariots are collectively referred
to as steeds or strong ones, and they are all being sent out. The black is
specifically sent north, a conglomerate of them south, and the white toward
some other unspecified direction or directions.

The bottom line for us is not to get hung up about which color of horse went
where. If we stick with the passages as we have them today, what we can
know is that only 2 directions were specifically called out, the north and the
south. And that north and south are in geographical relation to Jerusalem’s
location. North and south are the directions from where Israel’s enemies have
attacked them over the centuries, and no doubt this will maintain right
through the End Times. Let’s talk now about another important nuance in this
passage.

Verse 7 also characterizes the level of vigor of the chariots and horses going
out. The CJB says they were seeking to go out, the NAS says they were eager
to go out, and the RSV says they were impatient to go out. There is nothing
definitive enough for us to convincingly draw a conclusion about the intensity
of the horses’ desire to go out. Yet, context always matters. The nature and
purpose of war chariots is violence and aggression. In Zechariah’s first vision it
speaks of the horses being sent out stealthily and quietly to scout out the
earth to gain information. So, in that case, characterizing them as “roaming”
or “wandering” makes good sense. But war chariots don’t “roam”. War chariots
attack with intensity. So, it seems to me that it is self-evident that these
horses with their chariots were indeed eager and impatient to do what they
were designed and destined to do, and that is the better way to understand it.
They were chomping-at-the-bit (so to speak) to be sent out to make war.

I’ve had so many questions asked of me, and I’ve wondered internally, why
God doesn’t find another way to deal with humans than war since He is said to

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be a loving God that values peace and life. And, why it seems that in the
history of mankind wars and rumors of wars never end except for the briefest
of moments. My conclusion is this: God determined from the moment of
Creation to use humans to bring about His will on earth, and humans are war-
oriented by the nature handed down to us by the fallen Adam and Eve. The
sad reality is that all major disagreements among nations and large people
groups have, throughout the ages, ultimately been settled by war.

Over a century ago, in 1920, as a result of the horrors of WWI governments of
the Western world worked to form what became known as the League of
Nations. Ultimately, 63 nations became part of it. The goal was find a different
way than catastrophic wars to settle the differences between nations. It was
still in operation when the largest war to ever be fought on this planet
erupted…WWII. Clearly, even with the best of intentions, they were unable to
achieve their goal. At the end of WWII, a new entity named the United Nations
was formed in 1945 to try again. The UN and the League of Nations lived side
by side, but eventually the League of Nations withered away. Clearly, the
United Nations, even with all its clout, has also failed miserably to prevent
terrible wars, and today the world has more and worse wars going on
everywhere than it has in many decades, perhaps more than ever. The reason
for this is frustratingly simple: war is in man’s nature, because evil is
fundamental to man’s nature. As long as evil exists, war will exist, and it will
remain as the means to settle differences between nations.

We even read in the Bible of war in the heavenlies. Again, that is because evil
(opposition to God’s will) exists there as well. Thus, every humanistic effort by
man to end wars for good will fail. Ironically, even a war is required to end all
wars (Armageddon) must happen, as Yeshua returns to lead that battle, and
even then, it is not truly the end to war or evil. As we learn in the Prophets,
towards the end of the 1000-year reign of Christ, a rebellion will erupt in God’s
Kingdom, but it will be put down quickly. And then at that time Satan, the
demons, and the human evil inclination will be brought to an end by means of
ruthless warlike destruction of all creatures…spiritual or physical…who still
harbor evil, and this time it will be once and for all.

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Believers, as we continue in Zechariah, and as we have read of God’s war
chariots being sent out throughout the earth, and as we’ll read more about the
conflagrations of the End Times, let us understand this all in the perspective
that Yeshua told us to have before He departed this earth.

CJB
Matthew 24:6-25
6
You will hear the noise of wars nearby and the
news of wars far off; see to it that you don't become frightened. Such
things must happen, but the end is yet to come.
7
For peoples will fight
each other, nations will fight each other, and there will be famines and
earthquakes in various parts of the world;
8
all this is but the
beginning of the 'birth-pains.'
9
At that time you will be arrested and
handed over to be punished and put to death, and all peoples will hate
you because of me.
10
At that time many will be trapped into betraying
and hating each other,
11
many false prophets will appear and fool
many people;
12
and many people's love will grow cold because of
increased distance from Torah.
13
But whoever holds out till the end
will be delivered.
14
And this Good News about the Kingdom will be
announced throughout the whole world as a witness to all the Goyim.
It is then that the end will come.
15
"So, when you see the
abomination that causes devastation spoken about through the
prophet Dani'el standing in the Holy Place" (let the reader understand
the allusion),
16
"that will be the time for those in Y'hudah to escape to
the hills.
17
If someone is on the roof, he must not go down to gather
his belongings from his house;
18
if someone is in the field, he must
not turn back to get his coat.
19
What a terrible time it will be for
pregnant women and nursing mothers!
20
Pray that you will not have
to escape in winter or on Shabbat.
21
For there will be trouble then
worse than there has ever been from the beginning of the world until
now, and there will be nothing like it again!
22
Indeed, if the length of
this time had not been limited, no one would survive; but for the sake
of those who have been chosen, its length will be limited.
23
"At that
time, if someone says to you, 'Look! Here's the Messiah!' or, 'There he
is!' don't believe him.
24
For there will appear false Messiahs and false
prophets performing great miracles - amazing things!- so as to fool
even the chosen, if possible.
25
There! I have told you in advance!

Lesson 10 - Zechariah 5 & 6
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We’ll continue in Zechariah chapter 6 next time.