Zechariah 5:6

5:6 I asked, “What is it?” And he replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain ¹  that is moving away from here.” Moreover, he said, “This is their ‘eye’ ²  throughout all the earth.”

Zechariah 8:4

8:4 Moreover, the Lord who rules over all says, ‘Old men and women will once more live in the plazas of Jerusalem, each one leaning on a cane because of advanced age.

Zechariah 12:3

12:3 Moreover, on that day I will make Jerusalem a heavy burden ³  for all the nations, and all who try to carry it will be seriously injured; ⁴  yet all the peoples of the earth will be assembled against it.

Zechariah 14:8

14:8 Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, ⁵  half of them to the eastern sea ⁶  and half of them to the western sea; ⁷  it will happen both in summer and in winter.

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¹ tn Heb “[This is] the ephah.” An ephah was a liquid or solid measure of about a bushel (five gallons or just under twenty liters). By metonymy it refers here to a measuring container (probably a basket) of that quantity.

² tc The LXX and Syriac read עֲוֹנָם (’avonam, “their iniquity,” so NRSV; NIV similar) for the MT עֵינָם (’enam, “their eye”), a reading that is consistent with the identification of the woman in v. 8 as wickedness, but one that is unnecessary. In 4:10 the “eye” represented divine omniscience and power; here it represents the demonic counterfeit.

³ tn Heb “heavy stone” (so NRSV, TEV, NLT); KJV “burdensome stone”; NIV “an immovable rock.”

⁴ sn In Israel’s and Judah’s past they had been uprooted by various conquerors such as the Assyrians and the Babylonians. In the eschaton, however, they will be so “heavy” with God’s glory and so rooted in his promises that no nation will be able to move them.

⁵ sn Living waters will flow out from Jerusalem. Ezekiel sees this same phenomenon in conjunction with the inauguration of the messianic age (Ezek 47; cf. Rev 22:1-5; also John 7:38).

⁶ sn The eastern sea is a reference to the Dead Sea (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).

⁷ sn The western sea is a reference to the Mediterranean Sea (cf. NCV, TEV, CEV, NLT).