A woman in a bushel basket

​“I said, “What is it?” 

And he said, “This is the ephah going forth.” 

Again he said, “This is their appearance in all the land (and behold, a lead cover was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting inside the ephah.” 

Then he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he threw her down into the middle of the ephah and cast the lead weight on its opening.”

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭5‬:‭6‬-‭8‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/100/zec.5.8.NASB1995

What in the world is going on with this woman called “Wickedness”? What is an ephah? And why is there a lead weight on its opening?

Zechariah would have been aware of what an ephah was but he did not recognize it. So an ephah is a dry measure of about a bushel (about 8 gallons of dry measure). So what Zechariah saw was a basket of good size that a women could sit in. The lead weight would serve two purposes. First, is to keep the women sealed in the basket during transport. And second, to keep her inside until it was time to take her out and put her on the pedestal.

“Then he said to me, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar; and when it is prepared, she will be set there on her own pedestal.”

‭‭Zechariah‬ ‭5‬:‭11‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/100/zec.5.11.NASB1995

So then who is this woman “wickedness”? 

First, let's find out where she is going! To the land of Shinar.

“It came about as they journeyed east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and burn them thoroughly.” And they used brick for stone, and they used tar for mortar. They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name, otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”

‭‭Genesis‬ ‭11‬:‭2‬-‭4‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/100/gen.11.2-4.NASB1995

It was the original place of the tower of Babel. Otherwise known now as Babylon, the capital of the Assyrian nation who took captive the southern tribe of Judah.

“Therefore the Lord brought the commanders of the army of the king of Assyria against them, and they captured Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze chains and took him to Babylon.”

‭‭2 Chronicles‬ ‭33‬:‭11‬ ‭NASB1995‬‬

https://bible.com/bible/100/2ch.33.11.NASB1995

So she is off to Assyria the greatest nation of the time. Which then became under the rule of the Meeds and Persians. Which then became the Roman empire. Which gives way to the nations of Europe. During the time of Zechariah, the nations of Israel and Judah had already been taken out of their land. So could she be the wickedness being taken out of the land of Israel into the land of Assyria? She was accepted by Assyria and eventually in Europe. 

Could she be represented by a figure that made its way to America from Europe? Does she reside on a pedestal? If you are thinking about the Statue of Liberty so am I. There is a theory that she was modeled after a goddess named Ishtar, the goddess of Liberty and Freedom.

https://www.alphaomegareport.com/zechariahs-ephah-vision-12405/ (a note on this website the pictures do not load.)

The other theory is that this ephah and the woman are representative of trade and commerce. With the ephah being the most common form of transport for goods and the woman being the payment for those goods. To which there is a statue in Wisconsin called Spirit of Commerce. This statue is of a woman on a pedestal.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_of_Commerce

So who is this woman? God only knows for sure but we know somewhere in time she was or will be set on a pedestal for all the world to see.