a flying scroll Our Sages explained [it] as “double,” and they said that the Torah was written on it. They deduced from here that the world is 1/3,200 of the Torah, as stated in Eruvin (21a). And Jonathan rendered: a flying scroll; i.e., flying in the air. According to the simple meaning of the chapter, it was a scroll of retribution; that was what Ezekiel (2:10) envisioned: “And in it was written lamentations and mourning and woe.”

This is the curse This is [the scroll] in which is written the retribution, the revenge for a false oath.

[The scroll] is now coming forth from the Holy of Holies, from before the Shechinah, to walk to and fro upon the face of the entire land; this is the meaning of “its length is twenty, and its width is ten” - as the measure of the entrance to the Temple court and the Temple, through which it shall emerge.

for whoever stole until now.

was cleared from such as this He was cleared from this retribution, as it delineated on it [i.e., the scroll]. The retribution of individuals who transgressed the Torah was not meted out, but He waited until the measure of all of them was filled, and they all suffered at once with the destruction and the exile. Similarly, everyone who heretofore swore falsely, was cleared of the retribution as delineated in this scroll and was not requited, but from now on... I have brought it forth to walk to and fro in the land and to wreak vengeance upon the thieves and the swearers of falsehoods from now on; and it shall come into the house of the thief, etc.

Now lift up your eyes and see Yet another is coming forth, that will come out from the Holy of Holies.

And I said, “What is it?” that is coming forth, that you tell me to see?

And he said, “This is the ephah” For you will see a sort of ephah with which they measure coming forth.

And he said, “This is [the punishment of those] whose eye [gazes] over the entire land” And, after I saw it, he said, “This is the measure by which punishment was meted out to those whose eyes were over the entire land, to rob and to oppress, to make the ephah smaller and to make the shekel larger; and punishment was meted out to them, a measure for a measure.”

And behold! A talent of lead was being lifted I saw that a weight [made] of a talent of lead was being lifted off the earth into the air, and I saw further that this one woman was sitting in the midst of the ephah.

And he said, “This is Wickedness.” This woman that you see in the midst of the ephah is the character of the way of wickedness, [the way] in which the wicked deport themselves. And behold, now they are placed in its midst to be punished in the midst of that very measure that they meted out, a measure for a measure.

And he cast her Heretofore she had been sitting, but he cast her and knocked her into its midst, symbolizing torments and punishments.

and he cast the lead weight into her mouth to weigh her down so that they achieve no more greatness and their voice is no longer heard robbing the poor and needy.

two women were coming forth from the house.

the stork the white dayyah (Hullin 63a), voltur in Old French.

and it will be prepared, and they shall place it there And the house shall be prepared, and the ephah shall be placed there with the wicked that are within it.

there In that house.

on its base On its permanence and on its base. Here He hinted [to Zechariah] that, because of the iniquity of Israel, who measured out [so to speak] with the measure of sins and wickedness, they were punished with the same measure. And there came two nations that ruled together; they were Babylon and the Chaldeans - the army of Nebuchadnezzar - and exiled [Israel] to Babylon where [Israel] stayed fixed on a base, a base that was established for them. That is according to the completion of the seventy years until now, when they returned. This interpretation leans partially toward that of Jonathan. This [phrase] is interpreted in many [other] ways, but they are not satisfactory to me. Our Sages, however, explained and learned from here that the evil inclination was given into the hands of the men of the Great Assembly, and they cast it into a leaden cauldron and covered it with lead, because lead absorbs the sound, as is stated in tractate Sanhedrin (24a) and in tractate Yoma (69b). My interpretation of the kingdom of Nebuchadnezzar as doubled - composed of two nations - I saw in Midrash Psalms (6:2, 18: 10), that the following four kingdoms that subjugated Israel were double: Babylon and the Chaldeans, Media and Persia, Greece and Macedon, Edom and Ishmael, and for this reason the Kalir composed (in Piyutim for Shemini Azereth), “It is the fourth; it is the eighth,” concerning Edom.