Scholars have offered many suggestions for understanding the ephah in Zechariah 5:5-11 without consensus. An allusion to Jeremiah 3:2 offers a new possibility. The הָאֵיפָה (ephah) in Zechariah recalls and localizes the אֵיפֹה (where) of Israel’s harlotry recounted in Jeremiah.
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Diana Edelman, “Proving Yahweh Killed His Wife (Zechariah 5:5-11),” BibInt 11 (2003), p. 337.
Michael R. Stead, The Intertextuality of Zechariah 1-8 (New York: T&T Clark, 2009), pp. 204-07. The Amos 8 links upon which Stead’s conclusion is based are not strong (i.e. the unjust ephah is not explicit in Zechariah, the presence of a symbolic basket is not peculiar to Amos and Zechariah [as Stead points out; cf. Jer. 24; 25:15; Ezek. 24], and the shared pun on the name of a goddess is questionable). Additionally, the unjust ephah is not the only part of Israel’s “economic exploitation” (as Stead terms it) in Amos. They were also buying the poor, something without parallel in Zechariah’s vision. To say the ephah in Zechariah’s vision represents all economic exploitation, and thus is parallel to Amos, is a stretch. Further, the woman in the basket takes center stage in Zechariah’s vision, but idolatry is only mentioned in a single verse in Amos; the last verse of the chapter (8:14).
M. Delcor, “La Vision de la Femme dans l’Epha de Zach, 5:5-11 à la Lumiére de la Litterature Hittite,” Revue de l’Histoire des Religions 187 (1975), p. 142.
D. P. Wright, The Disposal of Impurity: Elimination Rites in the Bible and in Hittite and Mesopotamian Literature (Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1987), p. 273. The positions of Wright, Delcor (prison), and Edelman (coffin), as Stead notes, “can be readily discounted, in that they are based on (sometimes highly tenuous) parallels with extra-biblical material which are not supported by any parallels in the biblical corpus.” Stead, Intertextuality, p. 205.
So e.g. Wenzel, Reading Zechariah, pp. 61-85. Stead, Intertextuality, pp. 31-32. Nurmela, Prophets in Dialogue, pp. 39-42. Petitjean, Les Oracles du Proto-Zacharie, p. 39. Mitchell, Haggai, Zechariah, pp. 111-12.
So e.g. Edgar W. Conrad, Zechariah (England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1999), pp. 119-20. Margaret Barker, “The Evil in Zechariah,” HeyJ 19 (1978), p. 24.
So Mitchell, Haggai, Zechariah, pp. 173-74. Conrad, Zechariah, pp. 119-20. Barker, “The Evil in Zechariah,” p. 24. In the Jeremiah text it is Judah who takes center stage, but for Zechariah’s vision the precise identification of the prostitute (whether Israel, Judah, or Jerusalem) is not important; only the association with an unfaithful wife is.
See Stead, Intertextuality, pp. 231-36, 41-43. Ellie Assis, “Zechariah 8 and its Allusions to Jeremiah 30-33 and Deutero-Isaiah,” Journal of Hebrew Scriptures 11 (2011), pp. 1-21. In conjunction with this broader observation, there are several parallels in thought between Jeremiah 3 and Zechariah 1-8: a return to Yahweh from evil (at times with the specific language of “return to me”; Jer 3:1, 7, 10, 22; Zech 1:3); the Lord’s mercy overtaking his anger (Jer 3:5, 12; Zech 1:14-16); a return of the people to Zion (Jer 3:14; Zech 2:7) from the north (Jer 3:18; Zech 2:6); an increase of the people in the land (Jer 3:16; Zech 2:8); and the gathering of the nations to Jerusalem (Jer 3:17; Zech 8:20-23).
Ibid., p. 18.
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Scholars have offered many suggestions for understanding the ephah in Zechariah 5:5-11 without consensus. An allusion to Jeremiah 3:2 offers a new possibility. The הָאֵיפָה (ephah) in Zechariah recalls and localizes the אֵיפֹה (where) of Israel’s harlotry recounted in Jeremiah.
All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
---|---|---|---|
Abstract Views | 3300 | 126 | 7 |
Full Text Views | 240 | 4 | 0 |
PDF Views & Downloads | 73 | 11 | 0 |