ZECHARIAH 5:6 ~ The FLYING BASKET of COMMERCE !

And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an EPHAH that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.

LITERAL TRANSLATION: 

And then I said, “What is SHE ?”  And then he said , “ This ( she ) is the measuring-basket going forth,” and then he said, “This (she) is the appearance of them [ the men ]  in all the earth.”

VERSE ANALYSIS: 

And then I said = Vav consecutive attached at the beginning of the verb indicates a series of on-going,  successive actions.

“What is SHE ?” 

SHE is the literal pronoun in the Hebrew text. 

English does not put genders upon non-living persons or animals, but the Hebrew language does. There is no “it” in Hebrew. 

And then he said = Another successive or consecutive action.

“ This ( she ) is the measuring-basket going forth,”  

The verb “is” is not stated but rather understood in this grammatical construction. 

“This” is Feminine singular, which is lost to English readers unless there is a pronoun to indicate the gender of “this”.  

An EPHAH is a measuring-basket, a large one, used in the commercial buying and selling of grains. The basket is FEMININE singular. 

“Going forth” = Qal active participle, which indicates on-going action. It is also FEMININE singular, so we know it goes with the basket. 

and then he said = same grammar as above.

“This ( she ) is the appearance of  them  

 The “this” , again, is the Feminine singular form , which is “she”, in reference to the FEMININE-gendered measuring-basket for commerce. 

Now then, we must keep in mind that the focus is upon COMMERCE here.

appearance of them =  The noun “appearance” or KJV’s “resemblance” is Feminine singular, which fits precisely with the Feminine singular “This” (she). 

HOWEVER, this noun is in the construct state, which indicates the “appearance OF . . . “  prepositional phrase, in English.

The anomaly is the object of the preposition: “them”.  The “them” is 3^rd person MASCULINE PLURAL. 

Who are “them” ,

the plural masculines,

in this passage ? 

In order to find a masculine noun, we must return to verse 4. There are TWO masculines in that verse: the thief and the lying perjurer. 

in all the earth.” 

Now here we see that the COMMERCIAL basket represents thieves and liars THROUGH-OUT the earth. 

+  +  +

JESUS saith unto him, 

I+, I AM,  the Way, the Truth, and the Life: 

no man cometh unto THE FATHER,

 but by ME+. 

John 14:6