Zechariah 5:3

Read in context

Zechariah 5:1–5 · Berean Standard Bible

1 Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.

2 “What do you see?” asked the angel. “I see a flying scroll,” I replied, “twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”

3 Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed.

4 I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”

5 Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is approaching.”

Hebrew words

Data created by STEPBible.org based on work at Tyndale House Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).

Study Zechariah 5:3

Read the commentary on Zechariah 5

Cross-references

The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge lists these related verses. Scripture text comes from the Berean Standard Bible.

Deuteronomy 11:28

but a curse if you disobey the commandments of the LORD your God and turn aside from the path I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known.

Deuteronomy 11:29

When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.

Deuteronomy 27:15

‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved idol or molten image—an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of a craftsman—and sets it up in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:16

‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:17

‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary stone.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:18

‘Cursed is he who lets a blind man wander in the road.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:19

‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:20

‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:21

‘Cursed is he who lies with any animal.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:22

‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:23

‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:24

‘Cursed is he who strikes down his neighbor in secret.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:25

‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 27:26

‘Cursed is he who does not put the words of this law into practice.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

Deuteronomy 28:15

If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

Deuteronomy 28:16

You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

Deuteronomy 28:17

Your basket and kneading bowl will be cursed.

Deuteronomy 28:18

The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

Deuteronomy 28:19

You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

Deuteronomy 28:20

The LORD will send curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him.

Deuteronomy 28:21

The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess.

Deuteronomy 28:22

The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish.

Deuteronomy 28:23

The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.

Deuteronomy 28:24

The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 28:25

The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

Deuteronomy 28:26

Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away.

Deuteronomy 28:27

The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.

Deuteronomy 28:28

The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind,

Deuteronomy 28:29

and at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

Deuteronomy 28:30

You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit.

Deuteronomy 28:31

Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you.

Deuteronomy 28:32

Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand.

Deuteronomy 28:33

A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed.

Deuteronomy 28:34

You will be driven mad by the sights you see.

Deuteronomy 28:35

The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

Deuteronomy 28:36

The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone.

Deuteronomy 28:37

You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

Deuteronomy 28:38

You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it.

Deuteronomy 28:39

You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

Deuteronomy 28:40

You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off.

Deuteronomy 28:41

You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity.

Deuteronomy 28:42

Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

Deuteronomy 28:43

The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower.

Deuteronomy 28:44

He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

Deuteronomy 28:45

All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you.

Deuteronomy 28:46

These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever.

Deuteronomy 28:47

Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance,

Deuteronomy 28:48

you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

Deuteronomy 28:49

The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand,

Deuteronomy 28:50

a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young.

Deuteronomy 28:51

They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish.

Deuteronomy 28:52

They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you.

Deuteronomy 28:53

Then you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you.

Deuteronomy 28:54

The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived,

Deuteronomy 28:55

refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within all your gates.

Deuteronomy 28:56

The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter

Deuteronomy 28:57

the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and distress that your enemy will inflict on you within your gates.

Deuteronomy 28:58

If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God—

Deuteronomy 28:59

He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses.

Deuteronomy 28:60

He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you.

Deuteronomy 28:61

The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague not recorded in this Book of the Law, until you are destroyed.

Deuteronomy 28:62

You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

Deuteronomy 28:63

Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and multiply, so also it will please Him to annihilate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.

Deuteronomy 28:64

Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

Deuteronomy 28:65

Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.

Deuteronomy 28:66

So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival.

Deuteronomy 28:67

In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see.

Deuteronomy 28:68

The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

Deuteronomy 29:19

because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.

Deuteronomy 29:20

The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven

Deuteronomy 29:21

and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.

Deuteronomy 29:22

Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it.

Deuteronomy 29:23

All its soil will be a burning waste of sulfur and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.

Deuteronomy 29:24

So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

Deuteronomy 29:25

And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Deuteronomy 29:26

They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them.

Deuteronomy 29:27

Therefore the anger of the LORD burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book.

Deuteronomy 29:28

The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’

Psalms 109:17

The cursing that he loved, may it fall on him; the blessing in which he refused to delight, may it be far from him.

Psalms 109:18

The cursing that he wore like a coat, may it soak into his body like water, and into his bones like oil.

Psalms 109:19

May it be like a robe wrapped about him, like a belt tied forever around him.

Psalms 109:20

May this be the LORD’s reward to my accusers, to those who speak evil against me.

Proverbs 3:33

The curse of the LORD is on the house of the wicked, but He blesses the home of the righteous.

Isaiah 24:6

Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive.

Isaiah 43:28

So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”

Jeremiah 26:6

then I will make this house like Shiloh, and I will make this city an object of cursing among all the nations of the earth.’”

Daniel 9:11

All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You.

Malachi 3:9

You are cursed with a curse, yet you—the whole nation—are still robbing Me.

Malachi 4:6

And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”

Matthew 25:41

Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Galatians 3:10

All who rely on works of the law are under a curse. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue to do everything written in the Book of the Law.”

Galatians 3:11

Now it is clear that no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”

Galatians 3:12

The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”

Galatians 3:13

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”

Hebrews 6:6

and then have fallen away—to be restored to repentance, because they themselves are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting Him to open shame.

Hebrews 6:7

For land that drinks in the rain often falling on it and that produces a crop useful to those for whom it is tended receives the blessing of God.

Hebrews 6:8

But land that produces thorns and thistles is worthless, and its curse is imminent. In the end it will be burned.

Revelation 21:8

But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.”

Revelation 22:15

But outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Luke 21:35

For it will come upon all who dwell on the face of all the earth.

Exodus 20:15

You shall not steal.

Proverbs 29:24

A partner to a thief hates his own soul; he receives the oath, but does not testify.

Proverbs 30:9

Otherwise, I may have too much and deny You, saying, ‘Who is the LORD?’ Or I may become poor and steal, profaning the name of my God.

Jeremiah 7:9

Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known,

Hosea 4:2

Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

Malachi 3:8

Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you ask, ‘How do we rob You?’ In tithes and offerings.

Malachi 3:10

Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be food in My house. Test Me in this,” says the LORD of Hosts. “See if I will not open the windows of heaven and pour out for you blessing without measure.

1 Corinthians 6:7

The very fact that you have lawsuits among you means that you are thoroughly defeated already. Why not rather be wronged? Why not rather be cheated?

1 Corinthians 6:8

Instead, you yourselves cheat and do wrong, even against your own brothers!

1 Corinthians 6:9

Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

Ephesians 4:28

He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing good with his own hands, that he may have something to share with the one in need.

James 5:4

Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

Zechariah 5:4

I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”

Zechariah 8:17

do not plot evil in your hearts against your neighbor, and do not love to swear falsely, for I hate all these things,” declares the LORD.

Leviticus 19:12

You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.

Isaiah 48:1

“Listen to this, O house of Jacob, you who are called by the name of Israel, who have descended from the line of Judah, who swear by the name of the LORD, who invoke the God of Israel— but not in truth or righteousness—

Jeremiah 5:2

Although they say, ‘As surely as the LORD lives,’ they are swearing falsely.”

Jeremiah 23:10

For the land is full of adulterers— because of the curse, the land mourns and the pastures of the wilderness have dried up— their course is evil and their power is misused.

Ezekiel 17:13

He took a member of the royal family and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. Then he carried away the leading men of the land,

Ezekiel 17:14

so that the kingdom would be brought low, unable to lift itself up, surviving only by keeping his covenant.

Ezekiel 17:15

But this king rebelled against Babylon by sending his envoys to Egypt to ask for horses and a large army. Will he flourish? Will the one who does such things escape? Can he break a covenant and yet escape?’

Ezekiel 17:16

‘As surely as I live,’ declares the Lord GOD, ‘he will die in Babylon, in the land of the king who enthroned him, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke.

Malachi 3:5

“Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

Matthew 5:33

Again, you have heard that it was said to the ancients, ‘Do not break your oath, but fulfill your vows to the Lord.’

Matthew 5:34

But I tell you not to swear at all: either by heaven, for it is God’s throne;

Matthew 5:35

or by the earth, for it is His footstool; or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King.

Matthew 5:36

Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black.

Matthew 5:37

Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one.

Matthew 23:16

Woe to you, blind guides! You say, ‘If anyone swears by the temple, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gold of the temple, he is bound by his oath.’

Matthew 23:17

You blind fools! Which is greater: the gold, or the temple that makes it sacred?

Matthew 23:18

And you say, ‘If anyone swears by the altar, it means nothing; but if anyone swears by the gift on it, he is bound by his oath.’

Matthew 23:19

You blind men! Which is greater: the gift, or the altar that makes it sacred?

Matthew 23:20

So then, he who swears by the altar swears by it and by everything on it.

Matthew 23:21

And he who swears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it.

Matthew 23:22

And he who swears by heaven swears by God’s throne and by the One who sits on it.

1 Timothy 1:9

We realize that law is not enacted for the righteous, but for the lawless and rebellious, for the ungodly and sinful, for the unholy and profane, for killers of father or mother, for murderers,

James 5:12

Above all, my brothers, do not swear, not by heaven or earth or by any other oath. Simply let your “Yes” be yes, and your “No,” no, so that you will not fall under judgment.