The Flying Scroll That Will Not Acquit the Guilty: Exodus 34.7 in Zechariah 5.3

Abstract

Many scholars have noted the way that elements of the character creed of Exod. 34.6-7 recur throughout the book of the Twelve. This article proposes that a passage that is overlooked in relation to this theme in the Twelve is Zech. 5.1-4. This association seems to go unnoticed because of the tendency to mistranslate niqqâ in Zech. 5.3. It should have its usual sense of ‘to be acquitted’ or ‘to go unpunished’, which is in keeping with its meaning elsewhere and in Exod. 34.7. The associations of the flying scroll and the ‘Law of Moses’ in the vision of Zech. 5.1-4 strengthen the case for seeing an allusion to the character creed of Exodus 34. This article shows how a connection back to the theophany of glory in Exodus suits the unfolding of Zechariah's night visions. With God's return to Jerusalem, and the removal of the guilt of the land (Zech. 3.9), this sixth vision declares that God will continue to act according to his name and glory and ‘will by no means acquit the guilty’.