Inside the basket sat a woman (5:7b).  If this were a literal human woman, then she must have been a very tiny woman so as to fit inside a basket which would only hold about six or seven gallons of material.  Considering that the prophet did not understand what he was seeing and thus required the angel to explain it to him, it’s more likely that this was a small figurine of a woman instead of a literal human female.  Since the angel then apparently took the woman out of the basket, said of her, “This is Wickedness,” and then “thrust her back into the basket, and thrust down the leaden weight on its opening” (5:8), it’s logical to conclude that the “woman” was in fact an idol in the form of the figurine of some pagan goddess probably worshiped by the locals living around Jerusalem as the Jews were rebuilding the temple.… Read More Zechariah: Wickedness in a Basket (The Seventh Vision)