John Trapp on Zechariah 5:9

Verſe 9. Behold there came out two women] Winged women, and carried through the ayre with a pleaſant wind, to note their ready and ſpeedy obedience, prompt and preſent. Women they are ſaid to be, to keep proportion with the preſent viſion; leſt the meeting and mixing together of men and women in the ſame matter might miniſter occaſion to ſome impure ſurmiſings. But that they were men and not women, that are here meant, is agreed upon by all. Theſe were Ezra and Nehemiah, (ſaith Willet on Levit. 11. after Junius and Piſcator on the text) thoſe great Reformers of the Jewiſh Church. But this ſtand, not with the laſt verſe. I rather ſubſcribe to thoſe that expound the text of the Romanes, who with great celerity and violence deſtroyed the Jewes ſtate: and ſo, that which they feared befell them [illegible: 1 letter]oh. 11.48. The Romanes, ſaid they, ſhall come to take away both our place and our nation: and within a few yeers it proved accordingly: as if God had taken them at their word, as he did thoſe murmuring miſcreants Num. 14.28. As truly as I live, ſaith the Lord, as ye have ſpoken in mine cares, ſo will I do unto you. Hereunto the Chaldee Paraphraſt conſenteth, when by theſe two women thus deſcribed he underſtandeth, populos leves & expeditos, ſuch Agents and Inſt[illegible: 1 letter]uments, as God would imploy in the ſpeedy execution of his wrath upon the Jewiſh Nation: ſuch as were Titus, Veſpaſian, and A[illegible: 1 letter]lius Adrian. See my Trite treaſure chap. 7. ſect. 2. Diodate maketh theſe two women a figure of God, two properties, namely Mercy towards his Elect, and Juſtice towards his Enemies, wherewith he tranſports upon theſe laſt the judgements by which he had puniſhed his own people: which is done with admirable celerity. Thus He. Danaeus makes thoſe two women to be the Anger and Juſtice of God, which do alwayes follow and wa[illegible: 1 letter]t upon one another, and take vengeance on mens wickedneſſe. Jud[illegible: 1 letter]ium ſit penes lectorem.

and the wind was in their wings] A maſculine Affix reſe[illegible: 1 letter]red to a Feminine Noune: to intimate that theſe women were indeed types of men, ſaith Mr. Pemble. [illegible: 1 letter]he Romanes were men every inch of them, as the proverh is: and therefore of cowards they were wont to ſay that they had nothing Roman in them: and of Brutus, that he was the laſi of the Romans.

and they lift up the Ephah between the Earth and the heaven] This betokeneth a deportation and diſiection of the Jewiſh Nation: being toſſed as a tennis-ball into all nations, and ſcattered into the ſoure winds, as Ier. 48.32. Rupertus hence concludeth them rejected of both carth and heaven. Out of the earth they are as it were baniſhed, by a common conſent of Nations: and heaven admitte[illegible: 1 letter]n them not, as thoſe that pleaſe not God, and are contrary to all men 1 Theſſ. 2.15. And as their guide Judas, when they took Jeſus, was hang'd betwixt heaven and earth, being caelo terraeque peroſus; ſo fares it with that wretched people, and will do till God ſhall call them a people which were not a people, and her beloved, which was not beloved Rom. 9.25.