Double exodus

In Zechariah 5:5-11, a woman named Wickedness is put into an ephah and removed to Shinar, where a temple is built for her.  This is a complex parody of the exodus.

Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt on eagles’ wings; here we have a picture of the wicked being born out of the land by women with stork wings.  Wickedness goes through an exodus, but it is a reverse exodus, a movement out of the land rather than into the land.  The temple is not in Jerusalem or even Shiloh, but Shinar, the location of the tower of Babel.

Zechariah is of course living in the time of a new exodus, when the Lord has again brought His people out of exile into the land.  As the faithful return to the land, and devote themselves to the building of the temple, the false bride is driven out.  There is a double exodus, the exodus of faithful Jews from Babylon to Israel, and the exodus of the unfaithful from Israel to Babylon.