Zechariah 5:6

King James Bible reads--This is their resemblance throughout the earth.

Most other versions read--This is the iniquity of the people throughout the land.

Which is it!??

The examples above make it very clear that the issue of Bible translations is not one of making a passage clearer or of updating archaic, hard to understand, words.

It is one source of material and doctrine.

One of the examples above is wrong. Which one is it? And why are they different?

They are different because they are not translated from the same source material.

Some Old Testament Facts: The Hebrew Bible has come down to us through the scrupulous care of ancient scribes who copied the original text in successive generations. By the sixth century A.D.  the scribes were succeeded by a group known as the Masorites.

The word "masoretic" comes from the Hebrew word "mesor" meaning traditional. The Masoretes were the scribes that were given the responsibility of guarding and keeping the text of the Old Testament, and keep it well they surely did, as we shall soon see.

The 1524 Rabbinic Bible printed by Daniel Bomberg had been compiled from ancient manuscripts by a Hebrew scholar and converted Jewish Rabbi named Abraham Ben Chayyim. Today this work is called the Ben Chayyim Masoretic Text, and is the text that underlies the Old Testament of the King James Bible.

The Ben Chayyim Masoretic text was the uncontested text of the Old Testament for over four hundred years. The Ben Chayyim text was used in the first two editions of "Biblia Hebraica" by Rudolph Kittel, usually referred to as BHK, published in 1906 and 1912.

However, in 1937, Kittel changed his Hebrew text from the Ben Chayyim to the Ben Asher text.

The Ben Asher text was based on a text call the Leningrad Manuscript (B19a; also called simply L), which was dated around 1008 A. D. Using the peculiar logic of that day, which believed that older must always be better, Kittel published his 1937 edition based on this "older" text. His 1937 edition had about 20,000 changes (most of them minor, but changes nevertheless) from the Ben Chayyim text. Both texts are still referred to as "Masoretic," so care must be taken as to which text is being referred to.

It had apparently not dawned on Kittel that the Ben Asher version was based on very few minor manuscripts, while the Ben Chayyim text followed the vast majority of the manuscripts available.

Why would Kittel throw out the evidence provided by the vast majority of manuscripts to follow only a small minority of texts?

So then, our only choice is between the traditional Hebrew Masoretic Text that has been the standard text of the Old Testament for well over two thousand years, and is represented by the vast majority of the existing Old Testament manuscripts, or the new, modern text that has only a little minor manuscript support, and leaves out or changes between 20,000 and 30,000 words in the Old Testament. The choice is obvious, only the Traditional (Ben Chayyim) Text can lay claim to uninterrupted use for all the generations from the time of David (Psalm 12) until now.

Most of the above is quoted from the following website http://www.wilderness-cry.net/bible_study/kjvissue/criticism3.html .

Many of the modern bible versions no longer translate from the same source the translators of the King James Bible used - thus we see glaring contradictions between versions which force us to make a choice--because only one of them can be correct. And I believe the King James Bible is the Word of God (see the link at the end of this article).

This is the Word of God we are dealing with. That means life or death information is being assimilated. Isn't it worth some effort on our part to gain some knowledge and understanding in this area? 

What truth is being obscured in Zechariah by the corrupted texts and version?

Zechariah chapter 5 is an Epose`. It reveals deceptive tactics and alerts those who love the truth to what will be going on as the antichrist (man of sin) rises to power.

By tampering with verse 6, the enemies of God (Satan's ministers) have made it nearly impossible for anyone reading most of the modern versions to understand what this passage is all about, and many will be decieved, to their everlasting destruction, when this man, who will be possessed of Satan, begins to work worldwide economic miracles.

The scriptures are clear that he will gain followers (who will lose their souls in the process) by making it ultimately impossible to survive economically with swearing allegiance to him.

But first he will gain them peacebly by building a following with his successful policies on prosperity and peace (see 1 Thess 5 and Daniel 8:24-25).

Zechariah 5:6 in the King James Version agrees with both 1  Thessalonians 5 and Daniel 8:24 along with other passages concerning the deceptive methods used by the antichrist that will ensnare multitudes.

Don't be like water (taking the path of least resistance). Make the effort it takes to search out truth.