Sixth Vision: The Flying Scroll

5 Again I looked up and saw a flying scroll.^(A)

² And he said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits.”

⁹ I looked, and a hand was stretched out to me, and a written scroll was in it.^{(A) 10} He spread it before me; it had writing on the front and on the back, and written on it were words of lamentation and mourning and woe.

Isaiah’s Son a Sign of the Assyrian Invasion

8 Then the Lord said to me, “Take a large tablet and write on it in common characters, ‘Belonging to Maher-shalal-hash-baz,’^[a](A)

⁸ Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the scroll that is open in the hand of the angel who is standing on the sea and on the land.” ⁹ So I went to the angel and told him to give me the little scroll, and he said to me, “Take it and eat; it will be bitter to your stomach but sweet as honey in your mouth.”^{(A) 10} So I took the little scroll from the hand of the angel and ate it; it was sweet as honey in my mouth, but when I had eaten it my stomach was made bitter.^(B)

¹¹ Then they said to me, “You must prophesy again about many peoples and nations and languages and kings.”

² He held a little scroll open in his hand. Setting his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land,

The Scroll and the Lamb

5 Then I saw in the right hand of the one seated on the throne a scroll written on the inside and on the back, sealed^[a] with seven seals,^{(A) 2} and I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?” ³ And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁴ And I began to weep bitterly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. ⁵ Then one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. See, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.”^(B)

⁶ Then I saw between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders a Lamb standing as if it had been slaughtered, with seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.^{(C) 7} He went and took the scroll from the right hand of the one who was seated on the throne. ⁸ When he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints.^{(D) 9} They sing a new song:

¹¹ Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels surrounding the throne and the living creatures and the elders; they numbered myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands,^{(G) 12} singing with full voice,

¹³ Then I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them, singing,

¹⁴ And the four living creatures said, “Amen!” And the elders fell down and worshiped.

Jeremiah Dictates Another

²⁷ Now after the king had burned the scroll with the words that Baruch wrote at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah:^{(A) 28} Take another scroll and write on it all the former words that were in the first scroll, which King Jehoiakim of Judah has burned.^{(B) 29} And concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah you shall say: Thus says the Lord, You have burned this scroll, saying, “Why have you written in it that the king of Babylon will certainly come and destroy this land and will cut off from it human beings and animals?”^{(C) 30} Therefore thus says the Lord concerning King Jehoiakim of Judah: He shall have no one to sit upon the throne of David, and his dead body shall be cast out to the heat by day and the frost by night.^{(D) 31} And I will punish him and his offspring and his servants for their iniquity; I will bring on them and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem and on the people of Judah all the disasters with which I have threatened them, but they would not listen.^(E)

³² Then Jeremiah took another scroll and gave it to the secretary Baruch son of Neriah, who wrote on it at Jeremiah’s dictation all the words of the scroll that King Jehoiakim of Judah had burned in the fire, and many similar words were added to them.

Jehoiakim Burns the Scroll

²⁰ Leaving the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the secretary, they went to the court of the king, and they reported all the words in the hearing of the king. ²¹ Then the king sent Jehudi to get the scroll, and he took it from the chamber of Elishama the secretary, and Jehudi read it in the hearing of the king and all the officials who stood beside the king.^{(A) 22} Now the king was sitting in his winter apartment (it was the ninth month), and there was a fire burning in the brazier before him.^{(B) 23} As Jehudi read three or four columns, he would cut them off with a penknife and throw them into the fire in the brazier, until the entire scroll was consumed in the fire that was in the brazier. ²⁴ Yet neither the king nor any of his servants who heard all these words was alarmed, nor did they tear their garments.^(C)