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A Flying Scroll

I looked up again and saw a scroll flying through the air.

“What do you see?” the angel asked.

“I see a flying scroll,” I replied. “It appears to be about 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.[a]

Then he said to me, “This scroll contains the curse that is going out over the entire land. One side of the scroll says that those who steal will be banished from the land; the other side says that those who swear falsely will be banished from the land. And this is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says: I am sending this curse into the house of every thief and into the house of everyone who swears falsely using my name. And my curse will remain in that house and completely destroy it—even its timbers and stones.”

A Woman in a Basket

Then the angel who was talking with me came forward and said, “Look up and see what’s coming.”

“What is it?” I asked.

He replied, “It is a basket for measuring grain,[b] and it’s filled with the sins[c] of everyone throughout the land.”

Then the heavy lead cover was lifted off the basket, and there was a woman sitting inside it. The angel said, “The woman’s name is Wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and closed the heavy lid again.

Then I looked up and saw two women flying toward us, gliding on the wind. They had wings like a stork, and they picked up the basket and flew into the sky.

10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel.

11 He replied, “To the land of Babylonia,[d] where they will build a temple for the basket. And when the temple is ready, they will set the basket there on its pedestal.”

Footnotes

  1. 5:2 Hebrew 20 cubits [9.2 meters] long and 10 cubits [4.6 meters] wide.
  2. 5:6a Hebrew an ephah [20 quarts or 22 liters]; also in 5:7, 8, 9, 10, 11.
  3. 5:6b As in Greek version; Hebrew reads the appearance.
  4. 5:11 Hebrew the land of Shinar.

Zechariah’s Sixth Vision

I looked up again,[a] and I saw, and look!—a flying scroll! And he asked me, “What are you seeing?” And I said, “I am seeing a flying scroll twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”[b] And he said to me, “This is the curse going out over the surface of the whole earth. For everyone who steals has gone unpunished[c] according to it, and likewise everyone who swears falsely has gone unpunished according to it. ‘I have sent it out,’ declares[d] Yahweh of hosts, ‘and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of the one swearing falsely by my name,[e] and it will spend the night in that[f] house and will destroy it, with its timber and its stone.’”

Zechariah’s Seventh Vision

And the angel who was speaking to me went out, and he said to me, “Please look up![g] See what this is going out.” And I asked, “What is it?” And he said, “This is a basket[h] going out. And he said, “This is their iniquity[i] throughout all the earth. And look, the lead cover was lifted and a woman was sitting inside the basket.[j] And he said, “This is Wickedness!” And he thrust her back down into the basket,[k] and threw the lead cover on top of it.[l] And I looked up[m] and saw, and look!—two women coming forward, and the wind was in their wings, and they had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket[n] between the earth and the sky.[o] 10 And I asked the angel who was talking to me, “Where are they taking the basket?”[p] 11 And he said to me, “To build for it a house[q] in the land of Shinar,[r] and when it is put in place, it will be placed there on its site.”

Footnotes

  1. Zechariah 5:1 Literally “I did again, I lifted up my eyes”
  2. Zechariah 5:2 That is, thirty feet by fifteen feet
  3. Zechariah 5:3 Many translations render this verb as “will be cut off”
  4. Zechariah 5:4 Literally “declaration of”
  5. Zechariah 5:4 Literally “by my name to lie”
  6. Zechariah 5:4 Hebrew “his”
  7. Zechariah 5:5 Literally “Lift, please, your eyes!”
  8. Zechariah 5:6 Or “an ephah,” a measure of grain
  9. Zechariah 5:6 Hebrew “eye”; other ancient versions (LXX, Syriac) read “iniquity”
  10. Zechariah 5:7 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
  11. Zechariah 5:8 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
  12. Zechariah 5:8 That is, on top of the “basket” or “ephah”
  13. Zechariah 5:9 Literally “lifted up my eyes”
  14. Zechariah 5:9 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
  15. Zechariah 5:9 Or “heaven”
  16. Zechariah 5:10 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
  17. Zechariah 5:11 Or “temple”
  18. Zechariah 5:11 That is, Babylon (Gen 11:2)