Zechariah 5
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 5
Fifth Vision: The Flying Scroll. 1 Then I raised my eyes again and saw a flying scroll. 2 He asked me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”[a](A) 3 Then he said to me: “This is the curse which is to go forth over the whole land. According to it, every thief and every perjurer[b] will be expelled. 4 I will send it forth—oracle of the Lord of hosts—so that it will come to the house of the thief, and into the house of the one who swears falsely by my name.(B) It shall lodge within each house, consuming it, timber and stones.”
Sixth Vision: The Basket of Wickedness. 5 Then the angel who spoke with me came forward and said to me, “Raise your eyes and look. What is this that comes forth?” 6 I said, “What is it?” And he answered, “This is the basket[c] that is coming.” And he said, “This is their guilt in all the land.” 7 Then a leaden cover was lifted, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.[d] 8 He said, “This is Wickedness,” and he thrust her inside the basket, pushing the leaden weight into the opening.
9 Then I raised my eyes and saw two women coming forth with wind under their wings[e]—they had wings like the wings of a stork—and they lifted the basket into the air. 10 I said to the angel who spoke with me, “Where are they taking the basket?” 11 He replied, “To build a temple for it in the land of Shinar.[f] When the temple is constructed, they will set it there on its base.”
Footnotes
- 5:2 Twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide: ca. thirty feet by fifteen feet. These dimensions may represent the ratio of height to width in the exposed portion of a scroll being opened for liturgical reading; at the same time it may symbolize the approach to God’s presence since the entryway to the Temple has the same measurements (1 Kgs 6:3). The scroll itself may represent God’s covenant with the people, insofar as it contains curses against those who break the law.
- 5:3 Thief…perjurer: a pair of miscreants representing all those who disobey God’s covenant (see note on v. 2) and who must therefore be punished according to covenant curses.
- 5:6 Basket: literally, ephah, a dry measure; see note on Is 5:10.
- 5:7 Woman sitting inside the basket: figure representing wickedness or foreign idolatry being transported back to Babylonia (vv. 1–11). Returning exiles were apparently worshiping deities they had learned to accept in Babylonia, and that “wickedness” (v. 8) must be removed.
- 5:9 Two women…wings: composite beings, part human and part animal, similar to the cherubim flanking the holy ark (Ex 25:18–22; 1 Kgs 6:23–28; Ez 10:18–22). Such creatures accompany foreign deities as here, or the biblical God.
- 5:11 Shinar: land of Babylonia; this name for Babylonia is found also in Gn 1:10; 11:2; 14:1; Is 11:11; and Dn 1:2.
Zechariah 5
Lexham English Bible
Zechariah’s Sixth Vision
5 I looked up again,[a] and I saw, and look!—a flying scroll! 2 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] 3 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. 4 ‘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
5 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.” 6 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. 7 And look, the lead cover was lifted and a woman was sitting inside the basket.[j] 8 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] 9 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
- Zechariah 5:1 Literally “I did again, I lifted up my eyes”
- Zechariah 5:2 That is, thirty feet by fifteen feet
- Zechariah 5:3 Many translations render this verb as “will be cut off”
- Zechariah 5:4 Literally “declaration of”
- Zechariah 5:4 Literally “by my name to lie”
- Zechariah 5:4 Hebrew “his”
- Zechariah 5:5 Literally “Lift, please, your eyes!”
- Zechariah 5:6 Or “an ephah,” a measure of grain
- Zechariah 5:6 Hebrew “eye”; other ancient versions (LXX, Syriac) read “iniquity”
- Zechariah 5:7 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
- Zechariah 5:8 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
- Zechariah 5:8 That is, on top of the “basket” or “ephah”
- Zechariah 5:9 Literally “lifted up my eyes”
- Zechariah 5:9 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
- Zechariah 5:9 Or “heaven”
- Zechariah 5:10 Or “ephah,” a measure of grain
- Zechariah 5:11 Or “temple”
- Zechariah 5:11 That is, Babylon (Gen 11:2)
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