Zechariah 5:1-4
New English Translation
Vision Six: The Flying Scroll
5 Then I turned to look, and there was a flying scroll! 2 Someone asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.”[a] 3 The speaker went on to say, “This is a curse[b] traveling across the whole earth. For example, according to the curse whoever steals[c] will be removed from the community; or on the other hand (according to the curse) whoever swears falsely will suffer the same fate.” 4 “I will send it out,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, “and it will enter the house of the thief and of the person who swears falsely in my name. It will land in the middle of his house and destroy both timber and stones.”
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- Zechariah 5:2 tn Heb “20 cubits…10 cubits” (so NAB, NRSV). These dimensions (“30 feet long and 15 feet wide”) can hardly be referring to the scroll when unrolled since that would be all out of proportion to the normal ratio, in which the scroll would be 10 to 15 times as long as it was wide. More likely, the scroll is 15 feet thick when rolled, a hyperbole expressing the enormous amount and the profound significance of the information it contains.
- Zechariah 5:3 tn The Hebrew word translated “curse” (אָלָה, ʾalah) alludes to the covenant sanctions that attend the violation of God’s covenant with Israel (cf. Deut 29:12, 14, 20-21).
- Zechariah 5:3 sn Stealing and swearing falsely (mentioned later in this verse) are sins against mankind and God respectively and are thus violations of the two major parts of the Ten Commandments. These two stipulations (commandments 8 and 3) represent the whole law.
Zechariah 5:1-4
International Standard Version
The Vision of the Flying Scroll
5 Then I looked up and saw a flying scroll! 2 And the angel[a] asked me, “What do you see?”
I answered him, “I’m looking at a flying scroll. It’s 20 cubits[b] long and ten cubits[c] wide.”
3 He responded to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the surface of the whole earth, because, according to this side of the scroll,[d] all thieves will be ejected, and according to the other side of the scroll,[e] all liars will be ejected.”
4 “I am bringing this about,” declares the Lord of the Heavenly Armies. “The curse[f] will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who lies in my name. The curse[g] will remain in his house until that house[h] has been completely destroyed, right down to its timber and stones.”
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- Zechariah 5:2 Lit. he
- Zechariah 5:2 I.e. about 30 feet; a cubit was about eighteen inches
- Zechariah 5:2 I.e. about fifteen feet; a cubit was about eighteen inches
- Zechariah 5:3 The Heb. lacks side of the scroll
- Zechariah 5:3 The Heb. lacks side of the scroll
- Zechariah 5:4 Lit. it
- Zechariah 5:4 Lit. It
- Zechariah 5:4 Lit. it
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