Zechariah 5

1 Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.

I looked again and saw a flying scroll.

2 “What do you see?” asked the angel. “I see a flying scroll,” I replied, “twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”

“What do you see?” asked the angel. “I see a flying scroll,” I replied. “It's thirty feet long and fifteen feet wide.”

3 Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed.

He told me, “This is the curse that is going out to all the world. Anyone who steals will be purged from society, according to one side of the scroll. Anyone who swears lies under oath will be purged from society, according to the other side of the scroll.”

4 I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”

“I have sent the curse out and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of the one who swears lies in my name, declares the Lord Almighty. The curse will remain in that house, and will destroy it, both the timbers and the stones.”

5 Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is approaching.”

Then the angel I had been talking to came over to me and said, “Look. What do you see moving away?”

6 “What is it?” I asked. And he replied, “A measuring basket is going forth.” Then he continued, “This is their iniquity in all the land.”

“What is it?” I asked. “What you see moving away is a barrel full of the sins of everyone in the country,” he replied.

7 And behold, the cover of lead was raised, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.

Then the lead lid was lifted from the barrel and there was a woman sitting inside.

8 “This is Wickedness,” he said. And he shoved her down into the basket, pushing down the lead cover over its opening.

“She represents wickedness,” he said, and pushed her back inside, forcing the lead lid shut.

9 Then I lifted up my eyes and saw two women approaching, with the wind in their wings. Their wings were like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.

I looked once more and saw two women flying towards me. Their wings looked like those of a stork. They picked up the barrel and flew away, high into the sky.

10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.

“Where are they taking it?” I asked the angel I was talking to.

11 “To build a house for it in the land of Shinar,” he told me. “And when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its pedestal.”

“They're taking it to the land of Babylon to build a house for it. When the house is ready, the barrel will be placed at its base.”