< Zechariah 5 >

1 Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.
Then again I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, 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.”
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.”
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.
Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land, for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.
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 will cause it to go out,” says the LORD of Armies, “and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the middle of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its 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 who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is that is appearing.”
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.”
I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the ephah basket that is appearing.” He said moreover, “This is their appearance in all the land—
7 And behold, the cover of lead was raised, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.
and behold, a lead cover weighing one talent was lifted up—and there was a woman sitting in the middle of the ephah basket.”
8 “This is Wickedness,” he said. And he shoved her down into the basket, pushing down the lead cover over its opening.
He said, “This is Wickedness;” and he threw her down into the middle of the ephah basket; and he threw the lead weight on its mouth.
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.
Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there were two women; and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky.
10 “Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.
Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are these carrying the ephah basket?”
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.”
He said to me, “To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.”

< Zechariah 5 >