Zechariah 5

1 I looked again and saw a flying scroll.

Then I turned, and lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

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

And he said to me, What see you? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.

3 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.”

Then said he to me, This is the curse that goes forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that steals shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that swears shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

4 “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.”

I will bring it forth, says the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that swears falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the middle of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

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

Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said to me, Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that goes forth.

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

And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goes forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.

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

And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sits in the middle of the ephah.

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

And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the middle of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead on the mouth thereof.

9 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.

Then lifted I up my eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.

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

Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Where do these bear the ephah?

11 “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.”

And he said to me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there on her own base.