Zechariah 5

1 I looked again and saw a flying scroll.

I looked up again, and I saw a scroll that was flying [through the air].

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

The angel asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll that is [huge], (10 yards/9 meters) long and (5 yards/4.5 meters) wide.”

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 he said to me, “On this scroll is written the [words that Yahweh is speaking to] curse the entire country. On [one side of] the scroll it is written that every thief will be banished. On [the other side] it is written that everyone who tells a lie when he is solemnly promising to tell the truth will also be banished from the country.

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.”

The Commander of the armies of angels says, ‘I will send [copies of] this scroll to the places where thieves live and to the houses of those who use my name when they solemnly promise to tell the truth. [The copies of] this scroll will stay in their houses, until those houses and all their wood and stones are destroyed.’”

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 who had been talking to me came closer to me and said, “Look up and see what is appearing!”

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.

I asked him, “What is it?” He replied, “It is a big basket [for measuring grain]. But it represents the sins that everyone in this nation has committed.”

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

Then [the angel] lifted the basket’s cover, [which was made] of lead. There was a woman sitting inside the basket!

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

The angel said, “She represents the wicked things [that people do].” Then the angel pushed her back into the basket and closed the very heavy lid [again].

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 I looked up and saw two women in front of me. They [were flying toward us], with their wings spread out in the wind. Their wings were [large], like [SIM] storks’ wings. They lifted the big basket up into the sky.

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

I asked the angel who had been talking to me, “Where are they taking that basket?”

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.”

He replied, “[They are taking it] to Babylonia to build a temple for it. When the temple is finished, they will set the basket there on a pedestal [for people to worship it].”