< Zechariah 5 >

1 I looked up again, and I saw a scroll that was flying [through the air].
Then again lifting up my eyes I saw a roll in flight through the air.
2 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.”
And he said to me, What do you see? And I said, A roll going through the air; it is twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.
3 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.
Then he said to me, This is the curse which goes out over the face of all the land: for long enough has every thief gone without punishment, and long enough has every taker of false oaths gone without punishment.
4 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.’”
And I will send it out, says the Lord of armies, and it will go into the house of the thief and into the house of him who takes a false oath by my name: and it will be in his house, causing its complete destruction, with its woodwork and its stones.
5 Then the angel who had been talking to me came closer to me and said, “Look up and see what is appearing!”
And the angel who was talking to me went out and said to me, Let your eyes be lifted up now, and see the ephah which is going out.
6 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.”
And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah which is going out. And he said further, This is their evil-doing in all the land.
7 Then [the angel] lifted the basket’s cover, [which was made] of lead. There was a woman sitting inside the basket!
And I saw a round cover of lead lifted up; and a woman was seated in the middle of the ephah.
8 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].
And he said, This is Sin; and pushing her down into the ephah, he put the weight of lead on the mouth of it.
9 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.
And lifting up my eyes I saw two women coming out, and the wind was in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they took the ephah, lifting it up between earth and heaven.
10 I asked the angel who had been talking to me, “Where are they taking that basket?”
And I said to the angel who was talking to me, Where are they taking the ephah?
11 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].”
And he said to me, To make a house for her in the land of Shinar: and they will make a place ready, and put her there in the place which is hers.

< Zechariah 5 >