Zechariah 5

1 Then I turned and lifted my eyes, and I saw, behold, a flying scroll!

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

2 The angel said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll, twenty cubits long and ten cubits 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 Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land. For every thief will be cut off according to what it says on the one side, and everyone who swears a false oath will be cut off according to what it says on the other side.

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 will send it out—this is the declaration of Yahweh of hosts—so it will enter into the house of the thief and into the house of the one that swears falsely by my name. It will remain in his house and consume its timber and 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 who was speaking with me went out and said to me, “Raise your eyes and see what is coming!”

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

6 I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is a basket containing an ephah that is coming. This is their iniquity in the whole land.”

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 a lead covering was lifted off the basket and there was a woman under it sitting in it!

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

8 The angel said, “This is Wickedness!” He threw her back inside the basket, and he threw the lead cover over its opening.

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 lifted my eyes and saw two women coming toward me, and wind was in their wings—for they had wings like a stork's wings. They lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.

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 So I said to the angel who was talking to me, “Where are they taking the basket?”

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

11 He said to me, “To build a temple in the land of Shinar for it, so that when the temple is ready, the basket will be set there on its prepared 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].”