Chapter 5

The Vision of the Flying Scroll

¹Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me 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.^a”

³Then 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. ⁴I 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.”

The Vision of the Woman in a Basket

⁵Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is approaching.”

⁶“What is it?” I asked.

And he replied, “A measuring basket^b is going forth.” Then he continued, “This is their iniquity^c in all the land.”

⁷And behold, the cover of lead was raised, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.

⁸“This is Wickedness,” he said. And he shoved her down into the basket, pushing down the lead cover over its opening.

⁹Then 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.

¹⁰“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.

¹¹“To build a house for it in the land of Shinar,^d” he told me. “And when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its pedestal.”