The Prophet Zechariah

⭑ Unlocked Dynamic Bible :: World English Bible Catholic ⭑

- Chapter 5 -

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

The angel asked me, “What do you see?” I replied, “I see a flying scroll that is huge, nine meters long and four and a half meters wide.”

Then he said to me, “On this scroll Yahweh has written the words that he is speaking to curse the entire land of Judah. 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 calling on Yahweh to witness that he is telling the truth will also be banished from the country.

The Commander of the angel armies says, ‘I will send this scroll to the places where thieves live and to the houses of those who use my name when they call on me to witness that they are telling the truth. This scroll will stay in their houses until those houses and all their wood and stones are destroyed.’”

The Vision of the Woman in a Basket

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

I asked him, “What is it?” He replied, “It is a big barrel for measuring grain. But it contains a record of the sins that everyone in this nation has committed.”

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

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

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 storks’ wings. They lifted the barrel up into the sky.

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

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

Then again I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, a flying scroll.

He said to me, “What do you see?” I answered, “I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits,(a) and its width ten cubits.”

Then he said to me, “This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land, for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side.

I will cause it to go out,” says the LORD of Armies, “and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by my name; and it will remain in the middle of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones.”

The Vision of the Woman in a Basket

Then the angel who talked with me came forward and said to me, “Lift up now your eyes and see what this is that is appearing.”

I said, “What is it?” He said, “This is the ephah(b) basket that is appearing.” He said moreover, “This is their appearance in all the land—

and behold, a lead cover weighing one talent

(c)

was lifted up—and there was a woman sitting in the middle of the ephah(d) basket.”

He said, “This is Wickedness;” and he threw her down into the middle of the ephah basket; and he threw the lead weight on its mouth.

Then I lifted up my eyes and saw, and behold, there were two women; and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky.

Then I said to the angel who talked with me, “Where are these carrying the ephah basket?”

He said to me, “To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.”

Footnotes

(a)5:2 A cubit is the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow on a man’s arm, or about 18 inches or 46 centimeters.

(b)5:6 An ephah is a measure of volume of about 22 liters, 5.8 U. S. gallons, or about 2/3 of a bushel.

(d)5:7 1 ephah is about 22 liters or about 2/3 of a bushel