Open English Translation ZEC Chapter 5

5 Then I turned around and looked up, and wow, I saw a flying scroll, 2 and the messenger asked me, “What do you see?”

“I see a flying scroll,” I answered, “that’s nine metres long and half that wide.”

3 Then he told me, “That’s the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land. Every thief will be removed according to what it says on the one side, and everyone who testifies falsely will be removed according to what it says on the other side. 4 Army commander Yahweh declares: I will send it out so it will enter into the house of any thief and into the house of anyone who testified falsely using my name, and it will remain in that house and eat away at its timber and its stones.”

5 Then the messenger who’d been talking with me came over and said to me, “Look up and see what’s coming now.”

6 “What is it?” I asked.

And he said, “That’s the measuring bin that’s coming.” Then he continued, “That’s their eye[fn] across the whole land.”

7 Then, wow, a lead covering was lifted off and there was a woman sitting inside the measuring bin. 8 He said, “This woman is ‘wickedness’.” Then he pushed her back inside the measuring bin, then quickly pressed the heavy lead cover back over its opening.

9 Then I looked up again and wow, I saw two women with wings like stork’s wings, flying on the wind towards us, and they lifted the measuring bin up into the sky.

10 “Where are they taking the measuring bin?” I asked the messenger who’d been talking with me.

11 “To build a temple for it in Babylonia,” he replied. “And when it’s ready, it’ll be set on a base there.”