The Flying Scroll

1Again I looked up, and I saw a scroll flying in the air! 2And the angel said to me, “What do you see?” And I answered, “I see a [a]flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits (thirty feet) and its width is ten cubits (fifteen feet).” 3Then he said to me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of the whole land; for everyone who steals will be cut off according to the writing on one side, and everyone who swears [oaths falsely] shall be cut off according to the writing on the other side. 4I will send the curse out,” declares the LORD of hosts, “and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of the one who swears falsely by My name; and it will spend the night in that house and consume it, both its timber and its stones.”

5Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and said to me, “Now look up and see what this is going forth.” 6And I said, “What is it?” And he said, “This is the [b]ephah (grain basket) going forth. This,” he continued, “is their appearance throughout the land 7(and behold, a [round, flat] lead [c]cover was lifted up); and there sat a woman inside the ephah.” 8Then he said, “This is Wickedness (Godlessness)!” And he threw her back down into the middle of the ephah and threw the lead cover on its opening. 9Then I looked up, and there were two women coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens. 10I said to the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the ephah?” 11And he said to me, “To the land of Shinar (Babylon) to build a temple for her; and when it is prepared, [d]she shall be set there on her own pedestal.”

[a] 2 The measurements of the scroll, as a symbol of God’s judgment, are the same as the measurements of the Holy Place in the tabernacle in the wilderness.
[b] 6 The ephah (a bushel basket for collecting grain) that was used by farmers was approximately 1.05 bushels, but it would be much larger in this vision.
[c] 7 The Hebrew word for the cover is also used for a talent weight. Metal ingots were cast in the form of a flat disk.
[d] 11 Perhaps symbolic of the removal of the sinful customs of the Israelites.