5
Sinners Will Be Separated from the LORD’s People
1 I looked up again and saw a flying scroll.
2 The angel asked me, “What do you see?”
“I see a flying scroll,” I answered. “It’s 30 feet long and 15 feet wide.”
3 Then he said to me, “This is a curse that will go out all over the earth. The one side of the scroll says that every thief will be forced away. The other side of the scroll says that everyone who takes an oath will be forced away. 4 I will send out a curse, declares the Lord of Armies, and it will enter the houses of thieves and the houses of those who take oaths in my name. It will stay in their houses and destroy the timber and stone.”
Wickedness Will Be Removed from the Land
5 The angel who was speaking with me came forward. He said, “Look up, and see what’s coming.”
6 “What is it?” I asked.
“A basket is coming,” he said. Then he added, “This is what the people’s sins look like all over the earth.”* 7 A lead cover ⌞on the basket⌟ was raised, and a woman was sitting in the basket. 8 The angel said, “This is wickedness,” and he pushed her back into the basket and forced the lead cover down on top of it.
9 I looked up and saw two women coming forward with wind in their wings. They had wings like those of a stork. They carried the basket into the sky.
10 I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the basket?”
11 He answered me, “They are going to build a house for it in Shinar [Babylonia]. When the house is ready, they will set the basket there on a stand.”
* 5:6 One Hebrew manuscript, Greek, Syriac; other Hebrew manuscripts “This is their eye all over the earth.”