Zechariah 5King James Version
A flying scroll, huge, carrying a curse over the land. Then a vision of a woman sitting in an ephah, a basket, representing wickedness. Two women with wings like a stork's lift the basket and carry it to the land of Shinar (Babylon). Evil is sent back to where it came from.
Two more visions deal with sin's consequences. First, a flying scroll thirty feet long carries a curse that enters the homes of thieves and those who swear falsely and consumes them from the inside. Second, a woman named Wickedness is sealed inside an ephah basket by a lead lid, lifted by two stork-winged women, and transported to Babylon, where a permanent house will be built for her. Sin is not just judged but relocated.
God does not merely punish sin from a distance; he actively expels it from the community.
"I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof." (5:4) The curse does not hover outside as a threat but invades the structure itself, making the point that hidden sin cannot remain private once God decides to act.
Zechariah looks up and sees a scroll the size of a billboard sailing through the air, both sides written with curses. Then he sees a basket with a woman pressed down under a lead weight and two winged figures lifting it northeast toward the plain where Babylon stood. Sin is being packaged and shipped home to its origin. The land the community is trying to rebuild will not be contaminated by the old behaviors if God has anything to say about it.
The flying scroll is impersonal and relentless, a written law set free to execute itself. The woman in the ephah, labeled Wickedness, personifies systemic evil rather than any individual. The two women with stork wings are agents of divine housecleaning, removing the contamination to a place where idolatry already has a home.
Zechariah 5 addresses the community's concern about whether the restored land will be holy or whether old corruption will creep back in. The removal of Wickedness to Shinar, the plain of Babylon, completes a symbolic reversal: Israel went into exile for its sin; now the sin itself is exiled. The chapter also highlights that covenant violations involving property and false oaths were practical daily temptations for returnees rebuilding an economy.
Both visions have an unsettling, dreamlike quality. The scroll is enormous and airborne, purposeful and inescapable. The sealed woman being carried away is eerie, a relief to see removed but disturbing in its imagery.
1Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.
2And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.
3Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.
4I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
5Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.
6And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.
7And, behold, there was lifted up a talent of lead: and this is a woman that sitteth in the midst of the ephah.
8And he said, This is wickedness. And he cast it into the midst of the ephah; and he cast the weight of lead upon the mouth thereof.
9Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
10Then said I to the angel that talked with me, Whither do these bear the ephah?
11And he said unto me, To build it an house in the land of Shinar: and it shall be established, and set there upon her own base.