1Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.
2“What do you see?” asked the angel.
3Then he told me, “This is the curse that is going out over the face of all the land, for according to one side of the scroll, every thief will be removed; and according to the other side, every perjurer will be removed.
4I will send it out, declares the LORD of Hosts, and it will enter the house of the thief and the house of him who swears falsely by My name. It will remain inside his house and destroy it, down to its timbers and stones.”
5Then the angel who was speaking with me came forward and told me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is approaching.”
6“What is it?” I asked.
7And behold, the cover of lead was raised, and there was a woman sitting inside the basket.
8“This is Wickedness,” he said. And he shoved her down into the basket, pushing down the lead cover over its opening.
9Then I lifted up my eyes and saw two women approaching, with the wind in their wings. Their wings were like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
10“Where are they taking the basket?” I asked the angel who was speaking with me.
11“To build a house for it in the land of Shinar,” he told me. “And when it is ready, the basket will be set there on its pedestal.”
Understand This
Zechariah 5, explained
What Zechariah 5 is saying
Two visions address the purging of sin from the restored community. First, a flying scroll thirty feet long carries curses against thieves and perjurers throughout the land. Second, a woman called 'Wickedness' is stuffed into a measuring basket (ephah) and carried by two winged women to Shinar (Babylon), where a house is built for her.
The background behind it
The flying scroll's dimensions match those of Solomon's temple porch (1 Kings 6:3), suggesting the Torah itself serves as the standard of judgment. The removal of Wickedness to Shinar reverses the exile symbolically—now sin is exiled from Israel to Babylon rather than Israel being exiled because of sin.
Themes running underneath
The twin visions address individual sin (theft, perjury) and collective, systemic wickedness. The personification of evil as a woman in an ephah draws on commercial imagery—sin corrupts the marketplace. The geographical transfer to Shinar (Genesis 11:2) connects this purification to the reversal of humanity's primal rebellion.
Why it still matters
True restoration requires not only rebuilding institutions but purging the moral corruption that led to judgment. The visions challenge communities to address both individual ethical failures and systemic injustice.
Scripture text: Berean Standard Bible — used by permission, Bible Hub.