Sixth vision: a flying scroll

1When I looked the next time, I saw a flying scroll,5.1 scroll: A roll of paper or special leather used for writing on. 2and the angel asked, “What do you see?”

“A flying scroll,” I answered. “About nine metres long and four and a half metres wide.”

3Then he told me:

This scroll puts a curse on everyone in the land who steals or tells lies. The writing on one side tells about the destruction of those who steal, while the writing on the other side tells about the destruction of those who lie.

4The LORD All-Powerful has said, “I am sending this scroll into the house of everyone who is a robber or tells lies in my name, and it will remain there until every piece of wood and stone in that house crumbles.”

Seventh vision: a woman in a basket

5Now the angel who was there to explain the visions came over and said, “Look up and tell me what you see coming.”

6“I don't know what it is,” was my reply.

“It's a big basket,” he said. “And it shows what everyone in the land has in mind.”5.6 what…mind: Hebrew; one ancient translation “the sin of everyone in the land”.

7The lead cover of the basket was opened, and in the basket was a woman. 8“This woman represents evil,” the angel explained. Then he threw her back into the basket and slammed the heavy cover down tight.

9Straight after this I saw two women coming through the sky like storks with wings outstretched in the wind. Suddenly they lifted the basket into the air, 10and I asked the angel, “Where are they taking the basket?”

11“To Babylonia,”5.11 Babylonia: The Hebrew text has “Shinar”, an ancient name for Babylonia. he answered, “where they will build a house for the basket and set it down inside.”