CHAPTER 5 Dec. 21 
A Flying Scroll 
Then again I lifted up my eyes, and saw, and behold, a flying scroll. 2He said to me, What do you see?  I answered, I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits, and its breadth ten cubits.  3Then he said to me, This is the curse that goes out over the surface of the whole land; for everyone who steals shall be cut off according to it on the one side; and everyone who swears falsely shall be cut off according to it on the other side. 4I will cause it to go out, says Yahweh of Armies, and it will enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him who swears falsely by My name; and it will remain in the midst of his house, and will destroy it with its timber and its stones. 
Wickedness in the Ephah Basket 
 5Then the angel who talked with me came forward, and said to me, Lift up now your eyes, and see what is this that is appearing.  6I said, What is it?  He said, This is the ephah basket that is appearing. He said moreover, This is their appearance in all the land 7(and behold, a talent of lead was lifted up); and this is a woman sitting in the midst of the ephah basket. 8He said, This is Wickedness!; and he threw her down into the midst of the ephah basket; and he put the weight of lead on its mouth.  9Then lifted I up my eyes, and saw, and behold, there were two women, and the wind was in their wings. Now they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah basket between earth and the sky. 10Then I said to the angel who talked with me, Where are these carrying the ephah basket to?  11He said to me, To build her a house in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will be set there in her own place.

Commentary

5:3 This condemns theft and dishonesty amongst the exiles who had returned from Babylon. Malachi and Haggai comment that the harvests were poor and the people suffered- because their focus was on building their own farms rather than building God’s house. Verses 5-11 seem to be saying that their wickedness was so great that they may as well be taken up by Angelic means and returned to Babylon [“Shinar”, :11] to build a pagan temple there, as an inversion of the way they had been taken by Angelic means from Babylon to Judah in order to build Yahweh’s temple.