Bible Strands
Zechariah 5:1
Again I lifted up my eyes and saw before me a flying scroll.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Zechariah addresses his audience immediately after a prior vision, reporting a new supernatural sight without direct dialogue in this verse. He stands as the observer relaying what God has shown him.
The words — מְגִלָּ֥ה (megillah) translates to "a scroll," while עָפָֽה ('afah) means "flying," describing the object’s suspended motion. These terms anchor the vision in a tangible yet supernatural form.
The thread — This vision connects to Ezekiel 2:9, where a prophet receives a hand-delivered scroll, and Isaiah 8:1, where God commands writing on a large scroll. Each passage uses a scroll as a medium for divine communication.
Why it lands — The text demands that readers recognize divine messages as both visible and authoritative, requiring careful attention to what God has revealed. It calls for immediate engagement with the content of the vision rather than passive observation.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.
Cross-references
- Zechariah 5:2 “What do you see?” asked the angel. “I see a flying scroll,” I replied, “twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”
- Ezekiel 2:9 Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll,
- Isaiah 8:1 Then the LORD said to me, “Take a large scroll and write on it with an ordinary stylus: Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
- Jeremiah 36:1 In the fourth year of Jehoiakim son of Josiah king of Judah, this word came to Jeremiah from the LORD:
- Jeremiah 36:20 So the officials went to the king in the courtyard. And having stored the scroll in the chamber of Elishama the scribe, they reported everything to the king.
- Jeremiah 36:27 After the king had burned the scroll containing the words that Baruch had written at Jeremiah’s dictation, the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah:
- Revelation 5:1 Then I saw a scroll in the right hand of the One seated on the throne. It had writing on both sides and was sealed with seven seals.
- Revelation 10:2 He held in his hand a small scroll, which lay open. He placed his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land.
- Revelation 10:8 Then the voice that I had heard from heaven spoke to me again, saying, “Go, take the small scroll that lies open in the hand of the angel standing on the sea and on the land.”