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Chapter 5: The Sixth and Seventh Visions: A flying Scroll, and the Woman in a Basket

The angel now showed him a flying scroll. It was very large, about 30
feet long and fifteen wide. (The Hebrew gives it in cubits, of about 18
inches each). 

The scroll is flying so all can read it, and large for the same reason.
The angel explains that it is a curse flying over the land. On one side it
orders that every thief be banished; on the other, all who swear falsely
should be banished. Why these two crimes? Stealing might stand for wronging others in any way; swearing falsely might stand for any irreverence to God. Or it might be that these two sins were the chief ones in the restored community. 

The curse of course reminds us of the words of Moses in Dt 27. 26 saying that he who fails to fulfill the law is cursed. We also think of the words of
Moses in Dt 11.26 that he is putting before them a blessing and a curse.
Still further, in James 2.10 we hear that he who violates one command is
guilty of violating all - in the sense that he has denied the authority of
the lawgiver, God.

The seventh vision is of a flying basket, an ephah, which is called a
measuring basket: it held a bit less than a bushel. 

In it is a woman, who stands for all evil. When the lid is raised, she
tries to get out, but the angel pushes down the lid.

Then two other women take the basket to the land of Shinar - an old name for Babylon, the symbol of all evil - it belongs there. The house reminds us of a ziggurat, the kind of temple tower found in Babylonia.

So all evil must be removed from the restored community.