Then lifted I up mine eyes, and looked, and, behold, there came out two women, and the wind was in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork: and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heaven.
The book of Zechariah is filled with vivid, sometimes disorienting prophetic visions — more like intense symbolic dreams — that God gave the prophet Zechariah around 520 BC, as the Jewish people were returning home after decades of exile in Babylon. This verse is part of Zechariah's seventh vision, in which he sees a large measuring basket called an ephah — used for grain — with a woman inside representing wickedness. Two otherworldly women then appear with wings like a stork and carry the basket up into the air between heaven and earth, transporting it away to the land of Babylon. The imagery is intentionally strange and symbolic: evil is being contained, lifted out, and sent somewhere that isn't the land of God's people. It is a vision of judgment and removal, but also of profound hope.
God, I don't always understand what you're doing. Some of it looks strange and incomplete from where I stand. But I trust that you are moving — that evil doesn't float free forever, and that even the parts I can't explain are held in your hands. Give me faith for the confusing parts. Amen.
Not everything in the Bible resolves into a tidy takeaway, and this vision is proof of that. Winged women. A floating basket. Wickedness personified and carried off between heaven and earth. Zechariah isn't writing metaphors designed for a sermon outline — he's recording something that broke into his world and didn't fully explain itself. And that strangeness is part of the point. What's being communicated isn't a principle; it's a glimpse into something God is *doing*, whether or not the observer fully grasps it. Evil is being dealt with. Contained. Moved somewhere with purpose. There's a kind of faith that only trusts God when things make clean, logical sense. But some of what God is doing in the world — and possibly in your own life right now — looks like a basket carried by stork-winged figures between heaven and earth. Disorienting. Not fully explainable. And yet moving somewhere. The question this vision quietly poses is whether you can trust the one who sends the visions even when the vision itself doesn't fully resolve. You don't have to understand everything God is doing to hold onto the God who is doing it.
What do you think the image of wickedness being physically contained and carried away is meant to communicate to people who had just returned from a traumatic exile?
How do you typically respond when you encounter parts of the Bible that are confusing, strange, or don't yield a clear application?
Is it troubling to you that God doesn't always explain his actions in ways that are immediately understandable — or does the mystery feel different to you than that?
How might genuinely believing that God is actively at work against evil — even when you can't see it — change how you relate to people caught up in destructive patterns?
What's one situation in your life or the world right now where you're waiting for God's purposes to become clearer — and what would it look like to trust him in the meantime?
And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Daniel 9:27
And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Daniel 9:26
For wheresoever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together.
Matthew 24:28
Then I looked up, and there were two women coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens.
AMP
Then I lifted my eyes and saw, and behold, two women coming forward! The wind was in their wings. They had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
ESV
Then I lifted up my eyes and looked, and there two women were coming out with the wind in their wings; and they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the ephah between the earth and the heavens.
NASB
Then I looked up—and there before me were two women, with the wind in their wings! They had wings like those of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between heaven and earth.
NIV
Then I raised my eyes and looked, and there were two women, coming with the wind in their wings; for they had wings like the wings of a stork, and they lifted up the basket between earth and heaven.
NKJV
Then I looked up and saw two women flying toward us, gliding on the wind. They had wings like a stork, and they picked up the basket and flew into the sky.
NLT
Then I looked up and to my surprise saw two women flying. On outstretched wings they airlifted the bushel basket into the sky.
MSG