What Does Zechariah 5:1 Mean in the King James?

Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.

Zechariah 5:1 · KJV

The analysis reads the King James wording.

King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.

THE KEY

Hebrew names the scroll from the act of rolling, then shows that rolled thing flying into your sight.

THE MEANING

The scene meets you at the instant your attention turns and rises: a written roll is already moving before your eyes. The verse holds the act of seeing beside the scroll’s flight, leaving the image strange and vivid.

THE ROOT

מְגִלָּה

megillah

GROWS FROM

גלל

galal

To roll, roll around, or roll away.

English scroll names an object; Hebrew ⁨מְגִלָּה⁩ (megillah, scroll) retains the action of rolling in ⁨גלל⁩ (galal, to roll). The vision puts that rolled form in flight, joining the scroll’s shape and motion in one image.

ALSO GROWS

galal: The act of rolling something or rolling it away.

גָּלַל

This verb names the physical action behind the scroll’s noun, making its rolled form part of the word itself.

galgal: A wheel, a thing that turns and rolls.

גַּלְגַּל

The wheel carries the same rolling motion into another shape; here, the rolled scroll moves through the air.

THE PATTERN

The written vision arrives as something visible and in motion, drawing the seer into encounter.

And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;

Ezekiel 2:9 · KJVThe written message enters the field of sight as a roll presented to the seer.

And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

Habakkuk 2:2 · KJVThe vision becomes visible writing, and the one who reads it is pictured in motion.

And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.

Revelation 10:8 · KJVThe open book is not merely described; it is placed before the seer as something to take.

THE THREAD

And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;

Ezekiel 2:9 · KJV

Ezekiel’s “roll” is ⁨מְגִלָּה⁩ (megillah, scroll), the same Hebrew word Zechariah uses. In Ezekiel the roll is placed in a hand; in Zechariah it flies, so the shared word holds the object steady while its movement changes.

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