Then the angel who had been speaking with me returned and woke me up as if I had been asleep.

Then I asked the angel who had been speaking with me, "Sir, what are these?"

The angel who had been speaking with me answered by asking, "You don't know what these mean, do you?" So I responded, "No, sir."

Then the angel who had been talking with me stepped forward and told me, "Please look up and see what's going out."

Then I looked up to see two women coming forward with the wind filling their wings. (They had wings like those of a stork.) They took up the basket, holding it between the earth and sky.

In response, I asked the angel who had been talking with me, "Sir, what are these?"

"I will scatter them to all of the nations, which they have not known.'" Now the earth was left desolate after them. As a result, no one came or went because they had turned a pleasant land into a desert.

"I will fortify the house of Judah, and the house of Joseph I will save. I will surely bring them back, because I care about them. They will be as if I had never cast them away. Since I am the LORD their God, I will answer them.

Then I took the staff that I had named "Pleasant" and broke it, showing I was breaking my covenant that I had made with all of the people.

It was broken at that time so the oppressed of the flock who were observing me would know that it had been a message from the LORD.

I told them, "If it's alright with you, pay me what I've earned. But if it isn't, don't." So they paid out what I had earned 30 pieces of silver.

So I took the 30 shekels of silver and threw them into the treasury of the Temple of the LORD. Then I broke my second staff the one I had named "Union" - breaking the union between the house of Judah and the house of Israel.