Ezekiel 22 Cross References - MSB

¹ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations ³ and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘O city who brings her own doom by shedding blood within her walls and making idols to defile herself, ⁴ you are guilty of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those near and far will mock you, O infamous city, full of turmoil. ⁶ See how every prince of Israel within you has used his power to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed. ⁸ You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths. ⁹ Among you are slanderous men bent on bloodshed; within you are those who eat on the mountain shrines and commit acts of indecency. ¹⁰ In you they have uncovered the nakedness of their fathers; in you they violate women during their menstrual impurity. ¹¹ One man commits an abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another wickedly defiles his daughter-in-law; and yet another violates his sister, his own father’s daughter. ¹² In you they take bribes to shed blood. You engage in usury, take excess interest, and extort your neighbors. But Me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD. ¹³ Now look, I strike My hands together against your unjust gain and against the blood you have shed in your midst. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will act. ¹⁵ I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you throughout the lands; I will purge your uncleanness. ¹⁶ And when you have defiled yourself in the eyes of the nations, then you will know that I am the LORD.’” ¹⁷ Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver. ¹⁹ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because all of you have become dross, behold, I will gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’” ²³ And the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, ‘In the day of indignation, you are a land that has not been cleansed, upon which no rain has fallen.’ ²⁵ The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice. ³⁰ I searched for a man among them to repair the wall and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, so that I should not destroy it. But I found no one. ³¹ So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁶ Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end, in addition to the sin that he had caused Judah to commit, doing evil in the sight of the LORD.

³ Surely this happened to Judah at the LORD’s command, to remove them from His presence because of the sins of Manasseh and all that he had done, ⁴ and also for the innocent blood he had shed. For he had filled Jerusalem with innocent blood, and the LORD was unwilling to forgive.

¹ “Cry aloud, do not hold back! Raise your voice like a ram’s horn. Declare to My people their transgression and to the house of Jacob their sins.

³⁰ “I have struck your sons in vain; they accepted no discipline. Your own sword has devoured your prophets like a voracious lion.”

³⁴ Moreover, your skirts are stained with the blood of the innocent poor, though you did not find them breaking in. But in spite of all these things

⁹ Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations they are committing here.” ¹⁰ So I went in and looked, and engraved all around the wall was every kind of crawling creature and detestable beast, along with all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹ Before them stood seventy elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had a censer in his hand, and a fragrant cloud of incense was rising. ¹² “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the darkness, each at the shrine of his own idol? For they are saying, ‘The LORD does not see us; the LORD has forsaken the land.’” ¹³ Again, He told me, “You will see them committing even greater abominations.” ¹⁴ Then He brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the LORD, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Yet you will see even greater abominations than these.” ¹⁶ So He brought me to the inner court of the house of the LORD, and there at the entrance to the temple of the LORD, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs to the temple of the LORD and their faces toward the east; and they were bowing to the east in worship of the sun. ¹⁷ “Son of man,” He said to me, “do you see this? Is it not enough for the house of Judah to commit the abominations they are practicing here, that they must also fill the land with violence and continually provoke Me to anger? Look, they are even putting the branch to their nose!

¹ Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations ³ and tell her that this is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth were in the land of the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. ⁴ On the day of your birth your cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing. You were not rubbed with salt or wrapped in cloths. ⁵ No one cared enough for you to do even one of these things out of compassion for you. Instead, you were thrown out into the open field, because you were despised on the day of your birth. ⁶ Then I passed by and saw you wallowing in your blood, and as you lay there in your blood I said to you, ‘Live!’ There I said to you, ‘Live!’ ⁷ I made you thrive like a plant of the field. You grew up and matured and became very beautiful. Your breasts were formed and your hair grew, but you were naked and bare. ⁸ Then I passed by and saw you, and you were indeed old enough for love. So I spread My cloak over you and covered your nakedness. I pledged Myself to you, entered into a covenant with you, and you became Mine, declares the Lord GOD. ⁹ Then I bathed you with water, rinsed off your blood, and anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you in embroidered cloth and gave you sandals of fine leather. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry, and I put bracelets on your wrists and a chain around your neck. ¹² I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was made of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil. You became very beautiful and rose to be queen. ¹⁴ Your fame spread among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect in the splendor I bestowed on you, declares the Lord GOD. ¹⁵ But because of your fame, you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot. You lavished your favors on everyone who passed by, and your beauty was theirs for the asking. ¹⁶ You took some of your garments and made colorful high places for yourself, and on them you prostituted yourself. Such things should not have happened; never should they have occurred! ¹⁷ You also took the fine jewelry of gold and silver I had given you, and you made male idols with which to prostitute yourself. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments to cover them, and you set My oil and incense before them. ¹⁹ And you set before them as a pleasing aroma the food I had given you—the fine flour, oil, and honey that I had fed you. That is what happened, declares the Lord GOD. ²⁰ You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough? ²¹ You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols. ²² And in all your abominations and acts of prostitution, you did not remember the days of your youth when you were naked and bare, wallowing in your own blood. ²³ Woe! Woe to you, declares the Lord GOD. And in addition to all your other wickedness, ²⁴ you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square. ²⁵ At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by. ²⁶ You prostituted yourself with your lustful neighbors, the Egyptians, and increased your promiscuity to provoke Me to anger. ²⁷ Therefore I stretched out My hand against you and reduced your portion. I gave you over to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd conduct. ²⁸ Then you prostituted yourself with the Assyrians, because you were not yet satisfied. Even after that, you were still not satisfied. ²⁹ So you extended your promiscuity to Chaldea, the land of merchants—but even with this you were not satisfied! ³⁰ How weak-willed is your heart, declares the Lord GOD, while you do all these things, the acts of a shameless prostitute! ³¹ But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment. ³² You adulterous wife! You receive strangers instead of your own husband! ³³ Men give gifts to all their prostitutes, but you gave gifts to all your lovers. You bribed them to come to you from everywhere for your illicit favors. ³⁴ So your prostitution is the opposite of that of other women: No one solicited your favors, and you paid a fee instead of receiving one; so you are the very opposite! ³⁵ Therefore, O prostitute, hear the word of the LORD! ³⁶ This is what the Lord GOD says: Because you poured out your wealth and exposed your nakedness in your promiscuity with your lovers and with all your detestable idols, and because of the blood of your children which you gave to them, ³⁷ therefore I will surely gather all the lovers with whom you found pleasure, all those you loved and all those you hated. I will gather them against you from all around and expose you before them, and they will see you completely naked. ³⁸ And I will sentence you to the punishment of women who commit adultery and those who shed blood; so I will bring upon you the wrath of your bloodshed and jealousy. ³⁹ Then I will deliver you into the hands of your lovers, and they will level your mounds and tear down your lofty shrines. They will strip off your clothes, take your fine jewelry, and leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰ They will bring a mob against you, who will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. ⁴¹ Then they will burn down your houses and execute judgment against you in the sight of many women. I will put an end to your prostitution, and you will never again pay your lovers. ⁴² So I will lay to rest My wrath against you, and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be calm and no longer angry. ⁴³ Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations? ⁴⁴ Behold, all who speak in proverbs will quote this proverb about you: ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ ⁴⁵ You are the daughter of your mother, who despised her husband and children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your older sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters to your north; and your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters to your south. ⁴⁷ And you not only walked in their ways and practiced their abominations, but soon you were more depraved than they were. ⁴⁸ As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did as you and your daughters have done. ⁴⁹ Now this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and complacent; they did not help the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ Thus they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. Therefore I removed them, as you have seen. ⁵¹ Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half the sins you did. You have multiplied your abominations beyond theirs, and all the abominations you have committed have made your sisters appear righteous. ⁵² So now you must bear your disgrace, since you have brought justification for your sisters. For they appear more righteous than you, because your sins were more vile than theirs. So you too must bear your shame and disgrace, since you have made your sisters appear righteous. ⁵³ But I will restore Sodom and her daughters from captivity, as well as Samaria and her daughters. And I will restore you along with them. ⁵⁴ So you will bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all you did to comfort them. ⁵⁵ And your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will also return to your former state. ⁵⁶ Did you not treat your sister Sodom as an object of scorn in the day of your pride, ⁵⁷ before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you. ⁵⁸ You will bear the consequences of your lewdness and your abominations, declares the LORD. ⁵⁹ For this is what the Lord GOD says: I will deal with you according to your deeds, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant. ⁶⁰ But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹ Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you. ⁶² So I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the LORD, ⁶³ so that when I make atonement for all you have done, you will remember and be ashamed and never again open your mouth because of your disgrace, declares the Lord GOD.”

⁴ Will you judge them, will you judge them, son of man? Confront them with the abominations of their fathers

¹ Again the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother, ³ and they played in Egypt, prostituting themselves from their youth. Their breasts were fondled there, and their virgin bosoms caressed. ⁴ The older was named Oholah, and her sister was named Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their identities, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem. ⁵ Oholah prostituted herself while she was still Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians—warriors ⁶ clothed in blue, governors and commanders, all desirable young men, horsemen mounted on steeds. ⁷ She offered sexual favors to all the elite of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of those for whom she lusted. ⁸ She did not give up the prostitution she began in Egypt, when men slept with her in her youth, caressed her virgin bosom, and poured out their lust upon her. ⁹ Therefore I delivered her into the hands of her lovers, the Assyrians for whom she lusted. ¹⁰ They exposed her nakedness, seized her sons and daughters, and put her to the sword. Thus she became a byword among women, and they executed judgment against her. ¹¹ Her sister Oholibah saw this, yet in her lust and prostitution she was more depraved than her sister. ¹² She too lusted after the Assyrians—governors and commanders, warriors dressed in splendor, horsemen riding on steeds, all desirable young men. ¹³ And I saw that she too had defiled herself; both of them had taken the same path. ¹⁴ But Oholibah carried her prostitution even further. She saw the men portrayed on the wall, images of the Chaldeans, engraved in vermilion, ¹⁵ wearing belts on their waists and flowing turbans on their heads; all of them looked like officers of the Babylonians in Chaldea, the land of their birth. ¹⁶ At the sight of them, she lusted for them and sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ Then the Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and in their lust they defiled her. But after she had been defiled by them, she turned away in disgust. ¹⁸ When Oholibah openly prostituted herself and exposed her nakedness, I turned away from her in disgust, just as I had turned away from her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her promiscuity, remembering the days of her youth, when she had prostituted herself in the land of Egypt ²⁰ and lusted after their lovers, whose genitals were like those of donkeys and whose emission was like that of stallions. ²¹ So you revisited the indecency of your youth, when the Egyptians caressed your bosom and pressed your young breasts. ²² Therefore, Oholibah, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I will incite your lovers against you, those from whom you turned away in disgust. And I will bring them against you from every side— ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, the men of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians with them—all desirable young men, governors and commanders, officers and men of renown, mounted on horses. ²⁴ They will come against you with a host of peoples, with weapons, chariots, and wagons. They will array themselves against you on every side with buckler and shield and helmet. I will delegate judgment to them, and they will punish you according to their own standards. ²⁵ And I will set My jealous rage against you, and they will deal with you in fury. They will cut off your noses and ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and your remnant will be consumed by fire. ²⁶ They will strip off your clothes and take your fine jewelry. ²⁷ So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’ ²⁸ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Surely I will deliver you into the hands of those you hate, from whom you turned away in disgust. ²⁹ They will treat you with hatred, take all for which you have worked, and leave you naked and bare, so that the shame of your prostitution will be exposed. Your indecency and promiscuity ³⁰ have brought these things upon you, because you have prostituted yourself with the nations and defiled yourself with their idols. ³¹ Because you have followed the path of your sister, I will put her cup into your hand.’ ³² This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, a cup deep and wide. It will bring scorn and derision, for it holds so much. ³³ You will be filled with drunkenness and grief, with a cup of devastation and desolation, the cup of your sister Samaria. ³⁴ You will drink it and drain it; you will dash it to pieces, and tear your breasts. For I have spoken,’ declares the Lord GOD. ³⁵ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.’” ³⁶ Then the LORD said to me: “Son of man, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols. ³⁸ They have also done this to Me: On that very same day, they defiled My sanctuary and profaned My Sabbaths. ³⁹ On the very day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary to profane it. Yes, they did this inside My house. ⁴⁰ Furthermore, you sisters sent messengers for men who came from afar; and behold, when they arrived, you bathed for them, painted your eyes, and adorned yourself with jewelry. ⁴¹ You sat on a couch of luxury with a table spread before it, on which you had set My incense and My oil, ⁴² accompanied by the sound of a carefree crowd. Drunkards were brought in from the desert along with men from the rabble, who put bracelets on your wrists and beautiful crowns on your head. ⁴³ Then I said of her who had grown old in adulteries: ‘Now let them use her as a prostitute, for that is all she is!’ ⁴⁴ And they slept with her as with a prostitute; they slept with Oholah and Oholibah, those lewd women. ⁴⁵ But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands. ⁴⁶ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Bring a mob against them and consign them to terror and plunder. ⁴⁷ The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses. ⁴⁸ So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior. ⁴⁹ They will repay you for your indecency, and you will bear the consequences of your sins of idolatry. Then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.’”

⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.

⁹ Yes, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high.

² Cursing and lying, murder and stealing, and adultery are rampant; one act of bloodshed follows another.

¹ Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without prey.

³⁵ And so upon you will come all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar.

²⁵ All the people answered, “His blood be on us and on our children!”

⁵⁰ As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world,

⁵² Which of the prophets did your fathers fail to persecute? They even killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One. And now you are His betrayers and murderers—

²⁰ Those who persist in sin should be rebuked in front of everyone, so that the others will stand in fear of sin.

² And he did evil in the sight of the LORD by following the abominations of the nations that the LORD had driven out before the Israelites. ³ For he rebuilt the high places that his father Hezekiah had destroyed, and he raised up altars for Baal. He made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and he worshiped and served all the host of heaven. ⁴ Manasseh also built altars in the house of the LORD, of which the LORD had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My Name.” ⁵ In both courtyards of the house of the LORD, he built altars to all the host of heaven. ⁶ He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did great evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him to anger. ⁷ Manasseh even took the carved Asherah pole he had made and set it up in the temple, of which the LORD had said to David and his son Solomon, “In this temple and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will establish My Name forever. ⁸ I will never again cause the feet of the Israelites to wander from the land that I gave to their fathers, if only they are careful to do all I have commanded them—the whole Law that My servant Moses commanded them.” ⁹ But the people did not listen and Manasseh led them astray, so that they did greater evil than the nations that the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites.

¹ Now the word of the LORD came to me, saying, ² “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem that this is what the LORD says: ‘I remember the devotion of your youth, your love as a bride, how you followed Me in the wilderness, in a land not sown. ³ Israel was holy to the LORD, the firstfruits of His harvest. All who devoured her found themselves guilty; disaster came upon them,’” declares the LORD.

² “O son of man, this is what the Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land. ³ The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁴ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’ ⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Disaster! An unprecedented disaster—behold, it is coming! ⁶ The end has come! The end has come! It has roused itself against you. Behold, it has come! ⁷ Doom has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near; there is panic on the mountains instead of shouts of joy. ⁸ Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁹ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow. ¹⁰ Behold, the day is here! It has come! Doom has gone out, the rod has budded, arrogance has bloomed. ¹¹ Their violence has grown into a rod to punish their wickedness. None of them will remain: none of their multitude, none of their wealth, and nothing of value. ¹² The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is upon the whole multitude.

²⁵ because I, the LORD, will speak whatever word I speak, and it will be fulfilled without delay. For in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak a message and bring it to pass, declares the Lord GOD.’”

⁴ you are guilty of the blood you have shed, and you are defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close and have come to the end of your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mockery to all the lands.

⁶ See how every prince of Israel within you has used his power to shed blood.

²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain.

³⁷ For they have committed adultery, and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols. They have even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to Me, in the fire as food for their idols.

⁴⁵ But righteous men will sentence them to the punishment of those who commit adultery and bloodshed, because they are adulteresses with blood on their hands.

⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents. ⁷ For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust. ⁸ In order to stir up wrath and take vengeance, I have placed her blood on the bare rock, so that it would not be covered.’ ⁹ Yes, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high.

³ Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning.

⁵ But because of your hard and unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.

³ In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction will not sleep.

³² And I will lay waste the land, so that your enemies who dwell in it will be appalled.

¹⁴ Now behold, you, a brood of sinners, have risen up in place of your fathers to further stoke the burning anger of the LORD against Israel.

³⁷ You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

²⁴ So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

⁷ then I will cut off Israel from the land that I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. Then Israel will become an object of scorn and ridicule among all peoples.

²⁰ then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

¹³ You have made us a reproach to our neighbors, a mockery and derision to those around us. ¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.

⁴ We have become a reproach to our neighbors, a scorn and derision to those around us.

⁴¹ All who pass by plunder him; he has become a reproach to his neighbors. ⁴² You have exalted the right hand of his foes; You have made all his enemies rejoice.

¹⁶ They have made their land a desolation, a perpetual object of scorn; all who pass by will be appalled and shake their heads.

⁹ I will make them a horror and an offense to all the kingdoms of the earth, a disgrace and an object of scorn, ridicule, and cursing wherever I have banished them.

⁸ Why are you provoking Me to anger by the work of your hands by burning incense to other gods in the land of Egypt, where you have gone to reside? As a result, you will be cut off and will become an object of cursing and reproach among all the nations of the earth.

¹⁵ All who pass by clap their hands at you in scorn. They hiss and shake their heads at the Daughter of Jerusalem: “Is this the city that was called the perfection of beauty, the joy of all the earth?” ¹⁶ All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

¹⁴ I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ So you will be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the nations around you, when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and raging fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

⁵⁷ before your wickedness was uncovered? Even so, you are now scorned by the daughters of Edom and all those around her, and by the daughters of the Philistines—all those around you who despise you.

²⁸ Now prophesy, son of man, and declare that this is what the Lord GOD says concerning the Ammonites and their contempt: ‘A sword! A sword is drawn for slaughter, polished to consume, to flash like lightning—

² “As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations

¹⁶ O Lord, in keeping with all Your righteous acts, I pray that Your anger and wrath may turn away from Your city Jerusalem, Your holy mountain; for because of our sins and the iniquities of our fathers, Jerusalem and Your people are a reproach to all around us.

³² Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers. ³³ You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape the sentence of hell?

¹⁶ hindering us from telling the Gentiles how they may be saved. As a result, they continue to heap up their sins to full capacity; the utmost wrath has come upon them.

² O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle.

² If they ask you, ‘Where shall we go?’ you are to tell them that this is what the LORD says: ‘Those destined for death, to death; those destined for the sword, to the sword; those destined for famine, to famine; and those destined for captivity, to captivity.’ ³ I will appoint over them four kinds of destroyers, declares the LORD: the sword to kill, the dogs to drag away, and the birds of the air and beasts of the earth to devour and destroy.

³⁴ Our kings and leaders and priests and fathers did not obey Your law or listen to Your commandments and warnings that You gave them.

²³ Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. They all love bribes and chasing after rewards. They do not defend the fatherless, and the plea of the widow never comes before them.

²⁶ As the thief is ashamed when he is caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced. They, their kings, their officials, their priests, and their prophets ²⁷ say to a tree, ‘You are my father,’ and to a stone, ‘You gave me birth.’ For they have turned their backs to Me and not their faces, yet in the time of trouble they beg, ‘Rise up and save us!’

⁵ I will go to the powerful and speak to them. Surely they know the way of the LORD, the justice of their God.” But they too, with one accord, had broken the yoke and torn off the chains.

³² because of all the evil the children of Israel and of Judah have done to provoke Me to anger—they, their kings, their officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah, and the residents of Jerusalem.

⁸ O LORD, we are covered with shame—our kings, our leaders, and our fathers—because we have sinned against You.

¹ Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands.

¹ Then I said: “Hear now, O leaders of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel. Should you not know justice? ² You hate good and love evil. You tear the skin from my people and strip the flesh from their bones. ³ You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

⁹ Now hear this, O leaders of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and pervert all that is right, ¹⁰ who build Zion with bloodshed and Jerusalem with iniquity. ¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.”

³ Now Joshua was dressed in filthy garments as he stood before the angel.

¹² Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁷ Anyone who curses his father or mother must surely be put to death.

²¹ You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt. ²² You must not mistreat any widow or orphan.

⁹ If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood shall be upon him.

¹⁶ Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, so that your days may be long and that it may go well with you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

¹⁶ ‘Cursed is he who dishonors his father or mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁹ ‘Cursed is he who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

²⁰ Whoever curses his father or mother, his lamp will be extinguished in deepest darkness.

²² Do not rob a poor man because he is poor, and do not crush the afflicted at the gate, ²³ for the LORD will take up their case and will plunder those who rob them.

¹¹ There is a generation of those who curse their fathers and do not bless their mothers.

¹⁷ As for the eye that mocks a father and scorns obedience to a mother, may the ravens of the valley pluck it out and young vultures devour it.

⁶ if you no longer oppress the foreigner and the fatherless and the widow, and if you no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods to your own harm,

¹² He oppresses the poor and needy; he commits robbery and does not restore a pledge. He lifts his eyes to idols; he commits abominations.

²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor. And do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.’

⁵ “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. And I will be a swift witness against sorcerers and adulterers and perjurers, against oppressors of the widowed and fatherless, and against those who defraud laborers of their wages and deny justice to the foreigner but do not fear Me,” says the LORD of Hosts.

⁴ For God commanded, saying, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ⁵ But you say that if anyone says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is a gift devoted to God,’ ⁶ then he need not honor his father or mother with it. Thus you nullify the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition.

¹⁰ For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’

³⁰ You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD.

¹³ Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

²¹ But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.

²⁴ For they did not practice My ordinances, but they rejected My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, fixing their eyes on the idols of their fathers.

²⁶ Her priests do violence to My law and profane My holy things. They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they fail to distinguish between the clean and the unclean. They disregard My Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

³⁸ They have also done this to Me: On that very same day, they defiled My sanctuary and profaned My Sabbaths. ³⁹ On the very day they slaughtered their children for their idols, they entered My sanctuary to profane it. Yes, they did this inside My house.

⁴ Hear this, you who trample the needy, who do away with the poor of the land, ⁵ asking, “When will the New Moon be over, that we may sell grain? When will the Sabbath end, that we may market wheat? Let us reduce the ephah and increase the shekel; let us cheat with dishonest scales. ⁶ Let us buy the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the chaff with the wheat!”

⁶ “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. But if I am a father, where is My honor? And if I am a master, where is your fear of Me?” says the LORD of Hosts to you priests who despise My name. “But you ask, ‘How have we despised Your name?’ ⁷ By presenting defiled food on My altar. But you ask, ‘How have we defiled You?’ By saying that the table of the LORD is contemptible. ⁸ When you offer blind animals for sacrifice, is it not wrong? And when you present the lame and sick ones, is it not wrong? Try offering them to your governor! Would he be pleased with you or show you favor?” asks the LORD of Hosts.

¹² “But you profane it when you say, ‘The table of the Lord is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food is contemptible.’

¹⁶ You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

¹ “You shall not spread a false report. Do not join the wicked by being a malicious witness.

¹⁶ You must not go about spreading slander among your people. You must not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the LORD.

⁶ Then I took my concubine, cut her into pieces, and sent her throughout the land of Israel’s inheritance, because they had committed a lewd and disgraceful act in Israel.

¹⁰ But seat two scoundrels opposite him and have them testify, ‘You have cursed both God and the king!’ Then take him out and stone him to death.” ¹¹ So the elders and nobles who lived in Naboth’s city did as Jezebel had instructed in the letters she had written to them. ¹² They proclaimed a fast and gave Naboth a seat of honor among the people. ¹³ And the two scoundrels came in and sat opposite Naboth, and these men testified against him before the people, saying, “Naboth has cursed both God and the king!” So they took him outside the city and stoned him to death.

²⁰ You sit and malign your brother; you slander your own mother’s son.

⁵ Whoever slanders his neighbor in secret, I will put to silence; the one with haughty eyes and a proud heart, I will not endure.

²⁸ They yoked themselves to Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

¹⁸ The one who conceals hatred has lying lips, and whoever spreads slander is a fool.

⁸ The words of a gossip are like choice morsels that go down into the inmost being.

²² The words of a gossip are like choice morsels that go down into the inmost being.

²⁸ All are hardened rebels, walking around as slanderers. They are bronze and iron; all of them are corrupt.

⁴ “Let everyone guard against his neighbor; do not trust any brother, for every brother deals craftily, and every friend spreads slander.

¹³ But when he reached the Gate of Benjamin, the captain of the guard, whose name was Irijah son of Shelemiah, the son of Hananiah, seized him and said, “You are deserting to the Chaldeans!” ¹⁴ “That is a lie,” Jeremiah replied. “I am not deserting to the Chaldeans!” But Irijah would not listen to him; instead, he arrested Jeremiah and took him to the officials. ¹⁵ The officials were angry with Jeremiah, and they beat him and placed him in jail in the house of Jonathan the scribe, for it had been made into a prison.

⁴ Then the officials said to the king, “This man ought to die, for he is discouraging the warriors who remain in this city, as well as all the people, by speaking such words to them; this man is not seeking the well-being of these people, but their ruin.” ⁵ “Here he is,” replied King Zedekiah. “He is in your hands, since the king can do nothing to stop you.” ⁶ So they took Jeremiah and dropped him into the cistern of Malchiah, the king’s son, which was in the courtyard of the guard. They lowered Jeremiah with ropes into the cistern, which had no water but only mud, and Jeremiah sank down into the mud.

⁴³ Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but enraged Me with all these things, I will surely bring your deeds down upon your own head, declares the Lord GOD. Have you not committed this lewdness on top of all your other abominations?

⁶ He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her period.

¹¹ though the father has done none of them: Indeed, the son eats at the mountain and defiles his neighbor’s wife.

¹⁵ He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife.

¹³ Because of the indecency of your uncleanness I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be purified from your filthiness. You will not be pure again until My wrath against you has subsided.

¹⁰ They will eat but not be satisfied; they will be promiscuous but not multiply. For they have stopped obeying the LORD.

¹⁴ I will not punish your daughters when they prostitute themselves, nor your daughters-in-law when they commit adultery. For the men themselves go off with prostitutes and offer sacrifices with shrine prostitutes. So a people without understanding will come to ruin.

⁹ Like raiders who lie in ambush, so does a band of priests; they murder on the way to Shechem; surely they have committed atrocities.

⁴ They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough.

⁵⁹ Now the chief priests, the elders, and the whole Sanhedrin were seeking false testimony against Jesus in order to put Him to death.

¹¹ Then they prompted some men to say, “We heard Stephen speak words of blasphemy against Moses and against God.” ¹² So they stirred up the people, elders, and scribes and confronted Stephen. They seized him and brought him before the Sanhedrin, ¹³ where they presented false witnesses who said, “This man never stops speaking blasphemies against this holy place and against the law.

⁵ We have found this man to be a pestilence, stirring up dissension among the Jews all over the world. He is a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes,

¹³ Nor can they prove any of their charges against me.

¹⁸ Consider the people of Israel: Are not those who eat the sacrifices fellow partakers in the altar? ¹⁹ Am I suggesting, then, that an idol is anything, or that food sacrificed to an idol is anything? ²⁰ No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons. ²¹ You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons too; you cannot partake in the table of the Lord and the table of demons too.

⁹ And the great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him. ¹⁰ And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—he who accuses them day and night before our God.

²² While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons:

⁴ Uncontrolled as the waters, you will no longer excel, because you went up to your father’s bed, onto my couch, and defiled it.

⁷ You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. ⁸ You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father.

¹⁹ You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period.

¹¹ If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them.

¹⁸ If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people.

²⁰ ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he has violated his father’s marriage bed.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

²³ ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his mother-in-law.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

²¹ Ahithophel replied, “Sleep with your father’s concubines, whom he has left to keep the palace. When all Israel hears that you have become a stench to your father, then the hands of all who are with you will be strengthened.” ²² So they pitched a tent for Absalom on the roof, and he slept with his father’s concubines in the sight of all Israel.

¹ These were the sons of Reuben the firstborn of Israel. Though he was the firstborn, his birthright was given to the sons of Joseph son of Israel, because Reuben defiled his father’s bed. So he is not reckoned according to birthright.

⁷ They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name.

¹ It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not even named among pagans: A man has his father’s wife.

⁹ You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.

¹⁵ You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her.

²⁰ You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her.

¹⁰ If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death.

¹² If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them.

¹⁷ If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity.

²² If a man is found lying with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

²² ‘Cursed is he who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹ After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom.

¹⁴ But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her.

²⁸ Now Absalom had ordered his young men, “Watch Amnon until his heart is merry with wine, and when I order you to strike Amnon down, you are to kill him. Do not be afraid. Have I not commanded you? Be courageous and valiant!” ²⁹ So Absalom’s young men did to Amnon just as Absalom had ordered. Then all the other sons of the king got up, and each one fled on his mule.

⁹ If my heart has been enticed by my neighbor’s wife, or I have lurked at his door, ¹⁰ then may my own wife grind grain for another, and may other men sleep with her. ¹¹ For that would be a heinous crime, an iniquity to be judged.

⁷ “Why should I forgive you? Your children have forsaken Me and sworn by gods that are not gods. I satisfied their needs, yet they committed adultery and assembled at the houses of prostitutes. ⁸ They are well-fed, lusty stallions, each neighing after his neighbor’s wife.

² If only I had a traveler’s lodge in the wilderness, I would abandon my people and depart from them, for they are all adulterers, a crowd of faithless people.

²³ For they have committed an outrage in Israel by committing adultery with the wives of their neighbors and speaking lies in My name, which I did not command them to do. I am He who knows, and I am a witness, declares the LORD.”

²⁷ You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’ ²⁸ But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

⁹ Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual acts,

¹⁹ The acts of the flesh are obvious: adultery, sexual immorality, impurity, and debauchery;

⁴ Marriage should be honored by all and the marriage bed kept undefiled; but God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterers.

²⁵ If you lend money to one of My people among you who is poor, you must not act as a creditor to him; you are not to charge him interest. ²⁶ If you take your neighbor’s cloak as collateral, return it to him by sunset,

⁷ Stay far away from a false accusation. Do not kill the innocent or the just, for I will not acquit the guilty. ⁸ Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds those who see and twists the words of the righteous.

¹³ You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand.

³⁵ Now if your countryman becomes destitute and cannot support himself among you, then you are to help him as you would a foreigner or stranger, so that he can continue to live among you. ³⁶ Do not take any interest or profit from him, but fear your God, that your countryman may live among you.

¹⁹ Do not deny justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the righteous.

¹⁹ Do not charge your brother interest on money, food, or any other type of loan.

²⁵ ‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’

¹⁸ You ignored the Rock who brought you forth; you forgot the God who gave you birth.

¹ About that time there was a great outcry from the people and their wives against their fellow Jews.

⁷ and after serious thought I rebuked the nobles and officials, saying, “You are exacting usury from your own brothers!” So I called a large assembly against them

⁵ who lends his money without interest and refuses a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things will never be shaken.

²¹ They forgot God their Savior, who did great things in Egypt,

¹⁹ Such is the fate of all who are greedy, whose unjust gain takes the lives of its possessors.

¹¹ Like ravenous dogs, they are never satisfied. They are shepherds with no discernment; they all turn to their own way, each one seeking his own gain:

³² Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride her wedding sash? Yet My people have forgotten Me for days without number.

²¹ A voice is heard on the barren heights, the children of Israel weeping and begging for mercy, because they have perverted their ways and forgotten the LORD their God.

⁸ He does not engage in usury or take excess interest, but he withholds his hand from iniquity and executes true justice between men.

¹³ He engages in usury and takes excess interest. Will this son live? He will not! Since he has committed all these abominations, he will surely die; his blood will be on his own head.

³⁵ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you have forgotten Me and have cast Me behind your back, you must bear the consequences of your indecency and prostitution.’”

² The godly man has perished from the earth; there is no one upright among men. They all lie in wait for blood; they hunt one another with a net. ³ Both hands are skilled at evil; the prince and the judge demand a bribe. When the powerful utters his evil desire, they all conspire together.

³ Her princes are roaring lions; her judges are evening wolves, leaving nothing for the morning. ⁴ Her prophets are reckless, faithless men. Her priests profane the sanctuary; they do violence to the law.

¹³ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. Therefore you will receive greater condemnation.

²⁵ Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and unrighteousness.

¹³ “Collect no more than you are authorized,” he answered.

¹¹ The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed, ‘God, I thank You that I am not like the other men—swindlers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.

⁸ But Zacchaeus stood up and said to the Lord, “Look, Lord, half of my possessions I give to the poor, and if I have cheated anyone, I will repay it fourfold.”

¹¹ But now I am writing you not to associate with anyone who claims to be a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a verbal abuser, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.

¹⁰ nor the covetous, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor verbal abusers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.

³ not dependent on wine, not violent, not greedy for money, but gentle, peaceable, and free of the love of money.

⁹ Those who want to be rich, however, fall into temptation and become ensnared by many foolish and harmful desires that plunge them into ruin and destruction. ¹⁰ For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. By craving it, some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many sorrows.

¹ Come now, you who are rich, weep and wail over the misery to come upon you. ² Your riches have rotted and moths have eaten your clothes. ³ Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and consume your flesh like fire. You have hoarded treasure in the last days. ⁴ Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

¹¹ Woe to them! They have traveled the path of Cain; they have rushed headlong into the error of Balaam; they have perished in Korah’s rebellion.

¹⁰ Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together and said to Balaam, “I summoned you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times.

⁸ He who increases his wealth by interest and usury lays it up for one who is kind to the poor.

¹⁵ He who walks righteously and speaks with sincerity, who refuses gain from extortion, whose hand never takes a bribe, who stops his ears against murderous plots and shuts his eyes tightly against evil—

²⁶ For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men. ²⁷ Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich.

⁹ Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal, and follow other gods that you have not known, ¹⁰ and then come and stand before Me in this house, which bears My Name, and say, ‘We are delivered, so we can continue with all these abominations’? ¹¹ Has this house, which bears My Name, become a den of robbers in your sight? Yes, I too have seen it, declares the LORD.

¹⁴ ‘So then, son of man, prophesy and strike your hands together. Let the sword strike two times, even three. It is a sword that slays, a sword of great slaughter closing in on every side!

¹⁷ I too will strike My hands together, and I will satisfy My wrath.’ I, the LORD, have spoken.”

⁶ This is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Israel, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they sell the righteous for silver and the needy for a pair of sandals. ⁷ They trample on the heads of the poor as on the dust of the earth; they push the needy out of their way. A man and his father have relations with the same girl and so profane My holy name. ⁸ They lie down beside every altar on garments taken in pledge. And in the house of their God, they drink wine obtained through fines.

¹⁰ “For they know not how to do right,” declares the LORD. “They store up violence and destruction in their citadels.”

¹ Woe to those who devise iniquity and plot evil on their beds! At morning’s light they accomplish it because the power is in their hands. ² They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance. ³ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “I am planning against this nation a disaster from which you cannot free your necks. Then you will not walk so proudly, for it will be a time of calamity.

¹⁰ Can I forget any longer, O house of the wicked, the treasures of wickedness and the short ephah, which is accursed? ¹¹ Can I excuse dishonest scales or bags of false weights?

⁶ and no one should ever violate or exploit his brother in this regard, because the Lord will avenge all such acts, as we have already told you and solemnly warned you.

²⁹ Moreover, the Glory of Israel does not lie or change His mind, for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.”

⁹ Do you have an arm like God’s? Can you thunder with a voice like His?

³ But the Egyptians are men, not God; their horses are flesh, not spirit. When the LORD stretches out His hand, the helper will stumble, and the one he helps will fall; both will perish together.

⁹ Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker—one clay pot among many. Does the clay ask the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands’?

²¹ What will you say when He sets over you close allies whom you yourself trained? Will not pangs of anguish grip you, as they do a woman in labor?

¹³ And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the LORD, in My zeal have spoken.

²⁴ Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the LORD. I bring the tall tree down and make the low tree tall. I dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done it.’”

⁷ And when they ask, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you are to say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, and every hand will go limp. Every spirit will faint, and every knee will turn to water.’ Yes, it is coming and it will surely happen, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁴ I, the LORD, have spoken; the time is coming, and I will act. I will not refrain or show pity, nor will I relent. I will judge you according to your ways and deeds,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

⁹ Will you still say, ‘I am a god,’ in the presence of those who slay you? You will be only a man, not a god, in the hands of those who wound you.

³¹ Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will never pass away.

²² Are we trying to provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

³¹ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.

³³ But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

²⁷ Then the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

²⁵ The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.

⁶⁴ Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

⁸ Remember, I pray, the word that You commanded Your servant Moses when You said, ‘If you are unfaithful, I will scatter you among the nations,

²⁵ I will turn My hand against you; I will thoroughly purge your dross; I will remove all your impurities.

⁴ I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

¹² A third of your people will die by plague or be consumed by famine within you, a third will fall by the sword outside your walls, and a third I will scatter to every wind and unleash a sword behind them.

¹⁴ And I will scatter to every wind all the attendants around him and all his troops, and I will draw a sword to chase after them. ¹⁵ And they will know that I am the LORD, when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them throughout the countries.

³⁸ And I will purge you of those who rebel and transgress against Me. I will bring them out of the land in which they dwell, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace; they are but the dross of silver.

²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’”

²⁷ So I will put an end to your indecency and prostitution, which began in the land of Egypt, and you will not lift your eyes to them or remember Egypt anymore.’

⁴⁷ The mob will stone them and cut them down with their swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses. ⁴⁸ So I will put an end to indecency in the land, and all the women will be admonished not to imitate your behavior.

⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents. ⁷ For the blood she shed is still within her; she poured it out on the bare rock; she did not pour it on the ground to cover it with dust. ⁸ In order to stir up wrath and take vengeance, I have placed her blood on the bare rock, so that it would not be covered.’ ⁹ Yes, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed! I, too, will pile the kindling high. ¹⁰ Pile on the logs and kindle the fire; cook the meat well and mix in the spices; let the bones be burned. ¹¹ Set the empty pot on its coals until it becomes hot and its copper glows. Then its impurity will melt within; its rust will be consumed. ¹² It has frustrated every effort; its thick rust has not been removed, even by the fire. ¹³ Because of the indecency of your uncleanness I tried to cleanse you, but you would not be purified from your filthiness. You will not be pure again until My wrath against you has subsided. ¹⁴ I, the LORD, have spoken; the time is coming, and I will act. I will not refrain or show pity, nor will I relent. I will judge you according to your ways and deeds,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

⁶ My flock went astray on all the mountains and every high hill. They were scattered over the face of all the earth, with no one to search for them or seek them out.’

¹⁹ I dispersed them among the nations, and they were scattered throughout the lands. I judged them according to their ways and deeds.

¹⁴ But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”

⁹ This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”

³ And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the LORD in righteousness.

¹ “For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

¹² His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and to gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

¹² Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial that has come upon you, as though something strange were happening to you.

²² But on that day I will give special treatment to the land of Goshen, where My people live; no swarms of flies will be found there. In this way you will know that I, the LORD, am in the land.

¹³ Meanwhile a prophet approached Ahab king of Israel and declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Do you see this entire great army? Behold, I will deliver it into your hand this very day, and you will know that I am the LORD.’”

²⁸ Then the man of God approached the king of Israel and said, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because the Arameans think the LORD is a god of the hills and not of the valleys, I will deliver all this great army into your hand. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

¹⁶ The LORD is known by the justice He brings; the wicked are ensnared by the work of their hands. Higgaion Selah

¹⁸ May they know that You alone, whose name is the LORD, are Most High over all the earth.

²⁰ And now, O LORD our God, save us from his hand, so that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You alone, O LORD, are God.”

²⁸ So I will disgrace the princes of your sanctuary, and I will devote Jacob to destruction and Israel to reproach.”

⁶ I was angry with My people; I profaned My heritage, and I placed them under your control. You showed them no mercy; even on the elderly you laid a most heavy yoke.

⁷ The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the LORD.

²⁴ So I will bring the most wicked of nations to take possession of their houses. I will end the pride of the mighty, and their holy places will be profaned.

³ Tell the Ammonites to hear the word of the Lord GOD, for this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Because you exclaimed, “Aha!” when My sanctuary was profaned, when the land of Israel was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile,

⁶ I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD. ⁷ So I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.

²⁸ Then they will know that I am the LORD their God, when I regather them to their own land, not leaving any of them behind after their exile among the nations.

²⁵ You will be driven away from mankind, and your dwelling will be with the beasts of the field. You will feed on grass like an ox and be drenched with the dew of heaven, and seven times shall pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.

³² You will be driven away from mankind to live with the beasts of the field, and you will feed on grass like an ox. And seven times will pass you by, until you acknowledge that the Most High rules over the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whom He wishes.” ³³ At that moment the sentence against Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from mankind. He ate grass like an ox, and his body was drenched with the dew of heaven, until his hair grew like the feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird. ³⁴ But at the end of those days I, Nebuchadnezzar, looked up to heaven, and my sanity was restored to me. Then I praised the Most High, and I honored and glorified Him who lives forever: “For His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation. ³⁵ All the peoples of the earth are counted as nothing, and He does as He pleases with the army of heaven and the peoples of the earth. There is no one who can restrain His hand or say to Him, ‘What have You done?’”

¹¹⁹ All the wicked on earth You discard like dross; therefore I love Your testimonies.

³ A crucible for silver and a furnace for gold, but the LORD is the tester of hearts.

²² Your silver has become dross; your fine wine is diluted with water.

⁹ Their rock will pass away for fear, and their princes will panic at the sight of the battle standard,” declares the LORD, whose fire is in Zion, whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

⁴ For I knew that you are stubborn; your neck is iron and your forehead is bronze.

¹⁰ See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

²⁸ All are hardened rebels, walking around as slanderers. They are bronze and iron; all of them are corrupt. ²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely, blasting away the lead with fire. The refining proceeds in vain, for the wicked are not purged. ³⁰ They are called rejected silver, because the LORD has rejected them.”

¹ How the gold has become tarnished, the pure gold has become dull! The gems of the temple lie scattered on every street corner. ² How the precious sons of Zion, once worth their weight in pure gold, are now esteemed as jars of clay, the work of a potter’s hands!

²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you.

⁷ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: The slain you have laid within this city are the meat, and the city is the pot; but I will remove you from it.

³ Now speak a parable to this rebellious house and tell them that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Put the pot on the fire; put it on and pour in the water. ⁴ Put in the pieces of meat, every good piece—thigh and shoulder—fill it with choice bones. ⁵ Take the choicest of the flock and pile the fuel beneath it. Bring it to a boil and cook the bones in it.’ ⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Woe to the city of bloodshed, to the pot now rusted, whose rust will not come off! Empty it piece by piece; cast no lots for its contents.

¹² But they do not know the thoughts of the LORD or understand His plan, for He has gathered them like sheaves to the threshing floor.

³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat into my barn.’”

⁴⁰ As the weeds are collected and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of this age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness. ⁴² And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

¹⁶ Behold, I have created the craftsman who fans the coals into flame and forges a weapon fit for its task; and I have created the destroyer to wreak havoc.

¹¹ At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem, “A searing wind from the barren heights in the desert blows toward the daughter of My people, but not to winnow or to sift; ¹² a wind too strong for that comes from Me. Now I also pronounce judgments against them.”

²⁰ Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.

³¹ I will pour out My anger upon you; I will breathe the fire of My fury against you; I will hand you over to brutal men, skilled in destruction. ³² You will be fuel for the fire. Your blood will stain your own land. You will not be remembered, for I, the LORD, have spoken.’”

²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted within the city.

²⁴ For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

²⁰ The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven

²² For a fire has been kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol; it consumes the earth and its produce, and scorches the foundations of the mountains.

⁹ He burned down the house of the LORD, the royal palace, and all the houses of Jerusalem—every significant building.

⁹ You will place them in a fiery furnace at the time of Your appearing. In His wrath the LORD will engulf them, and the fire will consume them.

³ Our God approaches and will not be silent! Consuming fire precedes Him, and a tempest rages around Him.

² As smoke is blown away, You will drive them out; as wax melts before the fire, the wicked will perish in the presence of God.

¹⁰ The wicked man will see and be grieved; he will gnash his teeth and waste away; the desires of the wicked will perish.

³³ For Topheth has long been prepared; it has been made ready for the king. Its funeral pyre is deep and wide, with plenty of fire and wood. The breath of the LORD, like a torrent of burning sulfur, sets it ablaze.

² as fire kindles the brushwood and causes the water to boil, to make Your name known to Your enemies, so that the nations will tremble at Your presence!

⁷ No one calls on Your name or strives to take hold of You. For You have hidden Your face from us and delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

⁷ Therefore this is what the LORD of Hosts says: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do because of the daughter of My people?

¹² O house of David, this is what the LORD says: ‘Administer justice every morning, and rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor, or My wrath will go forth like fire and burn with no one to extinguish it because of their evil deeds.

⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Like the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the people of Jerusalem. ⁷ And I will set My face against them. Though they may have escaped the fire, yet another fire will consume them. And when I set My face against them, you will know that I am the LORD.

⁴⁷ Say to the forest of the Negev: Hear the word of the LORD! This is what the Lord GOD says: I am about to ignite in you a fire, and it will devour all your trees, both green and dry. The blazing flame will not be quenched, and by it every face from south to north will be scorched. ⁴⁸ Then all people will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it; it will not be quenched.”

²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to melt with a fiery blast, so I will gather you in My anger and wrath, leave you there, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted within the city. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have poured out My wrath upon you.’”

⁶ Who can withstand His indignation? Who can endure His burning anger? His wrath is poured out like fire; even rocks are shattered before Him.

¹⁸ Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them on the Day of the LORD’s wrath. The whole earth will be consumed by the fire of His jealousy.” For indeed, He will make a sudden end of all who dwell on the earth.

⁸ But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

³³ As surely as I live, declares the Lord GOD, with a strong hand, an outstretched arm, and outpoured wrath I will rule over you.

¹⁶ And when you have defiled yourself in the eyes of the nations, then you will know that I am the LORD.’”

³¹ So I have poured out My indignation upon them and consumed them with the fire of My fury. I have brought their ways down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁰ The princes of Judah are like those who move boundary stones; I will pour out My fury upon them like water.

¹ Then I heard a loud voice from the temple saying to the seven angels, “Go, pour out on the earth the seven bowls of God’s wrath.”

²² In the time of his distress, King Ahaz became even more unfaithful to the LORD.

¹⁴ Furthermore, all the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, following all the abominations of the nations, and they defiled the house of the LORD, which He had consecrated in Jerusalem. ¹⁵ Again and again the LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to His people through His messengers because He had compassion on them and on His dwelling place. ¹⁶ But they mocked the messengers of God, despising His words and scoffing at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD against His people was stirred up beyond remedy.

⁵ Why do you want more beatings? Why do you keep rebelling? Your head has a massive wound, and your whole heart is afflicted.

¹³ But the people did not return to Him who struck them; they did not seek the LORD of Hosts.

³ O LORD, do not Your eyes look for truth? You struck them, but they felt no pain. You finished them off, but they refused to accept discipline. They have made their faces harder than stone and refused to repent.

²⁹ The bellows blow fiercely, blasting away the lead with fire. The refining proceeds in vain, for the wicked are not purged.

¹⁶ “As for the word you have spoken to us in the name of the LORD, we will not listen to you! ¹⁷ Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster. ¹⁸ But from the time we stopped burning incense to the Queen of Heaven and pouring out drink offerings to her, we have lacked everything and have been perishing by sword and famine.” ¹⁹ “Moreover,” said the women, “when we burned incense to the Queen of Heaven and poured out drink offerings to her, was it without our husbands’ knowledge that we made sacrificial cakes in her image and poured out drink offerings to her?”

² She heeded no voice; she accepted no correction. She does not trust in the LORD; she has not drawn near to her God.

¹¹ Now Zedekiah son of Chenaanah had made for himself iron horns and declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘With these you shall gore the Arameans until they are finished off.’” ¹² And all the prophets were prophesying the same, saying, “Go up to Ramoth-gilead and prosper, for the LORD will deliver it into the hand of the king.” ¹³ Then the messenger who had gone to call Micaiah instructed him, “Behold now, with one accord the words of the prophets are favorable to the king. So please let your words be like theirs, and speak favorably.”

²³ So you see, the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours, and the LORD has pronounced disaster against you.”

³⁰ A horrible and shocking thing has happened in the land. ³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

¹³ “For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit.

⁹ And the LORD told me, “There is a conspiracy among the men of Judah and the residents of Jerusalem.

⁸ I will make their widows more numerous than the sand of the sea. I will bring a destroyer at noon against the mothers of young men. I will suddenly bring upon them anguish and dismay.

¹⁴ The visions of your prophets were empty and deceptive; they did not expose your guilt to ward off your captivity. The burdens they envisioned for you were empty and misleading.

¹³ But this was for the sins of her prophets and the guilt of her priests, who shed the blood of the righteous in her midst.

¹⁰ Because they have led My people astray, saying, ‘Peace,’ when there is no peace, and whitewashing any flimsy wall that is built, ¹¹ tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth. ¹² Surely when the wall has fallen, you will not be asked, ‘Where is the whitewash with which you covered it?’ ¹³ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: In My wrath I will release a windstorm, and in My anger torrents of rain and hail will fall with destructive fury. ¹⁴ I will tear down the wall you whitewashed and level it to the ground, so that its foundation is exposed. The city will fall, and you will be destroyed within it. Then you will know that I am the LORD. ¹⁵ And after I have vented My wrath against the wall and against those who whitewashed it, I will say to you: ‘The wall is gone, and so are those who whitewashed it— ¹⁶ those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw a vision of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Lord GOD.’

¹⁹ You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and scraps of bread. By lying to My people who would listen, you have killed those who should not have died and spared those who should not have lived.

²⁷ Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives for dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and have exploited the foreign resident without justice.

⁵ This is what the LORD says: “As for the prophets who lead My people astray, who proclaim peace while they chew with their teeth, but declare war against one who puts nothing in their mouths: ⁶ Therefore night will come over you without visions, and darkness without divination. The sun will set on these prophets, and the daylight will turn black over them. ⁷ Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”

⁴⁰ They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

⁴⁷ They defraud widows of their houses, and for a show make lengthy prayers. These men will receive greater condemnation.”

¹ Now there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves. ² Many will follow in their depravity, and because of them the way of truth will be defamed. ³ In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction will not sleep.

¹¹ Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. This beast had two horns like a lamb, but spoke like a dragon.

¹⁵ The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed.

⁶ I could see that the woman was drunk with the blood of the saints and witnesses for Jesus. And I was utterly amazed at the sight of her.

¹³ of cinnamon, incense, myrrh, and frankincense; of wine, olive oil, fine flour, and wheat; of cattle, sheep, horses, and chariots; of slaves and souls of men.

¹ Now Aaron’s sons Nadab and Abihu took their censers, put fire in them and added incense, and offered unauthorized fire before the LORD, contrary to His command. ² So fire came out from the presence of the LORD and consumed them, and they died in the presence of the LORD. ³ Then Moses said to Aaron, “This is what the LORD meant when He said: ‘To those who come near Me I will show My holiness, and in the sight of all the people I will reveal My glory.’” But Aaron remained silent.

¹⁰ You must distinguish between the holy and the common, between the clean and the unclean,

⁴⁷ You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between animals that may be eaten and those that may not.’”

²⁵ You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.

² “Tell Aaron and his sons to treat with respect the sacred offerings that the Israelites have consecrated to Me, so that they do not profane My holy name. I am the LORD. ³ Tell them that for the generations to come, if any of their descendants in a state of uncleanness approaches the sacred offerings that the Israelites consecrate to the LORD, that person must be cut off from My presence. I am the LORD. ⁴ If a descendant of Aaron has a skin disease or a discharge, he may not eat the sacred offerings until he is clean. Whoever touches anything defiled by a corpse or by a man who has an emission of semen, ⁵ or whoever touches a crawling creature or a person that makes him unclean, whatever the uncleanness may be— ⁶ the man who touches any of these will remain unclean until evening. He must not eat from the sacred offerings unless he has bathed himself with water. ⁷ When the sun has set, he will become clean, and then he may eat from the sacred offerings, for they are his food. ⁸ He must not eat anything found dead or torn by wild animals, which would make him unclean. I am the LORD. ⁹ The priests must keep My charge, lest they bear the guilt and die because they profane it. I am the LORD who sanctifies them. ¹⁰ No one outside a priest’s family may eat the sacred offering, nor may the guest of a priest or his hired hand eat it. ¹¹ But if a priest buys a slave with his own money, or if a slave is born in his household, that slave may eat his food. ¹² If the priest’s daughter is married to a man other than a priest, she is not to eat of the sacred contributions. ¹³ But if a priest’s daughter with no children becomes widowed or divorced and returns to her father’s house, she may share her father’s food as in her youth. But no outsider may share it. ¹⁴ If anyone eats a sacred offering in error, he must add a fifth to its value and give the sacred offering to the priest. ¹⁵ The priests must not profane the sacred offerings that the Israelites present to the LORD ¹⁶ by allowing the people to eat the sacred offerings and thus to bear the punishment for guilt. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.” ¹⁷ Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁸ “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the Israelites and tell them, ‘Any man of the house of Israel or any foreign resident who presents a gift for a burnt offering to the LORD, whether to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, ¹⁹ must offer an unblemished male from the cattle, sheep, or goats in order for it to be accepted on your behalf. ²⁰ You must not present anything with a defect, because it will not be accepted on your behalf. ²¹ When a man presents a peace offering to the LORD from the herd or flock to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering, it must be without blemish or defect to be acceptable. ²² You are not to present to the LORD any animal that is blind, injured, or maimed, or anything with a running sore, a festering rash, or a scab; you must not put any of these on the altar as an offering made by fire to the LORD. ²³ You may present as a freewill offering an ox or sheep that has a deformed or stunted limb, but it is not acceptable in fulfillment of a vow. ²⁴ You are not to present to the LORD an animal whose testicles are bruised, crushed, torn, or cut; you are not to sacrifice them in your land. ²⁵ Neither you nor a foreigner shall present food to your God from any such animal. They will not be accepted on your behalf, because they are deformed and flawed.’” ²⁶ Then the LORD said to Moses, ²⁷ “When an ox, a sheep, or a goat is born, it must remain with its mother for seven days. From the eighth day on, it will be acceptable as an offering made by fire to the LORD. ²⁸ But you must not slaughter an ox or a sheep on the same day as its young. ²⁹ When you sacrifice a thank offering to the LORD, offer it so that it may be acceptable on your behalf. ³⁰ It must be eaten that same day. Do not leave any of it until morning. I am the LORD. ³¹ You are to keep My commandments and practice them. I am the LORD. ³² You must not profane My holy name. I must be acknowledged as holy among the Israelites. I am the LORD who sanctifies you, ³³ who brought you out of the land of Egypt to be your God. I am the LORD.”

¹² Now the sons of Eli were wicked men; they had no regard for the LORD ¹³ or for the custom of the priests with the people. When any man offered a sacrifice, the servant of the priest would come with a three-pronged meat fork while the meat was boiling ¹⁴ and plunge it into the pan or kettle or cauldron or cooking pot. And the priest would claim for himself whatever the meat fork brought up. This is how they treated all the Israelites who came to Shiloh. ¹⁵ Even before the fat was burned, the servant of the priest would come and say to the man who was sacrificing, “Give the priest some meat to roast, because he will not accept boiled meat from you, but only raw.” ¹⁶ And if any man said to him, “The fat must be burned first; then you may take whatever you want,” the servant would reply, “No, you must give it to me right now. If you refuse, I will take it by force!” ¹⁷ Thus the sin of these young men was severe in the sight of the LORD, for they were treating the LORD’s offering with contempt.

²² Now Eli was very old, and he heard about everything his sons were doing to all Israel and how they were sleeping with the women who served at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting.

²⁹ Why then do you kick at My sacrifice and offering that I have prescribed for My dwelling place? You have honored your sons more than Me by fattening yourselves with the best of all the offerings of My people Israel.’

⁸ The priests did not ask, ‘Where is the LORD?’ The experts in the law no longer knew Me, and the leaders rebelled against Me. The prophets prophesied by Baal and followed useless idols.

¹⁹ Therefore this is what the LORD says: “If you return, I will restore you; you will stand in My presence. And if you speak words that are noble instead of worthless, you will be My spokesman. It is they who must turn to you, but you must not turn to them.

¹² I also gave them My Sabbaths as a sign between us, so that they would know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. ¹³ Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

⁸ You have despised My holy things and profaned My Sabbaths.

²⁰ And wherever they went among the nations, they profaned My holy name, because it was said of them, ‘These are the people of the LORD, yet they had to leave His land.’

²³ They are to teach My people the difference between the holy and the common, and show them how to discern between the clean and the unclean.

¹¹ Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets practice divination for money. Yet they lean upon the LORD, saying, “Is not the LORD among us? No disaster can come upon us.” ¹² Therefore, because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, and the temple mount a wooded ridge.

¹¹ “This is what the LORD of Hosts says: ‘Ask the priests for a ruling. ¹² If a man carries consecrated meat in the fold of his garment, and it touches bread, stew, wine, oil, or any other food, does that item become holy?’” “No,” replied the priests. ¹³ So Haggai asked, “If one who is defiled by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become defiled?” “Yes, it becomes defiled,” the priests answered. ¹⁴ Then Haggai replied, “So it is with this people and this nation before Me, declares the LORD, and so it is with every work of their hands; whatever they offer there is defiled.

¹ “And now this decree is for you, O priests: ² If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to honor My name,” says the LORD of Hosts, “I will send a curse among you, and I will curse your blessings. Yes, I have already begun to curse them, because you are not taking it to heart. ³ Behold, I will rebuke your descendants, and I will spread dung on your faces, the waste from your feasts, and you will be carried off with it.

⁸ But you have departed from the way, and your instruction has caused many to stumble. You have violated the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Hosts.

²⁴ As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

³ She brought up one of her cubs, and he became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men. ⁴ When the nations heard of him, he was trapped in their pit. With hooks they led him away to the land of Egypt. ⁵ When she saw that she had waited in vain, that her hope was lost, she took another of her cubs and made him a young lion. ⁶ He prowled among the lions, and became a young lion. After learning to tear his prey, he devoured men.

¹³ Now look, I strike My hands together against your unjust gain and against the blood you have shed in your midst.

²⁵ The conspiracy of the princes in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing its prey. They devour the people, seize the treasures and precious things, and multiply the widows within her.

⁹ For this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Enough, O princes of Israel! Cease your violence and oppression, and do what is just and right. Stop dispossessing My people, declares the Lord GOD.’

¹ When I heal Israel, the iniquity of Ephraim will be exposed, as well as the crimes of Samaria. For they practice deceit and thieves break in; bandits raid in the streets. ² But they fail to consider in their hearts that I remember all their evil. Now their deeds are all around them; they are before My face. ³ They delight the king with their evil, and the princes with their lies. ⁴ They are all adulterers, like an oven heated by a baker who needs not stoke the fire from the kneading to the rising of the dough. ⁵ The princes are inflamed with wine on the day of our king; so he joins hands with those who mock him. ⁶ For they prepare their heart like an oven while they lie in wait; all night their anger smolders; in the morning it blazes like a flaming fire. ⁷ All of them are hot as an oven, and they devour their rulers. All their kings fall; not one of them calls upon Me. ⁸ Do not gloat over me, my enemy! Though I have fallen, I will arise; though I sit in darkness, the LORD will be my light.

¹³ And He declared to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer.’ But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”

⁶ But you have dishonored the poor. Is it not the rich who oppress you and drag you into court? ⁷ Are they not the ones who blaspheme the noble name by which you have been called?

¹⁰ They say to the seers, “Stop seeing visions!” and to the prophets, “Do not prophesy to us the truth! Speak to us pleasant words; prophesy illusions.

¹⁰ Therefore I will give their wives to other men and their fields to new owners. For from the least of them to the greatest, all are greedy for gain; from prophet to priest, all practice deceit. ¹¹ They dress the wound of the daughter of My people with very little care, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace at all.

²¹ I did not send these prophets, yet they have run with their message; I did not speak to them, yet they have prophesied.

²⁵ “I have heard the sayings of the prophets who prophesy lies in My name: ‘I had a dream! I had a dream!’ ²⁶ How long will this continue in the hearts of these prophets who prophesy falsehood, these prophets of the delusion of their own minds? ²⁷ They suppose the dreams that they tell one another will make My people forget My name, just as their fathers forgot My name through the worship of Baal. ²⁸ Let the prophet who has a dream retell it, but let him who has My word speak it truthfully. For what is straw compared to grain?” declares the LORD. ²⁹ “Is not My word like fire,” declares the LORD, “and like a hammer that smashes a rock?” ³⁰ “Therefore behold,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who steal from one another words they attribute to Me.” ³¹ “Yes,” declares the LORD, “I am against the prophets who wag their own tongues and proclaim, ‘The LORD declares it.’” ³² “Indeed,” declares the LORD, “I am against those who prophesy false dreams and retell them to lead My people astray with their reckless lies. It was not I who sent them or commanded them, and they are of no benefit at all to these people,” declares the LORD.

² “This is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.

¹⁵ Then the prophet Jeremiah said to the prophet Hananiah, “Listen, Hananiah! The LORD did not send you, but you have persuaded this people to trust in a lie.

⁸ For this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: “Do not be deceived by the prophets and diviners among you, and do not listen to the dreams you elicit from them. ⁹ For they are falsely prophesying to you in My name; I have not sent them, declares the LORD.”

¹⁹ Where are your prophets who prophesied to you, claiming, ‘The king of Babylon will not come against you or this land’?

⁶ They see false visions and speak lying divinations. They claim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ when the LORD did not send them; yet they wait for the fulfillment of their message. ⁷ Haven’t you seen a false vision and spoken a lying divination when you proclaim, ‘Thus declares the LORD,’ even though I have not spoken?

²² Because you have disheartened the righteous with your lies, even though I have caused them no grief, and because you have encouraged the wicked not to turn from their evil ways to save their lives, ²³ therefore you will no longer see false visions or practice divination. I will deliver My people from your hands. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”

²⁹ while they offer false visions for you and lying divinations about you—to be placed on the necks of the wicked who are slain, whose day has come, the time of their final punishment.

⁴ Her prophets are reckless, faithless men. Her priests profane the sanctuary; they do violence to the law.

²¹ You must not exploit or oppress a foreign resident, for you yourselves were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

⁹ Do not oppress a foreign resident, since you yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.

³³ When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him.

⁶ They kill the widow and the foreigner; they murder the fatherless.

⁷ For the vineyard of the LORD of Hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the plant of His delight. He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed; for righteousness, but heard a cry of distress.

² to deprive the poor of fair treatment and withhold justice from the oppressed of My people, to make widows their prey and orphans their plunder.

³ For your hands are stained with blood, and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue mutters injustice. ⁴ No one calls for justice; no one pleads his case honestly. They rely on empty pleas; they tell lies; they conceive mischief and give birth to iniquity. ⁵ They hatch the eggs of vipers and weave a spider’s web. Whoever eats their eggs will die; crack one open, and a viper is hatched. ⁶ Their cobwebs cannot be made into clothing, and they cannot cover themselves with their works. Their deeds are sinful deeds, and acts of violence are in their hands. ⁷ Their feet run to evil; they are swift to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are sinful thoughts; ruin and destruction lie in their wake.

²⁶ For among My people are wicked men; they watch like fowlers lying in wait; they set a trap to catch men. ²⁷ Like cages full of birds, so their houses are full of deceit. Therefore they have become powerful and rich. ²⁸ They have grown fat and sleek, and have excelled in the deeds of the wicked. They have not taken up the cause of the fatherless, that they might prosper; nor have they defended the rights of the needy.

³¹ The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority. My people love it so, but what will you do in the end?

⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt. Within your walls the foreign resident is exploited, the fatherless and the widow are oppressed.

² They covet fields and seize them; they take away houses. They deprive a man of his home, a fellow man of his inheritance.

³ You eat the flesh of my people after stripping off their skin and breaking their bones. You chop them up like flesh for the cooking pot, like meat in a cauldron.”

⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, I was naked and you did not clothe Me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’

⁴ Look, the wages you withheld from the workmen who mowed your fields are crying out against you. The cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts.

²³ Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will You really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? ²⁴ What if there are fifty righteous ones in the city? Will You really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous ones who are there? ²⁵ Far be it from You to do such a thing—to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Will not the Judge of all the earth do what is right?” ²⁶ So the LORD replied, “If I find fifty righteous ones within the city of Sodom, on their account I will spare the whole place.” ²⁷ Then Abraham answered, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord—though I am but dust and ashes— ²⁸ suppose the fifty righteous ones lack five. Will You destroy the whole city for the lack of five?” He replied, “If I find forty-five there, I will not destroy it.” ²⁹ Once again Abraham spoke to the LORD, “Suppose forty are found there?” He answered, “On account of the forty, I will not do it.” ³⁰ Then Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?” He replied, “If I find thirty there, I will not do it.” ³¹ And Abraham said, “Now that I have ventured to speak to the Lord, suppose twenty are found there?” He answered, “On account of the twenty, I will not destroy it.” ³² Finally, Abraham said, “May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak once more. Suppose ten are found there?” And He answered, “On account of the ten, I will not destroy it.”

¹⁰ Now leave Me alone, so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” ¹¹ But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people. ¹³ Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised, and it shall be their inheritance forever.’” ¹⁴ So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.

²³ So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach to divert His wrath from destroying them.

¹⁶ He saw that there was no man; He was amazed that there was no one to intercede. So His own arm brought salvation, and His own righteousness sustained Him.

⁵ I looked, but there was no one to help; I was appalled that no one assisted. So My arm brought Me salvation, and My own wrath upheld Me.

¹ “Go up and down the streets of Jerusalem. Look now and take note; search her squares. If you can find a single person, anyone who acts justly, anyone who seeks the truth, then I will forgive the city.

¹ Then the LORD said to me: “Even if Moses and Samuel should stand before Me, My heart would not go out to this people. Send them from My presence, and let them go.

⁵ You did not go up to the gaps or restore the wall around the house of Israel so that it would stand in the battle on the Day of the LORD.

³ The end is now upon you, and I will unleash My anger against you. I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

⁸ Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations. ⁹ I will not look on you with pity, nor will I spare you, but I will punish you for your ways and for the abominations among you. Then you will know that it is I, the LORD, who strikes the blow.

¹⁰ But as for Me, I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. I will bring their deeds down upon their own heads.”

²¹ But as for those whose hearts pursue detestable things and abominations, I will bring their conduct down upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD.”

⁸ But for those who are self-seeking and who reject the truth and follow wickedness, there will be anger and wrath. ⁹ There will be trouble and distress for every human being who does evil, first for the Jew, then for the Greek;