Ezekiel 21; Ezekiel 22; Ezekiel 23

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Ezekiel 21

1 The LORD's word came to me:
2 Human one, face Jerusalem, preach against their sanctuary, and prophesy against Israel's fertile land.
3 Say to Israel's fertile land, The LORD proclaims: I'm now against you! I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off both the righteous and the wicked from you.
4 In order to cut off the righteous and wicked from you, my sword will go out from its sheath against everyone from south to north.
5 And everyone will know that I, the LORD, have taken my sword out of its sheath. It won't be put away again.
6 You, human one, groan in their sight; groan bitterly with trembling knees.
7 If they ask you why you're groaning, say to them, "Because of the news." When it comes, every heart will despair, every hand will hang lifeless, every spirit will be listless, and urine will run down every leg. It's coming! It will happen! This is what the LORD God says.
8 The LORD's word came to me:
9 Human one, prophesy! Say, The Lord proclaims! Say: A sword! A sharp and polished sword!
10 For utter slaughter it is sharpened, polished to flash like lightning. Let's not rejoice, because no one will escape the purge.
11 He appoints it for polishing, to seize in the hand. The sword is sharpened, it is polished; it is ready for the destroyer's hand.
12 Human one, cry aloud, and wail, for it comes against my people, against all of Israel's princes, handed over to the sword along with my people. Therefore, strike your thigh.
13 He's testing. When even the rod rejects, will it not certainly happen? This is what the LORD God says.
14 And you, human one, prophesy! Strike hand to hand. Let the sword strike twice, three times! It's a deadly sword, a great deadly sword. It whirls around them
15 to make hearts shudder, to make many stumble and fall. I've set the slaughtering sword against all their gates. Oh! It's crafted to flash like lightning, polished for slaughter!
16 Stab again and again! Plunge right, plunge left, wherever your edge goes.
17 It is I who strike hand to hand! I'll satisfy my wrath! I, the LORD, have spoken.
18 The LORD's word came to me:
19 You, human one, mark two roads for the coming of the sword of the king of Babylon. They should diverge from a single country. Where the road to the city begins, set up a sign,
20 and point out the way for the sword to come: "To Rabbah of the Ammonites" or "To Judah in its stronghold Jerusalem."
21 The king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road where the two roads begin and performs his divinations. He shakes the arrows, consults the divine images, and inspects the liver.
22 On his right side appeared the omen for Jerusalem: to put battering rams in place, to proclaim war and raise the alarm, to place battering rams against the gates, and to set up siege ramps and build towers.
23 It seems to them like a lying divination, because solemn pledges had been sworn to them. But he will remind them of their guilt, and they will be captured.
24 So the LORD God proclaims: Now that you have remembered your guilt and your treacheries are exposed, your sins can be seen in everything you do. Because you have brought your guilt to light, you will be captured!
25 But you vile, wicked prince of Israel whose day has come, the time of final punishment,
26 this is what the LORD God says: Remove the turban, take off the crown! Nothing will be as it was. Bring down the exalted, and exalt the lowly.
27 A ruin, ruin, ruin, I'll make it! Such a thing has never happened! Even before the rightful judge comes, I've handed it over to him.
28 You, human one, prophesy and say, The LORD God proclaims to the Ammonites concerning their disgrace. Say, Sword! Sword unsheathed for slaughter, burnished, battle-ready, flashing like lightning:
29 False visions and lying divinations set you against the necks of vile, wicked men whose day had come, the time of final punishment.
30 Return it to its sheath. In the place where you were created, in the land of your origin, I will judge you.
31 I will pour out my wrath against you. With a raging fire I will blow against you, and I will hand you over to those who burn and forge destruction.
32 Fire will consume you, your blood will sink into the earth, and you will no longer be remembered. I, the LORD, have spoken.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible

Ezekiel 22

1 The LORD's word came to me:
2 You, human one, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.
3 Say, The LORD God proclaims: City, self-destructive blood-letter, self-defiling idol maker:
4 All the blood that you've shed is your punishment, and all the idols that you've made are your defilement. This is how you've shortened your days and hastened the end of your years! For this reason I've given you over to the ridicule of nations and the derision of every land.
5 Those from near and far will mock your infamous name and great chaos.
6 Look, Israel's princes, every one of them, have joined forces to shed blood in you.
7 In you they treat father and mother with contempt. In you they oppress immigrants and deny the rights of orphans and widows.
8 You despise my holy things and degrade my sabbaths.
9 In you slanderers show up to shed blood. In you they eat on the mountains. In you they do obscene things.
10 In you a father's nakedness is uncovered. In you menstruating women are violated.
11 Every man engages in detestable practices with his neighbor's wife, every man defiles his daughter-in-law with obscene acts, and every man violates his sister, his own father's daughter.
12 In you they take bribes to shed blood. You collect interest and fees, you profit by extorting your neighbor, and you neglect even me! This is what the LORD God says.
13 I now strike my hands over your ill-gotten gain and blood that's been shed in you.
14 Will your strength and courage endure when I deal with you? I am the LORD: I speak, and I act!
15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you throughout the lands, and so I will remove your uncleanness from you.
16 When you are degraded like this in the sight of the nations, then you will know that I am the LORD.
17 The LORD's word came to me:
18 Human one, the house of Israel has become a waste product for me. They are all copper, tin, iron, and lead. In the furnace, they've become the waste product of silver.
19 So this is what the LORD God says: Because you've all become a waste product, I'm now gathering you into the middle of Jerusalem.
20 Just as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are collected and placed in a furnace to fan the flames under them and melt them down, so in my anger and rage I will collect you, put you in, and melt you down.
21 I will gather you, fan the flames of my wrath under you, and melt you down in the middle of it.
22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted in it. You will know that I, the LORD, have poured out my rage on you.
23 The LORD's word came to me:
24 Human one, say to her, You are an unclean land without rain on the day of reckoning.
25 The conspiracy of princes in her is like a roaring lion ripping up prey. They've piled up wealth and precious goods and made many widows in her.
26 Her priests have done violence to my instructions and made my holy things impure. They have not clearly separated the holy from the ordinary, and they have not taught the difference between unclean and clean things. They've disregarded my sabbaths. So I've been degraded among them.
27 The officials in her are like wolves ripping up prey. They shed blood and destroy lives for unjust riches.
28 Her prophets have whitewashed everything for them, seeing false visions and making wrong predictions for them, saying, "This is what the LORD God says," when the LORD hasn't spoken.
29 The important people of the land have practiced extortion and have committed robbery. They've oppressed the poor and mistreated the immigrant. They've oppressed and denied justice.
30 I looked for anyone to repair the wall and stand in the gap for me on behalf of the land, so I wouldn't have to destroy it. But I couldn't find anyone.
31 So I've poured out my anger on them. With my furious fire I've finished them off. I've held them accountable. This is what the LORD God proclaims.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible

Ezekiel 23

1 The LORD's word came to me:
2 Human one, there were two women, daughters of one woman.
3 When they were girls in Egypt, they began to prostitute themselves by allowing their young and nubile breasts to be touched and fondled.
4 The older sister was named Oholah, and the younger sister was named Oholibah. They became mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Now Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
5 But Oholah became unfaithful to me and lusted after her lovers the Assyrians:
6 warriors dressed in fine blue cloth, governors and officers, charioteers and horsemen, all of them the most handsome of men.
7 She sought them out to seduce them, all of them men of the highest rank of Assyria. She defiled herself by everyone she lusted after and also by all their idols.
8 But she never gave up her promiscuities with the Egyptians, who had slept with her in her girlhood and fondled her nubile breasts, and who continued to seduce her.
9 Therefore, I handed her over to her lovers, to the Assyrians for whom she lusted.
10 They stripped her naked, took her sons and daughters, and killed her with the sword. And she became notorious among women for the punishments they enacted against her.
11 Her sister Oholibah saw it, and she proceeded to outdo her sister in her lust and in her seductions.
12 She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and officers, warriors richly clothed, charioteers and horsemen, all of them the most handsome of men.
13 I saw that she too defiled herself. Both had the same tendencies,
14 but she was even more promiscuous. She saw men carved in wall reliefs, images of Chaldeans outlined in vermilion,
15 wearing only loincloths around their hips and flowing headbands on their heads. All of them had the appearance of warriors of the third rank, the likeness of Babylonians whose native land is Chaldea.
16 Aroused just by looking at them, she sent messengers to them in Chaldea.
17 The Babylonians came to her to lie down and make love with her, defiling her with their seductions. But once she had defiled herself with them, she recoiled from them in disgust.
18 When her seductions became known and her nakedness exposed, I recoiled from her just as I had recoiled from her sister.
19 But she added to her promiscuities, bringing to mind her youthful days when she was a prostitute in the land of Egypt.
20 She lusted after their male consorts, whose sexual organs were like those of donkeys, and whose ejaculation was like that of horses.
21 She relived the wicked days of her youth, when the Egyptians touched and fondled her young and nubile breasts.
22 So Oholibah, the LORD God proclaims: I'm now inciting your lovers against you, all those from whom you recoiled, and I will bring them against you from all around—
23 Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod and Shoa and Koa, all the Assyrians with them, the most handsome young men, all of them governors and officers, career officers and conscripts, all of them on horseback.
24 They will come against you with weapons, chariots, and wagons, and with a great army, with shield, buckler, and helmet; and they will surround you. I will hand your punishment over to them, and they will judge you according to their laws.
25 I will direct my passion against you, and they will deal with you in wrath. They will cut off your nose and ears, and those who are left will fall by the sword. They will seize your sons and daughters, and those who are left will be burned with fire.
26 They will strip your clothing from you and remove your beautiful crown.
27 That's how I will put an end to your lewdness and your Egyptian-styled promiscuity. Never again will you stare at them, and you won't remember Egypt anymore.
28 The LORD God proclaims: I'm now handing you over to those whom you hate and from whom you recoil.
29 They will deal hatefully with you: They will seize your pay and leave you completely naked. Your promiscuity, betrayal, and seductions will be exposed.
30 This will be done to you because you sold yourself to the nations and became defiled by their idols.
31 You followed in your sister's path, so I have put her cup into your hand.
32 The LORD God proclaims: Deep and wide is your sister's cup. Drink! Appointed for abuse and scorn, it overflows.
33 You will be filled with drunken sadness. A cup of devastation and dismay is the cup of your sister Samaria.
34 Drink it, drain it dry, break it into pieces, and tear off your breasts, for I have spoken. This is what the LORD God says.
35 So now the LORD God proclaims: Because you forgot me and turned your back on me, you alone will bear the consequences of your betrayal and promiscuities.
36 Then the LORD said to me, Human one, judge Oholah and Oholibah, and make known their detestable practices to them.
37 They committed adultery, so now blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols, and they even took their children whom they had borne to me and offered them up to be consumed for them.
38 They also did this to me: On the same day, they made my sanctuary unclean and made my sabbaths impure.
39 When they slaughtered their children for their idols, they came into my sanctuary and made it impure on that very same day. They actually did this inside my temple.
40 They even sent for men who came from a great distance. No sooner than a messenger was sent, they arrived! For these men you bathed, you painted your eyes, and you put on your jewelry.
41 You took your place on a splendid couch with a richly set table in front of it, and you set my incense and my oil on it.
42 The sound of a noisy crowd was around her. Men from the common multitude, drinkers of wine, were brought from the desert. They put bracelets on their wrists and beautiful crowns on their heads.
43 Then I thought, For a foolish woman they become adulterers! Incited by her seduction, they prostitute themselves—for her!
44 They come as if coming to a prostitute, first to Oholah, and then to Oholibah, those traitorous women.
45 But men who do the right thing will judge them, and they will be punished as adulterers and murderers, because they are in fact adulterers, and blood is on their hands.
46 The LORD God proclaims: Bring up an assembly against them, and decree terror and plunder for them.
47 Let the assembly stone them! Let them carve them up with their swords, slay their sons and daughters, and burn their houses with fire!
48 So I will put an end to betrayal in the land. Taking warning, no woman will betray as you have done.
49 You will be held accountable for your betrayals, and you will bear the sins of your idols. Then you will know that I am the LORD God.
Copyright © 2011 Common English Bible