Ezekiel 5; Ezekiel 6; Ezekiel 7; Hebrews 12

1 You, human one, take a sharp sword. Use it like a razor and shave your head and beard. Then use scales to divide the hair.

2 At the end of the siege, burn one-third of it in the city. Strike another third with the sword left and right. Then scatter one-third to the wind and let loose the sword after it.

3 From that third, take a few strands and hide them in your garment.

4 From that hair, take yet another batch and throw it into the fire and burn it up. From there, fire will spread to the whole house of Israel.

5 The LORD God proclaims: This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the middle of the nations and surrounding countries.

6 But she rebelled against my case laws and my regulations with greater treachery than these nations and surrounding countries, who also rejected my case laws and didn't follow my regulations.

7 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: You have become more turbulent than these nations around you because you haven't obeyed my regulations or followed my case laws. You haven't even followed the case laws of the nations around you!

8 So now the LORD God proclaims: I myself am now against you! I will impose the case law penalties on you in the sight of the nations.

9 Because of you, I will do what I've never done before and will never do again—all because of your detestable practices.

10 Therefore, parents among you will eat their children, and children will eat their parents. I will impose penalties from case laws on you and scatter all that is left of you to the winds.

11 Therefore, as surely as I live, this is what the LORD God says: Because you made my sanctuary unclean with all your disgusting practices and detestable things, I myself will shave you. I will not shed a tear. You will have no compassion, even from me.

12 One-third of you will die of plague and waste away by famine among you. One-third will fall by the sword all around you. And one-third I will scatter to all the winds, letting loose a sword to pursue them.

13 My anger will be complete. I will exhaust my wrath against them and take my revenge. Then they will know that I, the LORD, have spoken against them in my zeal and consumed them in my wrath.

14 I will turn you into a desolation to the ridicule of the nations all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

15 You will become an object of ridicule, a mockery, and a horrifying lesson to the nations all around you, when I impose penalties from case laws against you in anger, wrath, and overflowing fury. I, the LORD, have spoken.

16 When I launch my deadly arrows of famine against you, I have released them for your destruction! I will add to your famine and completely cut off your food supply.

17 I will send famine and wild animals against you, and they will leave you childless. Plague and bloodshed will come to you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the LORD, have spoken.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Israel's mountains, and prophesy to them.

3 Say: Hear the LORD God's word, mountains of Israel! The LORD God proclaims to the mountains and hills, to the valleys and their deepest ravines: I'm about to bring a sword against you and destroy your shrines.

4 Your altars will be destroyed, your incense altars broken. And I'll make your slain fall in front of your idols.

5 I'll throw the Israelites' corpses in front of their idols, and I'll scatter your bones all around your altars.

6 Wherever you live, cities will be in ruins, shrines made desolate, turned into utter ruin. Your altars will be punished and then broken down. Your idols will be demolished, your incense altars shattered, and all your works wiped out.

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

8 But I will spare a few. Some of you will escape the nations' swords when you are scattered throughout the lands.

9 Your fugitives will remember me in the nations to which they've been banished, how I was crushed when their roving hearts turned away from me, and their roving eyes went after their idols. They will loathe themselves for their treacherous acts and detestable practices,

10 and they will know that I am the LORD. Not in vain have I threatened to bring this evil against them.

11 The LORD God proclaims: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry "Horror" over all the detestable practices of the house of Israel. They will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.

12 Whoever is far off will die of plague, whoever is nearby will fall to the sword, and whoever finds refuge will die of famine. I'll satisfy my wrath against them!

13 They will know that I am the LORD when their slain appear among their idols and around their altars, wherever they offered up pleasing aromas for all their idols, on every high hill and mountaintop, and under every lofty tree and leafy oak.

14 Wherever they live, I will direct my power against them. I will turn the land into a greater wasteland than the Riblah desert. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 You, human one, this is what the LORD God proclaims to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come to the four corners of the earth!

3 Even now the end is upon you! I'll send my anger against you, I'll judge you according to your ways, and I'll turn all your detestable practices against you.

4 I won't shed a tear for you or show any pity. Instead, I'll turn your ways against you, and your detestable practices will stay with you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5 The LORD God proclaims: Disaster! A singular disaster! Look, it comes!

6 The end has come! Oh, yes, it has come! It has come to you! Look, it's here!

7 You who live on the earth, you are finally caught in your own trap! The time has come; the day draws near. On the hills panic, not glory.

8 And now it's near! Against you I will pour out my wrath, and my anger will be satisfied. I'll judge you according to your ways, and turn all your detestable practices against you.

9 I won't shed a tear or show any pity when I turn your ways against you, and your detestable practices stay with you. Then you will know that I, the LORD, am the one who strikes you!

10 Look, the day! Look, it comes! Doom has arrived! The staff blossoms, and pride springs up!

11 Violence rises up as a wicked master. It isn't from others or their armies or their violence. It hasn't loomed up because of them.

12 The time is coming! The day draws near! No buyer should rejoice, and no seller should mourn, because wrath overcomes the whole crowd.

13 The seller will never get back what was sold, even if both of them survive. The vision concerns the whole crowd. It won't be revoked. And the guilty ones— they won't even be able to hang on to their lives.

14 They have blown the horn, and everything is ready, but no one goes to battle, because my wrath overcomes the whole crowd.

15 Outside, the sword! Inside, plague and famine! Whoever is out in the field will die by the sword. Whoever is in the city, plague and famine will consume them.

16 And those who flee? They will turn up on the hills like valley doves, all of them moaning, those guilty ones.

17 Every hand will hang limp; urine will run down every leg.

18 They will put on mourning clothes, and horror will cover them. On every face, shame; on all their heads, baldness.

19 They will hurl their silver into the street, and their gold will seem unclean. Their silver and their gold won't deliver them on the day of the LORD's anger. They won't satisfy their appetites or fill their bellies. Their guilt will bring them down.

20 From their beautiful ornament, in which they took pride, they have made horrible and detestable images! Therefore, I've declared it an unclean thing for them.

21 I'll hand it over to foreigners as loot taken in war, to the earth's wicked ones as plunder—they will defile it!

22 When I hide my face from my people, foreigners will defile my treasured place. Violent intruders will invade it; they will defile it!

23 Make a chain! The earth is full of perverted justice, the city full of violence.

24 I'll bring up the cruelest nations, and they will seize their houses. I'll break their proud strength, and their sanctuaries will be defiled.

25 Disaster! It has come! They seek peace, but there is none.

26 One disaster comes after another, and rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet. Instruction disappears from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

27 The king will go into mourning, the prince will clothe himself in despair, and the hands of the land's people will tremble. When I do to them as they have done and judge them by their own justice, they will know that I am the LORD.

1 So then let's also run the race that is laid out in front of us, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us. Let's throw off any extra baggage, get rid of the sin that trips us up,

2 and fix our eyes on Jesus, faith's pioneer and perfecter. He endured the cross, ignoring the shame, for the sake of the joy that was laid out in front of him, and sat down at the right side of God's throne.

3 Think about the one who endured such opposition from sinners so that you won't be discouraged and you won't give up.

4 In your struggle against sin, you haven't resisted yet to the point of shedding blood,

5 and you have forgotten the encouragement that addresses you as sons and daughters: My child, don't make light of the Lord's discipline or give up when you are corrected by him,

6 because the Lord disciplines whomever he loves, and he punishes every son or daughter whom he accepts.

7 Bear hardship for the sake of discipline. God is treating you like sons and daughters! What child isn't disciplined by his or her father?

8 But if you don't experience discipline, which happens to all children, then you are illegitimate and not real sons and daughters.

9 What's more, we had human parents who disciplined us, and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of spirits and live?

10 Our human parents disciplined us for a little while, as it seemed best to them, but God does it for our benefit so that we can share his holiness.

11 No discipline is fun while it lasts, but it seems painful at the time. Later, however, it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness for those who have been trained by it.

12 So strengthen your drooping hands and weak knees!

13 Make straight paths for your feet so that if any part is lame, it will be healed rather than injured more seriously.

14 Pursue the goal of peace along with everyone—and holiness as well, because no one will see the Lord without it.

15 Make sure that no one misses out on God's grace. Make sure that no root of bitterness grows up that might cause trouble and pollute many people.

16 Make sure that no one becomes sexually immoral or ungodly like Esau. He sold his inheritance as the oldest son for one meal.

17 You know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected because he couldn't find a way to change his heart and life, though he looked for it with tears.

18 You haven't drawn near to something that can be touched: a burning fire, darkness, shadow, a whirlwind,

19 a blast of a trumpet, and a sound of words that made the ones who heard it beg that there wouldn't be one more word.

20 They couldn't stand the command, If even a wild animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned.

21 The sight was so frightening that Moses said, "I'm terrified and shaking!"

22 But you have drawn near to Mount Zion, the city of the living God, heavenly Jerusalem, to countless angels in a festival gathering,

23 to the assembly of God's firstborn children who are registered in heaven, to God the judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous who have been made perfect,

24 to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than Abel's blood.

25 See to it that you don't resist the one who is speaking. If the people didn't escape when they refused to listen to the one who warned them on earth, how will we escape if we reject the one who is warning from heaven?

26 His voice shook the earth then, but now he has made a promise: Still once more I will shake not only the earth but heaven also.

27 The words "still once more" reveal the removal of what is shaken—the things that are part of this creation—so that what isn't shaken will remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that can't be shaken, let's continue to express our gratitude. With this gratitude, let's serve in a way that is pleasing to God with respect and awe,

29 because our God really is a consuming fire.