Ezekiel 16; Ezekiel 17; James 3

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Ezekiel 16

1 Again the word of the LORD came to me:

2 "Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations,

3 and say, Thus says the Lord GOD to Jerusalem: Your origin and your birth are of the land of the Canaanites; your father was an Amorite, and your mother a Hittite.

4 And as for your birth, on the day you were born your navel string was not cut, nor were you washed with water to cleanse you, nor rubbed with salt, nor swathed with bands.

5 No eye pitied you, to do any of these things to you out of compassion for you; but you were cast out on the open field, for you were abhorred, on the day that you were born.

6 "And when I passed by you, and saw you weltering in your blood, I said to you in your blood, 'Live,

7 and grow up like a plant of the field.' And you grew up and became tall and arrived at full maidenhood; your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown; yet you were naked and bare.

8 "When I passed by you again and looked upon you, behold, you were at the age for love; and I spread my skirt over you, and covered your nakedness: yea, I plighted my troth to you and entered into a covenant with you, says the Lord GOD, and you became mine.

9 Then I bathed you with water and washed off your blood from you, and anointed you with oil.

10 I clothed you also with embroidered cloth and shod you with leather, I swathed you in fine linen and covered you with silk.

11 And I decked you with ornaments, and put bracelets on your arms, and a chain on your neck.

12 And I put a ring on your nose, and earrings in your ears, and a beautiful crown upon your head.

13 Thus you were decked with gold and silver; and your raiment was of fine linen, and silk, and embroidered cloth; you ate fine flour and honey and oil. You grew exceedingly beautiful, and came to regal estate.

14 And your renown went forth among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect through the splendor which I had bestowed upon you, says the Lord GOD.

15 "But you trusted in your beauty, and played the harlot because of your renown, and lavished your harlotries on any passer-by.

16 You took some of your garments, and made for yourself gaily decked shrines, and on them played the harlot; the like has never been, nor ever shall be.

17 You also took your fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself images of men, and with them played the harlot;

18 and you took your embroidered garments to cover them, and set my oil and my incense before them.

19 Also my bread which I gave you--I fed you with fine flour and oil and honey--you set before them for a pleasing odor, says the Lord GOD.

20 And you took your sons and your daughters, whom you had borne to me, and these you sacrificed to them to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter

21 that you slaughtered my children and delivered them up as an offering by fire to them?

22 And in all your abominations and your harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, weltering in your blood.

23 "And after all your wickedness (woe, woe to you! says the Lord GOD),

24 you built yourself a vaulted chamber, and made yourself a lofty place in every square;

25 at the head of every street you built your lofty place and prostituted your beauty, offering yourself to any passer-by, and multiplying your harlotry.

26 You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, multiplying your harlotry, to provoke me to anger.

27 Behold, therefore, I stretched out my hand against you, and diminished your allotted portion, and delivered you to the greed of your enemies, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your lewd behavior.

28 You played the harlot also with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; yea, you played the harlot with them, and still you were not satisfied.

29 You multiplied your harlotry also with the trading land of Chalde'a; and even with this you were not satisfied.

30 "How lovesick is your heart, says the Lord GOD, seeing you did all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot;

31 building your vaulted chamber at the head of every street, and making your lofty place in every square. Yet you were not like a harlot, because you scorned hire.

32 Adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband!

33 Men give gifts to all harlots; but you gave your gifts to all your lovers, bribing them to come to you from every side for your harlotries.

34 So you were different from other women in your harlotries: none solicited you to play the harlot; and you gave hire, while no hire was given to you; therefore you were different.

35 "Wherefore, O harlot, hear the word of the LORD:

36 Thus says the Lord GOD, Because your shame was laid bare and your nakedness uncovered in your harlotries with your lovers, and because of all your idols, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them,

37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers, with whom you took pleasure, all those you loved and all those you loathed; I will gather them against you from every side, and will uncover your nakedness to them, that they may see all your nakedness.

38 And I will judge you as women who break wedlock and shed blood are judged, and bring upon you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

39 And I will give you into the hand of your lovers, and they shall throw down your vaulted chamber and break down your lofty places; they shall strip you of your clothes and take your fair jewels, and leave you naked and bare.

40 They shall bring up a host against you, and they shall stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.

41 And they shall burn your houses and execute judgments upon you in the sight of many women; I will make you stop playing the harlot, and you shall also give hire no more.

42 So will I satisfy my fury on you, and my jealousy shall depart from you; I will be calm, and will no more be angry.

43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth, but have enraged me with all these things; therefore, behold, I will requite your deeds upon your head, says the Lord GOD. "Have you not committed lewdness in addition to all your abominations?

44 Behold, every one who uses proverbs will use this proverb about you, 'Like mother, like daughter.'

45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and her children; and you are the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

46 And your elder sister is Sama'ria, who lived with her daughters to the north of you; and your younger sister, who lived to the south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.

47 Yet you were not content to walk in their ways, or do according to their abominations; within a very little time you were more corrupt than they in all your ways.

48 As I live, says the Lord GOD, your sister Sodom and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

49 Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, surfeit of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

50 They were haughty, and did abominable things before me; therefore I removed them, when I saw it.

51 Sama'ria has not committed half your sins; you have committed more abominations than they, and have made your sisters appear righteous by all the abominations which you have committed.

52 Bear your disgrace, you also, for you have made judgment favorable to your sisters; because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. So be ashamed, you also, and bear your disgrace, for you have made your sisters appear righteous.

53 "I will restore their fortunes, both the fortunes of Sodom and her daughters, and the fortunes of Sama'ria and her daughters, and I will restore your own fortunes in the midst of them,

54 that you may bear your disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done, becoming a consolation to them.

55 As for your sisters, Sodom and her daughters shall return to their former estate, and Sama'ria and her daughters shall return to their former estate; and you and your daughters shall return to your former estate.

56 Was not your sister Sodom a byword in your mouth in the day of your pride,

57 before your wickedness was uncovered? Now you have become like her an object of reproach for the daughters of Edom and all her neighbors, and for the daughters of the Philistines, those round about who despise you.

58 You bear the penalty of your lewdness and your abominations, says the LORD.

59 "Yea, thus says the Lord GOD: I will deal with you as you have done, who have despised the oath in breaking the covenant,

60 yet I will remember my covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish with you an everlasting covenant.

61 Then you will remember your ways, and be ashamed when I take your sisters, both your elder and your younger, and give them to you as daughters, but not on account of the covenant with you.

62 I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall know that I am the LORD,

63 that you may remember and be confounded, and never open your mouth again because of your shame, when I forgive you all that you have done, says the Lord GOD."

Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright 1952 [2nd edition, 1971] by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Ezekiel 17

1 The word of the LORD came to me:

2 "Son of man, propound a riddle, and speak an allegory to the house of Israel;

3 say, Thus says the Lord GOD: A great eagle with great wings and long pinions, rich in plumage of many colors, came to Lebanon and took the top of the cedar;

4 he broke off the topmost of its young twigs and carried it to a land of trade, and set it in a city of merchants.

5 Then he took of the seed of the land and planted it in fertile soil; he placed it beside abundant waters. He set it like a willow twig,

6 and it sprouted and became a low spreading vine, and its branches turned toward him, and its roots remained where it stood. So it became a vine, and brought forth branches and put forth foliage.

7 "But there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage; and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him, and shot forth its branches toward him that he might water it. From the bed where it was planted

8 he transplanted it to good soil by abundant waters, that it might bring forth branches, and bear fruit, and become a noble vine.

9 Say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Will it thrive? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its branches, so that all its fresh sprouting leaves wither? It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it from its roots.

10 Behold, when it is transplanted, will it thrive? Will it not utterly wither when the east wind strikes it--wither away on the bed where it grew?"

11 Then the word of the LORD came to me:

12 "Say now to the rebellious house, Do you not know what these things mean? Tell them, Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took her king and her princes and brought them to him to Babylon.

13 And he took one of the seed royal and made a covenant with him, putting him under oath. (The chief men of the land he had taken away,

14 that the kingdom might be humble and not lift itself up, and that by keeping his covenant it might stand.)

15 But he rebelled against him by sending ambassadors to Egypt, that they might give him horses and a large army. Will he succeed? Can a man escape who does such things? Can he break the covenant and yet escape?

16 As I live, says the Lord GOD, surely in the place where the king dwells who made him king, whose oath he despised, and whose covenant with him he broke, in Babylon he shall die.

17 Pharaoh with his mighty army and great company will not help him in war, when mounds are cast up and siege walls built to cut off many lives.

18 Because he despised the oath and broke the covenant, because he gave his hand and yet did all these things, he shall not escape.

19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: As I live, surely my oath which he despised, and my covenant which he broke, I will requite upon his head.

20 I will spread my net over him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there for the treason he has committed against me.

21 And all the pick of his troops shall fall by the sword, and the survivors shall be scattered to every wind; and you shall know that I, the LORD, have spoken."

22 Thus says the Lord GOD: "I myself will take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar, and will set it out; I will break off from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I myself will plant it upon a high and lofty mountain;

23 on the mountain height of Israel will I plant it, that it may bring forth boughs and bear fruit, and become a noble cedar; and under it will dwell all kinds of beasts; in the shade of its branches birds of every sort will nest.

24 And all the trees of the field shall know that I the LORD bring low the high tree, and make high the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I the LORD have spoken, and I will do it."

James 3

1 Let not many of you become teachers, my brethren, for you know that we who teach shall be judged with greater strictness.

2 For we all make many mistakes, and if any one makes no mistakes in what he says he is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also.

3 If we put bits into the mouths of horses that they may obey us, we guide their whole bodies.

4 Look at the ships also; though they are so great and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs.

5 So the tongue is a little member and boasts of great things. How great a forest is set ablaze by a small fire!

6 And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the cycle of nature, and set on fire by hell.

7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by humankind,

8 but no human being can tame the tongue--a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the likeness of God.

10 From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brethren, this ought not to be so.

11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening fresh water and brackish?

12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, yield olives, or a grapevine figs? No more can salt water yield fresh.

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? By his good life let him show his works in the meekness of wisdom.

14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth.

15 This wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish.

16 For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice.

17 But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without uncertainty or insincerity.

18 And the harvest of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Ezekiel 16; Ezekiel 17; James 3

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Ezekiel 16

Ezekiel 17

James 3