Ezekiel 22; Ezekiel 23; 1 Peter 1

Ezekiel 22

1 The Lord spoke to me.

2 "Mortal man," he said, "are you ready to judge the city that is full of murderers? Make clear to her all the disgusting things she has done.

3 Tell the city what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying: Because you have murdered so many of your own people and have defiled yourself by worshiping idols, your time is coming.

4 You are guilty of those murders and are defiled by the idols you made, and so your day is coming, your time is up! That is why I have let the nations make fun of you and all the countries sneer at you.

5 Countries nearby and countries far away sneer at you because of your lawlessness.

6 All Israel's leaders trust in their own strength and commit murder.

7 None of you in the city honor your parents. You cheat foreigners and take advantage of widows and orphans.

8 You have no respect for the holy places, and you don't keep the Sabbath.

9 Some of your people tell lies about others in order to have them put to death. Some of them eat sacrifices offered to idols. Some are always satisfying their lusts.

10 Some of them sleep with their father's wife. Some force women to have intercourse with them during their period.

11 Some commit adultery, and others seduce their daughters-in-law or their half sisters.

12 Some of your people murder for pay. Some charge interest on the loans they make to other Israelites and get rich by taking advantage of them. They have forgotten me." The Sovereign Lord has spoken.

13 "I will bring my fist down on your robberies and murders.

14 Do you think you will have any courage left or have strength enough to lift your hand when I am finished with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I keep my word.

15 I will scatter your people to every country and nation and will put an end to your evil actions.

16 And so the other nations will dishonor you, but you will know that I am the Lord."

17 The Lord said to me,

18 "Mortal man, the Israelites are of no use to me. They are like waste metal - copper, tin, iron, and lead - left over after silver has been refined in a furnace.

19 So now I, the Sovereign Lord, am telling them that they are just as useless as that. I will bring them all together in Jerusalem

20 in the same way that the ore of silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin is put in a refining furnace. My anger and rage will melt them the way fire melts ore.

21 Yes, I will gather them in Jerusalem, build a fire under them, and melt them with my anger.

22 They will be melted in Jerusalem the way silver is melted in a furnace, and then they will know that they are feeling the anger of the Lord."

23 The Lord spoke to me again.

24 "Mortal man," he said, "tell the Israelites that their land is unholy, and so I am punishing it in my anger.

25 The leaders are like lions roaring over the animals they have killed. They kill the people, take all the money and property they can get, and by their murders leave many widows.

26 The priests break my law and have no respect for what is holy. They make no distinction between what is holy and what is not. They do not teach the difference between clean and unclean things, and they ignore the Sabbath. As a result the people of Israel do not respect me.

27 The government officials are like wolves tearing apart the animals they have killed. They commit murder in order to get rich.

28 The prophets have hidden these sins like workers covering a wall with whitewash. They see false visions and make false predictions. They claim to speak the word of the Sovereign Lord, but I, the Lord, have not spoken to them.

29 The wealthy cheat and rob. They mistreat the poor and take advantage of foreigners.

30 I looked for someone who could build a wall, who could stand in the places where the walls have crumbled and defend the land when my anger is about to destroy it, but I could find no one.

31 So I will turn my anger loose on them, and like a fire I will destroy them for what they have done." The Sovereign Lord has spoken.

Ezekiel 23

1 The Lord spoke to me.

2 "Mortal man," he said, "there were once two sisters.

3 When they were young, living in Egypt, they lost their virginity and became prostitutes.

4 The older one was named Oholah (she represents Samaria), and the younger one was named Oholibah (she represents Jerusalem). I married both of them, and they bore me children

5 Although she was mine, Oholah continued to be a prostitute and was full of lust for her lovers from Assyria.

6 They were soldiers in uniforms of purple, noblemen and high-ranking officers; all of them were handsome young cavalry officers.

7 She was the whore for all the Assyrian officers, and her lust led her to defile herself by worshiping Assyrian idols.

8 She continued what she had begun as a prostitute in Egypt, where she lost her virginity. From the time she was a young woman, men slept with her and treated her like a prostitute.

9 So I handed her over to her Assyrian lovers whom she wanted so much.

10 They stripped her naked, seized her sons and daughters, and then killed her with a sword. Women everywhere gossiped about her fate.

11 "Even though her sister Oholibah saw this, she was wilder and more of a prostitute than Oholah had ever been.

12 She too was full of lust for the Assyrian noblemen and officers - soldiers in bright uniforms - and for the cavalry officers, all of those handsome young men.

13 I saw that she was completely immoral, that the second sister was as bad as the first.

14 "She sank deeper and deeper in her immorality. She was attracted by the images of high Babylonian officials carved into the wall and painted bright red, with sashes around their waists and fancy turbans on their heads

16 As soon as she saw them, she was filled with lust and sent messengers to them in Babylonia.

17 The Babylonians came to have sex with her. They used her and defiled her so much that finally she became disgusted with them.

18 She exposed herself publicly and let everyone know she was a whore. I was as disgusted with her as I had been with her sister.

19 She became more of a prostitute than ever, acting the way she did as a young woman, when she was a prostitute in Egypt

20 She was filled with lust for oversexed men who had all the lustfulness of donkeys or stallions.

21 (Oholibah, you wanted to repeat the immorality you were guilty of as a young woman in Egypt, where men played with your breasts and you lost your virginity.

22 "Now then, Oholibah, this is what I, the Sovereign Lord, am saying to you. You are tired of those lovers, but I will make them angry with you and bring them to surround you.

23 I will bring all the Babylonians and Chaldeans, men from Pekod, Shoa, and Koa, and all the Assyrians. I will gather all those handsome young noblemen and officers, all those important officials and high-ranking cavalry officers.

24 They will attack you from the north, bringing a large army with chariots and supply wagons. Protected by shields and helmets, they will surround you. I will hand you over to them, and they will judge you by their own laws.

25 Because I am angry with you, I will let them deal with you in their anger. They will cut off your nose and your ears and kill your children. Yes, they will take your sons and daughters from you and burn them alive.

26 They will tear off your clothes and take your jewels.

27 I will put a stop to your lust and to the obscenities you have committed ever since you were in Egypt. You won't look at any more idols or think about Egypt any more."

28 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "I will hand you over to people you hate and are disgusted with.

29 And because they hate you, they will take away everything you have worked for and leave you stripped naked, exposed like a prostitute. Your lust and your prostitution

30 have brought this on you. You were a prostitute for the nations and defiled yourself with their idols.

31 You followed in your sister's footsteps, and so I will give you the same cup of punishment to drink."

32 The Sovereign Lord says, "You will drink from your sister's cup; it is large and deep. Everyone will scorn and mock you; the cup is full.

33 It will make you miserable and drunk, that cup of fear and ruin, your sister Samaria's cup.

34 You will drink and drain it dry, and with its broken pieces tear your breast. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken."

35 Now this is what the Sovereign Lord is saying: "Because you forgot me and turned your back on me, you will suffer for your lust and your prostitution."

36 The Lord said to me, "Mortal man, are you ready to judge Oholah and Oholibah? Accuse them of the disgusting things they have done

37 They have committed adultery and murder - adultery with idols and murder of the children they bore me. They sacrificed my children to their idols.

38 And that is not all they did. They profaned my Temple and broke the Sabbath, which I had established

39 The very day that they killed my children as sacrifices to idols, they came to my Temple and profaned it!

40 "Again and again they sent messengers to invite men to come from a great distance, and the men came. The two sisters would bathe and put on eye shadow and jewelry.

41 They would sit on a beautiful couch, and in front of them they would have a table covered with good things, including the incense and the olive oil that I had given them.

42 The sound of a carefree crowd could be heard, a group of men brought in from the desert. They put bracelets on the women's arms and beautiful crowns on their heads.

43 And I said to myself that they were using as a prostitute a woman worn out by adultery.

44 They went back to these prostitutes again and again. They went back to Oholah and Oholibah, those immoral women.

45 Righteous men will condemn them on the charge of adultery and murder, because they practice adultery and their hands are stained with blood."

46 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: "Bring a mob to terrorize them and rob them.

47 Let the mob stone them and attack them with swords, kill their children, and burn down their houses.

48 Throughout the land I will put a stop to immorality, as a warning to every woman not to commit adultery as they did.

49 And you two sisters - I will punish you for your immorality and your sin of worshiping idols. Then you will know that I am the Sovereign Lord."

1 Peter 1

1 From Peter, apostle of Jesus Christ - To God's chosen people who live as refugees scattered throughout the provinces of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

2 You were chosen according to the purpose of God the Father and were made a holy people by his Spirit, to obey Jesus Christ and be purified by his blood. May grace and peace be yours in full measure.

3 Let us give thanks to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! Because of his great mercy he gave us new life by raising Jesus Christ from death. This fills us with a living hope,

4 and so we look forward to possessing the rich blessings that God keeps for his people. He keeps them for you in heaven, where they cannot decay or spoil or fade away.

5 They are for you, who through faith are kept safe by God's power for the salvation which is ready to be revealed at the end of time.

6 Be glad about this, even though it may now be necessary for you to be sad for a while because of the many kinds of trials you suffer.

7 Their purpose is to prove that your faith is genuine. Even gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire; and so your faith, which is much more precious than gold, must also be tested, so that it may endure. Then you will receive praise and glory and honor on the Day when Jesus Christ is revealed.

8 You love him, although you have not seen him, and you believe in him, although you do not now see him. So you rejoice with a great and glorious joy which words cannot express,

9 because you are receiving the salvation of your souls, which is the purpose of your faith in him.

10 It was concerning this salvation that the prophets made careful search and investigation, and they prophesied about this gift which God would give you.

11 They tried to find out when the time would be and how it would come. This was the time to which Christ's Spirit in them was pointing, in predicting the sufferings that Christ would have to endure and the glory that would follow.

12 God revealed to these prophets that their work was not for their own benefit, but for yours, as they spoke about those things which you have now heard from the messengers who announced the Good News by the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. These are things which even the angels would like to understand.

13 So then, have your minds ready for action. Keep alert and set your hope completely on the blessing which will be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

14 Be obedient to God, and do not allow your lives to be shaped by those desires you had when you were still ignorant.

15 Instead, be holy in all that you do, just as God who called you is holy.

16 The scripture says, "Be holy because I am holy."

17 You call him Father, when you pray to God, who judges all people by the same standard, according to what each one has done; so then, spend the rest of your lives here on earth in reverence for him.

18 For you know what was paid to set you free from the worthless manner of life handed down by your ancestors. It was not something that can be destroyed, such as silver or gold;

19 it was the costly sacrifice of Christ, who was like a lamb without defect or flaw.

20 He had been chosen by God before the creation of the world and was revealed in these last days for your sake.

21 Through him you believe in God, who raised him from death and gave him glory; and so your faith and hope are fixed on God.

22 Now that by your obedience to the truth you have purified yourselves and have come to have a sincere love for other believers, love one another earnestly with all your heart.

23 For through the living and eternal word of God you have been born again as the children of a parent who is immortal, not mortal.

24 As the scripture says, "All human beings are like grass, and all their glory is like wild flowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall,

25 but the word of the Lord remains forever." This word is the Good News that was proclaimed to you.