Ezekiel 35; Ezekiel 36; 2 Peter 1

Ezekiel 35

1 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 Son of man, set thy face against mount Seir, and prophesy concerning it, and say to it:

3 Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I come against thee, mount Seir, and I will stretch forth my hand upon thee, and I will make thee desolate and waste.

4 I will destroy thy cities, and thou shalt be desolate: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord.

5 Because thou hast been an everlasting enemy, and hast shut up the children of Israel in the hands of the sword in the time of their affliction, in the time of their last iniquity.

6 Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will deliver thee up to blood, and blood shall pursue thee: and whereas thou hast hated blood, blood shall pursue thee.

7 And I will make mount Seir waste and desolate: and I will take away from it him that goeth and him that returneth.

8 And I will fill his mountains with his men that are slain: in thy hills, and in thy valleys, and in thy torrents they shall fall that are slain with the sword.

9 I will make thee everlasting desolations, and thy cities shall not be inhabited: and thou shalt know that I am the Lord God.

10 Because thou hast said: The two nations, and the two lands shall be mine, and I will possess them by inheritance: whereas the Lord was there.

11 Therefore as I live, saith the Lord God, I will do according to thy wrath, and according to thy envy, which thou hast exercised in hatred to them: and I will be made known by them, when I shall have judged thee.

12 And thou shalt know that I the Lord have heard all thy reproaches, that thou hast spoken against the mountains of Israel, saying. They are desolate, they are given to us to consume.

13 And you rose up against me with your mouth, and have derogated from me by your words: I have heard them.

14 Thus saith the Lord God: When the whole earth shall rejoice, I will make thee a wilderness.

15 As thou hast rejoiced over the inheritance of the house of Israel, because it was laid waste, so will I do to thee: thou shalt be laid waste, O mount Seir, and all Idumea: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Ezekiel 36

1 And thou son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel, and say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord:

2 Thus saith the Lord God: Because the enemy hath said to you: Aha, the everlasting heights are given to us for an inheritance.

3 Therefore prophesy, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Because you have been desolate, and trodden under foot on every side, and made an inheritance to the rest of the nations, and are become the subject of the talk, and the reproach of the people:

4 Therefore, ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the brooks, and to the valleys, and to desolate places, and ruinous walls, and to the cities that are forsaken, that are spoiled, and derided by the rest of the nations round about.

5 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: In the fire of my zeal I have spoken of the rest of the nations, and of all Edom, who have taken my land to themselves, for an inheritance with joy, and with all the heart, and with the mind: and have cast it out to lay it waste.

6 Prophesy therefore concerning the land of Israel, and say to the mountains, and to the hills, to the ridges, and to the valleys: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold I have spoken in my zeal, and in my indignation, because you have borne the shame of the Gentiles.

7 Therefore thus saith the Lord God: I have lifted up my hand, that the Gentiles who are round about you, shall themselves bear their shame.

8 But as for you, O mountains of Israel, shoot ye forth your branches, and yield your fruit to my people of Israel: for they are at hand to come.

9 For I, I am for you, and I will turn to you, and you shall be ploughed and sown.

10 And I will multiply men upon you, and all the house of Israel: and the cities ball be inhabited, and the ruinous places shall be repaired.

11 And I will make you abound with men and with beasts: and they shall be multiplied, and increased: and I will settle you as from the beginning, and will give you greater gifts, than you had from the beginning: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

12 And I will bring men upon you, my people Israel, and they shall possess thee for their inheritance: and thou shalt be their inheritance, and shalt no more henceforth be without them.

13 Thus saith the Lord God: Because thy say of you: Thou art a devourer of men, and one that suffocatest thy nation:

14 Therefore thou shalt devour men no more nor destroy thy nation any more, saith the Lord God.

15 Neither will I cause men to hear in thee the shame of the nations any more, nor shalt thou bear the reproach of the people, nor lose thy nation any more, saith the Lord God.

16 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

17 Son of man, when the house of Israel dwelt in their own land, they defiled it with their ways, and with their doings: their way was before me like the uncleanness of a menstruous woman.

18 And I poured out my indignation upon them for the blood which they had shed upon the land, and with their idols they defiled it.

19 And I scattered them among the nations, and they are dispersed through the countries: I have judged them according to their ways, and their devices.

20 And when they entered among the nations whither they went, they profaned my holy name, when it was said of them: This is the people of the Lord, and they are come forth out of his land.

21 And I have regarded my own holy name, which the house of Israel hath profaned among the nations to which they went in.

22 Therefore thou shalt say to the house of Israel: Thus saith the Lord God: It is not for your sake that I will do this, O house of Israel, but for my holy name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations whither you went.

23 And I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the Gentiles, which you have profaned in the midst of them: that the Gentiles may know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord of hosts, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.

24 For I will take you from among the Gentiles, and will gather you together out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.

25 And I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you from all your idols.

26 And I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.

27 And I will put my spirit in the midst of you: and I will cause you to walk in my commandments, and to keep my judgments, and do them.

28 And you shall dwell in the land which I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and I will be your God.

29 And I will save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for corn, and will multiply it, and will lay no famine upon you.

30 And I will multiply the fruit of the tree, and the increase of the field, that you bear no more the reproach of famine among the nations.

31 And you shall remember your wicked ways, and your doings that were not good: and your iniquities, and your wicked deeds shall displease you.

32 It is not for your sakes that I will do this, saith the Lord God, be it known to you: be confounded, and ashamed at your own ways, O house of Israel.

33 Thus saith the Lord God: In the day that I shall cleanse you from all your iniquities, and shall cause the cities to be inhabited, and shall repair the ruinous places,

34 And the desolate land shall be tilled, which before was waste in the sight of all that passed by,

35 They shall say: This land that was untilled is become as a garden of pleasure: and the cities that were abandoned, and desolate, and destroyed, are peopled and fenced.

36 And the nations, that shall be left round about you, shall know that I the Lord have built up what was destroyed, and planted what was desolate, that I the Lord have spoken and done it.

37 Thus saith the Lord God: Moreover in this shall the house of Israel find me, that I will do it for them: I will multiply them as a flock of men,

38 As a holy flock, as the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts: so shall the waste cities be full of flocks of men: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

2 Peter 1

1 Simon Peter, servant and apostle of Jesus Christ: to them that have obtained equal faith with us in the justice of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

2 Grace to you and peace be accomplished in the knowledge of God and of Christ Jesus our Lord.

3 As all things of his divine power which appertain to life and godliness are given us through the knowledge of him who hath called us by his own proper glory and virtue.

4 By whom he hath given us most great and precious promises: that by these you may be made partakers of the divine nature: flying the corruption of that concupiscence which is in the world.

5 And you, employing all care, minister in your faith, virtue: And in virtue, knowledge:

6 And in knowledge, abstinence: and in abstinence, patience: and in patience, godliness:

7 And in godliness, love of brotherhood: and in love of brotherhood, charity.

8 For if these things be with you and abound, they will make you to be neither empty nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 For he that hath not these things with him is blind and groping, having forgotten that he was purged from his old sins.

10 Wherefore, brethren, labour the more, that by good works you may make sure your calling and election. For doing these things, you shall not sin at any time.

11 For so an entrance shall be ministered to you abundantly into the ever-lasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

12 For which cause, I will begin to put you always in remembrance of these things: though indeed you know them and are confirmed in the present truth.

13 But I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance.

14 Being assured that the laying away of this my tabernacle is at hand, according as our Lord Jesus Christ also hath signified to me.

15 And I will endeavour that you frequently have after my decease whereby you may keep a memory of these things.

16 For we have not by following artificial fables made known to you the power and presence of our Lord Jesus Christ: but we were eyewitnesses of his greatness.

17 For he received from God the Father honour and glory, this voice coming down to him from the excellent glory: This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye him.

18 And this voice, we heard brought from heaven, when we were with him in the holy mount.

19 And we have the more firm prophetical word: whereunto you do well to attend, as to a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star arise in your hearts.

20 Understanding this first: That no prophecy of scripture is made by private interpretation.

21 For prophecy came not by the will of man at any time: but the holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Ghost.