Ezekiel 24; Ezekiel 25; Ezekiel 26; 1 Peter 2

1 In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, write down today's date, because today the king of Babylon has set up camp at Jerusalem—today!

3 Compose a parable for the rebels' household and say to them, The LORD God proclaims: Put on the pot, set it on, and fill it with water.

4 Add meat to it, every good piece. With shoulder and thigh, the meatiest bones, fill it up.

5 Take the flock's best animal; arrange the wood beneath it. Bring it to a rolling boil, and cook its bones in it.

6 The LORD God proclaims: Horror! You bloody city, you corroded pot; pot whose corrosion can't be removed! Empty it piece by piece. She is rejected

7 because her blood is still with her. She didn't pour it out on the ground so that it could be covered with dirt, but she spread it out on a bare rock.

8 In order to arouse wrath, to guarantee vengeance, I will spread her blood on a bare rock, never to be covered.

9 So now the LORD God proclaims: Horror! You bloody city! I myself will add fuel to the fire!

10 Pile on the wood, light the fire, and cook the meat. Season it well and let the bones be charred.

11 Let the pot stand empty on its coals until it's so hot that its copper glows, its impurities melt in it, and its corrosion is consumed.

12 It's a worthless task. Even by fire its great corrosion isn't removed.

13 How your betrayals defile you! I cleansed you, but you didn't come clean from your impurities. You won't be clean again until I have exhausted my anger against you.

14 I, the LORD, have spoken! It's coming, and I'll do it. I won't relent or have any pity or compassion. Your punishments will fit your ways and your deeds! This is what the LORD God says.

15 The LORD's word came to me:

16 Human one, I am about to take the delight of your eyes away from you in a single stroke. Don't mourn or weep. Don't even let your tears well up.

17 Sigh inwardly; be deathly still. Don't perform mourning rites, but bind on your turban and put your shoes on your feet. And don't cover your upper lip or eat in human company.

18 I spoke with the people in the morning, and by evening my wife was dead. The next morning I did as I was commanded.

19 The people asked, "Won't you tell us what your actions mean for us?"

20 So I said to them, The LORD's word came to me:

21 Say to the house of Israel, the LORD God proclaims: I'm about to make my sanctuary impure, the pride of your strength, the delight of your eyes. Your heart's desire, the sons and daughters you left behind, will fall by the sword.

22 You will do as I have done. You will neither cover your upper lip nor eat in human company.

23 Your turbans will be on your heads, your sandals on your feet. You won't mourn or weep. You will waste away in your guilt, all of you groaning to each other.

24 Ezekiel is your sign. You will do everything that he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the LORD God.

25 And you, human one: On the day that I take from them their proud stronghold—their crowning joy, the delight of their eyes—and their sons and daughters, whose fate weighs on them,

26 on that day, a refugee will come to you so that you yourself will hear the news.

27 On that day your mouth will be opened to the refugee, and you will speak and no longer be silent. You will be their sign, and they will know that I am the LORD.

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face the Ammonites and prophesy against them.

3 Say to the Ammonites: Hear the LORD God's word! The LORD God proclaims: You laughed when my sanctuary was degraded, when Israel's fertile land was laid waste, and when the house of Judah went into exile;

4 therefore, I'm handing you over to people in the east for them to take possession. They will set up their encampments against you, establish residence, devour your fruit, and drink your milk.

5 I'll make Rabbah into pastureland for camels and Ammon a resting place for flocks. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

6 The LORD God proclaims: Because you clapped your hands and stamped your feet when you rejoiced with utter contempt for Israel's fertile land,

7 I'm about to overpower you. Nations will plunder you. I will cut you off from the peoples, remove you from the lands, and utterly destroy you. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

8 The LORD God proclaims: Because Moab and Seir say, "Aha! The house of Judah has become like all the nations,"

9 I'll open up the flank of Moab from the cities at its border, the land's splendid cities, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim.

10 I'll hand it over, along with the Ammonites, to people in the east for them to take possession. And so Ammon will no longer be remembered among the nations.

11 I'll execute judgments in Moab, and they will know that I am the LORD.

12 The LORD God proclaims: Edom acted with excessive force against the house of Judah. The Judeans were guilty, but Edom's vengeance was excessive.

13 So the LORD God now proclaims: I'll overpower Edom, eliminate all living creatures, and make it a wasteland from Teman to Dedan. They will fall by the sword.

14 I will execute my vengeance in Edom through my people Israel's power. They will act in Edom according to my anger and fury, and they will know my vengeance. This is what the LORD God says.

15 The LORD God proclaims: When the Philistines set out to right the wrongs done to them, they enacted revenge with utter contempt and old hatreds.

16 So now the LORD God proclaims: I will overpower the Philistines, eliminate the Cherethites, and obliterate all who are left along the coastline.

17 I will act against them with great vengeance and with wrathful punishments. When I execute my vengeance against them, they will know that I am the LORD.

1 In the eleventh year, on the first day of the month, the LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, because Tyre laughed at Jerusalem: "The gate of the peoples is broken, she lies open before me, she is destroyed, but I will succeed!"

3 The LORD God now proclaims: Tyre, I'm now against you! Just as the sea hurls up its waves, I will bring many nations up against you.

4 When they destroy the walls of Tyre and throw down its towers, I will scrape off all its dirt and make it into a bare rock,

5 a place for drying nets in the middle of the sea. I have spoken! This is what the LORD God says. It will become prey for the nations,

6 and its towns around it will be put to the sword. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

7 The LORD God proclaims: I'm bringing Nebuchadrezzar against Tyre, the king of Babylon from the north, the greatest of all kings, with horses, chariots, and charioteers, an assembly, a great army. Then he will build towers against you, erect siege ramps against you, and set up shields.

8 The towns around you he will destroy with the sword.

9 He will pound his battering ram against your walls; with crowbars he will tear down your towers.

10 The dust from all his horses will cover you when he enters your gates as one who enters a breached city. Your walls will quake at the thundering of the charioteers and chariot wheels.

11 His horses' hooves will trample all your courtyards; he will cut down your people with the sword, and the monuments to your strength he will bring down to the ground.

12 They will destroy your wealth, plunder your goods, tear down your walls, and raze your fine houses. Your stone, lumber, and rubble they will dump into the sea.

13 I will bring an end to your cacophonous songs; the sound of your lyres will never be heard again.

14 I will make you into a bare rock, a place for drying nets, and you will never be rebuilt. I, the LORD, have spoken. This is what the LORD God says.

15 The LORD God proclaims to Tyre: Won't the coastlands quake at the news of your downfall, when the wounded groan, and when the slaughter in your midst goes on and on?

16 All the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones, remove their royal robes, and strip off their fine garments. They will be clothed only in terror as they sit on the ground. They will be so terrified, they won't stop shuddering because of you.

17 They will sing a lament for you, and they will say: How you have perished, queen of the sea, city once praised, who once dominated the sea, she and her rulers, who spread their terror abroad, every one of them.

18 Now the wastelands tremble on the day of your fall. Your expulsion horrifies the islands of the sea.

19 The LORD God proclaims: When I turn you into ruins like uninhabitable cities, when the deep sea washes over you and the raging seas cover you,

20 I will lead you down into the pit, to the everlasting people. I will install you in the world below, in the everlasting ruins, with those who go down to the pit. And so you will neither rule nor radiate splendor in the land of the living.

21 I will terrify you, and you will disappear. You will be sought but never found again. This is what the LORD God says.

1 Therefore, get rid of all ill will and all deceit, pretense, envy, and slander.

2 Instead, like a newborn baby, desire the pure milk of the word. Nourished by it, you will grow into salvation,

3 since you have tasted that the Lord is good.

4 Now you are coming to him as to a living stone. Even though this stone was rejected by humans, from God's perspective it is chosen, valuable.

5 You yourselves are being built like living stones into a spiritual temple. You are being made into a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

6 Thus it is written in scripture, Look! I am laying a cornerstone in Zion, chosen, valuable. The person who believes in him will never be shamed.

7 So God honors you who believe. For those who refuse to believe, though, the stone the builders tossed aside has become the capstone.

8 This is a stone that makes people stumble and a rock that makes them fall. Because they refuse to believe in the word, they stumble. Indeed, this is the end to which they were appointed.

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God's own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light.

10 Once you weren't a people, but now you are God's people. Once you hadn't received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

11 Dear friends, since you are immigrants and strangers in the world, I urge that you avoid worldly desires that wage war against your lives.

12 Live honorably among the unbelievers. Today, they defame you, as if you were doing evil. But in the day when God visits to judge they will glorify him, because they have observed your honorable deeds.

13 For the sake of the Lord submit to every human institution. Do this whether it means submitting to the emperor as supreme ruler,

14 or to governors as those sent by the emperor. They are sent to punish those doing evil and to praise those doing good.

15 Submit to them because it's God's will that by doing good you will silence the ignorant talk of foolish people.

16 Do this as God's slaves, and yet also as free people, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil.

17 Honor everyone. Love the family of believers. Have respectful fear of God. Honor the emperor.

18 Household slaves, submit by accepting the authority of your masters with all respect. Do this not only to good and kind masters but also to those who are harsh.

19 Now, it is commendable if, because of one's understanding of God, someone should endure pain through suffering unjustly.

20 But what praise comes from enduring patiently when you have sinned and are beaten for it? But if you endure steadfastly when you've done good and suffer for it, this is commendable before God.

21 You were called to this kind of endurance, because Christ suffered on your behalf. He left you an example so that you might follow in his footsteps.

22 He committed no sin, nor did he ever speak in ways meant to deceive.

23 When he was insulted, he did not reply with insults. When he suffered, he did not threaten revenge. Instead, he entrusted himself to the one who judges justly.

24 He carried in his own body on the cross the sins we committed. He did this so that we might live in righteousness, having nothing to do with sin. By his wounds you were healed.

25 Though you were like straying sheep, you have now returned to the shepherd and guardian of your lives.