Ezekiel 35; Ezekiel 36; 2 Peter 1

1 The LORD's word came to me:

2 Human one, face Mount Seir, and prophesy against it.

3 Say to it, The LORD God proclaims: I'm against you, Mount Seir! I will use my power against you. I will make you into a desolate wasteland,

4 I will turn your cities into ruins, and you will become a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.

5 Because you nursed an ancient grudge, you handed the Israelites over to the sword in the time of their distress, during their final punishment.

6 So now the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will prepare you for blood, and blood will pursue you. Because you don't hate bloodshed, bloodshed will pursue you.

7 I will turn Mount Seir into a desolate wasteland, when I cut off from it both passerby and homecomer.

8 I will fill its highlands—your hills and your valleys, and all your ravines—with its slain. Those who are slain by the sword will fall on them.

9 I will turn you into an eternal desolation. Your cities won't be inhabited, and you will know that I am the LORD.

10 You said, "These two nations and these two territories are mine. We will take possession of them even if the LORD is there."

11 Therefore, the LORD God proclaims: As surely as I live, I will act according to the anger and zeal you displayed when you dealt with them so hatefully. When I judge you, I will make myself known to them,

12 and you will know that I am the LORD. I've heard the lies and libels that you uttered against Israel's highlands when you said, "They are laid waste. They've been given to us to consume."

13 With your mouths you exalted yourselves against me and spoke your words against me. I myself heard it!

14 The LORD God proclaims: As the whole world rejoices, I will turn you into a desolation.

15 Just as you rejoiced over the house of Israel's inheritance because it became desolate, so I will deal with you. Mount Seir, you will become a desolation, with all of Edom, all of it. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 You, human one, prophesy to Israel's mountains and say, Hear the LORD's word, mountains of Israel!

2 The LORD God proclaims: The enemy mocked you and said, "The ancient heights belong to us."

3 Therefore, prophesy and say, The LORD God proclaims: When the surviving nations pressed in and ravaged you from all around to lay claim to you, you became an object of the people's slander and derision.

4 Hear the LORD God's word, mountains of Israel! The LORD God proclaims to the mountains and the hills, the watercourses and the valleys, the desolate ruins and the abandoned cities that were contemptuously looted by the surviving nations all around you.

5 So now, says the LORD God, I will speak in my fiery passion against the surviving nations and against Edom, all those who gleefully and spitefully took my land for themselves as a possession only for plunder.

6 Prophesy concerning Israel's fertile land, and say to the mountains and to the hills, to the ravines and to the valleys, The LORD God proclaims: Because you endured the ridicule of the nations, my passion and fury lead me to speak.

7 So now the LORD God proclaims: I myself swear that the nations round about you will themselves suffer ridicule.

8 But you, mountains of Israel, will extend your branches and bear your fruit for my people Israel, because they will come home very soon.

9 Look, I'm here for you, and I will turn toward you, and you will be farmed and sown.

10 I will populate you with human beings, the whole house of Israel, all of them. The cities will be inhabited, the ruins rebuilt.

11 When I make people and animals increase on you, they will multiply and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before. I will do more good for you than in the beginning, and you will know that I am the LORD.

12 I will let people walk through you, my people Israel! They will lay claim to you, you will be their inheritance, and you will no longer deprive them of anything.

13 The LORD God proclaims: Because people say, "You are a devourer of human beings" and "You are depriving your nation,"

14 therefore, you will no longer devour human beings or deprive your nation of anything. This is what the LORD God says.

15 You won't have to listen anymore to the taunts of the nations or endure the scorn of the peoples. And you will no longer deprive your nation of anything. This is what the LORD God says.

16 The LORD's word came to me:

17 Human one, when the house of Israel lived on their fertile land, they polluted it with their ways and deeds. Their ways before me were polluted like the blood of menstruation,

18 and so I poured out my fury on them for all the blood they had poured out on the land and for all the defilement of their idols.

19 When I scattered them to the nations and dispersed them into other lands, I judged them according to their ways and deeds.

20 But then when they entered the other nations, they degraded my holy name because it was said of them, "These are the LORD's people, yet they had to leave his land."

21 So I had compassion on my holy name, which the house of Israel degraded among the nations where they had gone.

22 Therefore, say to the house of Israel, The LORD God proclaims: House of Israel, I'm not acting for your sake but for the sake of my holy name, which you degraded among the nations where you have gone.

23 I will make my great name holy, which was degraded among the nations when you dishonored it among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD. This is what the LORD God says. When I make myself holy among you in their sight,

24 I will take you from the nations, I will gather you from all the countries, and I will bring you to your own fertile land.

25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be cleansed of all your pollution. I will cleanse you of all your idols.

26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you. I will remove your stony heart from your body and replace it with a living one,

27 and I will give you my spirit so that you may walk according to my regulations and carefully observe my case laws.

28 Then you will live in the land that I gave to your ancestors, you will be my people, and I will be your God.

29 I will save you from all your uncleanness, and I will summon the grain and make it grow abundantly so that you won't endure famine.

30 I will make abundant the orchards' fruit and the fields' produce so that you will never again endure the shame of famine among the nations.

31 Then you will remember your evil ways and no-good deeds, and you will feel disgust for yourselves because of your sinful and detestable practices.

32 Not for your sake do I act. This is what the LORD God proclaims. Let that be known to you! Be ashamed and be humiliated because of all your ways, house of Israel.

33 The LORD God proclaims: On the day that I cleanse you of all your guilt, I will cause the cities to be inhabited, and the ruins will be rebuilt.

34 The desolate land will be farmed, and it won't be like it was when it seemed a wasteland to all who passed by.

35 They will say, "This land, which was a desolation, has become like the garden of Eden." And the cities that were ruined, ravaged, and razed are now fortified and inhabited.

36 The surviving nations around you will know that I, the LORD, have rebuilt what was torn down and have planted what was made desolate. I, the LORD, have spoken, and I will do it.

37 The LORD God proclaims: I will also allow the house of Israel to ask me to do this for them: that I increase them like a human flock.

38 Like the holy flock, like the flock of Jerusalem at its festivals, the ruined cities will be filled with a human flock. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

1 From Simon Peter, a slave and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who received a faith equal to ours through the justice of our God and savior Jesus Christ.

2 May you have more and more grace and peace through the knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord.

3 By his divine power the Lord has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of the one who called us by his own honor and glory.

4 Through his honor and glory he has given us his precious and wonderful promises, that you may share the divine nature and escape from the world's immorality that sinful craving produces.

5 This is why you must make every effort to add moral excellence to your faith; and to moral excellence, knowledge;

6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, endurance; and to endurance, godliness;

7 and to godliness, affection for others; and to affection for others, love.

8 If all these are yours and they are growing in you, they'll keep you from becoming inactive and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9 Whoever lacks these things is shortsighted and blind, forgetting that they were cleansed from their past sins.

10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, be eager to confirm your call and election. Do this and you will never ever be lost.

11 In this way you will receive a rich welcome into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ.

12 So I'll keep reminding you about these things, although you already know them and stand secure in the truth you have.

13 I think it's right that I keep stirring up your memory, as long as I'm alive.

14 After all, our Lord Jesus Christ has shown me that I am about to depart from this life.

15 I'm eager for you always to remember these things after my death.

16 We didn't repeat crafty myths when we told you about the powerful coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Quite the contrary, we witnessed his majesty with our own eyes.

17 He received honor and glory from God the Father when a voice came to him from the magnificent glory, saying, "This is my dearly loved Son, with whom I am well-pleased."

18 We ourselves heard this voice from heaven while we were with him on the holy mountain.

19 In addition, we have a most reliable prophetic word, and you would do well to pay attention to it, just as you would to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.

20 Most important, you must know that no prophecy of scripture represents the prophet's own understanding of things,

21 because no prophecy ever came by human will. Instead, men and women led by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.