Ezekiel 5; Ezekiel 6; Ezekiel 7; Hebrews 12

1 "Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword, use it as you would a barber's razor, and shave your head and beard. Then take a pair of scales and divide the hair.

2 You are to burn up one third [of it] in the city when the days of the siege have ended; you are to take one third and slash [it] with the sword all around the city; and you are to scatter one third to the wind, for I will draw a sword [to chase] after them.

3 But you are to take a few strands from the hair and secure them in the folds of your [robe].

4 Take some more of them, throw them into the fire, and burn them in it. A fire will spread from it to the whole house of Israel.

5 "This is what the Lord God says: I have set this Jerusalem in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.

6 But she has rebelled against My ordinances with more wickedness than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that surround her. For her people have rejected My ordinances and have not walked in My statutes.

7 "Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have been more insubordinate than the nations around you-you have not walked in My statutes or kept My ordinances; you have not even kept the ordinances of the nations around you-

8 therefore, this is what the Lord God says: See, I am against you, [Jerusalem], and I will execute judgments within you in the sight of the nations.

9 Because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never done before and what I will never do again.

10 As a result, fathers will eat [their] sons within Jerusalem, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments against you and scatter all your survivors to every direction of the wind.

11 "Therefore, as I live"-[this is] the declaration of the Lord God -"I am going to cut [you] off and show [you] no pity, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable practices and abominations. Yes, I will not spare [you].

12 One third of your people will die by plague and be consumed by famine within you; one third will fall by the sword all around you; and I will scatter one third to every direction of the wind, and I will draw a sword [to chase] after them.

13 When My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath on them, I will be appeased. Then, after I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, have spoken in My jealousy.

14 "I will make you a ruin and a disgrace among the nations around you, in the sight of everyone who passes by.

15 So you will be a disgrace and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments against you in anger, wrath, and furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken.

16 When I shoot deadly arrows of famine at them, arrows for destruction that I will send to destroy you, [inhabitants of Jerusalem], I will intensify the famine against you and cut off your supply of bread.

17 I will send famine and dangerous animals against you. They will leave you childless, [Jerusalem]. Plague and bloodshed will sweep through you, and I will bring a sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken."

1 The word of the Lord came to me:

2 "Son of man, turn your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

3 You are to say: Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God ! This is what the Lord God says to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: I am about to bring a sword against you, and I will destroy your high places.

4 Your altars will be desolated and your incense altars smashed. I will throw down your slain in front of your idols.

5 I will lay the corpses of the Israelites in front of their idols and scatter your bones around your altars.

6 Wherever you live the cities will be in ruins and the high places will be desolate, so that your altars will lie in ruins and be desecrated, your idols smashed and obliterated, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.

7 The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

8 "Yet I will leave a remnant when you are scattered among the nations, for throughout the countries there will be some of you who will escape the sword.

9 Then your survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are taken captive, how I was crushed by their promiscuous hearts that turned away from Me and by their eyes that lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves because of the evil things they did, their abominations of every kind.

10 And they will know that I am the Lord; I did not threaten to bring this disaster on them without a reason.

11 "This is what the Lord God says: Clap your hands, stamp your feet, and cry out over all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, who will fall by the sword, famine, and plague.

12 The one who is far off will die by plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword; and the one who remains and is spared will die of famine. In this way I will exhaust My wrath on them.

13 You will [all] know that I am the Lord when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and every leafy oak-the places where they offered pleasing aromas to all their idols.

14 I will stretch out My hand against them, and wherever they live I will make the land a desolate waste, from the wilderness to Diblah. Then they will know that I am Yahweh."

1 And the word of the Lord came to me:

2 "Son of man, this is what the Lord God says to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land.

3 The end is now on you; I will send My anger against you and judge you according to your ways. I will punish you for all your abominations.

4 I will not look on you with pity or spare [you], but I will punish you for your ways and for your abominations within you. Then you will know that I am the Lord."

5 This is what the Lord God says: Look, one disaster after another is coming!

6 An end has come; the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it is coming!

7 Doom has come on you, inhabitants of the land. The time has come; the day is near. There will be panic on the mountains and not celebration.

8 I will pour out My wrath on you very soon; I will exhaust My anger against you and judge you according to your ways. I will punish you for all your abominations.

9 I will not look on [you] with pity or spare [you]. I will punish you for your ways and for your abominations within you. Then you will know that it is I, the Lord, who strikes.

10 Look, the day is coming! Doom has gone out. The rod has blossomed; arrogance has bloomed.

11 Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness; none of them [will remain]: none of their multitude, none of their wealth, and none of the eminent among them.

12 The time has come; the day has arrived. Let the buyer not rejoice and the seller not mourn, for wrath is on all her multitude.

13 The seller will certainly not return to what was sold as long as he and the buyer remain alive. For the vision concerning all its people will not be revoked, and none of them will preserve his life because of his iniquity.

14 They have blown the trumpet and prepared everything, but no one goes to war, for My wrath is on all her multitude.

15 The sword is on the outside; plague and famine are on the inside. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword, and famine and plague will devour whoever is in the city.

16 The survivors among them will escape and live on the mountains like doves of the valley, all of them moaning, each over his own iniquity.

17 All their hands will become weak, and all [their] knees will turn to water.

18 They will put on sackcloth, and horror will overwhelm them. Shame will cover all [their] faces, and all their heads will be bald.

19 They will throw their silver into the streets, and their gold will seem like something filthy. Their silver and gold will be unable to save them in the day of the Lord's wrath. They will not satisfy their appetites or fill their stomachs, for these were the stumbling blocks that brought about their iniquity.

20 He appointed His beautiful ornaments for majesty, but they made their abhorrent images from them, their detestable things. Therefore, I have made these into something filthy for them.

21 I will hand these things over to foreigners as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane them.

22 I will turn My face from the wicked as they profane My treasured place. Violent men will enter it and profane it.

23 Forge the chain, for the land is filled with crimes of bloodshed, and the city is filled with violence.

24 So I will bring the most evil of nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their sacred places will be profaned.

25 Anguish is coming! They will seek peace, but there will be none.

26 Disaster after disaster will come, and there will be rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction will perish from the priests and counsel from the elders.

27 The king will mourn; the prince will be clothed in grief; and the hands of the people of the land will tremble. I will deal with them according to their own conduct, and I will judge them by their own standards. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

1 Therefore since we also have such a large cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily ensnares us, and run with endurance the race that lies before us,

2 keeping our eyes on Jesus, the source and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of God's throne.

3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, so that you won't grow weary and lose heart.

4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

5 And you have forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons: My son, do not take the Lord's discipline lightly, or faint when you are reproved by Him;

6 for the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and punishes every son whom He receives.

7 Endure it as discipline: God is dealing with you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline?

8 But if you are without discipline-which all receive-then you are illegitimate children and not sons.

9 Furthermore, we had natural fathers discipline us, and we respected them. Shouldn't we submit even more to the Father of spirits and live?

10 For they disciplined us for a short time based on what seemed good to them, but He does it for our benefit, so that we can share His holiness.

11 No discipline seems enjoyable at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it yields the fruit of peace and righteousness to those who have been trained by it.

12 Therefore strengthen your tired hands and weakened knees,

13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but healed instead.

14 Pursue peace with everyone, and holiness-without it no one will see the Lord.

15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springs up, causing trouble and by it, defiling many.

16 And see that there isn't any immoral or irreverent person like Esau, who sold his birthright in exchange for one meal.

17 For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected because he didn't find any opportunity for repentance, though he sought it with tears.

18 For you have not come to what could be touched, to a blazing fire, to darkness, gloom, and storm,

19 to the blast of a trumpet, and the sound of words. (Those who heard it begged that not another word be spoken to them,

20 for they could not bear what was commanded: And if even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned!

21 And the appearance was so terrifying that Moses said, I am terrified and trembling. )

22 Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God (the heavenly Jerusalem), to myriads of angels in festive gathering,

23 to the assembly of the firstborn whose names have been written in heaven, to God who is the judge of all, to the spirits of righteous people made perfect,

24 to Jesus (mediator of a new covenant), and to the sprinkled blood, which says better things than the [blood] of Abel.

25 See that you do not reject the One who speaks; for if they did not escape when they rejected Him who warned them on earth, even less will we if we turn away from Him who warns us from heaven.

26 His voice shook the earth at that time, but now He has promised, Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.

27 Now this expression, "Yet once more," indicates the removal of what can be shaken-that is, created things-so that what is not shaken might remain.

28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us hold on to grace. By it, we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and awe;

29 for our God is a consuming fire.