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Chapter 21
The Sword of the Lord. 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 [a]Son of man, turn your face to the south: preach against the south, prophesy against the forest land in the south. 3 Say to the forest in the south: Hear the word of the Lord! Thus says the Lord God: See! I am kindling a fire in you that shall devour every green tree as well as every dry tree. The blazing flame shall not be quenched so that from south to north every face shall be scorched by it. 4 All flesh shall see that I, the Lord, have kindled it; it shall not be quenched.(A)
5 But I said, “Ah! Lord God, they are saying about me, ‘Is not this the one who is forever spinning parables?’” 6 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 7 Son of man, turn your face toward Jerusalem: preach against its sanctuary, prophesy against the land of Israel.(B) 8 Say to the land of Israel: Thus says the Lord: See! I am coming against you; I will draw my sword from its scabbard and cut off from you the righteous and the wicked.[b] 9 Thus my sword shall come out from its scabbard against all flesh from south to north 10 and all flesh shall know that I, the Lord, have drawn my sword from its scabbard. It cannot return again.(C)
Act Symbolic of the City’s Fall. 11 As for you, son of man, groan! with shattered loins and bitter grief, groan in their sight. 12 When they ask you, “Why are you groaning?” you shall say: Because of what I heard![c] When it comes every heart shall melt, every hand fall helpless; every spirit will grow faint, and every knee run with water. See, it is coming, it is here!—oracle of the Lord God.
Song of the Sword. 13 The word of the Lord came to me:(D) 14 Son of man, prophesy! say: Thus says the Lord:
A sword, a sword has been sharpened,
a sword, a sword has been burnished:(E)
15 Sharpened to make a slaughter,
burnished to flash lightning!
Why should I stop now?
You have rejected the rod and every judgment!
16 I have given it over to the burnisher
that he might hold it in his hand,
A sword sharpened and burnished
to be put in the hands of an executioner.
17 Cry out and howl, son of man,
for it is destined for my people,
For all the princes of Israel,
victims of the sword with my people.
Therefore, slap your thigh,[d]
18 for it is tested, and why not?
Since you rejected my staff,
should it not happen?—
oracle of the Lord God.
19 As for you, son of man, prophesy,
and clap your hands!
Let the sword strike twice, a third time.
It is a sword of slaughter,
A sword for slaughtering,
whirling around them all,
20 That every heart may tremble;
for many will be made to stumble.
At all their gates
I have stationed the sword for slaughter,
Made it flash lightning,
drawn for slaughter.
21 Slash to the right!
turn to the left,
Wherever your edge is directed!(F)
22 Then I, too, shall clap my hands,[e]
and spend my fury.
I, the Lord, have spoken.
Nebuchadnezzar at the Crossroads. 23 The word of the Lord came to me: 24 Son of man, make for yourself two roads over which the sword of the king of Babylon can come. Both roads shall start out from the same land. Then put a signpost at the head of each road 25 so the sword can come to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah and its fortress, Jerusalem. 26 For the king of Babylon is standing at the fork of the two roads to read the omens:[f] he shakes out the arrows, inquires of the teraphim, inspects the liver.(G) 27 Into his right hand has fallen the lot marked “Jerusalem”:[g] to order the slaughter, to raise the battle cry, to set the battering rams against the gates, to throw up a ramp, to build siege works. 28 In the eyes of those bound by oath this seems like a false omen; yet the lot taken in hand exposes the wickedness for which they, still bound by oath, will be taken in hand.
29 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because your guilt has been exposed, your crimes laid bare, your sinfulness revealed in all your deeds—because you have been exposed, you shall be taken in hand.(H) 30 And as for you, depraved and wicked prince of Israel, a day is coming to end your life of crime.(I) 31 Thus says the Lord God: Off with the turban and away with the crown! Nothing shall be as it was! Exalt the lowly and bring the exalted low! 32 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin, I shall make it! Nothing will be the same until the one comes to whom I have given it for judgment.(J)
To the Ammonites.[h] 33 As for you, son of man, prophesy: Thus says the Lord God to the Ammonites and their insults:
O sword, sword drawn for slaughter,
burnished to consume, to flash lightning!
34 Your false visions and lying omens,
Set you over the necks of the slain,
the wicked whose day had come—
an end to their life of crime.
35 Return to your scabbard!
In the place you were created,
In the land of your origin,
I will judge you.
36 I will pour out my anger upon you,
breathing my fiery wrath against you;
I will hand you over to ravagers,
artisans of destruction!
37 You shall be fuel for the fire,
your blood shall flow throughout the land;
You shall not be remembered,
for I, the Lord, have spoken.
Chapter 22
Crimes of Jerusalem. 1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 You,[i] son of man, will you judge? will you judge the city of bloodshed? Then make known all its abominations, 3 and say: Thus says the Lord God: O city that sheds blood within itself so that its time has come, that has made idols for its own defilement: 4 By the blood you shed you have become guilty, and by the idols you made you have become defiled. You have brought on your day, you have come to the end of your years. Therefore I make you an object of scorn for the nations and a laughingstock for all lands.(K) 5 Those near and those far off will mock you: “Defiled of Name! Queen of Tumult!” 6 See! the princes of Israel within you use their power to shed blood.[j] 7 Within you, father and mother are dishonored; they extort the resident alien in your midst; within you, they oppress orphans and widows.(L) 8 What I consider holy you have rejected, and my sabbaths you have desecrated. 9 [k]In you are those who slander to cause bloodshed; within you are those who feast on the mountains; in your midst are those whose actions are depraved.(M) 10 In you are those who uncover the nakedness of their fathers; in you those who coerce women to intercourse during their period.(N) 11 (O)There are those in you who do abominable things with their neighbors’ wives, men who defile their daughters-in-law by incest, men who coerce their sisters to intercourse, the daughters of their own fathers. 12 There are those in you who take bribes to shed blood. You exact interest and usury; you extort profit from your neighbor by violence. But me you have forgotten—oracle of the Lord God.(P)
13 See, I am clapping my hands because of the profits you extorted and the blood shed in your midst. 14 Will your heart remain firm, will your hands be strong, in the days when I deal with you? I am the Lord; I have spoken, and I will act! 15 I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you over other lands, so that I may purge your filth. 16 In you I will allow myself to be desecrated in the eyes of the nations; thus you shall know that I am the Lord.
17 The word of the Lord came to me: 18 [l]Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me. All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead within a furnace; they have become the dross from silver.(Q) 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because all of you have become dross, See! I am gathering you within Jerusalem. 20 Just as silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin are gathered within a furnace to be blasted with fire to smelt it, so I will gather you together in my furious wrath, put you in, and smelt you.(R) 21 When I have assembled you, I will blast you with the fire of my anger and smelt you with it. 22 Just as silver is smelted in a furnace, so you shall be smelted in it. Thus you shall know that I, the Lord, have poured out my fury on you.
23 The word of the Lord came to me: 24 [m]Son of man, say to her: You are an unclean land receiving no rain at the time of my fury. 25 A conspiracy of its princes is like a roaring lion tearing prey; they devour people, seizing their wealth and precious things, making many widows within her.(S) 26 Her priests violate my law and desecrate what I consider holy; they do not distinguish between holy and common, nor teach the difference between unclean and clean; they pay no attention to my sabbaths, so that I have been desecrated in their midst.(T) 27 (U)Within her, her officials are like wolves tearing prey, shedding blood and destroying lives to extort profit. 28 (V)And her prophets cover them with whitewash, seeing false visions and performing lying divinations, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” although the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they wrong the poor and the needy, and oppress the resident alien without justice. 30 Thus I have searched among them for someone who would build a wall or stand in the breach before me to keep me from destroying the land; but I found no one. 31 Therefore I have poured out my fury upon them; with my fiery wrath I have consumed them, bringing down their ways upon their heads—oracle of the Lord God.
Chapter 10
One Sacrifice Instead of Many. 1 [a]Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come,[b] and not the very image of them, it can never make perfect those who come to worship by the same sacrifices that they offer continually each year.(A) 2 Otherwise, would not the sacrifices have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, once cleansed, would no longer have had any consciousness of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is only a yearly remembrance of sins,(B) 4 for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats take away sins.(C) 5 For this reason, when he came into the world, he said:[c]
“Sacrifice and offering you did not desire,(D)
but a body you prepared for me;
6 holocausts and sin offerings you took no delight in.
7 Then I said, ‘As is written of me in the scroll,
Behold, I come to do your will, O God.’”
8 First he says, “Sacrifices and offerings, holocausts and sin offerings,[d] you neither desired nor delighted in.” These are offered according to the law.(E) 9 Then he says, “Behold, I come to do your will.” He takes away the first to establish the second.(F) 10 By this “will,” we have been consecrated through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.(G)
11 [e]Every priest stands daily at his ministry, offering frequently those same sacrifices that can never take away sins.(H) 12 But this one offered one sacrifice for sins, and took his seat forever at the right hand of God;(I) 13 [f]now he waits until his enemies are made his footstool. 14 For by one offering he has made perfect forever those who are being consecrated.(J) 15 [g]The holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying:
16 “This is the covenant I will establish with them after those days, says the Lord:
‘I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them upon their minds,’”(K)
17 he also says:[h]
“Their sins and their evildoing
I will remember no more.”(L)
Psalm 108[a]
Prayer for Victory
1 A song; a psalm of David.
I
2 My heart is steadfast, God;(A)
my heart is steadfast.
Let me sing and chant praise.
3 Awake, lyre and harp!
I will wake the dawn.(B)
4 I will praise you among the peoples, Lord;
I will chant your praise among the nations.(C)
5 For your mercy is greater than the heavens;
your faithfulness, to the skies.(D)
II
6 Appear on high over the heavens, God;
your glory above all the earth.
7 Help with your right hand and answer us
that your loved ones may escape.
8 God speaks in his holiness:[b](E)
“I will exult, I will apportion Shechem;
the valley of Succoth I will measure out.
9 Gilead is mine, mine is Manasseh;
Ephraim is the helmet for my head,
Judah, my scepter.
10 Moab is my washbowl;
upon Edom I cast my sandal;(F)
I will shout in triumph over Philistia.”
11 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
12 Was it not you who rejected us, God?
Do you no longer march with our armies?(G)
13 Give us aid against the foe;
worthless is human help.
14 We will triumph with the help of God,
who will trample down our foes.
12 The astute see an evil and hide;
the naive continue on and pay the penalty.(A)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.