Old/New Testament
A Sword Against Jerusalem
5 As for you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Take and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard as a barber’s razor. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. 2 You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are fulfilled. Then you shall take a third part and strike it with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter in the wind. And I will draw out a sword after them. 3 You shall also take a few in number from them and bind them in the edges of your robes. 4 Then take some of them again and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. For a fire shall come out into all the house of Israel.
5 Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set it in the midst of the nations, with countries that are all around her. 6 But she has rebelled against My judgments more wickedly than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her. For they have refused My judgments and My statutes, and have not walked in them.
7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have more turmoil than the nations that are round about you and have not walked in My statutes, or have kept My judgments, and have not even acted according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: Pay attention. I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. 9 I will do in you what I have not done, and the like of which I will not do anymore, because of all your abominations. 10 Therefore the fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and the sons shall eat their fathers. For I will execute judgments on you, and the whole remnant of you I will scatter into all the winds. 11 Therefore, as I live, says the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled My sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you, and My eye shall have no pity, nor will I spare. 12 A third part of you shall die by pestilence or by famine; they shall be consumed in your midst. And a third part shall fall by the sword all around you. And I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.
13 Thus My anger shall be accomplished, and I will cause My fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted. Then they shall know that I the Lord have spoken it in My zeal when I have accomplished My fury in them.
14 Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by. 15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, a warning and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebukes. I the Lord have spoken it. 16 When I send upon them the deadly arrows of famine which shall be for their destruction and which I will send to destroy you, then I will also increase the famine upon you and break your staff of bread. 17 So I will send upon you famine and wild beasts, and they shall bereave you of children. And pestilence and bloodshed shall pass through you. And I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken it.
Judgment on Idolatrous Israel
6 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, 3 and say, Mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God. Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys: Pay attention. I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken. And I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5 I will lay the dead corpses of the sons of Israel before their idols. And I will scatter your bones all around your altars. 6 In all your dwelling places, the cities shall be laid waste and the high places shall be desolate so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. 7 The slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
8 Yet I will leave a remnant, for you will have some who escape the sword among the nations when you are scattered among the countries. 9 Those of you who escape shall remember Me among the nations wherever they shall be carried captive, because I am broken by their whorish heart which has departed from Me, and with their eyes which play the harlot after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. 10 They shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.
11 Thus says the Lord God: Clap your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by famine. Thus I will accomplish My fury upon them. 13 Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they offered sweet savor to all their idols. 14 So, in all their habitations I will stretch out My hand upon them and make the land desolate, indeed, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblah. And they shall know that I am the Lord.
The Day of the Lord’s Wrath
7 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel:
An end, the end is coming
upon the four corners of the land.
3 Now the end has come upon you,
and I will send My anger upon you,
and will judge you according to your ways,
and will recompense upon you all your abominations.
4 My eye shall not spare you,
nor will I have pity;
but I will recompense your ways upon you,
and your abominations shall be in your midst.
And you shall know that I am the Lord!
5 Thus says the Lord God:
A disaster, a singular disaster;
it is coming!
6 An end is coming,
the end has come;
it watches for you;
it has come!
7 Your doom has come to you,
O inhabitant in the land;
the time has come, the day of trouble is near,
and not the joyful shouting on the mountains.
8 Now I will shortly pour out My fury upon you,
and accomplish My anger upon you;
and I will judge you according to your ways,
and will recompense you for all your abominations.
9 My eye shall not spare,
nor will I have pity;
I will recompense you according to your ways,
and your abominations that are in your midst.
And you shall know that I am the Lord who strikes.
10 The day is coming!
Your doom has gone out;
the rod has blossomed,
pride has budded.
11 Violence has risen up
into a rod of wickedness;
none of them shall remain,
none of their people,
none of their wealth,
nor anything eminent among them.
12 The time has come,
the day has drawn near.
Do not let the buyer rejoice,
or the seller mourn,
for wrath is against all their multitude.
13 For the seller shall not return
to that which is sold,
although they both live;
for the vision concerning the whole multitude
shall not return;
nor shall any strengthen his life
by his iniquity.
14 They have blown the trumpet
even to make all ready,
but none goes to the battle;
for My wrath is against all the multitude.
15 The sword is outside,
and the pestilence and the famine within.
He who is in the field
shall die by the sword;
and he who is in the city,
famine and pestilence shall devour him.
16 Even when their survivors escape,
they shall be on the mountains
like doves of the valleys,
all of them mourning,
every one over his iniquity.
17 All hands shall be feeble,
and all knees shall be weak as water.
18 They shall also gird themselves with sackcloth,
and horror shall cover them;
and shame shall be upon all faces,
and baldness upon all their heads.
19 They shall cast their silver in the streets,
and their gold shall become abhorrent;
their silver and their gold
shall not be able to deliver them
in the day of the wrath of the Lord;
they shall not satisfy their souls,
or fill their stomachs,
for their iniquity has become a stumbling block.
20 They transformed the beauty of His ornaments into pride,
and made the images of their abominations
and of their detestable things with it;
therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them.
21 I will give it into the hands of the strangers
as plunder and to the wicked of the earth for destruction,
and they shall pollute it.
22 My face also I will turn from them,
and they shall pollute My secret place;
for the robbers shall enter
and defile it.
23 Make a chain,
for the land is full of bloody crimes,
and the city is full of violence.
24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations,
and they shall possess their houses;
I will also make the pomp of the strong to cease,
and their holy places shall be defiled.
25 When destruction comes,
then they shall seek peace, but there shall be none.
26 Mischief shall come upon mischief,
and rumor shall be upon rumor.
Then they shall seek a vision of the prophet;
but the law shall perish from the priest,
and counsel from the elders.
27 The king shall mourn,
and the prince shall be clothed with desolation,
and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble.
I will do to them according to their way,
and according to what they deserve I will judge them.
And they shall know that I am the Lord!
The Discipline of the Lord
12 Therefore, since we are encompassed with such a great cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us. 2 Let us look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and your hearts give up.
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed while striving against sin. 5 And you have forgotten the exhortation addressed to you as sons:
“My son, do not despise the discipline from the Lord,
nor grow weary when you are rebuked by Him;
6 for whom the Lord loves He disciplines,
and scourges every son whom He receives.”[a]
7 Endure discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? 8 If you are without discipline, of which everyone has partaken, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. 9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers, and they corrected us, and we gave them reverence. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 For they indeed disciplined us for a short time according to their own judgment, but He does so for our profit, that we may partake of His holiness. 11 Now no discipline seems to be joyful at the time, but grievous. Yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness in those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore lift up your tired hands, and strengthen your weak knees. 13 Make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame go out of joint, but rather be healed.
Warning Against Rejecting God’s Grace
14 Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord, 15 watching diligently so that no one falls short of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness spring up to cause trouble, and many become defiled by it, 16 lest there be any sexually immoral or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright. 17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. For he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
18 You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and storm, 19 and to the sound of a trumpet and to a voice speaking words, such that those who heard them begged that the word not be spoken to them anymore. 20 For they could not endure that which was commanded: “If so much as a beast touches the mountain, it must be stoned or thrust through with a spear.”[b] 21 So terrible was the sight that Moses said, “I am terrified and trembling.”[c]
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels; 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, who are enrolled in heaven; to God, the Judge of all; and to the spirits of the righteous ones made perfect; 24 and to Jesus, the Mediator of a new covenant; and to the sprinkled blood that speaks better than that of Abel.
25 See that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if they did not escape when they refused Him who spoke on earth, much less shall we escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven. 26 At that time His voice shook the earth, but now He has given us a promise, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also heaven.”[d] 27 And this statement, “Yet once more,” signifies the removal of those things that can be shaken, things that are created, so that only those things that cannot be shaken will remain.
28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be moved, let us be gracious, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.