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Babylon, the Sword of the Lord
21 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2 Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem, and speak against the holy places, and prophesy against the land of Israel, 3 and say to the land of Israel, Thus says the Lord: I am against you, and will draw My sword from its sheath, and will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked. 4 Seeing then that I will cut off from you the righteous and the wicked, therefore My sword shall be drawn from its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north, 5 that all flesh shall know that I the Lord have drawn forth My sword from its sheath. It shall not return anymore.
6 As for you, son of man, groan with breaking heart and bitter grief, groan before their eyes. 7 It shall be when they say to you, “Why do you groan?” that you shall answer, “Because of the news that is coming. And every heart shall melt, and all hands shall be feeble, and every spirit shall faint, and all knees shall be weak as water. It comes and shall be brought to pass,” says the Lord God.
8 Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 9 Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus says the Lord! Say:
A sword, a sword is sharpened
and also furbished!
10 It is sharpened to make a slaughter;
it is furbished so that it may glitter like lightning.
Should we then make cheer, the rod of My son despising every tree?
11 He has given it to be furbished,
that it may be handled;
the sword is sharpened,
and it is furbished to give it into the hand of the slayer.
12 Cry out and howl, son of man;
for it shall be against My people,
it shall be against all the officials of Israel.
Terrors by reason of the sword
shall be upon My people;
therefore strike your thigh.
13 Because it is a trial, and what if even the rod which despises shall be no more? says the Lord God.
14 You therefore, son of man, prophesy
and clap your hands together.
And let the sword be doubled
the third time,
the sword of the slain.
It is the sword of the great one slain,
which surrounds them.
15 That their hearts may faint,
and many fall at all their gates,
I have given the glittering sword.
Ah! It is made for striking like lightning;
it is wrapped up for the slaughter.
16 Show yourself sharp, go to the right hand.
Set yourself. Go to the left hand,
wherever your edge is set.
17 I will also clap My hands together,
and I will cause My fury to rest;
I the Lord have spoken.
18 The word of the Lord came to me again, saying: 19 As for you, son of man, appoint two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them shall come out of one land. And make a signpost. Make it at the head of the way to the city. 20 Appoint a way for the sword to come to Rabbah of the sons of Ammon and to Judah in Jerusalem the fortified. 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: He shakes the arrows, he consults the images, he looks in the liver. 22 At his right hand was the divination for Jerusalem: to appoint battering rams, to open the mouth for the slaughter, to lift up the voice with a battle shout, to appoint battering rams against the gates, to cast up a ramp, and to build a siege tower. 23 It shall be to them as a false divination in their sight, to those who have sworn oaths. But he will call to remembrance the iniquity, that they may be seized.
24 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have made your iniquity to be remembered, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins do appear, because, I say, that you have come to remembrance, you shall be seized with the hand.
25 You, profane wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come in the time of the punishment of the end, 26 thus says the Lord God: Remove the diadem and take off the crown. This shall not be the same anymore. Exalt what is low, and abase what is high. 27 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin I shall make it. And it shall be no more until He comes whose right it is, and I shall give it to Him.
A Sword Against the Ammonites
28 You, son of man, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord God concerning the sons of Ammon and concerning their reproach, and say,
The sword, the sword is drawn,
furbished for the slaughter,
to cause it to consume
that it may be like lightning,
29 while they see vanity for you,
while they divine a lie to you
to bring you upon the necks
of the wicked who are slain,
whose day has come
in the time of the punishment of the end.
30 Return it to its sheath.
I will judge you
in the place where you were created,
in the land of your nativity.
31 I will pour out My indignation upon you;
I will blow against you in the fire of My wrath,
and deliver you into the hand of cruel men,
skilled in destruction.
32 You shall be fuel to the fire;
your blood shall be in the midst of the land.
You shall be no more remembered,
for I the Lord have spoken.
The Sins of Jerusalem
22 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying:
2 Now you, son of man, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Indeed, you shall show her all her abominations. 3 Then say, Thus says the Lord God: The city sheds blood in her midst, that her time may come, and makes idols against herself to defile herself. 4 You have become guilty in your blood that you have shed and have defiled yourself with your idols which you have made. And you have caused your day to draw near and have come to your years. Therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations and a mocking to all countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far from you shall mock you, you of infamy and much turmoil.
6 The princes of Israel in you, every one according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood. 7 In you they have treated father and mother lightly. In your midst they have dealt with the stranger by oppression. In you they have vexed the fatherless and the widow. 8 You have despised My holy things and have profaned My Sabbaths. 9 In you are men who carry slanders to shed blood. And in you they eat at the mountain shrines. In your midst they commit lewdness. 10 In you they have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness. In you they have humbled her who was unclean in her menstrual impurity. 11 One has committed abomination with his neighbor’s wife, and another has lewdly defiled his daughter-in-law. And another in you has humbled his sister, his father’s daughter. 12 In you they have taken bribes to shed blood. You have taken usury and increase, and you have injured your neighbors for gain by extortion, and you have forgotten Me, says the Lord God.
13 Therefore I have struck My hand toward your dishonest gain which you have made, and toward your blood which has been in your midst. 14 Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong in the days that I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken and will do it. 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you in the countries and consume your filthiness out of you. 16 You shall profane yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
Jerusalem as God’s Furnace
17 The word of the Lord came to me, saying: 18 Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me. All of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the midst of the furnace. They are the dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you all have become dross, therefore, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the midst of a furnace to blow fire on it to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury, and I will lay you there and melt you. 21 Indeed, I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire of My wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in the midst of a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it. And you shall know that I the Lord have poured out My fury upon you.
Indictment of Sinful Leaders
23 The word of the Lord came to me, saying: 24 Son of man, say to her: You are the land that is not cleansed nor rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst like a roaring lion ravening the prey. They have devoured souls. They have taken the treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. 26 Her priests have violated My law and have profaned My holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and profane, nor have they shown the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have hidden their eyes from My Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. 27 Her officials in her midst are like wolves ravening the prey by shedding blood and destroying lives in order to obtain dishonest gain. 28 Her prophets have daubed them with whitewash, seeing vanity and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have used oppression and exercised robbery and have vexed the poor and needy and have oppressed the sojourner wrongfully.
30 I sought for a man among them who would build up the hedge and stand in the gap before Me for the land so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. 31 Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them. I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath. Their own way I have recompensed on their heads, says the Lord God.
10 For the law is a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very image of those things. It could never by the same sacrifices, which they offer continually year after year, perfect those who draw near. 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, once purified, would no longer be conscious of sins? 3 But in those sacrifices there is an annual reminder of sins. 4 For it is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
5 Therefore, when He came into the world, He said:
“Sacrifices and offerings You did not desire,
but a body You have prepared for Me.
6 In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin
You have had no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do Your will, O God,’ as it is written of Me
in the volume of the book.”[a]
8 Previously when He said, “You did not desire sacrifices and offerings. You have had no pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin,”[b] which are offered in accordance with the law, 9 then He said, “See, I have come to do Your will, O God.”[c] He takes away the first that He may establish the second. 10 By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
11 But every priest stands daily ministering and repetitively offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins. 12 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. 13 Since that time He has been waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. 14 For by one offering He has forever perfected those who are sanctified.
15 The Holy Spirit also witnesses to us about this. For after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put My laws into their hearts,
and in their minds I will write them,”[d]
17 then He adds,
“Their sins and lawless deeds
will I remember no more.”[e]
Psalm 108(A)
A Song. A Psalm of David.
1 O God, my heart is determined;
I will sing and give praise with my whole heart.
2 Awake, O lyre and harp!
I will awake at dawn!
3 I will praise you, O Lord, among the peoples,
and I will sing praises unto You among the nations.
4 For Your mercy is great above the heavens;
Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
may Your glory be above all the earth.
6 That Your beloved ones may be delivered,
provide salvation with Your right hand and answer me.
7 God has spoken in His sanctuary:
“I will triumph and will divide up Shechem
and portion out the Valley of Sukkoth.
8 Gilead is Mine; Manasseh is Mine;
Ephraim is My helmet;
Judah is My royal scepter;
9 Moab is My washbasin;
on Edom I throw My shoe;
over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
10 Who will bring me into the fortified city?
Who will lead me into Edom?
11 Have You not rejected us, O God?
You surely do not go out, O God, with our armies.
12 Grant us help against the foe,
for the help of man is worthless.
13 Through God we shall be valiant,
for He shall tread down our enemies.
12 A prudent man foresees the evil and hides himself,
but the simple pass on and are punished.
The Holy Bible, Modern English Version. Copyright © 2014 by Military Bible Association. Published and distributed by Charisma House.