John 7:45-53
[45]
The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, who said to
them, “Why did you not bring him?” [46] The officers answered, “No one
ever spoke like this man!” [47] The Pharisees answered them, “Have you
also been deceived? [48] Have any of the authorities or the Pharisees
believed in him? [49] But this crowd that does not know the law is
accursed.” [50] Nicodemus, who had gone to him before, and who was one
of them, said to them, [51] “Does our law judge a man without first
giving him a hearing and learning what he does?” [52] They replied, “Are
you from Galilee too? Search and see that no prophet arises from
Galilee.”
[53] [[They went each to his own house,
2 Peter 1:12-21
[12]
Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you
know them and are established in the truth that you have. [13] I think
it right, as long as I am in this body, to stir you up by way of
reminder, [14] since I know that the putting off of my body will be
soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. [15] And I will make
every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to
recall these things.
[16]
For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you
the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses
of his majesty. [17] For when he received honor and glory from God the
Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is
my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased,” [18] we ourselves heard
this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy
mountain. [19] And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to
which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark
place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts,
[20] knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from
someone’s own interpretation. [21] For no prophecy was ever produced by
the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by
the Holy Spirit.
Job 2
[1]
Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves
before the LORD, and Satan also came among them to present himself
before the LORD. [2] And the LORD said to Satan, “From where have you
come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the
earth, and from walking up and down on it.” [3] And the LORD said to
Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him
on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away
from evil? He still holds fast his integrity, although you incited me
against him to destroy him without reason.” [4] Then Satan answered the
LORD and said, “Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his
life. [5] But stretch out your hand and touch his bone and his flesh,
and he will curse you to your face.” [6] And the LORD said to Satan,
“Behold, he is in your hand; only spare his life.”
[7]
So Satan went out from the presence of the LORD and struck Job with
loathsome sores from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. [8]
And he took a piece of broken pottery with which to scrape himself while
he sat in the ashes.
[9]
Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity?
Curse God and die.” [10] But he said to her, “You speak as one of the
foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good from God, and shall we
not receive evil?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.
[11]
Now when Job’s three friends heard of all this evil that had come upon
him, they came each from his own place, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the
Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite. They made an appointment together
to come to show him sympathy and comfort him. [12] And when they saw him
from a distance, they did not recognize him. And they raised their
voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their
heads toward heaven. [13] And they sat with him on the ground seven days
and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him, for they saw that his
suffering was very great.
Ezekiel 4
[1]
“And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave
on it a city, even Jerusalem. [2] And put siegeworks against it, and
build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps
also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. [3]
And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you
and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of
siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of
Israel.
[4]
“Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of
Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall
bear their punishment. [5] For I assign to you a number of days, 390
days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long
shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. [6] And when you
have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your
right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I
assign you, a day for each year. [7] And you shall set your face toward
the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy
against the city. [8] And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that
you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the
days of your siege.
[9]
“And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer,
and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During
the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat
it. [10] And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a
day; from day to day you shall eat it. [11] And water you shall drink
by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink.
[12] And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on
human dung.” [13] And the LORD said, “Thus shall the people of Israel
eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.”
[14] Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never defiled myself.
From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was
torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.” [15] Then he
said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on
which you may prepare your bread.” [16] Moreover, he said to me, “Son of
man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall
eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by
measure and in dismay. [17] I will do this that they may lack bread and
water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their
punishment.
Ezekiel 5
[1]
“And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor
and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for
weighing and divide the hair. [2] A third part you shall burn in the
fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed.
And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around
the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will
unsheathe the sword after them. [3] And you shall take from these a
small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. [4] And of these
again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and
burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the
house of Israel.
[5]
“Thus says the Lord GOD: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the
center of the nations, with countries all around her. [6] And she has
rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and
against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they
have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. [7] Therefore
thus says the Lord GOD: Because you are more turbulent than the nations
that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed
my rules, and have not even acted according to the rules of the nations
that are all around you, [8] therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Behold,
I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments in your midst in
the sight of the nations. [9] And because of all your abominations I
will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I
will never do again. [10] Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your
midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments
on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. [11]
Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord GOD, surely, because you have
defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your
abominations, therefore I will withdraw. My eye will not spare, and I
will have no pity. [12] A third part of you shall die of pestilence and
be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the
sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds
and will unsheathe the sword after them.
[13]
“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them
and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the LORD—that I have
spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them. [14] Moreover, I
will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations
all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. [15] You shall be a
reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around
you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious
rebukes—I am the LORD; I have spoken—[16] when I send against you the
deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to
destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break
your supply of bread. [17] I will send famine and wild beasts against
you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall
pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the LORD; I
have spoken.”
Ezekiel 6
[1]
The word of the LORD came to me: [2] “Son of man, set your face toward
the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, [3] and say, You
mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord GOD! Thus says the Lord
GOD to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys:
Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your
high places. [4] Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense
altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your
idols. [5] And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before
their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. [6]
Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places
ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined, your idols broken
and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out.
[7] And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am
the LORD.
[8]
“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations
some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the
countries, [9] then those of you who escape will remember me among the
nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over
their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that
go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own
sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their
abominations. [10] And they shall know that I am the LORD. I have not
said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”
[11]
Thus says the Lord GOD: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say,
Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for
they shall fall by the 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 is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I
will spend my fury upon them. [13] And you shall know that I am the
LORD, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on
every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and
under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their
idols. [14] And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the
land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the
wilderness to Riblah. Then they will know that I am the LORD.”
Ezekiel 7
[1]
The word of the LORD came to me: [2] “And you, O son of man, thus says
the Lord GOD to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the
four corners of the land. [3] Now the end is upon you, and I will send
my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will
punish you for all your abominations. [4] And my eye will not spare you,
nor will I have pity, but I will punish you for your ways, while your
abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the LORD.
[5]
“Thus says the Lord GOD: Disaster after disaster! Behold, it comes. [6]
An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold,
it comes. [7] Your doom has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The
time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful
shouting on the mountains. [8] Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon
you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your
ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. [9] And my eye
will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to
your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know
that I am the LORD, who strikes.
[10]
“Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has come; the rod has
blossomed; pride has budded. [11] Violence has grown up into a rod of
wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their
wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them. [12] The time has
come; the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller
mourn, for wrath is upon all their multitude. [13] For the seller shall
not return to what he has sold, while they live. For the vision concerns
all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his
iniquity, none can maintain his life.
[14]
“They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but none goes
to battle, for my wrath is upon all their multitude. [15] The sword is
without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies
by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour.
[16] And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like
doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity.
[17] All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. [18] They put on
sackcloth, and horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and baldness
on all their heads. [19] They cast their silver into the streets, and
their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able
to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the LORD. They cannot satisfy
their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling
block of their iniquity. [20] His beautiful ornament they used for
pride, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things
of it. Therefore I make it an unclean thing to them. [21] And I will
give it into the hands of foreigners for prey, and to the wicked of the
earth for spoil, and they shall profane it. [22] I will turn my face
from them, and they shall profane my treasured place. Robbers shall
enter and profane it.
[23]
“Forge a chain! For the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is
full of violence. [24] I will bring the worst of the nations to take
possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the
strong, and their holy places shall be profaned. [25] When anguish
comes, they will seek peace, but there shall be none. [26] Disaster
comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the
prophet, while the law perishes from the priest and counsel from the
elders. [27] The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the
hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to
their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will
judge them, and they shall know that I am the LORD.”
Ezekiel 8
[1]
In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month,
as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the
hand of the Lord GOD fell upon me there. [2] Then I looked, and behold, a
form that had the appearance of a man. Below what appeared to be his
waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of
brightness, like gleaming metal. [3] He put out the form of a hand and
took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth
and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the
entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was
the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. [4] And
behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I
saw in the valley.
[5]
Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the
north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of
the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. [6] And he
said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great
abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me
far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”
[7]
And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked,
behold, there was a hole in the wall. [8] Then he said to me, “Son of
man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an
entrance. [9] And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations
that they are committing here.” [10] So I went in and saw. And there,
engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and
loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. [11] And
before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with
Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer
in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. [12] Then he
said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of
Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they
say, ‘The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land.’” [13]
He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they
commit.”
[14]
Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of
the LORD, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. [15] Then he
said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still
greater abominations than these.”
[16]
And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the LORD. And
behold, at the entrance of the temple of the LORD, between the porch and
the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple
of the LORD, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward
the east. [17] Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is
it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations
that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and
provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their
nose. [18] Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor
will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I
will not hear them.”
