Day 310 of 365

Ezek 2:1–4:17

2:1 He said to me, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you."

2:2 The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me.

2:3 He said to me, "Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day.

2:4 The children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I am sending you to them; and you shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God.'

2:5 They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

2:6 You, son of man, do not be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: do not be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

2:7 You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.

2:8 But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you."

2:9 When I looked, behold, a hand was put forth to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein;

2:10 He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

3:1 He said to me, "Son of man, eat that which you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel."

3:2 So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.

3:3 He said to me, "Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you." Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

3:4 He said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

3:5 For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;

3:6 not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

3:7 But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.

3:8 Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.

3:9 As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: do not be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house."

3:10 Moreover he said to me, "Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.

3:11 Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God'; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

3:12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place."

3:13 I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.

3:14 So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the anger of my spirit; and the hand of the Lord was strong on me.

3:15 Then I came to them of the exiles at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.

3:16 It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

3:17 "Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me.

3:18 When I tell the wicked, 'You shall surely die'; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.

3:19 Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

3:20 "Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.

3:21 Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul."

3:22 The hand of the Lord was there on me; and he said to me, "Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you."

3:23 Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

3:24 Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to me, "Go, shut yourself inside your house.

3:25 But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:

3:26 and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

3:27 But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God': He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

4:1 "You also, son of man, take a tile, and lay it before yourself, and portray on it a city, even Jerusalem:

4:2 and lay siege against it, and build forts against it, and cast up a mound against it; set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.

4:3 Take for yourself an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. This shall be a sign to the house of Israel.

4:4 "Moreover lie on your left side, and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie on it, you shall bear their iniquity.

4:5 For I have appointed the years of their iniquity to be to you a number of days, even three hundred ninety days: so you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel.

4:6 "Again, when you have accomplished these, you shall lie on your right side, and shall bear the iniquity of the house of Judah: forty days, each day for a year, have I appointed it to you.

4:7 You shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm uncovered; and you shall prophesy against it.

4:8 Behold, I lay bands on you, and you shall not turn you from one side to the other, until you have accomplished the days of your siege.

4:9 "Take for yourself also wheat, and barley, and beans, and lentils, and millet, and spelt, and put them in one vessel, and make bread of it; according to the number of the days that you shall lie on your side, even three hundred ninety days, you shall eat of it.

4:10 Your food which you shall eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day: from time to time you shall eat it.

4:11 You shall drink water by measure, the sixth part of a hin: from time to time you shall drink.

4:12 You shall eat it as barley cakes, and you shall bake it in their sight with dung that comes out of man."

4:13 The Lord said, "Even thus shall the children of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them."

4:14 Then I said, "Ah Lord God! Behold, my soul has not been polluted; for from my youth up even until now have I not eaten of that which dies of itself, or is torn of animals; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth."

4:15 Then he said to me, "Behold, I have given you cow's dung for man's dung, and you shall prepare your bread thereon."

4:16 Moreover he said to me, "Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with fearfulness; and they shall drink water by measure, and in dismay:

4:17 that they may want bread and water, and be dismayed one with another, and pine away in their iniquity.

1 Thess 1:1–10

1 Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace.

2 We always give thanks to God for all of you, mentioning you in our prayers,

3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, before our God and Father.

4 We know, brothers loved by God, that you are chosen,

5 and that our Good News came to you not in word only, but also in power, and in the Holy Spirit, and with much assurance. You know what kind of men we showed ourselves to be among you for your sake.

6 You became imitators of us, and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction, with joy of the Holy Spirit,

7 so that you became an example to all who believe in Macedonia and in Achaia.

8 For from you the word of the Lord has been declared, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone out; so that we need not to say anything.

9 For they themselves report concerning us what kind of a reception we had from you; and how you turned to God from idols, to serve a living and true God,

10 and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead-Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come.

Job 29:21–30:6

29:21 "Men listened to me, waited, and kept silence for my counsel.

29:22 After my words they did not speak again. My speech fell on them.

29:23 They waited for me as for the rain. Their mouths drank as with the spring rain.

29:24 I smiled on them when they had no confidence. They did not reject the light of my face.

29:25 I chose out their way, and sat as chief. I lived as a king in the army, as one who comforts the mourners.

30:1 "But now those who are younger than I have me in derision, whose fathers I would have disdained to put with my sheep dogs.

30:2 Of what use is the strength of their hands to me, men in whom ripe age has perished?

30:3 They are gaunt from lack and famine. They gnaw the dry ground, in the gloom of waste and desolation.

30:4 They pluck salt herbs by the bushes. The roots of the broom are their food.

30:5 They are driven out from the midst of men. They cry after them as after a thief;

30:6 So that they dwell in frightful valleys, and in holes of the earth and of the rocks.