Day 311 of 365

Ezek 5:1–6:14

5:1 "You, son of man, take a sharp sword; You shall take it as a barber's razor to you, and shall cause it to pass on your head and on your beard: then take balances to weigh, and divide the hair.

5:2 A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled; and you shall take a third part, and strike with the sword around it; and a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them.

5:3 You shall take of it a few in number, and bind them in your skirts.

5:4 Of these again you shall take, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; from it shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel."

5:5 "Thus says the Lord God: 'This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations, and countries are around her.

5:6 She has rebelled against my ordinances in doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries that are around her; for they have rejected my ordinances, and as for my statutes, they have not walked in them.'

5:7 "Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Because you are turbulent more than the nations that are around you, and have not walked in my statutes, neither have kept my ordinances, neither have done after the ordinances of the nations that are around you';

5:8 therefore thus says the Lord God: 'Behold, I, even I, am against you; and I will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations.

5:9 I will do in you that which I have not done, and whereunto I will not do any more the like, because of all your abominations.

5:10 Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments on you; and the whole remnant of you will I scatter to all the winds.'

5:11 "'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 will I also diminish you; neither shall my eye spare, and I also will have no pity.

5:12 A third part of you shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you; and a third part shall fall by the sword around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds, and will draw out a sword after them.

5:13 Thus shall my anger be accomplished, and I will cause my wrath toward them to rest, and I shall be comforted; and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my zeal, when I have accomplished my wrath on them.

5:14 Moreover I will make you a desolation and a reproach among the nations that are around you, in the sight of all that pass by.

5:15 So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment, to the nations that are around you, when I shall execute judgments on you in anger and in wrath, and in wrathful rebukes; (I, the Lord, have spoken it;)

5:16 when I shall send on them the evil arrows of famine, that are for destruction, which I will send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine on you, and will break your staff of bread;

5:17 and I will send on you famine and evil animals, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword on you: I, the Lord, have spoken it.'"

6:1 The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

6:2 "Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy to them,

6:3 and say, 'You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and to the hills, to the watercourses and to the valleys: "Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places.

6:4 Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken; and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

6:5 I will lay the dead bodies of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones around your altars.

6:6 In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished.

6:7 The slain shall fall in the midst of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

6:8 "'"Yet will I leave a remnant, in that you shall have some that escape the sword among the nations, when you shall be scattered through the countries.

6:9 Those of you that escape shall remember me among the nations where they shall be carried captive, how that I have been broken with their lewd heart, which has departed from me, and with their eyes, which play the prostitute after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

6:10 They shall know that I am the Lord: I have not said in vain that I would bring this disaster on them."'"

6:11 "Thus says the Lord God: 'Strike with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, "Alas!" because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel; for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence.

6:12 He who is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he who is near shall fall by the sword; and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my wrath on them.

6:13 You shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the places where they offered pleasant aroma to all their idols.

6:14 I will stretch out my hand on them, and make the land desolate and waste, from the wilderness toward Diblah, throughout all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the Lord."'"

1 Thess 2:1–20

1 For you yourselves know, brothers, our visit to you was not in vain,

2 but having suffered before and been shamefully treated, as you know, at Philippi, we grew bold in our God to tell you the Good News of God in much conflict.

3 For our exhortation is not of error, nor of uncleanness, nor in deception.

4 But even as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News, so we speak; not as pleasing men, but God, who tests our hearts.

5 For neither were we at any time found using words of flattery, as you know, nor a cloak of covetousness (God is witness),

6 nor seeking glory from men (neither from you nor from others), when we might have claimed authority as apostles of Christ.

7 But we were like children among you, like a nursing mother cherishes her own children.

8 Even so, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you, not the Good News of God only, but also our own souls, because you had become very dear to us.

9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and travail; for working night and day, that we might not burden any of you, we preached to you the Good News of God.

10 You are witnesses with God, how holy, righteously, and blamelessly we behaved ourselves toward you who believe.

11 As you know, as a father with his own children,

12 we exhorted, comforted, and implored every one of you to lead a life worthy of God, who calls you into his own Kingdom and glory.

13 For this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when you received from us the word of the message of God, you accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also works in you who believe.

14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God which are in Judea in Christ Jesus; for you also suffered the same things from your own countrymen, even as they did from the Judeans;

15 who killed both the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and did not please God, and are contrary to all men;

16 forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they may be saved; to fill up their sins always. But wrath has come on them to the uttermost.

17 But we, brothers, being bereaved of you for a short season, in presence, not in heart, tried even harder to see your face with great desire,

18 because we wanted to come to you-indeed, I, Paul, once and again-but Satan hindered us.

19 For what is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Is not it even you, before our Lord Jesus at his coming?

20 For you are our glory and our joy.

Ps 129:1–8

1 Many times they have afflicted me from my youth up. Let Israel now say,

2 many times they have afflicted me from my youth up, yet they have not prevailed against me.

3 The plowers plowed on my back. They made their furrows long.

4 The Lord is righteous. He has cut apart the cords of the wicked.

5 Let them be disappointed and turned backward, all those who hate Zion.

6 Let them be as the grass on the housetops, which withers before it grows up;

7 with which the reaper doesn't fill his hand, nor he who binds sheaves, his bosom.

8 Neither do those who go by say, "The blessing of the Lord be on you. We bless you in the name of the Lord."