Day 312 of 365

Ezek 7:1–9:11

7:1 Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

7:2 "You, son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel, 'An end: the end has come on the four corners of the land.

7:3 Now is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.

7:4 My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the Lord.'"

7:5 "Thus says the Lord God: 'A disaster, a unique disaster; behold, it comes.

7:6 An end has come, the end has come; it awakes against you; behold, it comes.

7:7 Your doom has come to you, inhabitant of the land: the time has come, the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting, on the mountains.

7:8 Now will I shortly pour out my wrath on you, and accomplish my anger against you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations.

7:9 My eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: I will bring on you according to your ways; and your abominations shall be in the midst of you; and you shall know that I, the Lord, do strike.

7:10 Behold, the day, behold, it comes: your doom is gone forth; the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.'

7:11 "Violence has risen up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor of their multitude, nor of their wealth. There shall be nothing of value among them.

7:12 The time has come, the day draws near: do not let the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn; for wrath is on all its multitude.

7:13 For the seller shall not return to that which is sold, although they be yet alive: for the vision is touching the whole multitude of it, none shall return; neither shall any strengthen himself in the iniquity of his life.

7:14 They have blown the trumpet, and have made all ready; but none goes to the battle; for my wrath is on all its multitude.

7:15 The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the famine within: he who is in the field shall die with the sword: and he who is in the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him.

7:16 But those of those who escape shall escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, every one in his iniquity.

7:17 All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water.

7:18 They shall also clothe themselves with sackcloth, and horror shall cover them; and shame shall be on all faces, and baldness on all their heads.

7:19 They shall cast their silver in the streets, and their gold shall be as an unclean thing; 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, neither fill their bowels; because it has been the stumbling block of their iniquity.

7:20 As for the beauty of his ornament, he set it in majesty; but they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things therein: therefore have I made it to them as an unclean thing.

7:21 I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall profane it.

7:22 My face will I turn also from them, and they shall profane my secret place; and robbers shall enter into it, and profane it.

7:23 "Make the chain; for the land is full of bloody crimes, and the city is full of violence.

7:24 Therefore I will bring the worst of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: I will also make the pride of the strong to cease; and their holy places shall be profaned.

7:25 Destruction comes; and they shall seek peace, and there shall be none.

7:26 Disaster shall come upon disaster, and rumor shall follow rumor; and they shall seek a vision from a prophet; but the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

7:27 The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do to them after their way, and according to their own judgments will I judge them; and they shall know that I am the Lord."

8:1 It happened in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the elders of Judah sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there on me.

8:2 Then I saw, and behold, a likeness as the appearance of fire; from the appearance of his waist and downward, fire; and from his waist and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as it were glowing metal.

8:3 He put forth the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the door of the gate of the inner court that looks toward the north; where there was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy.

8:4 Behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the appearance that I saw in the plain.

8:5 Then he said to me, "Son of man, lift up your eyes now the way toward the north." So I lifted up my eyes the way toward the north, and see, northward of the gate of the altar this image of jealousy in the entry.

8:6 He said to me, "Son of man, do you see what they do? Even the great abominations that the house of Israel do commit here, that I should go far off from my sanctuary? But you shall again see yet other great abominations."

8:7 He brought me to the door of the court; and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall.

8:8 Then he said to me, "Son of man, dig now in the wall": and when I had dug in the wall, behold, a door.

8:9 He said to me, "Go in, and see the wicked abominations that they do here."

8:10 So I went in and saw; and see, every form of creeping things, and abominable animals, and all the idols of the house of Israel, portrayed around on the wall.

8:11 There stood before them seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel; and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan, every man with his censer in his hand; and the odor of the cloud of incense went up.

8:12 Then he said to me, "Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in his rooms of imagery? For they say, 'The Lord doesn't see us. The Lord has forsaken the land.'"

8:13 He said also to me, "You shall again see yet other great abominations which they do."

8:14 Then he brought me to the door of the gate of the Lord's house which was toward the north; and see, there sat the women weeping for Tammuz.

8:15 Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? You shall again see yet greater abominations than these."

8:16 He brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house; and see, at the door of the Lord's temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs toward the Lord's temple, and their faces toward the east; and they were worshipping the sun toward the east.

8:17 Then he said to me, "Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? For they have filled the land with violence, and have turned again to provoke me to anger: and behold, they put the branch to their nose.

8:18 Therefore will I also deal in wrath; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them."

9:1 Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, "Cause those who are in charge of the city to draw near, every man with his destroying weapon in his hand."

9:2 Behold, six men came from the way of the upper gate, which lies toward the north, every man with his slaughter weapon in his hand; and one man in their midst clothed in linen, with a writer's inkhorn by his side. They went in, and stood beside the bronze altar.

9:3 The glory of the God of Israel was gone up from the cherub, whereupon it was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man clothed in linen, who had the writer's inkhorn by his side.

9:4 The Lord said to him, "Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry over all the abominations that are done in its midst."

9:5 To the others he said in my hearing, "Go through the city after him, and strike: do not let your eye spare, neither have pity;

9:6 kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but do not come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary." Then they began at the old men that were before the house.

9:7 He said to them, "Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go forth!" They went forth, and struck in the city.

9:8 It happened, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell on my face, and cried, and said, "Ah Lord God! Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in your pouring out of your wrath on Jerusalem?"

9:9 Then he said to me, "The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great, and the land is full of blood, and the city full of perversion: for they say, 'The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord doesn't see.'

9:10 As for me also, my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity, but I will bring their way on their head."

9:11 Behold, the man clothed in linen, who had the inkhorn by his side, reported the matter, saying, "I have done as you have commanded me."

1 Thess 3:1–4:18

3:1 Therefore, when we could not stand it any longer, we thought it good to be left behind at Athens alone,

3:2 and sent Timothy, our brother and God's fellow worker in the Good News of Christ, to establish you, and to comfort you concerning your faith;

3:3 that no one be moved by these afflictions. For you know that we are appointed to this task.

3:4 For truly, when we were with you, we told you beforehand that we are to suffer affliction, even as it happened, and you know.

3:5 For this cause I also, when I could not stand it any longer, sent that I might know your faith, for fear that by any means the tempter had tempted you, and our labor would have been in vain.

3:6 But when Timothy came just now to us from you, and brought us glad news of your faith and love, and that you have good memories of us always, longing to see us, even as we also long to see you;

3:7 for this cause, brothers, we were comforted over you in all our distress and affliction through your faith.

3:8 For now we live, since you stand firm in the Lord.

3:9 For what thanksgiving can we render again to God for you, for all the joy with which we rejoice for your sakes before our God;

3:10 night and day praying exceedingly that we may see your face, and may perfect that which is lacking in your faith?

3:11 Now may our God and Father himself, and our Lord Jesus Christ, direct our way to you;

3:12 and the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all men, even as we also do toward you,

3:13 to the end he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

4:1 Finally then, brothers, we beg and exhort you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to live and to please God, even as you are living, that you excel more and more.

4:2 For you know what instructions we gave you through the Lord Jesus.

4:3 For this is the will of God: your sanctification, that you abstain from sexual immorality,

4:4 that each one of you know how to possess himself of his own vessel in sanctification and honor,

4:5 not in the passion of lust, even as the Gentiles who do not know God;

4:6 that no one should take advantage of and wrong a brother or sister in this matter; because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as also we forewarned you and testified.

4:7 For God called us not for uncleanness, but in sanctification.

4:8 Therefore he who rejects this does not reject man, but God, who has also given his Holy Spirit to you.

4:9 But concerning brotherly love, you have no need that one write to you. For you yourselves are taught by God to love one another,

4:10 for indeed you do it toward all the brothers who are in all Macedonia. But we exhort you, brothers, that you abound more and more;

4:11 and that you make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, even as we instructed you;

4:12 that you may walk properly toward those who are outside, and may have need of nothing.

4:13 But we do not want you to be ignorant, brothers, concerning those who have fallen asleep, so that you do not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.

4:14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.

4:15 For this we tell you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left to the coming of the Lord, will in no way precede those who have fallen asleep.

4:16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with God's trumpet. The dead in Christ will rise first,

4:17 then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. So we will be with the Lord forever.

4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.

Job 30:7–19

7 Among the bushes they bray; and under the nettles they are gathered together.

8 They are children of fools, yes, children of base men. They were flogged out of the land.

9 "Now I have become their song. Yes, I am a byword to them.

10 They abhor me, they stand aloof from me, and do not hesitate to spit in my face.

11 For he has untied his cord, and afflicted me; and they have thrown off restraint before me.

12 On my right hand rise the rabble. They thrust aside my feet, They cast up against me their ways of destruction.

13 They mar my path, They set forward my calamity, without anyone's help.

14 As through a wide breach they come, in the midst of the ruin they roll themselves in.

15 Terrors have turned on me. They chase my honor as the wind. My welfare has passed away as a cloud.

16 "Now my soul is poured out within me. Days of affliction have taken hold on me.

17 In the night season my bones are pierced in me, and the pains that gnaw me take no rest.

18 By great force is my garment disfigured. It binds me about as the collar of my coat.

19 He has cast me into the mire. I have become like dust and ashes.