A Sword Against Jerusalem

5 “And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, ^(A)and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. ^2 (B)You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of ^(C)the city, when ^(D)the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: I will draw out a sword after ^(E)them. ^3 (F)You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment. ⁴ Then take some of them again and ^(G)throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will go out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: ‘This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the midst of the nations and the countries all around her. ⁶ She has rebelled against My judgments by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against My statutes more than the countries that are all around her; for they have refused My judgments, and they have not walked in My statutes.’ ⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Because you have ^[a]multiplied disobedience more than the nations that are all around you, have not walked in My statutes ^(H)nor kept My judgments, ^[b]nor even done according to the judgments of the nations that are all around you’— ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: ‘Indeed I, even I, am against you and will execute judgments in your midst in the sight of the nations. ^9 (I)And I will do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I will never do again, because of all your abominations. ¹⁰ Therefore fathers ^(J)shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers; and I will execute judgments among you, and all of you who remain I will ^(K)scatter to all the winds.

¹¹ ‘Therefore, as I live,’ says the Lord God, ‘surely, because you have ^(L)defiled My sanctuary with all your ^(M)detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will also diminish you; ^(N)My eye will not spare, nor will I have any pity. ^12 (O)One-third of you shall die of the pestilence, and be consumed with famine in your midst; and one-third shall fall by the sword all around you; and ^(P)I will scatter another third to all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after ^(Q)them.

¹³ ‘Thus shall My anger ^(R)be spent, and I will ^(S)cause My fury to rest upon them, ^(T)and I will be avenged; ^(U)and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it in My zeal, when I have spent My fury upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover ^(V)I will make you a waste and a reproach among the nations that are all around you, in the sight of all who pass by.

¹⁵ ‘So ^[c]it shall be a ^(W)reproach, a taunt, a ^(X)lesson, and an astonishment to the nations that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in anger and in fury and in ^(Y)furious rebukes. I, the Lord, have spoken. ¹⁶ When I ^(Z)send against them the terrible arrows of famine which shall be for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, I will increase the famine upon you and cut off your ^(AA)supply of bread. ¹⁷ So I will send against you famine and ^(AB)wild beasts, and they will bereave you. ^(AC)Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword against you. I, the Lord, have spoken.’ ”

Judgment on Idolatrous Israel

6 Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying: ² “Son of man, ^(AD)set your face toward the ^(AE)mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, ³ and say, ‘O mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys: “Indeed I, even I, will bring a sword against you, and ^(AF)I will destroy your ^[d]high places. ⁴ Then your altars shall be desolate, your incense altars shall be broken, and ^(AG)I will cast down your slain men before your idols. ⁵ And I will lay the corpses of the children of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones all around your altars. ⁶ In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the ^[e]high places shall be desolate, so that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, your idols may be broken and made to cease, your incense altars may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. ⁷ The slain shall fall in your midst, and ^(AH)you shall know that I am the Lord.

^8 (AI)“Yet I will leave a remnant, so that you may have some who escape the sword among the nations, when you are ^(AJ)scattered through the countries. ⁹ Then those of you who escape will ^(AK)remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, because ^(AL)I was crushed by their adulterous heart which has departed from Me, and ^(AM)by their eyes which play the harlot after their idols; ^(AN)they will loathe themselves for the evils which they committed in all their abominations. ¹⁰ And they shall know that I am the Lord; I have not said in vain that I would bring this calamity upon them.”

¹¹ ‘Thus says the Lord God: ^(AO)“Pound^[f] your fists and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! ^(AP)For they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. ¹² He who is far off shall die by the pestilence, he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who remains and is besieged shall die by the famine. ^(AQ)Thus will I spend My fury upon them. ¹³ Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, ^(AR)on every high hill, ^(AS)on all the mountaintops, ^(AT)under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols. ¹⁴ So I will ^(AU)stretch out My hand against them and make the land desolate, yes, more desolate than the wilderness toward ^(AV)Diblah, in all their dwelling places. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.’ ” ’ ”

ת TAU

The Son Was Faithful

3 Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, ² who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as ^(A)Moses also was faithful in all His house. ³ For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as ^(B)He who built the house has more honor than the house. ⁴ For every house is built by someone, but ^(C)He who built all things is God. ^5 (D)And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as ^(E)a servant, ^(F)for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, ⁶ but Christ as ^(G)a Son over His own house, ^(H)whose house we are ^(I)if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope ^[a]firm to the end.

Be Faithful^(J)

⁷ Therefore, as ^(K)the Holy Spirit says:

¹² Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; ¹³ but ^[b]exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. ¹⁴ For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, ¹⁵ while it is said:

Failure of the Wilderness Wanderers

^16 (N)For who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt, led by Moses? ¹⁷ Now with whom was He angry forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, ^(O)whose corpses fell in the wilderness? ¹⁸ And ^(P)to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who did not obey? ¹⁹ So we see that they could not enter in because of ^(Q)unbelief.