Punishment for Wickedness Foretold

7 Moreover, the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ² “And you, son of man, this is what the Lord ^[a]God says to the land of Israel: ‘An ^(A)end! The end is coming on the four corners of the land. ³ Now the end is upon you, for I will send My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and ^[b]bring all your abominations upon you. ⁴ And My eye will have no pity on you, nor will I spare you, but I will ^[c](B)bring your ways upon you, and your abominations will be among you; then you will ^(C)know that I am the Lord!’

⁵ “This is what the Lord ^[d]God says: ‘A ^(D)disaster, a unique disaster, behold, it is coming! ⁶ An end ^[e]is coming; the end has come! It has ^(E)awakened against you; behold, it has come! ⁷ Your ^[f]doom has come to you, you inhabitant of the land. The ^(F)time has come, the ^(G)day is near—panic rather than joyful shouting on the mountains. ⁸ Now I will shortly ^(H)pour out My wrath on you and expend My anger against you; I will ^(I)judge you according to your ways and ^[g]bring on you all your abominations. ⁹ My eye will have no pity nor will I spare you. I will ^[h]repay you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst; then you will know that I, the Lord, am striking.

¹⁰ ‘Behold, the day! Behold, it is coming! Your ^[i]doom has gone forth; the ^(J)rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. ¹¹ Violence ^[j]has grown into a rod of ^(K)wickedness. None of them shall remain, none of their ^[k]people, none of their ^(L)wealth, nor anything eminent among them. ¹² The ^(M)time has come, the day has arrived. Let neither the ^(N)buyer rejoice nor the seller mourn; for ^(O)wrath is against all their multitude. ¹³ Indeed, the seller will not ^[l](P)regain ^[m]what he sold as long as ^[n]they both live; for the vision regarding all their multitude will not ^[o]be averted, nor will any of them maintain his life by his wrongdoing.

¹⁴ ‘They have ^(Q)blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but no one is going to the battle, for My wrath is against all ^[p]their multitude. ¹⁵ The ^(R)sword is outside the city and the plague and the famine are within. Anyone who is in the field will die by the sword, while famine and the plague will consume those in the city. ¹⁶ Even when their survivors ^(S)escape, they will be on the mountains like ^(T)doves of the valleys, all of them ^(U)moaning, each over his own wrongdoing. ¹⁷ All ^(V)hands will hang limp, and all ^[q]knees will drip with water. ¹⁸ They will ^(W)put on sackcloth and ^(X)shuddering will overwhelm them; and shame will be on all faces, and a ^[r](Y)bald patch on all their heads. ¹⁹ They will ^(Z)fling their silver into the streets, and their gold will become an abhorrent thing; their ^(AA)silver and their gold will not be able to save them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their ^[s]appetite, nor can they fill their stomachs, because their wrongdoing has become a cause of stumbling.

The Temple Profaned

²⁰ Moreover, they transformed the splendor of His jewels into pride, and ^(AB)they made the images of their abominations and their detestable things with it; therefore I will make it an abhorrent thing to them. ²¹ And I will hand it over to the ^(AC)foreigners as plunder, and to the wicked of the earth as spoils; and they will profane it. ²² I will also turn My ^(AD)face away from them, and they will profane My treasure; then robbers will enter and profane it.

²³ ‘^(AE)Make the ^[t]chain, for the land is full of ^[u](AF)bloody crimes, and the city is ^(AG)full of violence. ²⁴ Therefore, I will bring the worst of the ^(AH)nations, and they will take possession of their houses. I will also put an end to the ^(AI)pride of the strong ones, and their ^(AJ)holy places will be profaned. ²⁵ When anguish comes, they will seek ^(AK)peace, but there will be none. ^26 (AL)Disaster will come upon disaster and ^(AM)rumor will be added to rumor; then they will seek a ^(AN)vision from a prophet, but the ^(AO)Law will be lost from the priest, and ^(AP)counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king will mourn, the prince will be ^(AQ)clothed in horror, and the hands of the people of the land will ^[v]tremble. I will deal with them because of their conduct, and by their judgments I will judge them. And they will know that I am the Lord.’”

Vision of Abominations in Jerusalem

8 Now it came about in the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, as I was sitting in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord ^[w]God fell upon me there. ² Then I looked, and behold, something like the appearance of ^[x]a man; from His waist and downward there was the ^(AR)appearance of fire, and from His waist and upward like the appearance of a glow, like ^(AS)gleaming ^[y]metal. ³ And He extended the form of a hand and took me by the hair of my head; and the ^(AT)Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in the visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the ^[z]north gate of the inner courtyard, where the seat of the idol of jealousy, which ^(AU)provokes to jealousy, was located. ⁴ And behold, the ^(AV)glory of the God of Israel was there, like the appearance which I saw in the plain.

⁵ Then He said to me, “Son of man, ^(AW)raise your eyes now toward the north.” So I raised my eyes toward the north, and behold, to the north of the altar gate was this ^(AX)idol of jealousy at the entrance. ⁶ And He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great ^(AY)abominations which the house of Israel are committing here, so that I would be far from My sanctuary? But yet you will see still greater abominations!”

⁷ Then He brought me to the entrance of the courtyard, and when I looked, behold, a hole in the wall. ⁸ And He said to me, “Son of man, now ^(AZ)dig through the wall.” So I dug through the wall, and behold, an entrance. ⁹ Then He said to me, “Go in and see the wicked abominations that they are committing here.” ¹⁰ So I entered and looked, and behold, every form of crawling things and animals and detestable things, with all the idols of the house of Israel, were carved on the wall all around. ¹¹ And standing in front of them were ^(BA)seventy ^(BB)elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them, each man with his ^(BC)censer in his hand; and the fragrance of the cloud of incense was rising. ¹² Then He said to me, “Do you see, son of man, what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each man in the rooms of his carved images? For they say, ‘^(BD)The Lord does not see us; the Lord has ^(BE)abandoned the land.’” ¹³ And He said to me, “Yet you will see still greater abominations which they are committing!”

¹⁴ Then He brought me to the entrance of the ^(BF)gate of the Lord’s house which was toward the north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for ^[aa]Tammuz. ¹⁵ And He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Yet you will see still greater abominations than these!”

¹⁶ Then He brought me into the inner courtyard of the Lord’s house. And behold, at the entrance to the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their ^(BG)backs to the temple of the Lord while their faces were toward the east; and ^(BH)they were ^[ab]prostrating themselves eastward toward the sun. ¹⁷ And He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? Is it a trivial thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they have committed here, that they have ^(BI)filled the land with violence and ^(BJ)provoked Me to anger repeatedly? Yet behold, they are ^[ac]putting the twig to their nose! ¹⁸ Therefore, I indeed will deal in wrath. My eye will have no pity nor will I spare; and ^(BK)though they cry out in My ears with a loud voice, yet I will not listen to them.”

The Vision of Slaughter

9 Then He cried out in my ^[ad]presence with a loud ^(BL)voice, saying, “Come forward, you ^[ae]executioners of the city, each with his weapon of destruction in his hand.” ² And behold, six men came from the direction of the upper gate which faces north, each with his smashing weapon in his hand; and among them was ^(BM)one man clothed in linen with a scribe’s kit at his waist. And they came in and stood beside the bronze altar.

³ Then the ^(BN)glory of the God of Israel ascended from the cherub on which it had been, to the threshold of the ^[af]temple. And He called to the man clothed in linen at whose waist was the scribe’s kit. ⁴ And the Lord said to him, “Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and make a ^(BO)mark on the foreheads of the people who ^(BP)groan and sigh over all the abominations which are being committed in its midst.” ⁵ But to the others He said in my ^[ag]presence, “Go through the city after him and strike; do not let your eye have pity and do not spare. ^6 [ah]Utterly ^(BQ)kill old men, young men, female virgins, little children, and women, but do not ^(BR)touch any person on whom is the mark; and you shall ^(BS)start from My sanctuary.” So they started with the ^[ai]elders who were before the ^[aj]temple. ⁷ He also said to them, “^(BT)Defile the ^[ak]temple and fill the courtyards with the dead. Go out!” So they went out and struck and killed the people in the city. ⁸ And as they were striking the people and I alone was left, I ^(BU)fell on my face and cried out, ^[al]saying, “^(BV)Oh, Lord ^[am]God! Are You going to destroy the entire remnant of Israel ^[an]by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?”

⁹ Then He said to me, “The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is ^(BW)filled with blood, and the city is ^(BX)full of perversion; for ^(BY)they say, ‘The Lord has abandoned the land, and the Lord does not see!’ ¹⁰ But as for Me, ^(BZ)My eye will have no pity nor will I spare, but ^(CA)I will bring their conduct upon their heads.”

¹¹ Then behold, the man clothed in linen, at whose waist was the scribe’s kit, ^[ao]reported, saying, “I have done just as You have commanded me.”

The Perfect High Priest

5 For every high priest ^(A)taken from among men is appointed on behalf of people in ^(B)things pertaining to God, in order to ^(C)offer both gifts and sacrifices ^(D)for sins; ^2 [a](E)he can deal gently with the ^(F)ignorant and ^(G)misguided, since he himself also is ^[b](H)clothed in weakness; ³ and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices ^(I)for sins for himself, ^(J)as well as for the people. ⁴ And ^(K)no one takes the honor for himself, but receives it when he is called by God, just ^(L)as Aaron also was.

⁵ So too Christ ^(M)did not glorify Himself in becoming a ^(N)high priest, but it was He who ^(O)said to Him,

⁶ just as He also says in another passage,

⁷ In the days of ^[c]His humanity, ^[d](S)He offered up both prayers and pleas with ^(T)loud crying and tears to the One ^(U)able to save Him ^[e]from death, and He ^[f]was heard because of His ^(V)devout behavior. ⁸ Although He was ^(W)a Son, He learned ^(X)obedience from the things which He suffered. ⁹ And having been ^(Y)perfected, He became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey Him, ¹⁰ being designated by God as ^(Z)High Priest according to ^(AA)the order of Melchizedek.

¹¹ Concerning ^[g]him we have much to say, and it is difficult to explain, since you have become ^[h]poor listeners. ¹² For though ^[i]by this time you ought to be teachers, you have need again for someone to teach you ^(AB)the ^[j](AC)elementary principles of the ^(AD)actual words of God, and you have come to need ^(AE)milk and not solid food. ¹³ For everyone who partakes only of milk is unacquainted with the word of righteousness, for he is an ^(AF)infant. ¹⁴ But solid food is for ^(AG)the mature, who because of practice have their senses ^(AH)trained to ^(AI)distinguish between good and evil.

The Lord’s Wonderful Works in Behalf of Israel.