Ezekiel 4:1
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The Siege of Jerusalem Portrayed
4 “And you, O mortal, take a brick and set it before you. On it portray a city, Jerusalem,(A)
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Amos 3:2
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2 You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.(A)
Hosea 12:10
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10 I spoke to the prophets;
it was I who multiplied visions,
and through the prophets I will bring destruction.(A)
Hosea 3
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Further Assurances of God’s Redeeming Love
3 The Lord said to me again, “Go, love a woman who has a lover and is an adulteress, just as the Lord loves the people of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.”(A) 2 So I bought her for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer of barley and a measure of wine.[a](B) 3 And I said to her, “You must remain as mine for many days; you shall not prostitute yourself; you shall not have intercourse with a man, nor I with you.” 4 For the Israelites shall remain many days without king or prince, without sacrifice or pillar, without ephod or teraphim.(C) 5 Afterward the Israelites shall return and seek the Lord their God and David their king; they shall come in awe to the Lord and to his goodness in the latter days.(D)
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- 3.2 Gk: Heb a homer of barley and a lethek of barley
Hosea 1:2-9
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The Family of Hosea
2 When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and have children of prostitution, for the land commits great prostitution by forsaking the Lord.”(A) 3 So he went and took Gomer daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.
4 And the Lord said to him, “Name him Jezreel,[a] for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.(B) 5 On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the Valley of Jezreel.”(C)
6 She conceived again and bore a daughter. Then the Lord said to him, “Name her Lo-ruhamah,[b] for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel or forgive them.(D) 7 But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God; I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.”(E)
8 When she had weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. 9 Then the Lord said, “Name him Lo-ammi,[c] for you are not my people, and I am not your God.”[d]
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Ezekiel 12:3-16
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3 for they are a rebellious house. Therefore, mortal, prepare for yourself an exile’s baggage, and go into exile by day in their sight; you shall go like an exile from your place to another place in their sight. Perhaps they will understand, though they are a rebellious house.(A) 4 You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage for exile, and you shall go out yourself at evening in their sight, as those do who go into exile.(B) 5 Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry the baggage through it. 6 In their sight you shall lift the baggage on your shoulder and carry it out in the dark; you shall cover your face, so that you may not see the land, for I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.(C)
7 I did just as I was commanded. I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile, and in the evening I dug through the wall with my own hands; I brought it out in the dark, carrying it on my shoulder in their sight.
8 In the morning the word of the Lord came to me: 9 Mortal, has not the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, “What are you doing?”(D) 10 Say to them, “Thus says the Lord God: This oracle concerns the prince in Jerusalem[a] and all the house of Israel in it.”[b](E) 11 Say, “I am a sign for you: as I have done, so shall it be done to them; they shall go into exile, into captivity.”(F) 12 And the prince who is among them shall lift his baggage on his shoulder in the dark and shall go out; he[c] shall dig through the wall and carry it through; he shall cover his face so that he may not see the land with his eyes.(G) 13 I will spread my net over him, and he shall be caught in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, the land of the Chaldeans, yet he shall not see it, and he shall die there.(H) 14 I will scatter to every wind all who are around him, his helpers and all his troops, and I will unsheathe the sword behind them.(I) 15 And they shall know that I am the Lord when I disperse them among the nations and scatter them through the countries.(J) 16 But I will let a few of them escape from the sword, from famine and pestilence, so that they may tell of all their abominations among the nations where they go; then they shall know that I am the Lord.(K)
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Ezekiel 5
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A Sword against Jerusalem
5 “And you, O mortal, take a sharp sword; use it as a barber’s razor and run it over your head and your beard; then take balances for weighing, and divide the hair.(A) 2 One third of the hair you shall burn in the fire inside the city when the days of the siege are completed; one third you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city;[a] and one third you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them.(B) 3 Then you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the hem of your robe.(C) 4 From these, again, you shall take some, throw them into the fire and burn them up; from there a fire will come out against all the house of Israel.(D)
5 “Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem; I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her.(E) 6 But she has rebelled against my ordinances and my statutes, becoming more wicked than the nations and the countries all around her, rejecting my ordinances and not following my statutes.(F) 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you and have not followed my statutes or kept my ordinances and have not even acted according to the ordinances of the nations that are all around you,(G) 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: I, I myself, am coming against you; I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations.(H) 9 And because of all your abominations, I will do to you what I have never yet done and the like of which I will never do again.(I) 10 Surely, parents shall eat their children in your midst, and children shall eat their parents; I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to every wind.(J) 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 I will withdraw; my eye will not spare, and I will have no pity.(K) 12 One third of you shall die of pestilence or be consumed by famine among you; one third shall fall by the sword around you; and one third I will scatter to every wind and will unsheathe the sword after them.(L)
13 “My anger shall spend itself, and I will vent my fury on them and satisfy myself, and they shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken in my jealousy when I spend my fury on them.(M) 14 Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of mocking among the nations around you, in the sight of all who pass by.(N) 15 You shall be[b] a mockery and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations around you when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury and with furious punishments—I, the Lord, have spoken(O)— 16 when I loose against you[c] my deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will let loose to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and cut off your supply of bread.[d](P) 17 I will send famine and wild animals against you, and they will rob you of your children; pestilence and bloodshed shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I, the Lord, have spoken.”(Q)
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Jeremiah 32:31
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31 This city has aroused my anger and wrath, from the day it was built until this day, so that I will remove it from my sight(A)
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Jeremiah 27:2-22
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2 Thus the Lord said to me: Make for yourself yoke straps and bars and put them on your neck.(A) 3 Send them to the king of Edom, the king of Moab, the king of the Ammonites, the king of Tyre, and the king of Sidon by the hand of the envoys who have come to Jerusalem to King Zedekiah of Judah.(B) 4 Give them this charge for their masters: Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: This is what you shall say to your masters: 5 It is I who by my great power and my outstretched arm have made the earth, with the people and animals that are on the earth, and I give it to whomever I please.(C) 6 Now I have given all these lands into the hand of King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, my servant, and I have given him even the wild animals of the field to serve him.(D) 7 All the nations shall serve him and his son and his grandson, until the time of his own land comes; then many nations and great kings shall make him their slave.(E)
8 But if any nation or kingdom will not serve this king, Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, and put its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon, then I will punish that nation with the sword, with famine, and with pestilence, says the Lord, until I have completed its destruction by his hand.(F) 9 You, therefore, must not listen to your prophets, your diviners, your dreamers,[a] your soothsayers, or your sorcerers, who are saying to you, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon.”(G) 10 For they are prophesying a lie to you, with the result that you will be removed far from your land; I will drive you out, and you will perish.(H) 11 But any nation that will bring its neck under the yoke of the king of Babylon and serve him, I will leave on its own land, says the Lord, to till it and to live there.(I)
12 I spoke to King Zedekiah of Judah in the same way: Bring your necks under the yoke of the king of Babylon, and serve him and his people, and live.(J) 13 Why should you and your people die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence, as the Lord has spoken concerning any nation that will not serve the king of Babylon?(K) 14 Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are saying to you, “You shall not serve the king of Babylon,” for they are prophesying a lie to you.(L) 15 I have not sent them, says the Lord, but they are prophesying falsely in my name, with the result that I will drive you out, and you will perish, you and the prophets who are prophesying to you.(M)
16 Then I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, Thus says the Lord: Do not listen to the words of your prophets who are prophesying to you, saying, “The vessels of the Lord’s house will soon be brought back from Babylon,” for they are prophesying a lie to you.(N) 17 Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon and live. Why should this city become a desolation? 18 If indeed they are prophets and the word of the Lord is with them, then let them intercede with the Lord of hosts, that the vessels left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem may not go to Babylon.(O) 19 For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, the sea, the stands, and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city,(P) 20 which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem(Q)— 21 thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: 22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall stay, until the day when I give attention to them, says the Lord. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.(R)
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- 27.9 Gk Syr Tg: Heb dreams
Jeremiah 25:15-38
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The Cup of God’s Wrath
15 For thus the Lord, the God of Israel, said to me: Take from my hand this cup of the wine of wrath, and make all the nations to whom I send you drink it.(A) 16 They shall drink and stagger and go out of their minds because of the sword that I am sending among them.(B)
17 So I took the cup from the Lord’s hand and made all the nations to whom the Lord sent me drink it: 18 Jerusalem and the towns of Judah, its kings and officials, to make them a desolation and a waste, an object of hissing and of cursing, as they are today;(C) 19 Pharaoh king of Egypt, his servants, his officials, and all his people; 20 all the mixed people;[a] all the kings of the land of Uz; all the kings of the land of the Philistines—Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and the remnant of Ashdod;(D) 21 Edom, Moab, and the Ammonites;(E) 22 all the kings of Tyre, all the kings of Sidon, and the kings of the coastland across the sea;(F) 23 Dedan, Tema, Buz, and all who have shaved temples;(G) 24 all the kings of Arabia and all the kings of the mixed peoples[b] that live in the desert;(H) 25 all the kings of Zimri, all the kings of Elam, and all the kings of Media; 26 all the kings of the north, far and near, one after another, and all the kingdoms of the world that are on the face of the earth. And after them the king of Sheshach[c] shall drink.(I)
27 Then you shall say to them, Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Drink; get drunk and vomit; fall and rise no more because of the sword that I am sending among you.(J)
28 And if they refuse to accept the cup from your hand to drink, then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: You must drink! 29 See, I am beginning to bring disaster on the city that is called by my name, and how can you possibly avoid punishment? You shall not go unpunished, for I am summoning a sword against all the inhabitants of the earth, says the Lord of hosts.(K)
30 You, therefore, shall prophesy to them all these words and say to them:
The Lord will roar from on high
and from his holy habitation utter his voice;
he will roar mightily against his fold
and shout like those who tread grapes
against all the inhabitants of the earth.(L)
31 The clamor will resound to the ends of the earth,
for the Lord has an indictment against the nations;
he is entering into judgment with all flesh,
and the guilty he will put to the sword,
says the Lord.(M)
32 Thus says the Lord of hosts:
See, disaster is spreading
from nation to nation,
and a great tempest is stirring
from the farthest parts of the earth!
33 Those slain by the Lord on that day shall extend from one end of the earth to the other. They shall not be lamented or gathered or buried; they shall become dung on the surface of the ground.(N)
34 Wail, you shepherds, and cry out;
roll in ashes, you lords of the flock,
for the days of your slaughter have come—and your dispersions,[d]
and you shall fall like a choice vessel.(O)
35 Flight shall fail the shepherds,
and there shall be no escape for the lords of the flock.
36 Listen! The cry of the shepherds
and the wail of the lords of the flock!
For the Lord is despoiling their pasture,
37 and the peaceful folds are devastated
because of the fierce anger of the Lord.
38 Like a lion he has left his den,
for their land has become a waste
because of the cruel anger
and because of his fierce anger.
Jeremiah 19
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The Broken Earthenware Jug
19 Thus said the Lord: Go and buy a potter’s earthenware jug. Take with you[a] some of the elders of the people and some of the senior priests, 2 and go out to the valley of the son of Hinnom at the entry of the Potsherd Gate, and proclaim there the words that I tell you.(A) 3 You shall say: Hear the word of the Lord, O kings of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am going to bring such disaster upon this place that the ears of everyone who hears of it will tingle.(B) 4 Because the people have forsaken me and have profaned this place by making offerings in it to other gods whom neither they nor their ancestors nor the kings of Judah have known, and because they have filled this place with the blood of the innocent(C) 5 and gone on building the high places of Baal to burn their children in the fire as burnt offerings to Baal, which I did not command or decree, nor did it enter my mind,(D) 6 therefore the days are surely coming, says the Lord, when this place shall no more be called Topheth or the valley of the son of Hinnom but the valley of Slaughter.(E) 7 And in this place I will make void the plans of Judah and Jerusalem and will make them fall by the sword before their enemies and by the hand of those who seek their life. I will give their dead bodies for food to the birds of the air and to the wild animals of the earth.(F) 8 And I will make this city a horror, a thing to be hissed at; everyone who passes by it will be horrified and will hiss because of all its disasters.(G) 9 And I will make them eat the flesh of their sons and the flesh of their daughters, and all shall eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress with which their enemies and those who seek their life afflict them.(H)
10 Then you shall break the jug in the sight of those who go with you 11 and shall say to them: Thus says the Lord of hosts: So will I break this people and this city as one breaks a potter’s vessel, so that it can never be mended. In Topheth they shall bury until there is no more room to bury.(I) 12 Thus will I do to this place, says the Lord, and to its inhabitants, making this city like Topheth. 13 And the houses of Jerusalem and the houses of the kings of Judah shall be defiled like the place of Topheth—all the houses upon whose roofs offerings have been made to the whole host of heaven and libations have been poured out to other gods.(J)
14 When Jeremiah came from Topheth, where the Lord had sent him to prophesy, he stood in the court of the Lord’s house and said to all the people:(K) 15 Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: I am now bringing upon this city and upon all its towns all the disaster that I have pronounced against it, because they have stiffened their necks, refusing to hear my words.(L)
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- 19.1 Syr Tg Compare Gk: Heb lacks take with you
Jeremiah 18:2-12
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2 “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.”(A) 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. 4 The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him.
5 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 6 Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the Lord. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.(B) 7 At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, 8 but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.(C) 9 And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it,(D) 10 but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.(E) 11 Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the Lord: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.(F)
Israel’s Stubborn Idolatry
12 But they say, “It is no use! We will follow our own plans, and each of us will act according to the stubbornness of our evil will.”(G)
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Jeremiah 13:1-14
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The Linen Loincloth
13 Thus said the Lord to me, “Go and buy yourself a linen loincloth and put it on your loins, but do not dip it in water.”(A) 2 So I bought a loincloth according to the word of the Lord and put it on my loins.(B) 3 And the word of the Lord came to me a second time, saying, 4 “Take the loincloth that you bought and are wearing, and go now to the Euphrates,[a] and hide it there in a cleft of the rock.”(C) 5 So I went and hid it by the Euphrates,[b] as the Lord commanded me.(D) 6 And after many days the Lord said to me, “Go now to the Euphrates,[c] and take from there the loincloth that I commanded you to hide there.” 7 Then I went to the Euphrates[d] and dug, and I took the loincloth from the place where I had hidden it. But now the loincloth was ruined; it was good for nothing.
8 Then the word of the Lord came to me: 9 Thus says the Lord: Just so I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem.(E) 10 This evil people, who refuse to hear my words, who stubbornly follow their own will and have gone after other gods to serve them and worship them, shall be like this loincloth, which is good for nothing.(F) 11 For as the loincloth clings to one’s loins, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, says the Lord, in order that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory. But they would not listen.(G)
Symbol of the Wine Jars
12 You shall speak to them this word: Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Every wine jar should be filled with wine. And they will say to you, “Do you think we do not know that every wine jar should be filled with wine?” 13 Then you shall say to them: Thus says the Lord: I am about to fill all the inhabitants of this land—the kings who sit on David’s throne, the priests, the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem—with drunkenness.(H) 14 And I will dash them one against another, parents and children together, says the Lord. I will not pity or spare or have compassion when I destroy them.(I)
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Jeremiah 6:6
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6 For thus says the Lord of hosts:
Cut down her trees;
cast up a siege ramp against Jerusalem.
This is the city that must be punished;[a]
there is nothing but oppression within her.(A)
Footnotes
- 6.6 Or the city of license
Isaiah 20:2-4
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2 at that time the Lord had spoken to Isaiah son of Amoz, saying, “Go and loose the sackcloth from your loins and take your sandals off your feet,” and he had done so, walking naked and barefoot.(A) 3 Then the Lord said, “Just as my servant Isaiah has walked naked and barefoot for three years as a sign and a portent against Egypt and Cush,(B) 4 so shall the king of Assyria lead away the Egyptians as captives and the Cushites as exiles, both the young and the old, naked and barefoot, with buttocks uncovered, to the shame of Egypt.(C)
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1 Kings 11:30-31
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30 when Ahijah laid hold of the new garment he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces.(A) 31 He then said to Jeroboam, “Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: See, I am about to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon and will give you ten tribes.(B)
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1 Samuel 15:27-28
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27 As Samuel turned to go away, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore.(A) 28 And Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this very day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.(B)
Read full chapterNew Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.