The Day of the Wrath of the Lord

7 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “And you, ^(A)O son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: ^(B)An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.^{[a] 3} Now ^(C)the end is upon you, and ^(D)I will send my anger upon you; ^(E)I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. ^4 (F)And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but ^(G)I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. ^(H)Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: Disaster ^(I)after disaster!^[b] Behold, it comes. ^6 (J)An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. ^7 (K)Your doom^[c] has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. ^(L)The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not ^(M)of joyful shouting on the mountains. ⁸ Now I will soon ^(N)pour out my wrath upon you, and ^(O)spend my anger against you, ^(P)and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. ^9 (Q)And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. ^(R)Then you will know that I am the Lord, who strikes.

^10 (S)“Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! ^(T)Your doom has come; ^(U)the rod has blossomed; pride has budded. ^11 (V)Violence has grown up into ^(W)a rod of wickedness. ^(X)None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them.^{[d] 12 (Y)}The time has come; the day has arrived. Let not ^(Z)the buyer rejoice, nor ^(AA)the seller mourn, ^(AB)for wrath is upon all their multitude.^{[e] 13} For ^(AC)the seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live. ^(AD)For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life.^[f]

¹⁴ “They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but none goes to battle, ^(AE)for my wrath is upon all their multitude. ^15 (AF)The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. ^(AG)He who is in the field dies by the sword, ^(AH)and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. ^16 (AI)And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like ^(AJ)doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. ^17 (AK)All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. ^18 (AL)They put on sackcloth, and ^(AM)horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and ^(AN)baldness on all their heads. ¹⁹ They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. ^(AO)Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. ^(AP)For it was ^(AQ)the stumbling block of their iniquity. ^20 (AR)His beautiful ornament they used for pride, and ^(AS)they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore ^(AT)I make it an unclean thing to them. ²¹ And I will give it into the hands of ^(AU)foreigners for prey, ^(AV)and to the wicked of the earth for spoil, and ^(AW)they shall profane it. ²² I will turn my face from them, and ^(AX)they shall profane my treasured^[g] place. Robbers shall enter ^(AY)and profane it.

^23 (AZ)“Forge a chain!^{[h] (BA)}For the land is full of bloody crimes ^(BB)and the city is full of violence. ²⁴ I will bring ^(BC)the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. ^(BD)I will put an end to the pride of the strong, ^(BE)and their holy places^[i] shall be profaned. ^25 (BF)When anguish comes, ^(BG)they will seek peace, but there shall be none. ^26 (BH)Disaster comes upon disaster; ^(BI)rumor follows rumor. ^(BJ)They seek a vision from the prophet, while ^(BK)the law^[j] perishes from the priest and ^(BL)counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way ^(BM)I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, ^(BN)and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Abominations in the Temple

8 ^(BO)In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, ^(BP)as I sat in my house, with ^(BQ)the elders of Judah sitting before me, ^(BR)the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ² Then I looked, and behold, ^(BS)a form that had the appearance of a man.^{[k] (BT)}Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like ^(BU)gleaming metal.^{[l] 3} He ^(BV)put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up ^(BW)between earth and heaven and ^(BX)brought me in ^(BY)visions of God to Jerusalem, ^(BZ)to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, ^(CA)where was the seat of the ^(CB)image of jealousy, ^(CC)which provokes to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, ^(CD)the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw ^(CE)in the valley.

⁵ Then he said to me, ^(CF)“Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of ^(CG)the altar gate, in the entrance, was this ^(CH)image of jealousy. ⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, ^(CI)do you see what they are doing, ^(CJ)the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, ^(CK)to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”

⁷ And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then he said to me, “Son of man, ^(CL)dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. ⁹ And he said to me, “Go in, and see ^(CM)the vile abominations that they are committing here.” ¹⁰ So I went in and saw. And there, ^(CN)engraved on the wall all around, was ^(CO)every form of ^(CP)creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹ And before them stood ^(CQ)seventy men of ^(CR)the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of ^(CS)Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and ^(CT)the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. ¹² Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing ^(CU)in the dark, each ^(CV)in his room of pictures? For they say, ^(CW)‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’” ¹³ He said also to me, ^(CX)“You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”

¹⁴ Then he brought me to ^(CY)the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O ^(CZ)son of man? ^(DA)You will see still greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶ And he brought me into ^(DB)the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, ^(DC)between the ^(DD)porch and ^(DE)the altar, were about twenty-five men, ^(DF)with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping ^(DG)the sun toward the east. ¹⁷ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O ^(DH)son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit ^(DI)the abominations that they commit here, that ^(DJ)they should fill the land with violence and ^(DK)provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their^[m] nose. ¹⁸ Therefore ^(DL)I will act in wrath. ^(DM)My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. ^(DN)And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

Others

Together in the Garden of Love

She

Solomon and His Bride Delight in Each Other

He

She

Others

He

Taming the Tongue

3 ^(A)Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness. ² For ^(B)we all stumble in many ways. And if anyone does not stumble in what he says, ^(C)he is a perfect man, ^(D)able also to bridle his whole body. ³ If we put ^(E)bits into the mouths of horses so that they obey us, we guide their whole bodies as well. ⁴ Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. ⁵ So also the tongue is a small member, yet ^(F)it boasts of great things.

How great a forest is set ablaze by such a small fire! ⁶ And ^(G)the tongue is a fire, a world of unrighteousness. The tongue is set among our members, ^(H)staining the whole body, setting on fire the entire course of life,^[a] and set on fire by hell.^{[b] 7} For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea creature, can be tamed and has been tamed by mankind, ⁸ but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, ^(I)full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people ^(J)who are made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰ From the same mouth come blessing and cursing. My brothers,^[c] these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and salt water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

Wisdom from Above

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? ^(K)By his good conduct let him show his works ^(L)in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter ^(M)jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast and be false to the truth. ¹⁵ This is not ^(N)the wisdom that comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, ^(O)demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there will be disorder and every vile practice. ¹⁷ But ^(P)the wisdom from above is first pure, then ^(Q)peaceable, gentle, open to reason, ^(R)full of mercy and good fruits, ^(S)impartial and ^(T)sincere. ¹⁸ And ^(U)a harvest of righteousness ^(V)is sown in peace by those who make peace.