Jerusalem Is Condemned

22 Some time later, the Lord said:

² Ezekiel, son of man, are you ready to condemn Jerusalem? That city is filled with murderers, so remind the people of their sins ³ and tell them I am saying:

Jerusalem, you have murdered many of your own people and have worshiped idols. You will soon be punished! ⁴ Those crimes have made you guilty, and the idols have made you unacceptable to me. So your final punishment is near. Other nations will laugh at you and make insulting remarks, ⁵ and people far and near will make fun of your misery.

⁶ Your own leaders use their power to murder. ^7 (A) None of you honor your parents, and you cheat foreigners, orphans, and widows. ^8 (B) You show no respect for my sacred places and treat the Sabbath just like any other day. ⁹ Some of your own people tell lies, so that others will be put to death. Some of you eat meat sacrificed to idols at local shrines, and others never stop doing vulgar things. ^10 (C) Men have sex with their father's wife or with women who are having their monthly period ¹¹ or with someone else's wife. Some men even sleep with their own daughter-in-law or half sister. ^12 (D) Others of you accept money to murder someone. Your own people charge high interest when making a loan to other Israelites, and they get rich by cheating. Worst of all, you have forgotten me, the Lord God.

¹³ I will shake my fist in anger at your violent crimes. ¹⁴ When I'm finished with you, your courage will disappear, and you will be so weak that you won't be able to lift your hands. I, the Lord, have spoken and will not change my mind. ¹⁵ I will scatter you throughout every nation on earth and put a stop to your sinful ways. ¹⁶ You^[a] will be humiliated in the eyes of other nations. Then you will know that I, the Lord God, have done these things.

Jerusalem Must Be Purified

¹⁷ The Lord said:

¹⁸ Ezekiel, son of man, I consider the people of Israel as worthless as the leftover metal in a furnace after silver has been purified. ¹⁹ So I am going to bring them together in Jerusalem. ^20-21 I will be like a metalworker who collects that metal from the furnace and melts it down. I will collect the Israelites and blow on them with my fiery anger. They will melt inside the city of Jerusalem ²² like silver in a furnace. Then they will know that I, the Lord, have punished them in my anger.

Everyone in Jerusalem Is Guilty

²³ The Lord said:

²⁴ Ezekiel, son of man, tell the people of Israel that their country is full of sin, and that I, the Lord, am furious! ²⁵ Their leaders are like^[b] roaring lions, tearing apart their victims. They put people to death, then steal everything of value. Husbands are killed, and many women are left as widows.

^26 (E) The priests of Israel ignore my Law! Not only do they refuse to respect any of my sacred things, but they don't even teach the difference between what is sacred and what is ordinary or between what is clean and what is unclean. They treat my Sabbath like any other day, and so my own people no longer honor me.

²⁷ Israel's officials are like ferocious wolves, ripping their victims apart. They make a dishonest living by injuring and killing people.

²⁸ And then the prophets in Israel cover up these sins by giving false visions. I have never spoken to them, but they lie and say they have a message from me. ²⁹ The people themselves cheat and rob; they abuse the poor and take advantage of foreigners.

³⁰ I looked for someone to defend the city and to protect it from my anger, as well as to stop me from destroying it. But I found no one. ³¹ So in my fierce anger, I will punish the Israelites for what they have done, and they will know that I am furious. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Two Sinful Sisters

23 The Lord said:

² Ezekiel, son of man, listen to this story about two sisters. ³ While they were young and living in Egypt, they became prostitutes. ⁴ The older one was named Oholah, which stands for Samaria; the younger one was Oholibah, which stands for Jerusalem.^[c] They became my wives and gave birth to my children.

⁵ Even though Oholah was my wife, she continued to be a prostitute and chased after Assyrian lovers. ⁶ She offered herself to soldiers in purple uniforms: handsome, high-ranking officers and cavalry troops. ⁷ She had sex with all the important Assyrian officials and even worshiped their disgusting idols. ⁸ Once she started doing these things in Egypt, she never stopped. Men slept with her, and she was always ready for sex.

⁹ So I gave Oholah to the Assyrian lovers she wanted so badly. ¹⁰ They ripped off her clothes, then captured her children and killed her. Women everywhere talked about what had happened to Oholah.

¹¹ Oholibah saw all this, but she was more sinful and wanted sex more than her sister Oholah ever did. ¹² Oholibah also chased after good-looking Assyrian officers, uniformed soldiers, and cavalry troops. ¹³ Just like her sister, she did vulgar things.

¹⁴ But Oholibah behaved worse than her sister. Oholibah saw images of Babylonian men carved into walls and painted red. ¹⁵ They had belts around their waists and large turbans on their heads, and they reminded her of Babylonian cavalry officers. ¹⁶ As soon as she looked at them, she wanted to have sex with them. And so, she sent messengers to bring them to her. ¹⁷ Men from Babylonia came and had sex with her so many times that she got disgusted with them. ¹⁸ She let everyone see her naked body and didn't care if they knew she was a prostitute. That's why I turned my back on her, just as I had done with her older sister.

¹⁹ Oholibah didn't stop there, but became even more immoral and acted as she had back in Egypt. ²⁰ She eagerly wanted to go to bed with Egyptian men, who were famous for their sexual powers. ²¹ And she longed for the days when she was a young prostitute, when men enjoyed caressing her body.

The Lord Will Punish Oholibah

²² The Lord God said:

Oholibah,^[d] though you no longer want to be around your lovers, they will surround you like enemies, when I turn them against you. ²³ I will gather all the handsome young officials and the high-ranking cavalry officers from Babylonia and Assyria, as well as from the Chaldean tribes of Pekod, Shoa, and Koa. ²⁴ Their large armies will come from the north^[e] with chariots and wagons carrying weapons. They will wear shields and helmets and will surround you, and I will let them judge and sentence you according to their own laws. ²⁵ I am angry with you, so I will let them be very cruel. They will cut off your nose and ears; they will kill your children and burn alive anyone in your family who survives. ²⁶ Your clothes and jewelry will be torn off. ²⁷ I will stop your wickedness and the prostitution you started back in Egypt. You will never want to think about those days again.

²⁸ I, the Lord God, am ready to hand you over to those hateful enemies that you find so disgusting. ²⁹ They will cruelly take away everything you have worked for and strip you naked. Then everyone will see you for the prostitute you really are. Your own vulgar sins ³⁰ have led to this. You were the one determined to have sex with men from other nations and to worship their idols. ³¹ You have turned out no better than your older sister, and now you must drink from the cup filled with my anger.

³² I, the Lord God, gave your sister a large, deep cup filled with my anger. And when you drink from that cup, you will be mocked and insulted. ³³ You will end up drunk and devastated, because that cup is filled with horror and ruin. ³⁴ But you must drink every drop! Then smash the cup and chew on its broken pieces. Use them to cut your breasts in sorrow. I, the Lord God, have spoken.

³⁵ You have completely rejected me, and so I promise that you will be punished for the disgusting things you did as a prostitute.

The Two Sisters Are Condemned

³⁶ The Lord said:

Ezekiel, son of man, it's time for you to tell Oholah and Oholibah^[f] that they are guilty. Remind them of their evil ways! ³⁷ They have been unfaithful by worshiping idols, and they have committed murder by sacrificing my own children as offerings to idols. ^38-39 They came into my temple that same day, and that made it unfit as a place to worship me. They have even stopped respecting the Sabbath.

⁴⁰ They sent messengers to attract men from far away. When those men arrived, the two sisters bathed themselves and put on eye shadow and jewelry. ⁴¹ They sat on a fancy couch, and in front of them was a table for the olive oil and incense that had belonged to me. ⁴² Their room was always filled with a noisy crowd of drunkards brought in from the desert. These men gave the women bracelets and beautiful crowns, ⁴³ and I noticed that the men were eager to have sex with these women, though they were exhausted from being prostitutes.^{[g] 44} In fact, the men had sex over and over with Oholah and Oholibah, the two sinful sisters. ⁴⁵ But honest judges will someday accuse those two of murder and of being unfaithful, because they are certainly guilty.

⁴⁶ So I, the Lord God, now say to these sisters:

I will call together an angry mob that will abuse and rob you. ⁴⁷ They will stone you to death and cut you to pieces; they will kill your children and burn down your houses. ⁴⁸ I will get rid of sinful prostitution in this country, so that women everywhere will be warned not to act as you have. ⁴⁹ You will be punished for becoming prostitutes and for worshiping idols. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.

1 From Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ.

To God's people who are scattered like foreigners in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia.

² God the Father decided to choose you as his people, and his Spirit has made you holy. You have obeyed Jesus Christ and are sprinkled with his blood.^[a]

I pray that God will be kind to you and will keep on giving you peace!

A Real Reason for Hope

³ Praise God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is so good, and by raising Jesus from death, he has given us new life and a hope that lives on. ^4 (A) God has something stored up for you in heaven, where it will never decay or be ruined or disappear.

⁵ You have faith in God, whose power will protect you until the last day.^[b] Then he will save you, just as he has always planned to do. ⁶ On that day you will be glad, even if you have to go through many hard trials for a while. ^7 (B) Your faith will be like gold that has been tested in a fire. And these trials will prove that your faith is worth much more than gold that can be destroyed. They will show that you will be given praise and honor and glory when Jesus Christ returns.

⁸ You have never seen Jesus, and you don't see him now. But still you love him and have faith in him, and no words can tell how glad and happy ⁹ you are to be saved. This is why you have faith.

¹⁰ Some prophets told how God would treat you with undeserved grace, and they searched hard to find out more about the way you would be saved. ¹¹ The Spirit of Christ was in them and was telling them how Christ would suffer and would then be given great honor. So they searched to find out exactly who Christ would be and when this would happen. ¹² But they were told that they were serving you and not themselves. They preached to you by the power of the Holy Spirit, who was sent from heaven. And their message was only for you, even though angels would like to know more about it.

Chosen To Live a Holy Life

¹³ Be alert and think straight. Put all your hope in how God will treat you with undeserved grace when Jesus Christ appears. ¹⁴ Behave like obedient children. Don't let your lives be controlled by your desires, as they used to be. ¹⁵ Always live as God's holy people should, because God is the one who chose you, and he is holy. ^16 (C) That's why the Scriptures say, “I am the holy God, and you must be holy too.”

¹⁷ You say that God is your Father, but God doesn't have favorites! He judges all people by what they do. So you must honor God while you live as strangers here on earth. ¹⁸ You were rescued^[c] from the useless way of life you learned from your ancestors. But you know you were not rescued by such things as silver or gold that don't last forever. ^19 (D) You were rescued by the precious blood of Christ, that spotless and innocent lamb. ²⁰ Christ was chosen even before the world was created, but because of you, he did not come until these last days. ²¹ And when he did come, it was to lead you to have faith in God, who raised him from death and honored him in a glorious way. This is why you have put your faith and hope in God.

²² You obeyed the truth,^[d] and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. ²³ Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever. ^24 (E) The Scriptures say,

Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.