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The Drawn Sword of God
21 [a]The word of the Lord came to me: 2 Mortal, set your face toward Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries; prophesy against the land of Israel(A) 3 and say to the land of Israel: Thus says the Lord: I am coming against you and will draw my sword out of its sheath and will cut off from you both righteous and wicked.(B) 4 Because I will cut off from you both righteous and wicked, therefore my sword shall go out of its sheath against all flesh from south to north, 5 and all flesh shall know that I the Lord have drawn my sword out of its sheath; it shall not be sheathed again. 6 Moan, therefore, mortal; moan with body collapsed and bitter grief before their eyes.(C) 7 And when they say to you, “Why do you moan?” you shall say, “Because of the news that has come. Every heart will melt, and all hands will be feeble, every spirit will faint, and all knees will turn to water. See, it comes and it will be fulfilled,” says the Lord God.
8 And the word of the Lord came to me: 9 Mortal, prophesy and say: Thus says the Lord; say:
A sword, a sword is sharpened;
it is also polished;(D)
10 it is sharpened for slaughter,
honed to flash like lightning!
How can we make merry?
You have despised the rod
and all discipline.[b]
11 The sword[c] is given to be polished
to be grasped in the hand;
it is sharpened; the sword is polished
to be placed in the slayer’s hand.
12 Cry and wail, O mortal,
for it is against my people;
it is against all Israel’s princes;
they are thrown to the sword,
together with my people.
Ah! Strike the thigh!(E)
13 For consider: What! If you despise the rod, will it not happen?[d] says the Lord God.
14 And you, mortal, prophesy;
strike hand to hand.
Let the sword fall twice, thrice;
it is a sword for killing.
A sword for great slaughter—
it surrounds them;(F)
15 therefore hearts melt,
and many stumble.
At all their gates I have set
the point[e] of the sword.
Ah! It is made for flashing;
it is drawn for slaughter.
16 Attack to the right!
Engage to the left!
—wherever your edge is directed.
17 I, too, will strike hand to hand;
I will satisfy my fury;
I the Lord have spoken.(G)
18 The word of the Lord came to me: 19 Mortal, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to come; both of them shall issue from the same land. And make a signpost; make it for a fork in the road leading to a city;(H) 20 mark out the road for the sword to come to Rabbah of the Ammonites or to Judah and to[f] Jerusalem the fortified.(I) 21 For the king of Babylon stands at the parting of the way, at the fork in the two roads, to use divination; he shakes the arrows; he consults the teraphim;[g] he inspects the liver.(J) 22 Into his right hand comes the lot for Jerusalem, to set battering rams, to call out for slaughter, for raising the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build siege towers. 23 But to them it will seem like a false divination; they have sworn solemn oaths, but he brings their guilt to remembrance, bringing about their capture.(K)
24 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have brought your guilt to remembrance, in that your transgressions are uncovered, so that in all your deeds your sins appear—because you have come to remembrance, you shall be taken in hand.[h]
25 As for you, vile, wicked prince of Israel,
you whose day has come,
the time of final punishment,(L)
26 thus says the Lord God:
Remove the turban, take off the crown;
things shall not remain as they are.
Exalt that which is low;
humble that which is high.(M)
27 A ruin, a ruin, a ruin—
I will make it!
(Such has never occurred.)
Until he comes whose right it is;
to him I will give it.(N)
28 As for you, mortal, prophesy, and say: Thus says the Lord God concerning the Ammonites and concerning their reproach; say:
A sword, a sword! Drawn for slaughter,
polished to consume,[i] to flash like lightning.(O)
29 Offering false visions for you,
divining lies for you,
they place you over the necks
of the vile, wicked ones—
those whose day has come,
the time of final punishment.(P)
30 Return it to its sheath!
In the place where you were created,
in the land of your origin,
I will judge you.(Q)
31 I will pour out my indignation upon you;
with the fire of my wrath
I will blow upon you.
I will deliver you into brutish hands,
those skillful to destroy.(R)
32 You shall be fuel for the fire,
your blood shall enter the earth;
you shall be remembered no more,
for I the Lord have spoken.(S)
The Bloody City
22 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 You, mortal, will you judge, will you judge the bloody city? Then declare to it all its abominable deeds.(T) 3 You shall say: Thus says the Lord God: A city! Shedding blood within itself; its time has come; making its idols, defiling itself. 4 You have become guilty by the blood that you have shed and defiled by the idols that you have made; you have brought your days near; the appointed time of your years has come. Therefore I have made you a disgrace before the nations and a mockery to all the countries. 5 Those who are near and those who are far from you will mock you, you infamous one, full of tumult.
6 The princes of Israel in you, everyone according to his power, have been bent on shedding blood.(U) 7 Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the alien residing within you suffers extortion; the orphan and the widow are wronged in you.(V) 8 You have despised my holy things and profaned my Sabbaths.(W) 9 In you are those who slander to shed blood, those in you who eat upon the mountains, who commit lewdness in your midst.(X) 10 In you they uncover their fathers’ nakedness; in you they violate women during their menstrual periods.(Y) 11 One commits abomination with his neighbor’s wife; another lewdly defiles his daughter-in-law; another in you defiles his sister, his father’s daughter.(Z) 12 In you, they take bribes to shed blood; you take both advance interest and accrued interest and make gain of your neighbors by extortion, and you have forgotten me, says the Lord God.(AA)
13 See, I strike my hands together at the dishonest gain you have made and at the blood that has been shed within you. 14 Can your courage endure, or can your hands remain strong in the days when I shall deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it.(AB) 15 I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you through the countries, and I will purge your filthiness out of you.(AC) 16 And you shall be profaned within yourself in the sight of the nations, and you shall know that I am the Lord.
17 The word of the Lord came to me: 18 Mortal, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them, silver,[j] bronze, tin, iron, and lead. In the smelter they have become dross.(AD) 19 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As one gathers silver, bronze, iron, lead, and tin into a smelter, to blow the fire upon them in order to melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow upon you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted within it. 22 As silver is melted in a smelter, so you shall be melted in it, and you shall know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath upon you.(AE)
23 The word of the Lord came to me: 24 Mortal, say to it: You are a land that is not cleansed, not rained upon in the day of indignation. 25 Its princes[k] within it are like a roaring lion tearing the prey; they have devoured human lives; they have taken treasure and precious things; they have made many widows within it.(AF) 26 Its priests have done violence to my teaching and have profaned my holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.(AG) 27 Its officials within it are like wolves tearing the prey, shedding blood, destroying lives to get dishonest gain.(AH) 28 Its prophets have smeared whitewash on their behalf, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, “Thus says the Lord God,” when the Lord has not spoken.(AI) 29 The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery; they have oppressed the poor and needy and have extorted from the alien without justice.(AJ) 30 And I sought for anyone among them who would repair the wall and stand in the breach before me on behalf of the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one.(AK) 31 Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath; I have returned their conduct upon their heads, says the Lord God.(AL)
Christ’s Sacrifice Once for All
10 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the true form of these realities, it[a] can never, by the same sacrifices that are continually offered year after year, make perfect those who approach.(A) 2 Otherwise, would they not have ceased being offered, since the worshipers, cleansed once for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sin? 3 But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sin year after year.(B) 4 For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.(C) 5 Consequently, when Christ[b] came into the world, he said,
“Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired,
but a body you have prepared for me;(D)
6 in burnt offerings and sin offerings
you have taken no pleasure.
7 Then I said, ‘See, I have come to do your will, O God’
(in the scroll of the book[c] it is written of me).”(E)
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law), 9 then he added, “See, I have come to do your will.” He abolishes the first in order to establish the second. 10 And it is by God’s will[d] that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.(F)
11 And every priest stands day after day at his service, offering again and again the same sacrifices that can never take away sins.(G) 12 But when Christ[e] had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, “he sat down at the right hand of God,” 13 and since then has been waiting “until his enemies would be made a footstool for his feet.”(H) 14 For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. 15 And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,
16 “This is the covenant that I will make with them
after those days, says the Lord:
I will put my laws in their hearts,
and I will write them on their minds,”(I)
17 and he adds,
“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”
Psalm 108
Praise and Prayer for Victory
A Song. A Psalm of David.
1 My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast;[a]
I will sing and make melody.
Awake, my soul
2 Awake, O harp and lyre!
I will awake the dawn.(B)
3 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples,
and I will sing praises to you among the nations.
4 For your steadfast love is higher than the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.(C)
5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens,
and let your glory be over all the earth.
6 Give victory with your right hand, and answer me,
so that those whom you love may be rescued.(D)
7 God has promised in his sanctuary:[c]
“With exultation I will divide up Shechem
and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine; Manasseh is mine;
Ephraim is my helmet;
Judah is my scepter.(E)
9 Moab is my washbasin;
on Edom I hurl my shoe;
over Philistia I shout in triumph.”
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you not rejected us, O God?
You do not go out, O God, with our armies.(F)
12 O grant us help against the foe,
for human help is worthless.
13 With God we shall do valiantly;
it is he who will tread down our foes.
12 The clever see danger and hide,
but the simple go on and suffer for it.(A)
New 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.