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12 The word of the Eternal came to me with a new message.
Eternal One: 13 Son of man, suppose the people of a particular country wander away from Me in pursuit of sin and I raise My hand against them destroying their food source, sending famine, and killing off the people and animals who live there; 14 even if these three legendary men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were all living in that country, they could save only themselves by their righteousness. 15 Suppose I send wild beasts into that land and they kill the people, and the place becomes so desolate and dangerous because of the animals that no one dares to travel through the land. 16 As surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, even if these three men were living there, they could not save their own sons and daughters. Only those three righteous men would be saved, and the land would become a wilderness. 17 Suppose I bring war against that land and say to let the sword invade and pass through the land; 18 as surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, even if these three men were living there, they could not save their own sons and daughters. Only those three righteous men would be saved. 19 Suppose I send a disease to spread across that land, flooding it with My anger in blood, infecting and killing people and animals alike; 20 as surely as I, the Eternal Lord, live, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were living there, they could not save their own sons or daughters. Only those three men would be saved because of their righteousness.
21 For this is what the Eternal Lord has to say:
Eternal One: It will be far worse when I send out My four tragic judgments upon Jerusalem—war, starvation, wild beasts, and disease—to kill the people and animals! 22-23 Still, a few survivors will remain—sons and daughters—who will join you in exile. They will come to you, and once you see how they behave and what they do, you will be comforted regarding the awful disaster I have poured out upon Jerusalem. For you will understand that every single judgment and catastrophe I have set against Jerusalem has been necessary.
15 The word of the Eternal came to me.
Eternal One: 2 Son of man, what is the difference between the wood of a grapevine and the wood of a tree in a forest? 3 Is the wood of a grapevine ever used to make anything practical? Can it be carved into pegs to hang things on? 4 No. When vine wood has been bundled together and thrown into the fire as fuel, its ends are burned but the middle is only charred. Are the remains good for anything then? 5 Even when vine wood is whole and not yet singed, it is not useful for anything; so how can it be made useful after the fire has scorched some and consumed the rest?
6 Therefore, this is what I, the Eternal Lord, have to say: Just as I have gathered the wood of the grapevine among the trees of the forest to be used as fuel for the fire, so I will bundle together those who live in Jerusalem. 7 I will turn My back on them. Even though they may survive the fire, another fire will nonetheless consume them. And when I turn My back on them and oppose them, you will know I am the Eternal One. 8 I will transform this land into a wasteland because of their faithlessness.
So says the Eternal Lord.
16 The word of the Eternal came to me with a message for Jerusalem.
In Scripture marriage is often used to depict God’s covenant with His people. In this oracle God is described as Israel’s faithful husband, while Jerusalem is His faithless wife.
2 My Lord commanded me, the son of man, to confront Jerusalem, condemn her shocking actions, 3 and tell her what He says to Jerusalem.
Eternal One: You won’t be able to shake your pagan heritage. Your ancestors were Canaanites, and you were born among the Canaanites. Your father was an Amorite, and your mother was a Hittite. 4 When you were born, no one cut your umbilical cord. No one took care of you: you were not washed with water and purified, nor were you rubbed with salt and wrapped for warmth. 5 No one felt sorry for you or had compassion on you or did anything to help you. Instead, your parents abandoned you, tossed you out into an open field. For on the day you were born, people looked upon you with deep contempt.
6 Then I passed by and saw you squirming around in your blood. As you lay there in your own blood, I said to you, “Live!” Again, I insisted, “Live!” 7 And that’s exactly what you did. I helped you flourish like plants in the field. In time you grew, became a tall, beautiful young woman:[a] your breasts developed and your hair grew thick and long. But you were still naked and bare. 8 I passed by you again and saw you were old enough to love and to be loved, so I offered Myself to you in marriage. I wrapped my garment over you to cover your nakedness. Then I gave you My divine promise to always be your Beloved, and I entered the sacred covenant of marriage with you. I wed you, and you became Mine. 9 I bathed you with pure water and washed away the old blood from your skin, and then I anointed you with fragrant oils. 10 I dressed you in an embroidered gown and put the finest leather sandals on your feet. I gave you the most luxurious linens and exquisite garments. 11 I decorated you with the most expensive jewelry: bracelets for your wrists and a necklace for your neck, 12 a nose ring, costly earrings, and a stunning crown for your head. 13 I adorned you with everything a woman could wish for: gold and silver, the finest clothes of linen, silk, and embroidery. You dined on elegant meals made with fine flour, honey, and olive oil. You became a beautiful woman and carried yourself as a queen! 14 You became famous among the nations for your extraordinary beauty—beauty that flourished only because I lavished My splendor on you.
So said the Eternal Lord.
Eternal One: 15 But you trusted in your own beauty and used your fame to become a whore. You slept with every man who was simply passing by. 16 You made shrines for your idols out of the luxurious linens I gave to you and gave yourself to play the harlot there. Such things should never have happened and must not ever again. 17 Then you took all of the expensive gold and silver jewelry and precious stones I gave to you, and you created male images so that you could play the harlot with them! 18-19 You took the embroidered gown I gave you to clothe your male images. Then you took other gifts I had given to you—oil, incense, bread, fine flour, and honey—and you offered them all as a pleasing aroma to your idols. This is what happened, I, the Eternal Lord proclaim. 20 Then you took your sons and daughters—the ones you bore to Me—and slaughtered them, sacrificing your precious children to your idols to be consumed! Wasn’t your prostitution enough? 21 You killed My children and sacrificed them to breathless idols as burnt offerings! 22 Not once during all this prostitution and other shocking deeds did you remember your youth when I found you naked and bare, squirming in your own blood!
23 To top off all your wickedness—how bad it will be for you, I, the Eternal Lord, promise you— 24 you built yourselves sacred sites and put lofty shrines in every public square. 25 You put them on every street corner and degraded your priceless beauty, opening yourself up wide to every man who passed by to add yet another lover. 26 Then you started whoring with your well-endowed Egyptian neighbors, and I became more and more angry with your escalating promiscuity. 27 Finally, I reached out and struck you, decreasing your territory. I handed you over to your enemies, the Philistines, to do with you as they pleased. Even they were embarrassed by your lascivious behavior! 28 You even started whoring it up with the Assyrians because your lust could not be satisfied. But even after you prostituted yourself, you still weren’t satisfied! 29 So you prostituted yourself to Chaldea, the land of merchants, but that still wasn’t enough to satisfy you.
30 How sick is your heart as you instigate all these vile perversions, the deeds of a brazen harlot? 31 When you built your shrines in every public square and constructed lofty shrines on every street corner, you were different from most prostitutes because you wouldn’t take money for your favors. 32 Adulterous wife! You would rather sleep with a stranger than your own husband! 33 Whores are glad to accept fees from their customers, but you are the one paying fees and giving gifts to bribe strangers to come to you. 34 So you are the perverse opposite of all other whores. No one solicits your services, and you pay instead of taking their money! This is why you are so different.
To understand the comparison of Jerusalem to a harlot, knowledge of the city’s political history in the eighth, seventh, and sixth centuries b.c. is helpful. Two political powers dominate Judah and much of the ancient Near East in this period: Egypt in the south and Assyria (which is later replaced by Babylonia) in the north and east. Jerusalem is caught between these empires—geographically, politically, and economically. Over the centuries, power in the region shifts back and forth, and Jerusalem aligns herself with whichever country offers the most protection. But this protection is not free; Jerusalem has to pay for it. In accepting foreign protection instead of trusting in God, Jerusalem prostitutes herself to the highest bidder, giving up everything that is valuable and sacred in exchange for eventual exile and slavery.
Eternal One: 35 Therefore, harlot, listen to My word! 36 Because you wasted the gifts I gave to you, spent your lust, and exposed your body in promiscuous acts with countless lovers; and because you devoted yourselves to despicable idols; and because you gave your children as burnt sacrifices to these breathless effigies, 37 I am going to round up all of your lovers—all those you have seduced into mutual pleasures, those you have loved and those you have hated. I will gather them from every corner of the earth and set them against you. I will strip you naked before the assembly of your lovers, and they will see every part of you exposed. 38 Then I will condemn you to the punishment of an adulterous or murderous woman! I will bring on you the blood of My fury and jealousy. 39 Then I will give you over to your lovers, and they will destroy your sacred sites and lofty shrines. They will rip off your fine garments and expensive jewelry, and they will leave you naked and bare, just as I found you when you were a baby. 40 They will bring an angry mob against you, and the mob will stone you and hack you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn down your houses in a fiery blaze and punish you in the sight of many women! You will be ashamed. I will put an end to your perverted prostitution, and you will no longer bribe lovers to come to your bed!
18 Because the earlier commandment was weak and did not reconcile us to God effectively, it was set aside— 19 after all, the law could not make anyone or anything perfect. God has now introduced a new and better hope, through which we may draw near to Him, 20 and confirmed it by swearing to it. 21 The Levite order of priests took office without an oath, but this man Jesus became a priest through God’s oath:
The Eternal One has sworn an oath
and cannot change His mind:
You are a priest forever.[a]
22 So we can see that Jesus has become the guarantee of a new and better covenant. 23 Further, the prior priesthood of the sons of Levi has included many priests because death cut short their service, 24 but Jesus holds His priesthood permanently because He lives His resurrected life forever. 25 From such a vantage, He is able to save those who approach God through Him for all time because He will forever live to be their advocate in the presence of God.
26 It is only fitting that we should have a High Priest who is devoted to God, blameless, pure, compassionate toward but separate from sinners, and exalted by God to the highest place of honor. 27 Unlike other high priests, He does not first need to make atonement every day for His own sins, and only then for His people’s, because He already made atonement, reconciling us with God once and forever when He offered Himself as a sacrifice. 28 The law made imperfect men high priests; but after that law was given, God swore an oath that made His perfected Son a high priest for all time.
Psalm 106
1 Praise the Eternal!
Thank Him because He is good
and His loyal love will never end.
2 Who could find words to tell of the Eternal’s mighty deeds
or give Him all the praise He deserves?
3 Blessed are those who work for justice,
who always do what they know to be right!
4 Remember me, O Eternal One, when You show kindness to Your people;
don’t forget me when You are saving them.
5 That way I can know how good it is to be Your chosen people;
that way I can celebrate the joy of Your nation;
that way I can join those who belong to You in unending praise.
Psalm 106 was composed during the exile offering a historical review of the ways God’s people rebelled against Him. It is a fitting closure to Book Four of Psalms. After this liturgy of failure on the part of the people, the psalmist cries out in thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness and in the final verse proclaims praise “from everlasting to everlasting.”
6 Like our ancestors, we have sinned;
we have done wicked things.
7 When our ancestors were leaving Egypt,
they did not consider Your marvelous acts.
They forgot Your overwhelming kindness to them
and instead rebelled at the Red Sea.[a]
8 Nevertheless, God saved them for the honor of His name
so He could show His power to the world.
9 He gave the order, and the waters of the Red Sea dried up,
and He led the people across the sea floor as though it were the wilderness.
10 That’s how He liberated them from their enemies
and rescued them from the hand of their oppressors.
11 After that the sea surged and covered their foes,
and every one of them drowned in its waters.
12 When God’s people saw what He did, they believed what He said
and they sang praises to Him.
4 Wrath is fierce and anger is a tidal wave of fury,
but who of us can stand up against jealousy?
5 Open rebuke is better
than hidden love.
6 Wounds inflicted by the correction of a friend prove he is faithful;
the abundant kisses of an enemy show his lies.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.