Old/New Testament
Sign of a Shaved Head
5 “Now you, son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor to shave your head and your beard. Then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. 2 A third you will burn in fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are complete. Take a third and strike it with the sword all around the city. Scatter a third to the wind, and I will draw out a sword after them. 3 Take a few from there and tie them up in your garment. 4 Again take some of them, throw them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. A fire will spread from it into all the house of Israel.”
5 Thus says Adonai Elohim: “This is Jerusalem! I have set her in the midst of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 She has rebelled against My ordinances by doing wickedness worse than the nations, and against My decrees worse than the surrounding countries. For they have rejected My ordinances and as for My decrees, they have not walked in them.”
7 Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you are more turbulent than the surrounding nations, in that you have not walked in My decrees or followed my ordinances, nor have you observed the ordinances of the surrounding nations, 8 therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: Behold, I in turn am against you. I will execute judgments among you in the sight of the nations. 9 On account of your abominations I will do with you that which I have never done, and the like of which I would never do again. 10 Therefore the fathers will eat the sons in your midst, and sons will eat their fathers. I will execute judgments on you and I will scatter the remainder of you to all the winds.
11 “Therefore, as I live, says Adonai Elohim, surely, because you have defiled My Sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will shave you off. My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. 12 A third of you will die with the plague and will be consumed with famine in your midst. A third will fall by the sword all around you. A third I will scatter to all the winds, and draw out a sword after them. 13 I will vent all My anger and satisfy My fury on them. Then I will rest. So they will know that I, Adonai, have spoken in My zeal, when I have satisfied My fury on them.
14 “Moreover I will make you a ruin and a mockery among the surrounding nations and in the sight of all who pass by. 15 When I execute judgment upon you in anger, rage and furious chastisement, you will be a mockery and a taunt, a warning and a horror to the surrounding nations: I, Adonai, have spoken it. 16 When I send evil arrows of famine upon them, for destruction I will send them to destroy you, and I will intensify the famine upon you and will break your staff of bread. 17 I will send on you famine and evil beasts, and they will make you childless. Plague and blood will sweep through you. I will bring the sword upon you. I, Adonai, have spoken.”
Woe to the Mountains
6 The word of Adonai came to me saying: 2 “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel and prophesy to them. 3 Say: mountains of Israel, hear the word of Adonai!” Thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the mountains and concerning the hills, concerning the wadis and concerning the valleys: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you. I will destroy your high places. 4 Your altars will become desolate. Your sun pillars will be broken. I will cast down your slain men before your idols. 5 I will lay the corpses of Bnei-Yisrael before their idols. I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 In all your dwellings the cities will be desolate. The high places will be deserted. Your altars will be laid waste and made desolate, your idols broken and destroyed, your sun pillars cut down and your works blotted out. 7 The slain will fall in your midst. Then you will know that I am Adonai.
8 “Yet I will leave a remnant, some that escape the sword among the nations, when you have been scattered through the countries. 9 The survivors will remember Me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I was crushed by their adulterous heart that has strayed from Me and their eyes which have lusted after their idols. They will loathe themselves in their own sight for the evils that they committed in all their abominations. 10 They will know that I am Adonai. I have not warned in vain that I would do this evil to them.”
11 Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Clap your hands, stamp your foot and cry, ‘Alas!’ because of all the vile abominations of the house of Israel who will fall by the sword, by famine and by plague. 12 The one who is far off will die of the plague; the one who is near will fall by the sword. Whoever remains and is spared will die by the famine; this is how I will spend My fury on them. 13 You will know that I am Adonai, when your slain lie among their idols surrounding their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree and under every leafy oak—the places where they offer sweet aroma to all their idols. 14 I will stretch out My hand over them and make the land desolate and waste, more than the wilderness of Diblah, wherever they live. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”
A Singular Evil Comes
7 The word of Adonai came to me saying: 2 “You, son of man, thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the land of Israel:
An end! The end has come on the four corners of the land. 3 The end is upon you. I will send My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. 4 My eyes will not spare you nor will I have pity, but I will bring your ways upon you, for your abominations in your midst. Then you will know that I am Adonai.”
5 Thus says Adonai Elohim:
An evil, a singular evil, behold, it comes. 6 An end has come, the end has come! It has awakened against you. Look, it is coming! 7 Doom has come upon you, inhabitant of the land! The time has come, the day is near—panic, not joyful shouting on the hills. 8 Now, soon, I am about to pour out My fury on you. I will exhaust My anger on you. I will judge you according to your ways. I will bring all your abominations on you. 9 My eye will not spare you nor will I have pity—I will repay you for your ways—your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that it is I, Adonai, who strikes. 10 Behold, the day! Look, it is coming! Doom has gone out. The rod has budded, arrogance has blossomed. 11 Violence grows into a rod of wickedness. Nothing will come from them, nothing from their crowd, nothing from their tumult, nothing distinctive among them. 12 The time has come—the day draws near. The buyer will not rejoice, the seller will not play the mourner, for wrath is on the entire crowd. 13 For a seller will not regain what he sold, as long as they are alive. For the vision against her whole crowd will not be revoked. No one will preserve his life, because of his iniquity.
14 “They have blown the horn. They have made everyone ready. Yet no one goes to the battle. Surely My wrath is on her whole crowd. 15 Outside is the sword, inside plague and famine. Whoever is in the field will die by the sword. Whoever is in the city will be devoured by famine and plague. 16 Those survivors who escape will head for the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. 17 All hands will be feeble. All knees will turn to water. 18 They will also gird on sackcloth. Horror will cover them. Shame will be upon all faces. Baldness will be upon all their heads. 19 They will throw their silver in the streets. Their gold will be as garbage. Their silver and their gold cannot deliver them in the day of Adonai’s wrath. They will not satisfy their appetite or fill their bellies, for their iniquity is a stumbling block. 20 They took pride in their beautiful jewelry and made images of their abominations and their detestable idols. Therefore I made it niddah to them. 21 I will give it into the hands of the strangers as plunder and to the wicked of the earth as spoil, and they will profane it. 22 I will turn My face from them, as they will profane the place I treasure. Robbers will enter it and profane it.
23 “Forge the chain! For the land is full of bloodshed. The city is full of violence. 24 I will bring the wicked of the nations. They will possess their houses. So I will end the pride of the strong, when their holy places are profaned. 25 Shuddering comes. They will seek peace but there will be none. 26 Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor upon rumor. They will seek a vision from a prophet, but Torah will perish from the kohen and counsel from the elders. 27 The king will mourn. The prince will be clothed with despair. The hands of the people of the land will tremble. By their conduct I will deal with them. By their own standards I will judge them. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”
Running the Race with Discipline
12 Therefore, since we have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also get rid of every weight and entangling sin. Let us run with endurance the race set before us, 2 focusing on Yeshua, the initiator and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, disregarding its shame; and He has taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. [a] 3 Consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you may not grow weary in your souls and lose heart.
4 In struggling against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of bloodshed. 5 Have you forgotten the warning addressed to you as sons?
“My son, do not take lightly the discipline of Adonai
or lose heart when you are corrected by Him,
6 because Adonai disciplines the one He loves
and punishes every son He accepts.”[b]
7 It is for discipline that you endure. God is treating you as sons—for what son does a father not discipline? 8 But if you are without discipline—something all have come to share—then you are illegitimate and not sons. 9 Besides, we are used to having human fathers as instructors—and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live? 10 Indeed, for a short time they disciplined us as seemed best to them; but He does so for our benefit, so that we may share in His holiness. 11 Now all discipline seems painful at the moment—not joyful. But later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore, strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble! [c] 13 And make straight paths for your feet,[d] so that what is lame will not be pulled out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Pursue shalom with everyone, and the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God; and see to it that no bitter root springs up and causes trouble, and by it many be defiled. 16 Also see to it that there is no immoral or godless person—like Esau, who sold his birthright for one meal. [e] 17 For you know that later, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected. He found no chance for repentance, though he begged for it with tears.[f]
Entering the Unshakeable Kingdom
18 For you have not come to a mountain[g] that can be touched, and to a blazing fire, and to darkness and gloom and storm, 19 and to the blast of a shofar[h] and a voice whose words made those who heard it beg that not another word be spoken to them. 20 For they could not bear what was commanded: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” [i] 21 So terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am quaking with fear.”[j]
22 But you have come to Mount Zion—to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,[k] and to myriads of angels, a joyous gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn[l] who are written in a scroll in heaven,[m] and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous ones made perfect, 24 and to Yeshua, the Mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks of something better than the blood of Abel.
25 See to it that you do not refuse the One who is speaking! For if they did not escape when they refused the One who was warning them on earth, much less will we escape if we reject the One who warns us from heaven. 26 His voice shook the earth then,[n] but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heavens.” [o] 27 Now this phrase, “Yet once more,” shows the removal of those things that are shaken—that is, created things—so that what cannot be shaken may remain. [p] 28 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude—through this we may offer worship in a manner pleasing to God, with reverence and awe. 29 For our God is a consuming fire.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.