Old/New Testament
Jerusalem’s Sins
22 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, will you judge? Will you judge this city of blood? Then tell the people about all their sinful acts. 3 Tell them, ‘The Lord God says, “O city, because you have killed your own people and have made yourselves false gods to add to your sins, your time will come! 4 You have become guilty by killing your people, and sinful by the false gods you have made. You have brought the day of your punishment near. The end of your years has come. So I have made you a shame to the nations. All the countries laugh at you. 5 People both near and far will make fun of you, you who are full of shame and trouble. 6 See, each of the rulers of Israel who are in you has used his power to kill. 7 They have not honored father and mother within you. They have made it hard for the stranger living among you. They have done wrong to those in you who have lost their father or husband. 8 You have hated My holy things and have not kept My Days of Rest holy. 9 There are men in you who have lied about others to cause them to be put to death. Some have eaten at the altars on the mountains, and have done sex sins there. 10 Men have done sex sins with their fathers’ wives. Men have put women to shame during their time of the month when they are unclean. 11 One has done sex sins with his neighbor’s wife. Another has done sex sins with his daughter-in-law. And another has put his own sister to shame, his father’s daughter. 12 In you they have taken pay to kill people. You have made others pay back more than they owe you. You have hurt your neighbors by making it hard for them to pay you. And you have forgotten Me,” says the Lord God.
13 “I will bring My hand down hard upon the money you have made by your sinful ways, and for the blood of those you have killed among you. 14 Can your strength of heart last? Or can your hands be strong, in the days that I punish you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will do what I say. 15 I will divide you among the nations and spread you out through the lands. I will take away from you all that is unclean. 16 You will become sinful in the eyes of the nations, and you will know that I am the Lord.”’”
17 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 18 “Son of man, the people of Israel have become waste to Me. They are like brass, tin, iron, and lead in the fire and have become waste that is left after silver has gone through the fire. 19 So the Lord God says, ‘Because you have all become waste, I am going to gather you together in Jerusalem. 20 As men gather silver and brass and iron and lead and tin into the stove to blow fire on it and melt it, so I will gather you in My anger. I will put you in the city and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My anger, and you will be melted within it. 22 As silver is melted in the hot stove, so you will be melted in Jerusalem. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My anger upon you.’”
23 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 24 “Son of man, tell Israel, ‘You are a land that is not made clean or rained on in the day of anger.’ 25 Israel’s false religious leaders are making plans within her. They are like a lion making noise over the food it has killed. They have taken human lives and also riches and things of much worth. They have made many women in Israel lose their husbands. 26 Her religious leaders have broken My Law, and have made My holy things unclean. It makes no difference to them if something is holy or unclean. They have not taught the difference between what is clean and unclean. They hide their eyes from My Days of Rest, and I am not honored among them. 27 Her leaders are like wolves tearing apart the animals they have killed. They kill and destroy lives to get things by doing wrong. 28 Her men who speak in My name have covered these sins with whitewash for the people. They see false dreams and lie to them using their secret ways, saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. 29 The people of the land have made it hard for others and have stolen. They have done wrong to the poor and those in need. And they have made it hard for the stranger who lives among them, taking away his rights. 30 I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before Me in the place where it is broken, to stop Me from destroying the land, but I found no one. 31 So I have become angry with them. I have destroyed them with the fire of My anger. I am punishing them for what they have done,” says the Lord God.
Two Sinful Sisters
23 The Word of the Lord came to me saying, 2 “Son of man, there were two women, daughters of the same mother. 3 They sold the use of their bodies in Egypt, and did so when they were young. Their breasts were lain upon in that land. Their breasts, which had never before been held by a man, were held. 4 The name of the older sister was Oholah, and her younger sister was Oholibah. They became Mine and gave birth to sons and daughters. Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.
The Older Sister—Samaria
5 “Oholah sold the use of her body while she was Mine. She was full of desire for her lovers, the Assyrians who lived near her 6 who were dressed in purple. They were rulers and leaders, all of them good-looking young men who rode on horses. 7 She gave her body to them for sex. They were all the best men of Assyria. And she also sinned by worshiping the false gods of all the men she desired. 8 She did not turn away from her sex sins she had begun in Egypt. Men had lain with her since she was young. They had held her young breasts and used her to fill their desire. 9 So I gave her over to her lovers the Assyrians whom she desired. 10 They took off her clothes. They took her sons and daughters. But they killed her with the sword. So she became a saying among women, because she was punished.
The Younger Sister—Jerusalem
11 “Her sister Oholibah saw this, but she was more sinful in her desire for sex than Oholah. Her sex sins were worse than those of her sister. 12 She wanted to have the Assyrians, rulers and leaders, men who were well dressed, those who rode on horses, all those good looking young men. 13 And I saw that she was sinful. Both sisters went the same way. 14 But she did even more sex sins. She saw pictures of men on the wall, pictures of Babylonians drawn in bright red. 15 They had belts around them, and flowing head-coverings. All of them looked like Babylonian captains who were born in Chaldea. 16 And when she saw them, she had a desire for sex with them, and sent word to them in Chaldea. 17 The Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love. They made her sinful with their desire. And after she had had sex with them, she became sick of them. 18 When she let her sins and her body be seen, I turned away from her in anger, as I had turned from her sister. 19 Yet she did even more sex sins. She remembered when she was young, when she sold the use of her body in the land of Egypt. 20 She was full of desire for lovers whose flesh was like those of donkeys, and whose flow was like that of horses. 21 Oholibah, you were filled with desire for the sex sins you did when you were young, when the Egyptians held your breasts.
Jerusalem Is Judged
22 “So, Oholibah, the Lord God says, ‘I will bring your lovers against you, those you turned away from. I will bring them against you from every side: 23 Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa, Koa, and all the Assyrians with them, good looking young men, all of them rulers, leaders, captains, and men who are well-known, all of them riding on horses. 24 They will come against you from the north, with war-wagons and an army of people. They will come against you on every side with battlecoverings and head-coverings. And I will let them punish you. They will punish you in their own way. 25 Because of My jealous anger, I will let them act toward you in anger. They will cut off your nose and ears, and any people who are left will be killed by the sword. They will take your sons and daughters, and any yet left will be burned in the fire. 26 They will take away your clothes and take away the beautiful objects you wear. 27 So I will put an end to the sex sins you brought from the land of Egypt. You will never again look at these things with desire or remember Egypt.’ 28 For the Lord God says, ‘I will give you over to those you hate, to the men you turned away from. 29 And because they hate you, they will take away everything you own and leave you without clothing. Then your body without clothes will be seen as a sinful woman. 30 These things will be done to you because you have sold the use of your body to the nations, and because you have made yourself sinful with their false gods. 31 You have followed the way of your sister, so I will give you the same cup of punishment to drink.’ 32 The Lord God says, ‘You will drink your sister’s cup, which is deep and wide. You will be laughed at and made fun of, for it holds much. 33 You will become drunk and filled with sorrow, with the cup of fear and waste, with the cup of your sister Samaria. 34 You will drink it until it is empty. Then you will chew its pieces and tear your breasts, for I have spoken,’ says the Lord God. 35 So the Lord God says, ‘Because you have forgotten Me and put Me behind your back, now suffer the punishment of your sex sins.’”
Both Sisters Are Judged
36 The Lord said to me, “Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah? Make them know their sinful acts. 37 For they have not been faithful to Me, and blood is on their hands. They have left Me for their false gods. And they gave their sons to these false gods as burnt gifts, the sons they had given to Me at birth. 38 That is not all they did. At that same time they have not kept My holy place and My Days of Rest holy. 39 When they had killed their children for their false gods, they went into My holy place on the same day to make it unclean. This is what they did within My house. 40 They even sent for men who came from far away. And when they came, you washed yourselves, colored your eyes, and put on beautiful objects for them. 41 You sat on a beautiful seat with a table made ready in front of it on which you had set My special perfume and My oil. 42 The sound of a group free of care was around you. Men who drank too much were brought from the desert with men who were not important. They put beautiful objects on the women’s hands and beautiful crowns on their heads. 43 Then I said about the one who was worn out by sex sins, ‘Will they now lie with her when she is this way?’ 44 But they went in to her as they would go in to a woman who sells the use of her body. So they went in to Oholah and Oholibah, the sinful women. 45 But men who are right and good will punish them as women are punished who do sex sins and kill, because they are sinful women and blood is on their hands.
46 “The Lord God says, ‘Bring up a group against them to fill them with fear and to rob them. 47 The group will kill them with stones and with swords. They will kill their sons and daughters and burn down their houses. 48 So I will put an end to sex sins in the land, that all women will learn of the danger and not sin as you have done. 49 You will suffer the penalty for your sex sins and for worshiping your false gods. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.’”
The Living Hope
1 This letter is from Peter, a missionary of Jesus Christ. I am writing to those who were taken away from their homeland and are living in the countries of Pontus and Galatia and Cappadocia and Asia and Bithynia. 2 You were chosen by God the Father long ago. He knew you were to become His children. You were set apart for holy living by the Holy Spirit. May you obey Jesus Christ and be made clean by His blood. May you be full of His loving-favor and peace.
3 Let us thank the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It was through His loving-kindness that we were born again to a new life and have a hope that never dies. This hope is ours because Jesus was raised from the dead. 4 We will receive the great things that we have been promised. They are being kept safe in heaven for us. They are pure and will not pass away. They will never be lost. 5 You are being kept by the power of God because you put your trust in Him and you will be saved from the punishment of sin at the end of the world.
6 With this hope you can be happy even if you need to have sorrow and all kinds of tests for awhile. 7 These tests have come to prove your faith and to show that it is good. Gold, which can be destroyed, is tested by fire. Your faith is worth much more than gold and it must be tested also. Then your faith will bring thanks and shining-greatness and honor to Jesus Christ when He comes again. 8 You have never seen Him but you love Him. You cannot see Him now but you are putting your trust in Him. And you have joy so great that words cannot tell about it. 9 You will get what your faith is looking for, which is to be saved from the punishment of sin.
10 The early preachers tried to find out how to be saved. They told of the loving-favor that would come to you. 11 The early preachers wondered at what time or to what person this would happen. The Spirit of Christ in them was talking to them and told them to write about how Christ would suffer and about His shining-greatness later on. 12 They knew these things would not happen during the time they lived but while you are living many years later. These are the very things that were told to you by those who preached the Good News. The Holy Spirit Who was sent from heaven gave them power and they told of things that even the angels would like to know about.
Holy Living
13 Get your minds ready for good use. Keep awake. Set your hope now and forever on the loving-favor to be given you when Jesus Christ comes again. 14 Be like children who obey. Do not desire to sin like you used to when you did not know any better. 15 Be holy in every part of your life. Be like the Holy One Who chose you. 16 The Holy Writings say, “You must be holy, for I am holy.” (A) 17 The Father is the One Who judges you by what you do. He does not respect one person more than another. If you call Him Father, be sure you honor Him with love and fear all the days of your life here on earth. 18 You know you were not bought and made free from sin by paying gold or silver which comes to an end. And you know you were not saved from the punishment of sin by the way of life that you were given from your early fathers. That way of life was worth nothing. 19 The blood of Christ saved you. This blood is of great worth and no amount of money can buy it. Christ was given as a lamb without sin and without spot. 20 Long before the world was made, God chose Christ to be given to you in these last days. 21 Because of Christ, you have put your trust in God. He raised Christ from the dead and gave Him great honor. So now your faith and hope are in God.
The Living Word
22 You have made your souls pure by obeying the truth through the Holy Spirit. This has given you a true love for the Christians. Let it be a true love from the heart. 23 You have been given a new birth. It was from a seed that cannot die. This new life is from the Word of God which lives forever. 24 All people are like grass. Their greatness is like the flowers. The grass dries up and the flowers fall off. 25 But the Word of the Lord will last forever. That Word is the Good News which was preached to you.
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