Ezekiel 20

¹In the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I was sitting in my house, and the elders of Judah were sitting before me; and there the hand of the Lord God fell upon me.

¹In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month—in the fourteenth year after Jerusalem had been struck down—on that very day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and He took me there.

¹In the ninth year, on the tenth day of the tenth month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁷In the twenty-seventh year, on the first day of the first month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹In the eleventh month of the twelfth year, on the first day of the month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹In the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁵Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you will honor Me.”

¹⁶To the wicked, however, God says, “What right have you to recite My statutes and to bear My covenant on your lips?

⁹Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable.

⁸‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.

⁹They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’”

⁷Then the seers will be ashamed and the diviners will be disgraced. They will all cover their mouths because there is no answer from God.”

³¹When you offer your gifts, sacrificing your sons in the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be consulted by you!

¹²When you come to appear before Me, who has required this of you—this trampling of My courts?

²“As for you, son of man, will you judge her? Will you pass judgment on the city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her abominations

³⁶Then the Lord said to me: “Son of man, will you pass judgment against Oholah and Oholibah? Then declare to them their abominations.

⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them.

⁴⁸So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs.

¹⁴then even if these three men—Noah, Daniel, and Job—were in it, their righteousness could deliver only themselves, declares the Lord God.

³³Nevertheless, I must keep going today and tomorrow and the next day, for it is not admissible for a prophet to perish outside of Jerusalem.

³⁴O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

¹⁶As for you, do not pray for these people, do not offer a plea or petition on their behalf, and do not beg Me, for I will not listen to you.

¹⁵Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—

⁸I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

⁶Therefore tell the Israelites: ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians and deliver you from their bondage. I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with mighty acts of judgment.

⁷I will take you as My own people, and I will be your God. Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, who brought you out from under the yoke of the Egyptians.

⁶For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His prized possession out of all peoples on the face of the earth.

¹⁴You are to divide it equally among them. Because I swore with an uplifted hand to give it to your forefathers, this land will fall to you as an inheritance.

³¹and they believed. And when they heard that the Lord had attended to the Israelites and had seen their affliction, they bowed down and worshiped.

²²You gave them this land that You had sworn to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁵Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—

⁸I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey—the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.

²Beautiful in loftiness, the joy of all the earth, like the peaks of Zaphon is Mount Zion, the city of the great King.

⁹From one of these horns a little horn emerged and grew extensively toward the south and the east and toward the Beautiful Land.

¹⁴But I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations that they had not known, and the land was left desolate behind them so that no one could come or go. Thus they turned the pleasant land into a desolation.”

³You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs.

⁸But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

⁴⁴For I am the Lord your God; consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am holy. You must not defile yourselves by any creature that crawls along the ground.

³¹Cast away from yourselves all the transgressions you have committed, and fashion for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, O house of Israel?

¹⁶For you yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we passed through the nations on the way here.

¹⁷You saw the abominations and idols among them made of wood and stone, of silver and gold.

²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹⁰But they rebelled and grieved His Holy Spirit. So He turned and became their enemy, and He Himself fought against them.

¹³And when My anger is spent and I have vented My wrath against them, I will be appeased. And when I have spent My wrath on them, they will know that I, the Lord, in My zeal have spoken.

⁷And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’

⁸Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

²¹But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.

⁷Remember this, and never forget how you provoked the Lord your God in the wilderness. From the day you left the land of Egypt until you reached this place, you have been rebelling against the Lord.

⁷So I will make My holy name known among My people Israel and will no longer allow it to be profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel.

²²But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

¹²Why should the Egyptians declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from doing harm to Your people.

¹⁴But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

²¹But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they had gone.

²²Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went.

²⁸Otherwise, those in the land from which You brought us out will say, ‘Because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land He had promised them, and because He hated them, He has brought them out to kill them in the wilderness.’

²“I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

¹⁷And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them. Then I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army and chariots and horsemen.

¹⁸The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I am honored through Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”

¹⁷When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, though it was shorter. For God said, “If the people face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.”

¹⁸So God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the Israelites left the land of Egypt arrayed for battle.

²²Then Moses led Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the Desert of Shur. For three days they walked in the desert without finding water.

⁵Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the Lord.

⁵For concerning the righteousness that is by the law, Moses writes: “The man who does these things will live by them.”

¹²The law, however, is not based on faith; on the contrary, “The man who does these things will live by them.”

⁸And what nation is great enough to have righteous statutes and ordinances like this entire law I set before you today?

²⁸“You have answered correctly,” Jesus said. “Do this and you will live.”

¹³Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

²⁰Keep My Sabbaths holy, that they may be a sign between us, so that you may know that I am the Lord your God.’

²⁸Then the nations will know that I the Lord sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary is among them forever.’”

²³Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely, and may your entire spirit, soul, and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

²³but because he has a defect, he must not go near the veil or approach the altar, so as not to desecrate My sanctuaries. For I am the Lord who sanctifies them.’”

⁵Now if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, you will be My treasured possession out of all the nations—for the whole earth is Mine.

⁶And unto Me you shall be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to speak to the Israelites.”

²⁷Then Jesus declared, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.

²⁸Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

²¹But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.

⁸But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

²⁴For they did not practice My ordinances, but they rejected My statutes and profaned My Sabbaths, fixing their eyes on the idols of their fathers.

⁸At Horeb you provoked the Lord, and He was angry enough to destroy you.

⁶And the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to Him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be His servants—all who keep the Sabbath without profaning it and who hold fast to My covenant—

²⁹Your bodies will fall in this wilderness—all who were numbered in the census, everyone twenty years of age or older—because you have grumbled against Me.

⁹But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to Israel by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

²²But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

²²Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went.

²³I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes.

¹²in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, would be for the praise of His glory.

⁶to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has freely given us in the Beloved One.

¹¹So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”

²⁶So He raised His hand and swore to cast them down in the wilderness,

¹¹So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’”

¹⁸And to whom did He swear that they would never enter His rest? Was it not to those who disobeyed?

²³However, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them throughout the lands.

⁶⁴Among all these, however, there was not one who had been numbered by Moses and Aaron the priest when they counted the Israelites in the Wilderness of Sinai.

⁶⁵For the Lord had told them that they would surely die in the wilderness. Not one was left except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.

³⁹These will serve as tassels for you to look at, so that you may remember all the commandments of the Lord, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by following your own heart and your own eyes.

³“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?

⁴Therefore speak to them and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him according to his great idolatry,

⁸But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

²who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.

³⁹But our fathers refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and in their hearts turned back to Egypt.

⁴⁰They said to Aaron, ‘Make us gods who will go before us! As for this Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

¹³Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

¹⁴But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

¹³Now as I was prophesying, Pelatiah son of Benaiah died. Then I fell facedown and cried out in a loud voice, “Oh, Lord God, will You bring the remnant of Israel to a complete end?”

²⁷For this is what the Lord says: “The whole land will be desolate, but I will not finish its destruction.

¹⁸“Yet even in those days,” declares the Lord, “I will not make a full end of you.

¹⁹You in Your great compassion did not forsake them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud never turned away from guiding them on their path; and by the night the pillar of fire illuminated the way they should go.

¹⁰Behold, this day you have seen with your own eyes that the Lord delivered you into my hand in the cave. I was told to kill you, but I spared you and said, ‘I will not lift my hand against my lord, since he is the Lord’s anointed.’

²“O son of man, this is what the Lord God says to the land of Israel: ‘The end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

³Your eyes have seen what the Lord did at Baal-peor, for the Lord your God destroyed from among you all who followed Baal of Peor.

⁴But you who held fast to the Lord your God are alive to this day, every one of you.

⁵¹You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

⁶that the coming generation would know them—even children yet to be born—to arise and tell their own children

⁷that they should put their confidence in God, not forgetting His works, but keeping His commandments.

²“The Lord was very angry with your fathers.

³So tell the people that this is what the Lord of Hosts says: ‘Return to Me, declares the Lord of Hosts, and I will return to you, says the Lord of Hosts.’

⁷And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.’

¹⁸For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life you inherited from your forefathers,

²⁷And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes and to carefully observe My ordinances.

³²So be careful to do as the Lord your God has commanded you; you are not to turn aside to the right or to the left.

⁴⁵that they might keep His statutes and obey His laws. Hallelujah!

²²“Return, O faithless children, and I will heal your faithlessness.” “Here we are. We come to You, for You are the Lord our God.

²³Surely deception comes from the hills, and commotion from the mountains. Surely the salvation of Israel is in the Lord our God.

⁹There must be no strange god among you, nor shall you bow to a foreign god.

¹⁰I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of Egypt. Open wide your mouth, and I will fill it.

²⁴My servant David will be king over them, and there will be one shepherd for all of them. They will follow My ordinances and keep and observe My statutes.

¹³If you turn your foot from breaking the Sabbath, from doing as you please on My holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight, and the Lord’s holy day honorable, if you honor it by not going your own way or seeking your own pleasure or speaking idle words,

²²You must not carry a load out of your houses or do any work on the Sabbath day, but you must keep the Sabbath day holy, just as I commanded your forefathers.

¹²I also gave them My Sabbaths as a sign between us, so that they would know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them.

¹³“Tell the Israelites, ‘Surely you must keep My Sabbaths, for this will be a sign between Me and you for the generations to come, so that you may know that I am the Lord who sanctifies you.

¹⁴Keep the Sabbath, for it is holy to you. Anyone who profanes it must surely be put to death. Whoever does any work on that day must be cut off from among his people.

¹⁵In those days I saw people in Judah treading winepresses on the Sabbath and bringing in grain and loading it on donkeys, along with wine, grapes, and figs. All kinds of goods were being brought into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I warned them against selling food on that day.

¹⁶Additionally, men of Tyre who lived there were importing fish and all kinds of merchandise and selling them on the Sabbath to the people of Judah in Jerusalem.

²⁴In any dispute, they shall officiate as judges and judge according to My ordinances. They must keep My laws and statutes regarding all My appointed feasts, and they must keep My Sabbaths holy.

¹³Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

⁸But they rebelled against Me and refused to listen. None of them cast away the abominations before their eyes, and they did not forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the land of Egypt.

²⁷For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the Lord while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death!

⁵and spoke against God and against Moses: “Why have you led us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread or water, and we detest this wretched food!”

³⁶Then the king will do as he pleases and will exalt and magnify himself above every god, and he will speak monstrous things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been decreed must be accomplished.

⁸Very soon I will pour out My wrath upon you and vent My anger against you; I will judge you according to your ways and repay you for all your abominations.

⁹But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to Israel by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

¹⁴But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

⁹For the sake of My name I will delay My wrath; for the sake of My praise I will restrain it, so that you will not be cut off.

¹⁰See, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.

³⁸And yet He was compassionate; He forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them. He often restrained His anger and did not unleash His full wrath.

²¹For the sake of Your name do not despise us; do not disgrace Your glorious throne. Remember Your covenant with us; do not break it.

⁷Although our iniquities testify against us, O Lord, act for the sake of Your name. Indeed, our rebellions are many; we have sinned against You.

³³But I will scatter you among the nations and will draw out a sword after you as your land becomes desolate and your cities are laid waste.

⁶⁴Then the Lord will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known.

⁶⁵Among those nations you will find no repose, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.

²⁷to disperse their offspring among the nations and scatter them throughout the lands.

⁴I will make them a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Manasseh son of Hezekiah king of Judah did in Jerusalem.

²⁶I would have said that I would cut them to pieces and blot out their memory from mankind,

²⁷if I had not dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest their adversaries misunderstand and say: ‘Our own hand has prevailed; it was not the Lord who did all this.’”

¹⁵Moreover, with an uplifted hand I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the glory of all lands—

¹⁶because they kept rejecting My ordinances, refusing to walk in My statutes, and profaning My Sabbaths; for their hearts continually went after their idols.

⁹Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

¹³Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

⁴This is what the Lord says: “For three transgressions of Judah, even four, I will not revoke My judgment, because they reject the Law of the Lord and fail to keep His statutes; they are led astray by the lies in which their fathers walked.

⁶He does not eat at the mountain or look to the idols of the house of Israel. He does not defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her period.

²⁶if I have beheld the sun in its radiance or the moon moving in splendor,

²⁷so that my heart was secretly enticed and my hand threw a kiss from my mouth,

¹²So I gave them up to their stubborn hearts to follow their own devices.

³⁹And as for you, O house of Israel, this is what the Lord God says: Go and serve your idols, every one of you. But afterward, you will surely listen to Me, and you will no longer defile My holy name with your gifts and idols.

⁴So I will choose their punishment and I will bring terror upon them, because I called and no one answered, I spoke and no one listened. But they did evil in My sight and chose that in which I did not delight.”

²⁶And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the Lord.

⁹The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the working of Satan, with every kind of power, sign, and false wonder,

¹⁰and with every wicked deception directed against those who are perishing, because they refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.

³⁶The Lord will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone.

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

²¹You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the Lord.

¹⁷Why, O Lord, do You make us stray from Your ways and harden our hearts from fearing You? Return, for the sake of Your servants, the tribes of Your heritage.

³¹When you offer your gifts, sacrificing your sons in the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with all your idols to this day. So should I be consulted by you, O house of Israel? As surely as I live, declares the Lord God, I will not be consulted by you!

²⁰You even took the sons and daughters you bore to Me and sacrificed them as food to idols. Was your prostitution not enough?

²¹You slaughtered My children and delivered them up through the fire to idols.

¹⁷They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire and practiced divination and soothsaying. They devoted themselves to doing evil in the sight of the Lord, provoking Him to anger.

²⁴As it is written: “God’s name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

¹¹Go to your people, the exiles; speak to them and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ whether they listen or refuse to listen.”

²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you are to tell them, ‘This is what the Lord God says.’ Whoever listens, let him listen; and whoever refuses, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

⁷But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious.

⁴Then He said to me, “Son of man, go now to the house of Israel and speak My words to them.

⁵The beast was given a mouth to speak arrogant and blasphemous words, and authority to act for 42 months.

¹³Then you will know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, and under every green tree and leafy oak—the places where they offered fragrant incense to all their idols.

⁶Now in the days of King Josiah, the Lord said to me, “Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She has gone up on every high hill and under every green tree to prostitute herself there.

⁵who burn with lust among the oaks, under every luxuriant tree, who slaughter your children in the valleys, under the clefts of the rocks?

⁶Your portion is among the smooth stones of the valley; indeed, they are your lot. Even to them you have poured out a drink offering and offered a grain offering. Should I relent because of these?

²²You gave them kingdoms and peoples and allotted to them every corner of the land. So they took the land of Sihon king of Heshbon and of Og king of Bashan.

²³You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven and brought them to the land You had told their fathers to enter and possess.

¹⁴Now behold, today I am going the way of all the earth, and you know with all your heart and soul that not one of the good promises the Lord your God made to you has failed. Everything was fulfilled for you; not one promise has failed.

⁷I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and bounty, but you came and defiled My land and made My inheritance detestable.

²⁴you built yourself a mound and made yourself a lofty shrine in every public square.

²⁵At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.

³¹But when you built your mounds at the head of every street and made your lofty shrines in every public square, you were not even like a prostitute, because you scorned payment.

¹²And you have done more evil than your fathers. See how each of you follows the stubbornness of his evil heart instead of obeying Me.

¹⁹But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

²⁶Yet they would not listen to Me or incline their ear, but they stiffened their necks and did more evil than their fathers.

⁵¹You stiff-necked people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit, just as your fathers did.

¹⁴Now behold, you, a brood of sinners, have risen up in place of your fathers to further stoke the burning anger of the Lord against Israel.

³²Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your fathers.

³⁷They sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons.

³⁸They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.

³¹They have built the high places of Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom so they could burn their sons and daughters in the fire—something I never commanded, nor did it even enter My mind.

²⁶And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the Lord.

³“Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts and put wicked stumbling blocks before their faces. Should I consult with them in any way?

⁴Therefore speak to them and tell them that this is what the Lord God says: ‘When any Israelite sets up idols in his heart and puts a wicked stumbling block before his face, and then comes to the prophet, I the Lord will answer him according to his great idolatry,

⁵They have built high places to Baal on which to burn their children in the fire as offerings to Baal—something I never commanded or mentioned, nor did it even enter My mind.

¹²Although they may fast, I will not listen to their cry; although they may offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I will not accept them. Instead, I will finish them off by sword and famine and plague.”

⁵And the Spirit of the Lord fell upon me and told me to declare that this is what the Lord says: “That is what you are thinking, O house of Israel; and I know the thoughts that arise in your minds.

¹⁷Instead, we will do everything we vowed to do: We will burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and offer drink offerings to her, just as we, our fathers, our kings, and our officials did in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem. At that time we had plenty of food and good things, and we saw no disaster.

²You know when I sit and when I rise; You understand my thoughts from afar.

⁴As they drank the wine, they praised their gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone.

²⁰Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk.

²⁸And there you will serve man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

⁵And I Myself will fight against you with an outstretched hand and a mighty arm, with anger, fury, and great wrath.

¹⁸Therefore I will respond with wrath. I will not look on them with pity, nor will I spare them. Although they shout loudly in My ears, I will not listen to them.”

¹⁸For this is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as My anger and wrath were poured out on the residents of Jerusalem, so will My wrath be poured out on you if you go to Egypt. You will become an object of cursing and horror, of vilification and disgrace, and you will never see this place again.’

⁶Therefore My wrath and anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so that they have become the desolate ruin they are today.

¹¹All Israel has transgressed Your law and turned away, refusing to obey Your voice; so the oath and the curse written in the Law of Moses the servant of God has been poured out on us, because we have sinned against You.

¹²You have carried out the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under all of heaven, nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

⁹“For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground.

¹⁰All the sinners among My people will die by the sword—all those who say, ‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’”

³⁸And I will purge you of those who rebel and transgress against Me. I will bring them out of the land in which they dwell, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

¹⁶I will seek the lost, bring back the strays, bind up the broken, and strengthen the weak; but the sleek and strong I will destroy. I will shepherd them with justice.’

⁹Therefore Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and the full fruit of the removal of his sin will be this: When he makes all the altar stones like crushed bits of chalk, no Asherah poles or incense altars will remain standing.

¹⁰For the fortified city lies deserted—a homestead abandoned, a wilderness forsaken. There the calves graze, and there they lie down; they strip its branches bare.

⁶Therefore My wrath and anger poured out and burned in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem, so that they have become the desolate ruin they are today.

⁴He has bent His bow like an enemy; His right hand is positioned. Like a foe He has killed all who were pleasing to the eye; He has poured out His wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion.

¹⁴“Therefore, behold, I will allure her and lead her to the wilderness, and speak to her tenderly.

²⁰I will spread My net over him and catch him in My snare. I will bring him to Babylon and execute judgment upon him there for the treason he committed against Me.

¹⁴But the woman was given two wings of a great eagle to fly from the presence of the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she was nourished for a time, and times, and half a time.

³⁵you say, ‘I am innocent. Surely His anger will turn from me.’ Behold, I will judge you, because you say, ‘I have not sinned.’

¹³Now it is planted in the wilderness, in a dry and thirsty land.

³⁶Just as I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you, declares the Lord God.

¹Soon the people began to complain about their hardship in the hearing of the Lord, and when He heard them, His anger was kindled, and fire from the Lord blazed among them and consumed the outskirts of the camp.

²And the people cried out to Moses, and he prayed to the Lord, and the fire died down.

⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them, for they were struck down in the wilderness.

⁶These things took place as examples to keep us from craving evil things as they did.

¹³Yet the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not follow My statutes and they rejected My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they utterly profaned My Sabbaths. Then I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and put an end to them in the wilderness.

²¹But the children rebelled against Me. They did not walk in My statutes or carefully observe My ordinances—though the man who does these things will live by them—and they profaned My Sabbaths. So I resolved to pour out My wrath upon them and vent My anger against them in the wilderness.

¹⁵So He granted their request, but sent a wasting disease upon them.

¹⁶In the camp they envied Moses, as well as Aaron, the holy one of the Lord.

¹Then the whole congregation lifted up their voices and cried out, and that night the people wept.

²All the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole congregation said to them, “If only we had died in the land of Egypt, or if only we had died in this wilderness!

¹³In the cities of the hill country, the foothills, and the Negev, in the land of Benjamin and the cities surrounding Jerusalem, and in the cities of Judah, the flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them, says the Lord.

³²Every tenth animal from the herd or flock that passes under the shepherd’s rod will be holy to the Lord.

³²All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

³³He will place the sheep on His right and the goats on His left.

⁵⁹For this is what the Lord God says: I will deal with you according to your deeds, since you have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

⁶⁰But I will remember the covenant I made with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

³⁰If his sons forsake My law and do not walk in My judgments,

³¹if they violate My statutes and fail to keep My commandments,

²⁵And I will bring a sword against you to execute the vengeance of the covenant. Though you withdraw into your cities, I will send a plague among you, and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.

⁹My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and speak lying divinations. They will not belong to the council of My people or be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, nor will they enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord God.

⁹“For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground.

¹⁰All the sinners among My people will die by the sword—all those who say, ‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’”

¹¹So I swore on oath in My anger, “They shall never enter My rest.”

¹“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the Lord of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”

²“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.

³And He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; He will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver. Then they will present offerings to the Lord in righteousness.

⁷The slain will fall among you, and you will know that I am the Lord.

²⁵I also gave them over to statutes that were not good and ordinances by which they could not live.

²⁶And I pronounced them unclean through their gifts—the sacrifice of every firstborn in the fire—so that I might devastate them, in order that they would know that I am the Lord.

¹³Bring your worthless offerings no more; your incense is detestable to Me. New Moons, Sabbaths, and convocations—I cannot endure iniquity in a solemn assembly.

¹⁴I hate your New Moons and your appointed feasts. They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.

¹⁴Go and cry out to the gods you have chosen. Let them save you in your time of trouble.”

⁷and He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne and the place for the soles of My feet, where I will dwell among the Israelites forever. The house of Israel will never again defile My holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution and by the funeral offerings for their kings at their deaths.

¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols; leave him alone!

²⁵This is what the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel, says: As for you and your wives, you have spoken with your mouths and fulfilled with your hands your words: ‘We will surely perform our vows that we have made to burn incense to the Queen of Heaven and to pour out drink offerings to her.’ Go ahead, then, do what you have promised! Keep your vows!

²⁶Nevertheless, hear the word of the Lord, all you people of Judah living in Egypt: Behold, I have sworn by My great name, says the Lord, that never again will any man of Judah living in the land of Egypt invoke My name or say, ‘As surely as the Lord God lives.’

⁷I will bring them to My holy mountain and make them joyful in My house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on My altar, for My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations.”

⁷All the flocks of Kedar will be gathered to you; the rams of Nebaioth will serve you and go up on My altar with acceptance; I will adorn My glorious house.

⁴Then the offerings of Judah and Jerusalem will please the Lord, as in days of old and years gone by.

²³I will plant it on the mountain heights of Israel so that it will bear branches; it will yield fruit and become a majestic cedar. Birds of every kind will nest under it, taking shelter in the shade of its branches.

⁵you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.

²⁷At the end of these days, from the eighth day on, the priests are to present your burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar. Then I will accept you, declares the Lord God.’”

²⁵This is what the Lord God says: ‘When I gather the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they have been scattered, I will show Myself holy among them in the sight of the nations. Then they will dwell in their own land, which I have given to My servant Jacob.

¹⁷Therefore declare that this is what the Lord God says: ‘I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you from the countries to which you have been scattered, and I will give back to you the land of Israel.’

²³I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

²²And you are to declare that this is what the Lord God says: ‘Behold, I am against you, O Sidon, and I will be glorified within you. They will know that I am the Lord when I execute judgments against her and demonstrate My holiness through her.

³For behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will restore from captivity My people Israel and Judah, declares the Lord. I will restore them to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they will possess it.’”

³Then I Myself will gather the remnant of My flock from all the lands to which I have banished them, and I will return them to their pasture, where they will be fruitful and multiply.

¹³I will bring them out from the peoples, gather them from the countries, and bring them into their own land. I will feed them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines, and in all the settlements of the land.

²³I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

²³I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes.

²⁴For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of all the countries, and I will bring you back into your own land.

⁷I will give them a heart to know Me, that I am the Lord. They will be My people, and I will be their God, for they will return to Me with all their heart.

³⁸And I will purge you of those who rebel and transgress against Me. I will bring them out of the land in which they dwell, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁴⁴Then you will know, O house of Israel, that I am the Lord, when I have dealt with you for the sake of My name and not according to your wicked ways and corrupt acts, declares the Lord God.”

¹⁵Then I will return to My place until they admit their guilt and seek My face; in their affliction they will earnestly seek Me.”

⁹Then in the nations to which they have been carried captive, your survivors will remember Me—how I have been grieved by their adulterous hearts that turned away from Me, and by their eyes that lusted after idols. So they will loathe themselves for the evil they have done and for all their abominations.

¹⁸I have surely heard Ephraim’s moaning: ‘You disciplined me severely, like an untrained calf. Restore me, that I may return, for You are the Lord my God.

³¹Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your iniquities and abominations.

¹¹Consider what this godly sorrow has produced in you: what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what zeal, what vindication! In every way you have proved yourselves to be innocent in this matter.

⁶¹Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of My covenant with you.

⁶²So I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am the Lord,

²⁴‘Thus Ezekiel will be a sign for you; you will do everything that he has done. When this happens, you will know that I am the Lord God.’

²²But I withheld My hand and acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

¹⁴But I acted for the sake of My name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out.

⁹But I acted for the sake of My name, that it should not be profaned in the eyes of the nations among whom they were living, in whose sight I had revealed Myself to Israel by bringing them out of the land of Egypt.

¹Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to Your name be the glory, because of Your loving devotion, because of Your faithfulness.

²¹But I had concern for My holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they had gone.

²²Therefore tell the house of Israel that this is what the Lord God says: It is not for your sake that I will act, O house of Israel, but for My holy name, which you profaned among the nations to which you went.

²“Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel

¹⁶Now, therefore, hear the word of the Lord. You say: ‘Do not prophesy against Israel; do not preach against the house of Isaac.’

¹⁹The cities of the Negev have been shut tight, and no one can open them. All Judah has been carried into exile, wholly taken captive.

⁷I will appoint destroyers against you, each man with his weapons, and they will cut down the choicest of your cedars and throw them into the fire.

⁶“Do not preach,” they preach. “Do not preach these things; disgrace will not overtake us.”

⁷You must turn your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared, and prophesy against it.

¹⁴I will punish you as your deeds deserve, declares the Lord. I will kindle a fire in your forest that will consume everything around you.’”

¹⁸For wickedness burns like a fire that consumes the thorns and briers and kindles the forest thickets, which roll upward in billows of smoke.

¹⁹By the wrath of the Lord of Hosts the land is scorched, and the people are fuel for the fire. No man even spares his brother.

³¹For if men do these things while the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

²⁴Then all the trees of the field will know that I am the Lord. I bring the tall tree down and make the low tree tall. I dry up the green tree and make the withered tree flourish. I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done it.’”

¹Behold, the Lord lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants—

²people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor.

⁸Terror, pain, and anguish will seize them; they will writhe like a woman in labor. They will look at one another, their faces flushed with fear.

¹¹O Lord, Your hand is upraised, but they do not see it. They will see Your zeal for Your people and be put to shame. The fire set for Your enemies will consume them!

¹⁶All your enemies open their mouths against you. They hiss and gnash their teeth, saying, “We have swallowed her up. This is the day for which we have waited. We have lived to see it!”

¹⁷The Lord has done what He planned; He has accomplished His decree, which He ordained in days of old; He has overthrown you without pity. He has let the enemy gloat over you and exalted the horn of your foes.

²The captain of the guard found Jeremiah and said to him, “The Lord your God decreed this disaster on this place,

³and now the Lord has fulfilled it; He has done just as He said. Because you people have sinned against the Lord and have not obeyed His voice, this thing has happened to you.

²⁰then I will uproot Israel from the soil I have given them, and I will banish from My presence this temple I have sanctified for My Name. I will make it an object of scorn and ridicule among all the peoples.

²¹And when this temple has become a heap of rubble, all who pass by it will be appalled and say, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land and to this temple?’

²⁰Therefore this is what the Lord God says: Behold, My anger and My fury will be poured out on this place, on man and beast, on the trees of the field and the produce of the land, and it will burn and not be extinguished.

²⁴So all the nations will ask, ‘Why has the Lord done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’

²⁵And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt.

²⁵I have spoken these things to you in figures of speech. An hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you this way, but will tell you plainly about the Father.

¹⁸Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also began to debate with him. Some of them asked, “What is this babbler trying to say?” Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was proclaiming the good news of Jesus and the resurrection.

¹³This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’

¹⁴In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving.

²“Son of man, pose a riddle; speak a parable to the house of Israel