Ezekiel 4
The Siege of Jerusalem Predicted
1 “As for you, son of man, take a brick for yourself and lay it before you. You shall put it before your face and outline the city of Jerusalem on it.†
2 On this outline you shall draw a wall, build a rampart round about it, put a barricade against it, place armies around it, and arrange it with engines of war all around.
3 Then take for yourself a frying-pan made of iron, and set it as an iron wall between you and the city. Set your face against the city, and it shall be in confinement; and you shall shut it up completely. This will be a sign to the children of Israel.
4 “You shall sleep on your left side and lay the acts of unrighteousness of the house of Israel upon it. For one hundred and fifty days, for this number of days, you shall sleep on it; for you shall bear their acts of unrighteousness.†
5 For I have laid on you their two acts of unrighteousness according to the number of the days, one hundred and ninety days. You shall bear the acts of unrighteousness of the house of Israel.
6 When you accomplish all this, then you shall sleep on your right side; and you shall bear the acts of unrighteousness of the house of Judah for forty days. I have appointed you a day for each year.
7 You shall set your face toward the confinement of Jerusalem; and you shall strengthen your arm and prophesy against it.
8 Behold, I have appointed chains for you, and you may turn from one side to the other until the days of your confinement are accomplished.
9 “Also take for yourself wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; put them into one vessel made of earth, and make loaves of bread for yourself. According to the number of days you sleep on your side, one hundred and ninety days, you shall eat them.
10 Your food which you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from time to time you shall eat them.
11 You shall also drink water by measure, one-sixth of a hin, and from time to time you shall drink.
12 You shall eat them as a barley cake baked in ashes. You shall bake them in their sight in the filth of human dung.†
13 Then you shall say, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: So shall the children of Israel eat unclean things among the Gentiles.’ ”
14 So I said, “Not so, O Lord God of Israel. Behold, my soul has not defiled itself with uncleanness, nor from my youth up until now have I eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has day-old meat entered my mouth.”
15 Then He said to me, “Behold, I give you cow dung instead of human waste, and you shall prepare your loaves of bread upon it.”
16 Then He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the support of bread in Jerusalem, and they shall eat bread by weight and in want and drink water by measure and in a state of ruin,
17 so as to become in need of bread and water. A man shall destroy his brother, and they shall waste away in their wrongdoings.
Psalms 109
1 A psalm by David. †The Lord said to my Lord, “Sit at My right hand, Until I make Your enemies the footstool of Your feet.”
2 The Lord shall send forth the rod of Your power from Zion, And rule in the midst of Your enemies.
3 With You is the beginning in the day of Your power, In the brightness of Your saints; “I have begotten You from the womb before the morning star.”
4 The Lord swore and will not repent, “You are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.”
5 The Lord at Your right hand crushed kings in the day of His wrath;
6 He shall judge among the nations; He shall fill them with dead bodies; He shall crush the heads of many on earth.
7 He shall drink from the brook on the way; Therefore, He shall raise His head high.
Psalms 110
1 Alleluia. †I will give thanks to You, O Lord, with my whole heart, In the council of the upright and in the assembly.
2 Great are the works of the Lord, Sought out in all things with regard to His will;
3 Thanksgiving and majesty are His work, And His righteousness continues unto ages of ages.
4 He made a remembrance of His wonders; The Lord is merciful and compassionate;
5 He gave food to those who fear Him; He shall remember His covenant forever.
6 He declared the strength of His works to His people, So as to give them the inheritance of the nations.
7 The works of His hands are truth and judgment; Faithful are all His commandments,
8 Established unto ages of ages, Made in truth and uprightness.
9 He sent redemption to His people; He commanded His covenant forever; Holy and fearful is His name.
10 The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord; A good understanding is in all who practice it. His praise continues unto ages of ages.
Proverbs of Solomon 24
13 My son, eat honey, for the honeycomb is good, That your throat may be sweetened.†
14 Thus you shall discern wisdom for your soul, For if you find it, there will be a good end to your life; And hope will not abandon you.
15 Do not bring an ungodly man to the dwelling of the righteous, Neither be deceived by the full satisfaction of the stomach.
16 For a righteous man will fall seven times and rise again, But the ungodly shall weaken in evils.†
17 If your enemy falls, do not rejoice over him, And do not exalt yourself at his stumbling;†
18 Because the Lord will see this, and it will not please Him, And He will turn His anger from him.
Hebrews 10
Continue to Enter and Draw Near
19 Therefore, brethren, having boldness to enter the Holiest by the blood of Jesus,
20 by a new and living way which He consecrated for us, through the veil, that is, His flesh,
21 and having a High Priest over the house of God,
22 let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.†
23 Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.
24 And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works,†
25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.†
The Danger of Apostasy
26 For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins,†
27 but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.
28 Anyone who has rejected Moses’ law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.
29 Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
30 For we know Him who said, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. And again, “The LORD will judge His people.”
31 It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
Continue to Persevere
32 But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings:†
33 partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated;
34 for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven.
35 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward.
36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
37 “For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry.
38 Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.”
39 But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.