Ezekiel 8
Abominations in Jerusalem
1 Again it came to pass in the sixth year, in the fifth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Judah sitting before me, that the hand of the Lord came upon me.†
2 Then I looked, and behold, there was the likeness of a man, as of fire from His waist down, and from His waist up like the appearance of amber.
3 He extended what looked like a hand and raised me up by the crown of my head. The Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the sky and brought me in a vision of God to Jerusalem, to the porches of the inner gate that looks to the north, where the pillar of idolatry was.
4 Behold, the glory of the Lord God of Israel was there, like the vision I saw in the plain.
5 Then He said to me, “Son of man, lift your eyes toward the north.” So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and behold, I looked from the north toward the eastern gate.
6 Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing? They commit great acts of lawlessness here to keep Me from My sanctuary. Now you will see even greater acts of lawlessness.”†
7 So He brought me to the porches of the court.
8 Then He said to me, “Son of man, dig a hole.” So I dug, and behold, a door.
9 He said to me, “Go in, and see the lawless deeds they are doing here.”
10 So I went in, and behold, I saw vain abominations—all the idols of the house of Israel were portrayed on the wall all around.
11 There were seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, and in their midst stood Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan. Each man had a censer in his hand, and the smoke of the incense rose up.
12 Then He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what the elders of the house of Israel are doing, each one of them in their private bedroom? For they said, ‘The Lord does not see; the Lord has forsaken the land.’ ”
13 Then He said to me, “You will see even greater acts of lawlessness they are doing.”
14 So He brought me to the porches of the court of the Lord’s house that faces north; and behold, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.
15 Then He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? You will see worse practices than these.”
16 So He brought me into the inner court of the Lord’s house; and behold, there, at the outer entrance of the Lord’s temple, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty men. They stood with their backs toward the temple of the Lord, with their faces in the opposite direction; and they were worshiping the sun.
17 Then He said to me, “Do you see this, son of man? This is not a trivial thing for the house of Judah to commit these lawless acts which they commit here, is it? For they have filled the land with lawlessness, and behold, they are as those who treat Me with contempt.
18 As for Me, I shall treat them in anger. My eye will not spare, nor will I have mercy.”
Ezekiel 9
1 Then He cried out in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “The punishment of the city is near, and each had instruments of destruction in his hand.”
2 Behold, six men were coming from the way of the high gate that looks toward the north, and each one’s ax was in his hand. One man among them was clothed with a full-length robe, with a belt of sapphire about his waist. They entered and stood near the bronze altar.†
3 Then the glory of the God of Israel went up from the cherubim, and the glory which was over them went into the inner court of the house. He called to the man clothed with the long robe with the belt on his waist,
4 and He said to him, “Go through the midst of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and groan over all the lawless deeds taking place within her.”
5 To the others He said in my hearing, “Go after him through the city and kill. Let not your eyes spare, and have no mercy.
6 Utterly destroy old men and youth, and virgins, infants, and women, but do not come near anyone on whom is the mark. Begin at My sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were inside the house.
7 Then He said to them, “Defile the house, and go out and fill the roads with the dead, and smite.”
8 So it was, as they were smiting, I fell on my face and cried out, and said, “Alas, O Lord, are You wiping out all the remnant of Israel in pouring out Your anger on Jerusalem?”
9 Then He said to me, “The wrongdoing of the house of Israel and Judah has become exceedingly great, for the land is full of many peoples, and the city is full of wrongdoings and uncleanness. For they said, ‘The Lord forsook the land, and the Lord does not look upon it.’
10 My eye will not spare, nor will I have mercy, but I will recompense their deeds on their own heads.”
11 Then behold, the man clothed with the long robe and girded with the belt on his waist reported back and said, “I have done as You commanded me.”
Psalms 113
12 The idols of the nations are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands;
13 They have a mouth, but they shall not speak; They have eyes, but they shall not see;
14 They have ears, but they shall not hear; They have noses, but they shall not smell;
15 They have hands, but they shall not feel; They have feet, but they shall not walk; They shall make no sound with their throats.
16 May those who make them become like them, And all who trust in them.
17 The house of Israel hoped in the Lord; He is their help and their protector.
18 The house of Aaron hoped in the Lord; He is their help and their protector.
19 Those who feared the Lord hoped in the Lord; He is their help and their protector.
20 The Lord remembered us and blessed us; He blessed the house of Israel; He blessed the house of Aaron;
21 He blessed those who feared the Lord, The least with the greatest.
22 May the Lord increase you, Both you and your children;
23 You are blessed by the Lord, Who made heaven and earth.
24 The heaven of heaven belongs to the Lord, But He gave the earth to the sons of men.
25 The dead shall not praise You, O Lord, Neither do all who descend into Hades;
26 But we who live shall bless the Lord, From this present time and unto the ages.
Proverbs of Solomon 24
29 He who says about an ungodly man, “He is righteous,” Shall be accursed to people and despicable to nations;
30 But those who reprove him shall appear more excellent, And a good blessing shall come upon them; And they will kiss the lips that answer good words.
31 Prepare your works for your going forth, And prepare yourself for the field;†
32 And walk behind me, And you shall build up your house.
33 Do not be a false witness against your countryman, Neither open wide your lips;
34 Do not say, “I will treat him as he treated me, And I shall avenge myself on him wherein he wronged me.”
Hebrews 12
Look to Jesus
1 Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,†
2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.†
Do Not Despise God’s Chastening
3 For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.
4 You have not yet resisted to bloodshed, striving against sin.†
5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to sons: “My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him;
6 For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives.”
7 If you endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom a father does not chasten?
8 But if you are without chastening, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect. Shall we not much more readily be in subjection to the Father of spirits and live?
10 For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them, but He for our profit, that we may be partakers of His holiness.
11 Now no chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
12 Therefore strengthen the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees,
13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be dislocated, but rather be healed.†
14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord:†
15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
16 lest there be any fornicator or profane person like Esau, who for one morsel of food sold his birthright.
17 For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.
The Heavenly Jerusalem
18 For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest,†
19 and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore.
20 (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.”
21 And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)
22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels,†
23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect,
24 to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.
25 See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven,†
26 whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” †
27 Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain.