Daily Devotion | Spiritual Practices

Who Is Jesus to You?: Discovering Christ Personally and Powerfully

Wisdom

Seeing the Big Picture

From Wilderness to Resurrection - Lent With Hope 103.2

LENT: Return to the Lord

Lent: A Heart Prepared

Compassion for Sexual Brokenness

Repentant, Faith-Based Life | Spiritual Practices

Moments of Joy

The Listener’s Bible®: NIV Edition

New International Version™  (Anglicised), Audio Edition

Holy Bible, New International Version™ (Anglicised), South Asian Audio Edition

<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
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 <div class="chapter ch21" data-usfm="EZK.21">
 <div class="label">21</div><div class="s1">Babylon as God&#8217;s Sword of Judgment</div><div class="p"> # In Hebrew texts 21:1-32 is numbered 21:6-37. 1The word of the Lord came to me: 2&#8220;Son of man, set your face against Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuary. Prophesy against the land of Israel 3and say to her: &#8216;This is what the Lord says: I am against you. I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. 4Because I am going to cut off the righteous and the wicked, my sword will be unsheathed against everyone from south to north. 5Then all people will know that I the Lord have drawn my sword from its sheath; it will not return again.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 6&#8220;Therefore groan, son of man! Groan before them with broken heart and bitter grief. 7And when they ask you, &#8216;Why are you groaning?&#8217; you shall say, &#8216;Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt with fear and every hand go limp; every spirit will become faint and every leg will be wet with urine.&#8217; It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 8The word of the Lord came to me: 9&#8220;Son of man, prophesy and say, &#8216;This is what the Lord says:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;A sword, a sword,</div><div class="q2">sharpened and polished&#8212;</div><div class="q1"> 10sharpened for the slaughter,</div><div class="q2">polished to flash like lightning!</div><div class="p">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Shall we rejoice in the scepter of my royal son? The sword despises every such stick.</div><div class="q1"> 11&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;The sword is appointed to be polished,</div><div class="q2">to be grasped with the hand;</div><div class="q1">it is sharpened and polished,</div><div class="q2">made ready for the hand of the slayer.</div><div class="q1"> 12Cry out and wail, son of man,</div><div class="q2">for it is against my people;</div><div class="q2">it is against all the princes of Israel.</div><div class="q1">They are thrown to the sword</div><div class="q2">along with my people.</div><div class="q1">Therefore beat your breast.</div><div class="p"> 13&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Testing will surely come. And what if even the scepter, which the sword despises, does not continue? declares the Sovereign Lord.&#8217;</div><div class="q1"> 14&#8220;So then, son of man, prophesy</div><div class="q2">and strike your hands together.</div><div class="q1">Let the sword strike twice,</div><div class="q2">even three times.</div><div class="q1">It is a sword for slaughter&#8212;</div><div class="q2">a sword for great slaughter,</div><div class="q2">closing in on them from every side.</div><div class="q1"> 15So that hearts may melt with fear</div><div class="q2">and the fallen be many,</div><div class="q1">I have stationed the sword for slaughter#21:15 Septuagint; the meaning of the Hebrew for this word is uncertain.</div><div class="q2">at all their gates.</div><div class="q1">Look! It is forged to strike like lightning,</div><div class="q2">it is grasped for slaughter.</div><div class="q1"> 16Slash to the right, you sword,</div><div class="q2">then to the left,</div><div class="q2">wherever your blade is turned.</div><div class="q1"> 17I too will strike my hands together,</div><div class="q2">and my wrath will subside.</div><div class="q1">I the Lord have spoken.&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 18The word of the Lord came to me: 19&#8220;Son of man, mark out two roads for the sword of the king of Babylon to take, both starting from the same country. Make a signpost where the road branches off to the city. 20Mark out one road for the sword to come against Rabbah of the Ammonites and another against Judah and fortified Jerusalem. 21For the king of Babylon will stop at the fork in the road, at the junction of the two roads, to seek an omen: He will cast lots with arrows, he will consult his idols, he will examine the liver. 22Into his right hand will come the lot for Jerusalem, where he is to set up battering rams, to give the command to slaughter, to sound the battle cry, to set battering rams against the gates, to build a ramp and to erect siege works. 23It will seem like a false omen to those who have sworn allegiance to him, but he will remind them of their guilt and take them captive.</div><div class="p"> 24&#8220;Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: &#8216;Because you people have brought to mind your guilt by your open rebellion, revealing your sins in all that you do&#8212;because you have done this, you will be taken captive.</div><div class="p"> 25&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;You profane and wicked prince of Israel, whose day has come, whose time of punishment has reached its climax, 26this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Take off the turban, remove the crown. It will not be as it was: The lowly will be exalted and the exalted will be brought low. 27A ruin! A ruin! I will make it a ruin! The crown will not be restored until he to whom it rightfully belongs shall come; to him I will give it.&#8217;</div><div class="p"> 28&#8220;And you, son of man, prophesy and say, &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says about the Ammonites and their insults:</div><div class="q1">&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;A sword, a sword,</div><div class="q2">drawn for the slaughter,</div><div class="q1">polished to consume</div><div class="q2">and to flash like lightning!</div><div class="q1"> 29Despite false visions concerning you</div><div class="q2">and lying divinations about you,</div><div class="q1">it will be laid on the necks</div><div class="q2">of the wicked who are to be slain,</div><div class="q1">whose day has come,</div><div class="q2">whose time of punishment has reached its climax.</div><div class="b"></div><div class="q1"> 30&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;Let the sword return to its sheath.</div><div class="q2">In the place where you were created,</div><div class="q1">in the land of your ancestry,</div><div class="q2">I will judge you.</div><div class="q1"> 31I will pour out my wrath on you</div><div class="q2">and breathe out my fiery anger against you;</div><div class="q1">I will deliver you into the hands of brutal men,</div><div class="q2">men skilled in destruction.</div><div class="q1"> 32You will be fuel for the fire,</div><div class="q2">your blood will be shed in your land,</div><div class="q1">you will be remembered no more;</div><div class="q2">for I the Lord have spoken.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div>
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<div class="version vid111 iso6393eng" data-vid="111" data-iso6393="eng">
 <div class="book bkEZK">
 <div class="chapter ch22" data-usfm="EZK.22">
 <div class="label">22</div><div class="s1">Judgment on Jerusalem&#8217;s Sins</div><div class="p"> 1The word of the Lord came to me:</div><div class="b"></div><div class="p"> 2&#8220;Son of man, will you judge her? Will you judge this city of bloodshed? Then confront her with all her detestable practices 3and say: &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You city that brings on herself doom by shedding blood in her midst and defiles herself by making idols, 4you have become guilty because of the blood you have shed and have become defiled by the idols you have made. You have brought your days to a close, and the end of your years has come. Therefore I will make you an object of scorn to the nations and a laughingstock to all the countries. 5Those who are near and those who are far away will mock you, you infamous city, full of turmoil.</div><div class="p"> 6&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;See how each of the princes of Israel who are in you uses his power to shed blood. 7In you they have treated father and mother with contempt; in you they have oppressed the foreigner and mistreated the fatherless and the widow. 8You have despised my holy things and desecrated my Sabbaths. 9In you are slanderers who are bent on shedding blood; in you are those who eat at the mountain shrines and commit lewd acts. 10In you are those who dishonor their father&#8217;s bed; in you are those who violate women during their period, when they are ceremonially unclean. 11In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor&#8217;s wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father&#8217;s daughter. 12In you are people who accept bribes to shed blood; you take interest and make a profit from the poor. You extort unjust gain from your neighbors. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign Lord.</div><div class="p"> 13&#8220;&#8198;&#8216;I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have made and at the blood you have shed in your midst. 14Will your courage endure or your hands be strong in the day I deal with you? I the Lord have spoken, and I will do it. 15I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you through the countries; and I will put an end to your uncleanness. 16When you have been defiled#22:16 Or When I have allotted you your inheritance in the eyes of the nations, you will know that I am the Lord.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 17Then the word of the Lord came to me: 18&#8220;Son of man, the people of Israel have become dross to me; all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace. They are but the dross of silver. 19Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: &#8216;Because you have all become dross, I will gather you into Jerusalem. 20As silver, copper, iron, lead and tin are gathered into a furnace to be melted with a fiery blast, so will I gather you in my anger and my wrath and put you inside the city and melt you. 21I will gather you and I will blow on you with my fiery wrath, and you will be melted inside her. 22As silver is melted in a furnace, so you will be melted inside her, and you will know that I the Lord have poured out my wrath on you.&#8217;&#8198;&#8221;</div><div class="p"> 23Again the word of the Lord came to me: 24&#8220;Son of man, say to the land, &#8216;You are a land that has not been cleansed or rained on in the day of wrath.&#8217; 25There is a conspiracy of her princes#22:25 Septuagint; Hebrew prophets within her like a roaring lion tearing its prey; they devour people, take treasures and precious things and make many widows within her. 26Her priests do violence to my law and profane my holy things; they do not distinguish between the holy and the common; they teach that there is no difference between the unclean and the clean; and they shut their eyes to the keeping of my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them. 27Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey; they shed blood and kill people to make unjust gain. 28Her prophets whitewash these deeds for them by false visions and lying divinations. They say, &#8216;This is what the Sovereign Lord says&#8217;&#8212;when the Lord has not spoken. 29The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the foreigner, denying them justice.</div><div class="p"> 30&#8220;I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one. 31So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign Lord.&#8221;</div>
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