28 August - Ezekiel 5-8

Jude Thu Aug 16, 2018 9:38 pm

My soul doth magnify my YAH, and my spirit hath rejoiced in EL my Saviour; For HE that is mighty hath done to me great things; and Holy is HIS Name. Now unto HIM who is ever present in my helpless estate; who is able to keep me from falling and to present me faultless before the presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, unto the King Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, the only wise EL our Saviour be honour and glory and majesty, dominion and power both now and for ever Halleluyah!

EZEKIEL 5

1“And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor, and you shall pass it over your head and your beard. And you shall take scales to weigh and divide the hair.

2“Burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city when the days of the siege are completed. And you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and scatter one-third in the wind. And I shall draw out a sword after them.

3“And you shall take a few hairs from there and bind them in the edge of your garment.

4“And take again some of them, and throw them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire. From it a fire shall spread unto all the house of Yisra’ĕl.

5“Thus said the Master יהוה, ‘This is Yerushalayim which I have set in the midst of the gentiles, with the other lands all around her.

6‘But she rebelled against My rightrulings, doing wrong, more than the gentiles, and My laws more than the lands all around her. For they have rejected My right-rulings, and they have not walked in My laws.’

7“Therefore thus said the Master יהוה, ‘Because you have rebelled more than the gentiles all around you, and have not walked in My laws, nor done My right-rulings, nor even done according to the right-rulings of the gentiles all around you,’

8therefore thus said the Master יהוה, ‘Look I Myself am against you and shall execute judgments in your midst before the eyes of the gentiles.

9‘And I shall do among you what I have never done, and the like of which I never do again, because of all your abominations.

10‘Therefore fathers are going to eat their sons in your midst, and sons eat their fathers. And I shall execute judgments among you and scatter all your remnant to all the winds.

11‘Therefore, as I live,’ declares the Master יהוה, ‘because you have defiled My set-apart place with all your disgusting matters and with all your abominations, therefore I also withdraw. And My eye shall not pardon, nor shall I spare.

12‘One-third of you shall die of pestilence, and be consumed with scarcity of food in your midst. And one-third shall fall by the sword all around you. And I shall scatter another third to all the winds, and draw out a sword after them.

13‘And My displeasure shall be completed. And I shall bring My wrath to rest upon them, and I shall be eased. And they shall know that I, יהוה, have spoken it in My ardour, when I have completed My wrath upon them.

14‘And I shall make you a waste and a reproach among the gentiles that are all around you, before the eyes of all who pass by.

15‘And it shall be a reproach, an object of scorn, a warning, and an astonishment to the gentiles that are all around you, when I execute judgments among you in displeasure and in wrath and in heated chastisements. I, יהוה, have spoken.

16‘When I send against them the evil arrows of scarcity of food which shall be for their destruction, which I send to destroy you, I shall increase the scarcity of food upon you and cut off your supply of bread.

17‘And I shall send against you scarcity of food and evil beasts, and they shall bereave you. And pestilence and blood shall pass through you, while I bring the sword against you. I, יהוה, have spoken.’ ”

EZEKIEL 6

1And the word of יהוה came to me, saying,

2“Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Yisra’ĕl, and prophesy against them.

3“And you shall say, ‘O mountains of Yisra’ĕl, hear the word of the Master יהוה!’ Thus said the Master יהוה to the mountains, to the hills, to the ravines, and to the valleys, “Look, I Myself am bringing a sword against you, and I shall destroy your high places.

4“And your altars shall be ruined, your sun-pillars shall be broken in pieces. And I shall make your slain fall in front of your idols,

5and lay the corpses of the children of Yisra’ĕl in front of their idols, and scatter your bones all around your altars.

6“In all your dwelling places the cities shall be destroyed and the high places deserted, so that your altars are broken and bear their punishment. And your idols shall be smashed and made to cease, and your sun-pillars cut down, and your works blotted out.

7“And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am יהוה.

8“But I shall leave a remnant, in that some of you shall escape the sword among the gentiles, when you are scattered throughout the lands.

9“And those of you who escape shall remember Me among the gentiles where they have been taken captive, because I have been broken by their adulterous heart which has turned away from Me, and by their eyes which whored after their idols. And they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have done in all their abominations.

10“And they shall know that I am יהוה, and not for naught have I spoken to do this evil to them.”

11‘Thus said the Master יהוה, “Strike with your hand and stamp your feet, and say, ‘Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Yisra’ĕl who shall fall by sword, by scarcity of food, and by pestilence!

12‘He who is far off shall die by pestilence, he who is near fall by the sword, and he who is left over and is besieged die by scarcity of food. And I shall complete My wrath upon them.

13‘And you shall know that I am יהוה, when their slain are among their idols all around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every thick oak, wherever they offered sweet incense to all their idols.

14‘And I shall stretch out My hand against them and make the land a wasteland, even more waste than the wilderness toward Diḇlah, in all their dwelling places. And they shall know that I am יהוה.’ ” ’ ”

EZEKIEL 7

1And the word of יהוה came to me, saying,

2“And you, son of man, this is what the Master יהוה said to the land of Yisra’ĕl, ‘An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.

3‘Now the end is upon you, and I shall send My displeasure against you, and judge you according to your ways, and repay you for all your abominations.

4‘And My eye shall not pardon you, nor would I spare, for I repay your ways while your abominations are in your midst. And you shall know that I am יהוה!’

5“Thus said the Master יהוה, ‘A calamity, an only calamity, look, it has come!

6‘An end has come, the end has come! It has awakened against you, look, it has come!

7‘The turn has come to you, O inhabitants of the land. The time has come, a day of uproar is near, and not of rejoicing in the mountains.

8‘Soon I shall pour out My wrath, and shall complete My displeasure upon you, and judge you according to your ways, and repay you for all your abominations.

9‘And My eye shall not pardon, nor would I spare. I give you according to your ways while your abominations are in your midst. And you shall know that I am יהוה who smites.

10‘See, the day! See, it has come! The turn has come, the rod has blossomed, pride has budded.

11‘The violence has grown into a rod of wrongdoing. There is none of them, and none of its crowd, and none of their riches, and none eminent among them.

12‘The time has come, and the day has arrived. ‘Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is on all its crowd.

13‘For the seller shall not return to what has been sold, though they are still alive. For the vision is for all its crowd – it shall not turn back. And because of his crookedness no one holds fast to his life.

14‘They have blown the trumpet and all is prepared, but no one goes to battle, for My wrath is on all its crowd.

15‘The sword is outside, and the pestilence and the scarcity of food inside. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and he who is in a city, scarcity of food and pestilence devour him,

16while they who escape of them shall escape and be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them mourning, each for his crookedness.

17‘All hands go limp, and all knees become as water.

18‘And they shall gird on sackcloth, and be covered with trembling. And shame shall be on every face, and baldness on all their heads.

19‘They throw their silver into the streets, and their gold becomes as filth. Their silver and their gold is unable to deliver them in the day of the wrath of יהוה. They do not satisfy their appetite, nor fill their stomachs, because it has been their stumbling-block of crookedness.

20‘And the splendour of His ornaments, He set it in excellency. But they made from it the images of their abominations and their disgusting matters. Therefore I shall make it like filth to them.

21‘And I shall give it for a prey into the hands of strangers, and to the wrong of the earth for a spoil, and they shall profane it.

22‘And I shall turn My face from them. And they shall profane My secret place, for destroyers shall enter it and profane it.

23‘Make a chain, for the land has been filled with crimes of blood, and the city has been filled with violence.

24‘And I shall bring the evil ones of the gentiles, and they shall possess their houses. And I shall cause the pride of the strong to cease, and their set-apart places shall be profaned.

25‘Destruction shall come. And they shall seek peace, but there is none.

26‘Calamity upon calamity shall come, and report shall be upon report. And they shall seek a vision from a prophet. But the teaching has perished from the priest, and counsel from the elders!

27‘Let the sovereign mourn, and let the prince put on despair, and let the hands of the common people tremble. And I shall deal with them according to their way, and judge them with their own right-rulings. And they shall know that I am יהוה!’ ”

EZEKIEL 8

1And it came to be in the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth of the month, as I sat in my house with the elders of Yehuḏah sitting before me, that the hand of the Master יהוה fell upon me there.

2And I looked and saw a likeness, like the appearance of fire. From His waist and downward the appearance was like fire, and from His waist and upward the appearance of brightness, like glowing metal.

3And He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my hair. And the Spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heavens, and brought me in visions of Elohim to Yerushalayim, to the door of the north gate of the inner court, where the seat of the image of jealousy was, which causes jealousy.

4And see, the esteem of the Elohim of Yisra’ĕl was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain.

5And He said to me, “Son of man, please lift your eyes toward the north.” And I lifted my eyes northward, and north of the altar gate I saw this image of jealousy in the entrance.

6And He said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations which the house of Yisra’ĕl are doing here, driving Me away from My set-apart place? And you are to see still greater abominations.”

7Then He brought me to the door of the court. And I looked and saw a hole in the wall.

8And He said to me, “Son of man, please dig into the wall.” And when I dug into the wall I saw a door.

9And He said to me, “Go in, and see the evil abominationsa which they are doing there.”

10And I went in and looked and saw all kinds of creeping creatures, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Yisra’ĕl, carved all around on the walls.

11And facing them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Yisra’ĕl, and in their midst stood Ya‛azanyahu son of Shaphan. Each one had a censer in his hand, and a thick cloud of incense went up.

12And He said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Yisra’ĕl are doing in the dark, each one in the room of his idols? For they say, ‘יהוה does not see us, יהוה has forsaken the land.’ ”

13And He said to me, “You are to see still greater abominations which they are doing.”

14And He brought me to the door of the north gate of the House of יהוה, and I saw women sitting there, weeping for Tammuz.

15Then He said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You are to see still greater abominations than these.”

16And He brought me into the inner court of the House of יהוה. And there, at the door of the Hĕḵal of יהוה, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men with their backs toward the Hĕḵal of יהוה and their faces toward the east, and they were bowing themselves eastward to the sun.

17And He said to me, “Have you seen, O son of man? Is it a small matter to the house of Yehuḏah to do the abominations which they have done here? For they have filled the land with violence, and turn back to provoke Me. And see, they are putting the branch to My nose.

18“Therefore I shall indeed deal in wrath. My eye shall not pardon nor would I spare. And they shall cry in My ears with a loud voice, but I shall not hear them.”