2 Peter 1:12-21

¹² Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. ¹³ I think it right, as long as I am in this body,^[a] to stir you up by way of reminder, ¹⁴ since I know that the putting off of my body will be soon, as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. ¹⁵ And I will make every effort so that after my departure you may be able at any time to recall these things.

Christ’s Glory and the Prophetic Word

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. ¹⁷ For when he received honor and glory from God the Father, and the voice was borne to him by the Majestic Glory, “This is my beloved Son,^[b] with whom I am well pleased,” ¹⁸ we ourselves heard this very voice borne from heaven, for we were with him on the holy mountain. ¹⁹ And we have the prophetic word more fully confirmed, to which you will do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts, ²⁰ knowing this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture comes from someone’s own interpretation. ²¹ For no prophecy was ever produced by the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.

Footnotes

1. 2 Peter 1:13 Greek tent; also verse 14
2. 2 Peter 1:17 Or my Son, my (or the) Beloved

Ezekiel 4-8

The Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

4 “And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem. ² And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around. ³ And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

⁴ “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment^[a] of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment. ⁵ For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel. ⁶ And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. ⁷ And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city. ⁸ And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.

⁹ “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer,^[b] and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels^[c] a day; from day to day^[d] you shall eat it. ¹¹ And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin;^[e] from day to day you shall drink. ¹² And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung.” ¹³ And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” ¹⁴ Then I said, “Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself.^[f] From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth.” ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” ¹⁶ Moreover, he said to me, “Son of man, behold, I will break the supply^[g] of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay. ¹⁷ I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

5 “And you, O son of man, take a sharp sword. Use it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. ² A third part you shall burn in the fire in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and I will unsheathe the sword after them. ³ And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. ⁴ And of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: This is Jerusalem. I have set her in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness more than the nations, and against my statutes more than the countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. ⁷ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, and have not^[h] even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, ⁸ therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, am against you. And I will execute judgments^[i] in your midst in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations I will do with you what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. And I will execute judgments on you, and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. ¹¹ Therefore, as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, because you have defiled my sanctuary with all your detestable things and with all your abominations, therefore I will withdraw.^[j] My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. ¹² A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

¹³ “Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—when I spend my fury upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you a desolation and an object of reproach among the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ You shall be^[k] a reproach and a taunt, a warning and a horror, to the nations all around you, when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— ¹⁶ when I send against you^[l] the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon you and break your supply^[m] of bread. ¹⁷ I will send famine and wild beasts against you, and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”

Judgment Against Idolatry

6 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, ³ and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to the mountains and the hills, to the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. ⁴ Your altars shall become desolate, and your incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. ⁵ And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, and I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you dwell, the cities shall be waste and the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined,^[n] your idols broken and destroyed, your incense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. ⁷ And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

⁸ “Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, ⁹ then those of you who escape will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes that go whoring after their idols. And they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations. ¹⁰ And they shall know that I am the Lord. I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

¹¹ Thus says the Lord God: “Clap your hands and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. ¹² He who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. Thus I will spend my fury upon them. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, on every high hill, on all the mountaintops, under every green tree, and under every leafy oak, wherever they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ And I will stretch out my hand against them and make the land desolate and waste, in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to Riblah.^[o] Then they will know that I am the Lord.”

The Day of the Wrath of the Lord

7 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “And you, O son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: An end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.^[p] 3 Now the end is upon you, and I will send my anger upon you; I will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. ⁴ And my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but I will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord.

⁵ “Thus says the Lord God: Disaster after disaster!^[q] Behold, it comes. ⁶ An end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. ⁷ Your doom^[r] has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. The time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not of joyful shouting on the mountains. ⁸ Now I will soon pour out my wrath upon you, and spend my anger against you, and judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. ⁹ And my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. Then you will know that I am the Lord, who strikes.

¹⁰ “Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! Your doom has come; the rod has blossomed; pride has budded. ¹¹ Violence has grown up into a rod of wickedness. None of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them.^[s] 12 The time has come; the day has arrived. Let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn, for wrath is upon all their multitude.^[t] 13 For the seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live. For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life.^[u]

¹⁴ “They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but none goes to battle, for my wrath is upon all their multitude. ¹⁵ The sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. He who is in the field dies by the sword, and him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. ¹⁶ And if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like doves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. ¹⁷ All hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. ¹⁸ They put on sackcloth, and horror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and baldness on all their heads. ¹⁹ They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. Their silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling block of their iniquity. ²⁰ His beautiful ornament they used for pride, and they made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore I make it an unclean thing to them. ²¹ And I will give it into the hands of foreigners for prey, and to the wicked of the earth for spoil, and they shall profane it. ²² I will turn my face from them, and they shall profane my treasured^[v] place. Robbers shall enter and profane it.

²³ “Forge a chain!^[w] For the land is full of bloody crimes and the city is full of violence. ²⁴ I will bring the worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. I will put an end to the pride of the strong, and their holy places^[x] shall be profaned. ²⁵ When anguish comes, they will seek peace, but there shall be none. ²⁶ Disaster comes upon disaster; rumor follows rumor. They seek a vision from the prophet, while the law^[y] perishes from the priest and counsel from the elders. ²⁷ The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way I will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Abominations in the Temple

8 In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. ² Then I looked, and behold, a form that had the appearance of a man.^[z] Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like gleaming metal.^[aa] 3 He put out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and brought me in visions of God to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, where was the seat of the image of jealousy, which provokes to jealousy. ⁴ And behold, the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the valley.

⁵ Then he said to me, “Son of man, lift up your eyes now toward the north.” So I lifted up my eyes toward the north, and behold, north of the altar gate, in the entrance, was this image of jealousy. ⁶ And he said to me, “Son of man, do you see what they are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel are committing here, to drive me far from my sanctuary? But you will see still greater abominations.”

⁷ And he brought me to the entrance of the court, and when I looked, behold, there was a hole in the wall. ⁸ Then he said to me, “Son of man, dig in the wall.” So I dug in the wall, and behold, there was an entrance. ⁹ And he said to me, “Go in, and see the vile abominations that they are committing here.” ¹⁰ So I went in and saw. And there, engraved on the wall all around, was every form of creeping things and loathsome beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel. ¹¹ And before them stood seventy men of the elders of the house of Israel, with Jaazaniah the son of Shaphan standing among them. Each had his censer in his hand, and the smoke of the cloud of incense went up. ¹² Then he said to me, “Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel are doing in the dark, each in his room of pictures? For they say, ‘The Lord does not see us, the Lord has forsaken the land.’” ¹³ He said also to me, “You will see still greater abominations that they commit.”

¹⁴ Then he brought me to the entrance of the north gate of the house of the Lord, and behold, there sat women weeping for Tammuz. ¹⁵ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? You will see still greater abominations than these.”

¹⁶ And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about twenty-five men, with their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping the sun toward the east. ¹⁷ Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O son of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit the abominations that they commit here, that they should fill the land with violence and provoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their^[ab] nose. ¹⁸ Therefore I will act in wrath. My eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. And though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

Footnotes

1. Ezekiel 4:4 Or iniquity; also verses 5, 6, 17
2. Ezekiel 4:9 A type of wheat
3. Ezekiel 4:10 A shekel was about 2/5 ounce or 11 grams
4. Ezekiel 4:10 Or at a set time daily; also verse 11
5. Ezekiel 4:11 A hin was about 4 quarts or 3.5 liters
6. Ezekiel 4:14 Hebrew my soul (or throat) has never been made unclean
7. Ezekiel 4:16 Hebrew staff
8. Ezekiel 5:7 Some Hebrew manuscripts and Syriac lack not
9. Ezekiel 5:8 The same Hebrew expression can mean obey rules, or execute judgments, depending on the context
10. Ezekiel 5:11 Some Hebrew manuscripts I will cut you down
11. Ezekiel 5:15 Dead Sea Scroll, Septuagint, Syriac, Vulgate, Targum; Masoretic Text And it shall be
12. Ezekiel 5:16 Hebrew them
13. Ezekiel 5:16 Hebrew staff
14. Ezekiel 6:6 Or and punished
15. Ezekiel 6:14 Some Hebrew manuscripts; most Hebrew manuscripts Diblah
16. Ezekiel 7:2 Or earth
17. Ezekiel 7:5 Some Hebrew manuscripts (compare Syriac, Targum); most Hebrew manuscripts Disaster! A unique disaster!
18. Ezekiel 7:7 The meaning of the Hebrew word is uncertain; also verse 10
19. Ezekiel 7:11 The meaning of this last Hebrew sentence is uncertain
20. Ezekiel 7:12 Or abundance; also verses 13, 14
21. Ezekiel 7:13 The meaning of this last Hebrew sentence is uncertain
22. Ezekiel 7:22 Or secret
23. Ezekiel 7:23 Probably refers to an instrument of captivity
24. Ezekiel 7:24 By revocalization (compare Septuagint); Hebrew and those who sanctify them
25. Ezekiel 7:26 Or instruction
26. Ezekiel 8:2 By revocalization (compare Septuagint); Hebrew of fire
27. Ezekiel 8:2 Or amber
28. Ezekiel 8:17 Or my

English Standard Version (ESV)

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.