Ezekiel 20 Cross References - ISV

¹ A Prophecy against Israel’s EldersOn the seventh year, on the tenth day of the fifth month, men came from the elders of Israel to seek the LORD. They sat down in front of me.
² “Son of Man,” the LORD told me, ³ “Tell the elders of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord GOD asks, “Did you come to inquire of me? As long as I live, I won’t let myself be sought by you,” declares the Lord GOD.’
⁴ “Will you judge them? Son of Man, will you indeed judge them? Teach them about the detestable things that their ancestors did. ⁵ Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says, “The day I chose Israel, when I made my commitment to the descendants of Jacob’s house, I revealed myself to them in the land of Egypt and I made my promise to them with the words, ‘I am the LORD your God.’ ⁶ That day I promised to bring them out of the land of Egypt to the land that I had explored for them—a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s the most beautiful of all lands. ⁷ Then I told them, ‘Each of you are to abandon your detestable practices. You are not to defile yourselves with Egypt’s idols. I am the LORD your God.’”’”
⁸ A Brief History of Israel’s Rebellion“But they rebelled against me and weren’t willing to obey me. None of them abandoned their detestable practices or their Egyptian idols. So I said, ‘I’ll pour out my anger on them, extending my fury in the middle of the land of Egypt.’ ⁹ I did this so my reputation might not be tarnished among the nations where they were living, among whom I made myself known in their presence when I brought them out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁰ I brought them out of the land of Egypt to bring them to the wilderness ¹¹ where I gave them my statutes and revealed my ordinances to them, which if a person observes, he’ll live by them. ¹² Also, I instituted my Sabbath for them as a sign between me and them, so they would know that I am the LORD, who has set them apart.”
¹³ Israel Rebels in the Wilderness“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t live by my statutes. They despised my ordinances, which if a person observes, he’ll live by them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my anger on them and bring them to an end in the wilderness. ¹⁴ I did this so my reputation wouldn’t be tarnished among the nations in whose presence I had brought them out.
¹⁵ “Moreover, I solemnly swore to them in the wilderness that I wouldn’t bring them to the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands— ¹⁶ because they kept on rejecting my ordinances. They didn’t live life consistent with my statutes, they profaned my Sabbaths, and their hearts followed their idols. ¹⁷ Even then, I looked on them with compassion and didn’t completely destroy them in the wilderness. ¹⁸ I told their children in the wilderness, ‘You are not to follow the statutes of your ancestors, observe their ordinances, or be defiled by their idols. ¹⁹ I am the LORD your God. You are to follow my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them. ²⁰ You are to make my Sabbaths holy, and you are to let them serve as a sign between you and me, so that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’”
²¹ More of Israel’s Rebellion“But they rebelled against me. They didn’t live according to my statutes, observe my ordinances, or practice them, by which a person will live. They also kept profaning my Sabbaths. So I said that I was going to pour out my anger on them and in my anger I’m going to bring about a complete end to them in the wilderness. ²² But I withdrew my decision so my reputation wouldn’t be tarnished among the nations before whose eyes I brought them out.
²³ “Futhermore, I solemnly swore in the wilderness to disperse them among the nations and scatter them to other lands ²⁴ because they didn’t observe my ordinances. Instead, they rejected my statutes, profaned my Sabbaths, and worshipped their ancestors’ idols. ²⁵ So I gave them statutes that weren’t good and ordinances by which they could not live. ²⁶ I made them unclean because of their offerings, so they made all their firstborn to pass through the fire, so that I could make them astonished. Then they’ll know that I am the LORD.”
²⁷ The Blasphemy of Israel’s Ancestors“Therefore, Son of Man, you are to speak to the children of Israel and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Your ancestors also blasphemed me in their treacherous behavior against me. ²⁸ I brought them to the land that I had promised to give them. But whenever they saw any high hill and or any leafy tree, they slaughtered their sacrifices there and presented their offerings that provoked my anger. There they presented their pleasing aromas and poured out their drink offering. ²⁹ So I asked them, ‘What is the high place to which you’re going?’ That’s why the name of the place has been called Bamah to this day.”’
³⁰ “Therefore you are to say to Israel’s house, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Will you defile yourselves like your ancestors did by acting as a prostitute, consistent with their horrible deeds? ³¹ When you present your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with your idols to this day. Should I be inquired of by you, you house of Israel? As I live,” declares the LORD, “I certainly won’t be inquired of by you.” ³² The thing that you’re imagining is never going to happen, since you’re thinking, “We’ll be like the nations, like the clans of other lands who serve gods made from wood and stone.”’”
³³ The Coming Discipline of Israel“As I live,” declares the Lord GOD, “with my powerful hand and outstretched arm, along with my wrath poured out, I’ll reign as king over you. ³⁴ I’ll bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you were scattered. With a powerful hand, with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out, ³⁵ I’ll bring you into the wilderness of the nations. I’ll judge you right there, face to face. ³⁶ Just as I judged your ancestors in the wilderness in the land of Egypt, so I’ll judge you,” declares the LORD. ³⁷ “I’ll cause you to pass under the rod until I will have brought you into the bond of the covenant. ³⁸ I’ll eliminate the rebels among you, along with those who are transgressing against me. I’ll bring them out of the land where you’ve lived, but they won’t be able to enter the land of Israel. Then you’ll know that I am the LORD.”
³⁹ The Coming Regathering of IsraelAnd now, you house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says, “Go ahead and serve your idols, both now and later, but later you’ll listen to me, and you won’t profane my sacred name again by your offerings and idols. ⁴⁰ For on my holy mountain, on Israel’s high mountains,” declares the Lord GOD, “the whole of Israel’s house—all of it—will serve me there in the land. I’ll accept them there. And there I’ll demand your offerings, the first fruits of your portions of all your sacred things.
⁴¹ “When I will have brought you from among the people and have gathered you from the lands where you were scattered, I’ll accept you as a pleasing aroma. I’ll reveal my holiness among you, and the entire world will see it. ⁴² Then you’ll know that I, the LORD, brought you to the land of Israel, to the land that I promised to give to your ancestors. ⁴³ You’ll remember all your practices and evil actions by which you’ve become defiled. You’ll loathe yourselves because of all the evil things you’ve done. ⁴⁴ Then you’ll know that I am the LORD, when I will have dealt with you for the benefit of my own reputation and not according to your evil attitudes or corrupt practices, you house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.
⁴⁵ Coming Judgment on the SouthThis message came to me from the LORD: ⁴⁶ “Son of Man, turn to the south and oppose it, talking toward the south. ⁴⁷ Prophesy against the forest of the Negev, ‘Listen to this message from the LORD. This is what the Lord GOD says: “Look out! I’m about to ignite a fire and set it against you. It will devour every tree—whether green or dry—that lives in you. This powerful flame will not be extinguishable, and the entire surface from south to north will be scorched by it. ⁴⁸ Then everyone will see that I, the LORD, have kindled it, because it won’t be extinguished.”’”
⁴⁹ Ezekiel’s Complaint to GodThen I said, “O Lord GOD! They’re saying about me, ‘Isn’t he one to propound parables?’”

² so Jeroboam suggested to his wife, “Get up, disguise yourself so that no one will know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh where the prophet Ahijah lives. He’s the one who told me that I would be king over this people. ³ Take ten loaves with you, some cakes, and a jar of honey and go visit him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”
⁴ So that’s what Jeroboam’s wife did. She got up, went to Shiloh, and found Ahijah’s home. Ahijah was blind, because his eyes could not focus due to his age. ⁵ Meanwhile, the LORD had spoken to Ahijah, “Be on your guard! Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, because he is ill. You’re to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else!”
⁶ When she arrived, Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the doorway. He said this to her: “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. What is this pretension at being someone else? I have some harsh news.

¹⁵ When Micaiah approached the king, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should we go to war against Ramoth-gilead, or should I not?”
“Go to war,” Micaiah replied, “and you will be successful, because the LORD will hand it over to the king!”
¹⁶ When he heard this, the king asked him, “How many times do I have to make you swear to tell me nothing but the truth? Now do it in the name of the LORD!”
¹⁷ So Micaiah replied: “I saw all of Israel scattered on the mountains like sheep without a shepherd. And the LORD told me, ‘These have no master, so let them each return to his own home in peace.’”
¹⁸ Then the king of Israel told Jehoshaphat, “Didn’t I tell you that he wouldn’t prophesy anything good about me, but only evil?”
¹⁹ But Micaiah responded, “Therefore, listen to what the LORD has to say. I saw the LORD, sitting on his throne, and the entire Heavenly Army was standing around him on his right hand and on his left hand.
²⁰ “The LORD asked, ‘Who will tempt King Ahab of Israel to attack Ramoth-gilead, so that he will die there?’ And one was saying one thing and one was saying another.
²¹ “But then a spirit approached, stood in front of the LORD, and said, ‘I will entice him.’
²² “And the LORD asked him, ‘How?’
“‘I will go,’ he announced, ‘and I will be a deceiving spirit in the mouth of all of his prophets!’
“So the LORD said, ‘You’re just the one to deceive him. You will be successful. Go and do it.’
²³ “Now therefore, listen! The LORD has placed a lying spirit in the mouth of all of these prophets of yours, because the LORD has determined to bring disaster upon you.”
²⁴ Right then, Chenaanah’s son Zedekiah approached Micaiah and struck him on the cheek. Then he asked him, “How did the Spirit of the LORD move from me to speak to you?”
²⁵ Micaiah replied, “You’ll see how when the day comes that you run away to hide yourself in a closet!”
²⁶ Then the king of Israel ordered, “Take Micaiah and place him in the custody of Amon, the city governor. Hand him over to Joash, the king’s son. ²⁷ Give him this order: ‘Place him in prison on survival rations of bread and water only until I come back safely.’”
²⁸ “If you return alive,” Micaiah responded, “then the LORD has not spoken by me.” Then he added, “Listen, all you people!”

¹³ Elisha asked the king of Israel, “What do I have in common with you? Go visit your parents’ prophets.”
The king of Israel replied, “No! The LORD has summoned these three kings so he can hand them over to Moab!”

¹³ A Rebuke of Hypocritical WorshipThen the Lord said: “Because these people draw near with their mouths and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, worship of me has become merely like rules taught by human beings.

² They seek me day after day, and are eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practices righteousness and has not forsaken the justice of their God. “They ask me to reveal just decisions; they are eager to draw near to God.

¹⁷ Then King Zedekiah sent for Jeremiah and received him. The king questioned him secretly in his house: “Is there a message from the LORD?”
Jeremiah said, “There is,” and then he said, “You will be given into the hand of the king of Babylon.”

² The Vision of the Fire CloudOn the fifth day of the month in the fifth year of King Jehoiachin’s imprisonment in exile,

¹ The Vision of JerusalemIn the sixth year, on the fifth day of the sixth month, I had just sat down in my house, with the elders of Judah seated in front of me. All of a sudden, the hand of the Lord GOD touched me

¹ A Prophecy against IdolatryLater, some men from the elders of Israel came to visit me. After they had sat down in my presence, ² this message came to me from the LORD.
³ “Son of Man, these men have taken idols into their hearts. They’ve placed the stumbling block that is their own iniquity right in front of their faces. Should I be consulted by them at all?

¹ God Brews His JudgmentIn the ninth year, in the tenth month, and on the tenth day of the month, this message came to me from the LORD:

¹ A Message Condemning TyreDuring the eleventh year, on the first day of the month of our captivity, this message came to me from the LORD:

¹ Prophecy against EgyptIn the tenth year, on the twelfth day of the tenth month, a message came to me from the LORD, who had this to say:

¹⁷ Egypt Given to NebuchadnezzarOn the first day of the first month of the twenty-seventh year of our captivity, a message came to me from the LORD, who had this to say:

²⁰ Babylon’s VictoryOn the seventh day of the first month of the eleventh year of our captivity, a message came to me from the LORD. It had this to say:

¹ Egypt Learns from Assyria’s DemiseOn the first day of the third month of the eleventh year of our captivity, this message came to me from the LORD:

¹ Another Prophecy about EgyptOn the first day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of our captivity, a message came to me from the LORD, who had this to say:

³⁰ The Disobedient Exiles of Babylon“Now as for you, Son of Man, your nation’s children keep gathering together to talk about you beside the walls and at the doorway to their houses. Everyone tells one another, ‘Please come! Let’s go hear what the LORD has to say!’ ³¹ Then they come to you as a group, sit down right in front of you as if they were my people, hear your words—and then they don’t do what you say— because they’re seeking only their own desires, they pursue ill-gotten profits, and they keep following their own self-interests. ³² As far as they are concerned, you sing romantic songs with a beautiful voice and play a musical instrument well. They’ll listen to what you have to say, but they won’t put it into practice! ³³ When all of this comes about—and you can be sure that it will!—they’ll learn that a prophet has been in their midst.”

¹ The Vision of JerusalemAt the beginning of year 25 of our captivity, on the tenth day of the fourteenth year after the destruction of Jerusalem—on that very day—the LORD grabbed me in his hand and took me there.

¹⁶ They sent their disciples to him along with the Herodians. They said, “Teacher, we know that you are sincere and that you teach the way of God truthfully. You don’t favor any individual, because you pay no attention to external appearance.

⁴⁶ Three days later, they found him in the Temple sitting among the teachers, listening to them, and posing questions to them.

³⁵ So the people went out to see what had happened. When they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind, they were frightened.

³⁹ She had a sister named Mary, who sat down at the Lord’s feet and kept listening to what he was saying.

³ “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus in Cilicia but raised in this city and educated at the feet of Gamaliel in the strict ways of our ancestral Law. I am as zealous for God as all of you are today.

⁶ Saul inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him, either through dreams or Urim or through prophets.

¹⁵ Call on me in the day of distress; I will deliver you, and you will glorify me.” ¹⁶ As for the wicked, God says, “How dare you recite my statutes or speak about my covenant with your lips! ¹⁷ You hate instruction and toss my words behind you. ¹⁸ When you see a thief, you befriend him, and you keep company with adulterers. ¹⁹ You give your mouth free reign for evil, and your tongue devises deceit. ²⁰ You sit and speak against your brother; you slander your own mother’s son. ²¹ These things you did, and I kept silent, because you assumed that I was like you. But now I am going to rebuke you, and I will set forth my case before your very own eyes.”

⁸ The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to the LORD, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.

²⁷ What the wicked person sacrifices is detestable— how much more when he offers it with vile motives!

⁹ If someone quits listening to the Law even his prayer is detestable.

¹² “When you come to present yourselves in my presence, who has required you to trample on my courts?

¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I’ll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won’t listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity.”

³ “Son of Man, these men have taken idols into their hearts. They’ve placed the stumbling block that is their own iniquity right in front of their faces. Should I be consulted by them at all? ⁴ Therefore, speak up and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says, “Every person from Israel’s house who follows his idols and sets the stumbling block that is his own sin in front of his face, and then consults a prophet, I the LORD will answer him according to how many idols he embraces.

⁷ For when a native Israeli or a resident alien abandons me to set up idols in his heart behind my back, and then places the stumbling block of his iniquity right in front of his own face, then approaches a prophet to inquire of me on behalf of his own self-interest, I, the LORD will answer him myself. ⁸ I’m determined to oppose that person and make him an example. Proverbs will be written about him when I eliminate him from my people. Then you’ll know that I am the LORD.”’”

³¹ When you present your gifts and make your sons pass through the fire, you continue to defile yourselves with your idols to this day. Should I be inquired of by you, you house of Israel? As I live,” declares the LORD, “I certainly won’t be inquired of by you.”

⁷ Those who see visions will be put to shame, and the diviners will be disgraced—every one of them— they will cover their faces, because there will be no answer from God.’”

⁷ But when John saw many Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he told them, “You children of serpents! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸ ‘These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. ⁹ Their worship of me is empty, because they teach human rules as doctrines.’”

⁷ John would say to the crowds that were coming out to be baptized by him, “You children of serpents! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?

²⁴ God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.”

³ “So now, you inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge, won’t you please, between me and my vineyard.

¹⁶ “As for you, don’t pray on behalf of this people, don’t cry or offer a petition for them, and don’t plead with me, for I won’t listen to you.

¹⁴ “Jeremiah, don’t pray for this people and don’t cry or pray for them. I won’t listen when they cry out to me because of their disaster.

¹¹ Then the LORD told me, “Don’t pray for the welfare of these people. ¹² Although they fast, I won’t listen to their cry, and although they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won’t accept them. Instead, I’ll put an end to them with the sword, with famine, and with a plague.”
¹³ Then I said, “Ah, Lord GOD, look! The prophets are saying to them, ‘You won’t see the sword and you won’t experience famine. Rather, I’ll give you lasting peace in this place.’”
¹⁴ Then the LORD told me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I didn’t send them, I didn’t command them, and I didn’t speak to them. They’re proclaiming to you false visions, worthless predictions, and the delusions of their own minds.

¹ The Destiny of the JudgedThen the LORD told me, “Even if Moses and Samuel were standing before me, I wouldn’t be favorably disposed toward this people. Send them out of my presence! Let them go!

¹⁴ Though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job lived in that land, they would only save their own lives on account of their righteousness,” declares the Lord GOD.

²⁰ even though Noah, Daniel, and Job were among them, as I live” says the Lord GOD, “they couldn’t save their own sons or daughters. They would only save their own souls due to their own righteousness.”

² “Son of Man, make known to Israel her detestable practices. ³ You are to declare, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says to Jerusalem: “Your birth place was the territory that belonged to the Canaanites. Your father was an Ammonite and your mother was a Hittite.

² “Now, Son of Man, will you truly judge that blood-stained city? Then make her aware of all of her detestable practices.

³⁶ What Israel and Samaria DidThen the LORD spoke to me. “Son of Man, speak out in judgment of both Oholah and Oholibah. Make their detestable practices widely known,

⁴⁵ Righteous men will judge them with punishments fit for adulterers and for those who shed blood, because they’re adulterers with blood on their hands.”

²⁹ “How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of the righteous. ³⁰ Then you say, ‘If we had been living in the days of our ancestors, we would have had no part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.’ ³¹ Therefore, you testify against yourselves that you are descendants of those who murdered the prophets. ³² Then finish what your ancestors started! ³³ You snakes, you children of serpents! How can you escape being condemned to hell?
³⁴ “That is why I am sending you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will whip in your synagogues and persecute from town to town. ³⁵ As a result, you will be held accountable for all the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel to the blood of Berechiah’s son Zechariah, whom you murdered between the sanctuary and the altar. ³⁶ I tell all of you with certainty, all these things will happen to those living today.”
³⁷ Jesus Rebukes Jerusalem
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling!

⁴⁷ How terrible it will be for you! You build monuments for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them! ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors, because they killed those for whom you are building monuments. ⁴⁹ That is why the Wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles. They will kill some of them and persecute others,’ ⁵⁰ so those living today will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that was shed since the foundation of the world, ⁵¹ from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who died between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, it will be charged against this generation!

³³ But I must be on my way today, tomorrow, and the next day, because it’s not possible for a prophet to be killed outside of Jerusalem.’ ³⁴ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones to death those who have been sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you people were unwilling! ³⁵ Look! Your house is left vacant to you. I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, ‘How blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord!’”

⁵¹ “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. ⁵² Which of the prophets did your ancestors fail to persecute? They killed those who predicted the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers.

² You know that the saints will rule the world, don’t you? And if the world is going to be ruled by you, can’t you handle insignificant cases?

²² But Abram answered the king of Sodom, “I have made an oath to the LORD God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth,

⁶ Then he said, “I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

⁸ so I have come down to deliver them from their domination by the Egyptians and to bring them out of that land to a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the territory of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

¹⁶ “Go and gather the elders of Israel. Tell them, ‘The LORD God of your ancestors, appeared to me—the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—and he said, “I have paid close attention to you and to what has been done to you in Egypt.

³¹ The people believed and understood that the LORD had paid attention to the Israelis and had seen their affliction. They bowed their heads and prostrated themselves in worship.

² Later, God told Moses, “I am the LORD.

⁶ Therefore, tell the Israelis, ‘I am the LORD. I’ll bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I’ll deliver you from their bondage. I’ll redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. ⁷ I’ll take you for my own people, and I’ll be your God. Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who brings you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

⁴ ‘You saw what I did to the Egyptians, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. ⁵ And now if you carefully obey me and keep my covenant, you are to be my special possession out of all the peoples, because the whole earth belongs to me, ⁶ but you are to be a kingdom of priests and a holy nation to me.’ These are the words you are to declare to the Israelis.”

² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. ³ You are to have no other gods besides me.ב

³⁴ Or has any god ever taken for himself one nation out from another nation with testings, signs, wonders, wars, awesome power, and magnificent, terrifying deeds as the LORD your God did in Egypt before your eyes?

³⁷ Moreover, he loved your ancestors, chose their descendants after them, and brought you out of Egypt, accompanied by his presence and great power,

⁶ because you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God chose you to be his people, his treasured possession from all the peoples on the face of the earth.”

² Keep in mind today that I am not speaking to your children, who neither were aware of nor did they witness the discipline of the LORD your God, that is, his great and far-reaching power, ³ including: the signs and works that he did within Egypt to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to all his land; ⁴ what he did to the Egyptian army, its horses and chariots, when he caused the waters of the Reed Sea to engulf them as they pursued you; how the LORD destroyed them, even to this day; ⁵ what he did for you in the desert until you came to this place; ⁶ and what he did to Eliab’s sons Dathan and Abiram, descendants of Reuben, when the ground opened up and swallowed them, their households, their tents, and every living thing belonging to them in the full sight of Israel. ⁷ Your very own eyes saw all the great things that the LORD did.”

² because you are a holy people to the LORD your God, and the LORD chose to make you his precious possession from among all the peoples of the earth.”

⁴⁰ “I solemnly swear to heaven— I say ‘As certainly as I’m alive and living forever,

¹² How blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he has chosen as his own inheritance.

⁷ He revealed his plans to Moses and his deeds to the people of Israel.

⁸ The LORD Encourages Israel“But as for you, Israel, my servant, Jacob, whom I’ve chosen, the offspring of my friend Abraham— ⁹ you whom I encouraged from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest corners, and told you, ‘You’re my servant, I’ve chosen you and haven’t cast you aside.’

¹⁰ “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and trust me and understand that I am the One. Before me no God was formed, nor will there be one after me.

¹ God’s Blessing on Israel “But now listen, Jacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen: ² This what the LORD says, the one who made you, formed you from the womb, and who will help you: “Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant, and Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

²⁴ “Haven’t you noticed what these people have been saying?—‘The LORD rejected the two families that he had chosen!’ They have contempt for my people and no longer consider them a nation.

¹⁵ “Moreover, I solemnly swore to them in the wilderness that I wouldn’t bring them to the land that I had given them—a land flowing with milk and honey, the most beautiful of all lands—

²³ “Futhermore, I solemnly swore in the wilderness to disperse them among the nations and scatter them to other lands

¹¹ therefore as I’m alive and living” declares the Lord GOD, “I’m going to deal with you as your anger deserves. When I judge you, I’ll treat you like you did the Israelis—that is, with the same kind of envy that motivated your constant hatred of them.

¹⁴ Apportion it for their inheritances, distributing everything equally as if you were distributing things to your own brother, which is how I promised to give it to your ancestors. This way, the land will fall to you as an inheritance.

²⁰ If the Lord had not shortened those days, no one would be saved. But for the sake of the elect whom he has chosen, he has shortened those days.

⁵ Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven.

¹³ Then the LORD told Abram, “You can be certain about this: Your descendants will be foreigners in a land that isn’t theirs. They will be slaves there and will be oppressed for 400 years. ¹⁴ However, I will judge the nation that they serve, and later they will leave there with many possessions.

¹⁷ I have said that I will bring you out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites—to a land flowing with milk and honey.”’

⁵ When the LORD brings you to the land of the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Amorite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite, which he swore to your ancestors to give you—a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ritual in this month.

¹ Crossing the Reed SeaThe LORD told Moses, ² “Tell the Israelis that they are to turn back and camp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea. You are to camp in front of Baal-zephon, opposite it by the sea. ³ Pharaoh will say about the Israelis, ‘They’re wandering aimlessly in the land, and the desert has closed in on them.’ ⁴ I’ve made Pharaoh’s heart stubborn so he will pursue them. But I’ll receive honor by means of Pharaoh and his army, so that the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So this is what the Israelis did.
⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the minds of Pharaoh and his officials changed toward the people, and they said, “What have we done in releasing Israel from serving us?” ⁶ So Pharaoh had his chariot prepared and took his troops with him.
⁷ He took 600 of the best chariots, and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers in charge of each one. ⁸ The LORD made the heart of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, stubborn, and he defiantly pursued the Israelis as they were leaving. ⁹ The Egyptians pursued them—all the chariot-horses of Pharaoh, along with his horsemen and army—and they overtook them camped by the sea, near Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal Zephon.
¹⁰ As Pharaoh approached, the Israelis looked up, and there were the Egyptians bearing down on them! Extremely frightened, the Israelis cried out to the LORD. ¹¹ They also told Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you took us out to die in the desert? What have you done to us, by bringing us out of Egypt? ¹² Is this not what we told you in Egypt, when we said, ‘Leave us alone!’ and ‘Let us serve the Egyptians!’? Indeed, it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”
¹³ Moses told the people, “Don’t be afraid! Stand still and watch how the LORD will deliver you today, because you will never again see the Egyptians whom you’re looking at today. ¹⁴ The LORD will fight for you while you keep still.”
¹⁵ Then the LORD told Moses, “Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelis to move out!

³ Go up to a land flowing with milk and honey, but I won’t go up among you, because you are an obstinate people, and otherwise I might consume you along the way.”

²⁴ But I’ve promised you that you’ll inherit the land that I’m about to give you as your permanent possession—a land flowing with milk and honey.
“I am your God. I’ve separated you from the people.

²⁷ “We arrived at the place where you’ve sent us,” they reported, “and it certainly does flow with milk and honey. Furthermore, this is its fruit,

⁸ If the LORD is pleased with us, he’ll bring us into this land and give it to us. It flows with milk and honey.

³ Listen, Israel! Be careful to obey, so that life may go well for you and that you may increase greatly. Just as the LORD God of your ancestors told you, you’ll have a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁷ because the LORD your God is bringing you to a good land—a land with rivers and deep springs flowing to the valleys and hills. ⁸ It’s a land filled with wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates. It’s a land filled with olive oil and honey— ⁹ a land without scarcity. You’ll eat food in it and lack nothing. It’s a land where its rocks are iron and you can dig copper from its mountains.”

⁹ and so you’ll live long in the land that the LORD your God promised by an oath to give your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

¹¹ Instead, the land that you are crossing over to inherit is a land of hills and valleys that drinks water supplied by rain from heaven, ¹² a land about which the LORD your God is always concerned, because the eyes of the LORD are continuously on it throughout the entire year.”

⁹ And then we arrived at this place, and he gave this land to us, flowing with milk and honey.

¹⁵ Look down from your holy habitation in heaven and bless your people Israel and the land that you have given us, just as you promised our ancestors—a land flowing with milk and honey.’”

³ Then inscribe on them all the words of this law when you’ve crossed over into the land that the LORD your God is about to give you—a land flowing with milk and honey—just as the LORD God of your ancestors promised you.

²⁰ because after I’ve brought them to the land flowing with milk and honey that I promised to their ancestors by an oath, they’ll eat, grow fat, and then they’ll turn to other gods and serve them, while despising me and breaking my covenant.

⁸ When the Most High gave nations as their inheritance, when he separated the human race, he set boundaries for the people according to the number of the children of God.

¹³ He mounted him on a high place above the earth, feeding him from the produce of the field. He nourished him with honey from the rock and with oil from the flint rock, ¹⁴ with curds from cattle and with milk from sheep, with the fat of lambs, with rams from Bashan, with the fat of goats, with the finest of wheat— and from the juice of grapes you drank wine.

⁶ The Israelis traveled 40 years in the wilderness until the entire nation—that is, the warriors who had departed from Egypt—had perished because they hadn’t listened to the voice of the LORD. The LORD had promised them that he would not let them see the land that he had sworn to give us, a land that flows with milk and honey.

² Beautifully situated, the joy of all the earth, Mount Zion towards the north, the city of the great King.

⁵ As a result, I’ll fulfill the oath that I made with your ancestors to give them a land flowing with milk and honey, just as is the case today.”’”
Then I answered, “So be it, LORD.”

²² And you gave them this land which you had promised their ancestors that you would give them—a land flowing with milk and honey.

⁵ Tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says, “The day I chose Israel, when I made my commitment to the descendants of Jacob’s house, I revealed myself to them in the land of Egypt and I made my promise to them with the words, ‘I am the LORD your God.’

⁴² Then you’ll know that I, the LORD, brought you to the land of Israel, to the land that I promised to give to your ancestors.

⁹ The Insignificant Horn“A somewhat insignificant horn emerged from one of them. It moved rapidly against the south, against the east, and against the Glory.

¹⁶ “‘However, the one who invades him will do whatever he wants to do. No one will oppose him. He’ll establish himself in the Beautiful Land, wielding devastating power.

⁴¹ He’ll enter the Beautiful Land, and many will fall, even though these will escape his control: Edom, Moab, and certain Ammonite officials.

¹⁴ ‘I will scatter them to all of the nations, which they have not known.’”
Now the earth was left desolate after them. As a result, no one came or went because they had turned a pleasant land into a desert.

¹² “I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelis. Tell them, ‘At twilight you are to eat meat and in the morning you are to be filled with bread, so you may know that I am the LORD your God.’”

² “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

⁴ “You are not to make for yourselves an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above, or on earth below, or in the water under the earth.

⁴⁴ because I, the LORD, am your God. Set yourselves apart and be holy, because I am holy. You are not to defile yourselves with any of the swarming creatures that swarm the earth.

⁷ They are no longer to slaughter their sacrifices to the goat demons, with whom they have been committing prostitution. This will be a perpetual statute for you throughout your generations.

³ You are not to do what you used to do in the land of Egypt where you lived. You are not to do what Canaan does, where I’m about to bring you, so that you live according to their statutes.

⁷ Therefore, separate yourselves and be holy, because I am the LORD your God.

¹⁶ Incurring the Judgment of God“Now, you know how we lived in the land of Egypt and how we traveled through the territory of other nations. ¹⁷ You have seen their detestable practices, their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold that they had with them. ¹⁸ Be alert so there is no man, woman, family, or a tribe whose heart is turning away from the LORD your God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Be alert so there will be no root among you that produces poisonous and bitter fruit,

¹⁴ “Now you must fear the LORD and serve him in faithfulness and truth. Throw away the gods that your ancestors served beyond the Euphrates River and in Egypt. Instead, serve the LORD.

⁸ Asa Institutes ReformsEncouraged by what Oded’s son Azariah the prophet had said in his prophecy, Asa removed the detestable idols from throughout the entire territories of Judah and Benjamin, and from the cities that he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He repaired the LORD’s altar that stood in front of the vestibule of the LORD’s Temple.

²⁰ At that time, mankind will throw their silver and gold idols that their fingers have made as objects of worship to the moles and to the bats. ²¹ They will enter caverns in the rocks and clefts in the cliffs, to escape the terror of the LORD and to escape the splendor of his majesty, when he arises to terrorize the earth.

⁷ For at that time, everyone will throw away their idols of silver and their idols of gold that your hands have sinfully made for yourselves.

⁹ Your survivors will remember me among the nations where they’ll be taken captives. I’ve been crushed by their unfaithful hearts that have turned against me.

⁶ An Exhortation to Turn Away“Therefore you are to tell Israel’s house, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says, “Turn away! Turn away from your idols, and abandon your detestable practices!

⁶ if he doesn’t eat at mountain shrines, and doesn’t look to the idols that have been erected in Israel’s house, if he doesn’t defile his neighbor’s wife or approach a woman during her time of menstrual separation,

¹⁵ That is, suppose he doesn’t eat at the mountain shrines, doesn’t look to the idols of Israel’s house, doesn’t defile his neighbor’s wife,

³¹ Stop your transgressing—the deeds by which you’ve rebelled—and then make for yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why should you die, you house of Israel?

⁸ A Brief History of Israel’s Rebellion“But they rebelled against me and weren’t willing to obey me. None of them abandoned their detestable practices or their Egyptian idols. So I said, ‘I’ll pour out my anger on them, extending my fury in the middle of the land of Egypt.’

¹⁹ I am the LORD your God. You are to follow my statutes, observe my ordinances, and keep them.

³ They committed sexual immorality in Egypt. They did this in their youth. There, their breasts were caressed. Their virgin breasts were fondled.

⁸ She never abandoned the immorality that she practiced in Egypt during her youth, where they laid down with her and fondled her virgin breasts, lavishing her with all kinds of favors.

⁴ He took them from them and, using a tool, fashioned them into a molten calf. The people said, “This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it, and then he proclaimed, “Tomorrow is to be a festival to the LORD.” ⁶ They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up to play.

⁷ Israel Broke the Covenant“Remember—and don’t ever forget—how you provoked the LORD your God in the desert. From the day that you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place you have been rebelling against the LORD.

²⁶ “Then they disobeyed, rebelled against you, and threw your Law behind their backs. They murdered your prophets who had admonished the people to return to you, committing terrible blasphemies.

¹⁰ Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit; so he changed and became their enemy, and he himself fought against them.

¹³ “Only then will I stop being angry—my burning in anger. Then they’ll know that I’ve spoken out in my arduous anger. Only then will my burning anger against them be exhausted.

⁸ Very soon now, I’ll pour out my burning anger on you. I’ll complete expressing my anger at you, judge you according to your behavior, and repay you for all your detestable practices.

⁷ Then I told them, ‘Each of you are to abandon your detestable practices. You are not to defile yourselves with Egypt’s idols. I am the LORD your God.’”’”

¹³ Israel Rebels in the Wilderness“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t live by my statutes. They despised my ordinances, which if a person observes, he’ll live by them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my anger on them and bring them to an end in the wilderness.

²¹ More of Israel’s Rebellion“But they rebelled against me. They didn’t live according to my statutes, observe my ordinances, or practice them, by which a person will live. They also kept profaning my Sabbaths. So I said that I was going to pour out my anger on them and in my anger I’m going to bring about a complete end to them in the wilderness.

¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intention to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your anger and change your mind about the calamity against your people.

¹³ Moses Intercedes for IsraelBut Moses responded to the LORD, “When Egypt hears that you’ve brought this people out from among them with a mighty demonstration of power, ¹⁴ they’ll also proclaim to the inhabitants of this land that they’ve heard you’re among this people, LORD, whom they’ve seen face to face, since your cloud stands guard over them. You’ve guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ But if you slaughter this people all at the same time, then the nations who heard about your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘The LORD slaughtered this people in the wilderness because he wasn’t able to bring them to the land that he promised them.’
¹⁷ “Now, let the power of the LORD be magnified, just as you promised when you said, ¹⁸ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he won’t acquit the guilty. He recalls the iniquity of fathers to the third and fourth generation.’
¹⁹ “Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people, according to your great, faithful love, in the same way that you’ve carried this people from Egypt to this place.”
²⁰ God Responds to MosesThe LORD responded, “I’ve forgiven them based on what you’ve said. ²¹ But just as I live, and just as the whole earth will be filled with the LORD’s glory, ²² none of those men who saw my glory and watched my miracles that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness—even though they’ve tested me these ten times and never listened to my voice— ²³ will ever see the land that I promised to their ancestors. Those who spurned me won’t see it. ²⁴ Now as to my servant Caleb, because a different spirit is within him and he has remained true to me, I’m going to bring him into the land that he explored, and his descendants are to inherit it. ²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite live in the valley. Tomorrow, turn and then travel to the wilderness in the direction of the Reed Sea.”

²⁸ Otherwise, the people of the land from which you brought us will say, “The LORD wasn’t able to bring them out of the land that he had promised them. So he brought them out to kill them in the desert because he hated them.”

²⁶ “I said, ‘I will scatter them, erasing their memory from the human race, ²⁷ if it weren’t for dreading the taunting of their enemies— otherwise, their adversary might misinterpret and say, “Our power is great. It isn’t the LORD who made all of this happen.”’”

¹⁰ because we heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Reed Sea right in front of you as you were coming out of Egypt, and what you did to the two kings of the Amorites who were on the other side of the Jordan River—to Sihon and Og—whom you completely destroyed.

⁹ The Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land will hear of this, will surround us, and eliminate us from the earth! Then what will you do about your great reputation?”

⁹ They answered, “Your servants have arrived from a very distant land, because of the reputation of the LORD your God, because we’ve heard a report about all that he did in Egypt, ¹⁰ along with all of what he did to the two Amorite kings who were beyond the Jordan River—that is, to King Sihon of Heshbon and to King Og of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth.

⁸ How terrible for us! Who will deliver us from the hand of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with all kinds of plagues in the desert.

²² Indeed, the LORD won’t abandon His people for the sake of His great name, for the LORD desires to make you a people for himself.

¹⁴ I did this so my reputation wouldn’t be tarnished among the nations in whose presence I had brought them out.

²² But I withdrew my decision so my reputation wouldn’t be tarnished among the nations before whose eyes I brought them out.

²¹ I’ve been concerned about my holy reputation, which the house of Israel has been defiling throughout all of the nations where they’ve gone.”
²² The Coming Renewal of Israel“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “I’m not about to act for your sake, you house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation, which you have been defiling throughout all of the nations where you’ve gone.

⁷ I’ll make my holiness and reputation known in the midst of my people Israel, and I won’t let my holiness be profaned anymore. The nations will learn that I, the LORD, am holy in the midst of Israel.

¹⁷ God Guides the People in the DesertWhen Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them along the road through the land of the Philistines, even though it was nearer, because God had said, “If the people face war, they may change their minds and return to Egypt.” ¹⁸ So God led the people the roundabout way of the desert toward the Reed Sea. The Israelis went up from the land of Egypt in military formation.

¹⁷ Even now I’m hardening the heart of the Egyptians so they’ll go after the Israelis. Then I’ll receive honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army, his chariots, and his horsemen. ¹⁸ Then the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I receive honor by means of Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
¹⁹ Then the angel of God, who was going in front of the camp of Israel, moved behind them. The pillar of cloud also moved from in front of them and stood behind them, ²⁰ coming between the camp of the Egyptians and the camp of Israel. The cloud remained there even in the darkness, illuminating the night, so that the one side did not come near the other all night.
²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD caused the water to retreat by a strong east wind all night, turning the sea into dry land. As the waters were divided, ²² the Israelis went into the middle of the sea on dry land, and the waters formed a wall for them on their right and on their left.

²² God Provides Water for the PeopleThen Moses led Israel from the Reed Sea and they went to the desert of Shur. They traveled into the desert for three days and did not find water.

⁵ Keep my statutes and my ordinances, which a person is to obey in order to live in them. I am the LORD.

⁸ And what great nation has all the decrees and righteous ordinances like all this teaching that I’m giving you today?

¹⁵ Do this to all the cities that are distant from you—that is, to those cities that are not in neighboring nations.”
¹⁶ Destruction of the Canaanites“You are not to leave even one person alive in the cities of these nations that the LORD your God is about to give you as an inheritance.

¹³ “You also came down to Mount Sinai, spoke with them from heaven, and gave them impartial regulations, true laws, statutes, and good commands. ¹⁴ You revealed to them your holy Sabbath, and you mandated precepts, statutes, and laws through Moses your servant.

¹⁹ He declares his words to Jacob, his statutes and decrees to Israel. ²⁰ He has not dealt with any other nation like this; they never knew his decrees. Hallelujah!

²⁸ Jesus told him, “You have answered correctly. ‘Do this, and you will live.’”

² There are all kinds of advantages! First of all, the Jews have been entrusted with the utterances of God.

⁵ For Moses writes about the righteousness that comes from the Law as follows: “The person who obeys these things will find life by them.”

¹² But the Law has nothing to do with faith. Instead, “The person who keeps the commandments will have life in them.”

³ Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God stopped working on everything that he had been creating.

²⁹ You see that the LORD has given you the Sabbath, and so on the sixth day he gives you food for two days. Let each person stay where he is; let no one leave his place on the seventh day.”

⁸ “Remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. ⁹ You are to labor and do all your work during six days, ¹⁰ but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work—neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your livestock, nor the alien who is within your gates— ¹¹ because the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, in six days, then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.ה

¹³ “You are to tell the Israelis: ‘You are to certainly observe my Sabbaths because it’s a sign between me and you from generation to generation, so you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. ¹⁴ You are to observe the Sabbath, because it’s holy for you. Whoever profanes it is certainly to die; indeed, whoever does work on it is to be cut off from among his people. ¹⁵ Work may be done for six days, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of complete rest, holy to the LORD. Whoever does work on the Sabbath is certainly to die. ¹⁶ The Israelis are to keep the Sabbath to make the Sabbath observance a perpetual covenant from generation to generation. ¹⁷ It is a sign forever between me and the Israelis, because the LORD made the heavens and the earth in six days, but on the seventh day he rested and was refreshed.’”

² For six days work is to be done, but on the seventh day you are to have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest in dedication to the LORD. Anyone who does work on that day is to be executed.

⁸ Keep my statutes and observe them. I am the LORD, who has set you apart.”

⁸ Consecrate him, because he’s the one who offers the food of your God. He is to be holy for you, because I, the LORD, the one who sanctifies you, am holy.

¹⁵ “He is not to defile his children among his people, because I am the LORD, who sets him apart.”

²³ but he is not to enter through the curtain nor approach the altar, since he has a defect. That way, he won’t defile my sanctuary, since I am the LORD, who sets you apart.”

³ Six days you may work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of rest, a sacred assembly. You are not to do any work. It’s a Sabbath to the LORD wherever you live.

²⁴ “Tell the Israelis that on the first day of the seventh month you are to have a Sabbath of rest for you—a memorial announced by a loud blast of trumpets. It is to be a sacred assembly.

³² It’s a Sabbath of rest for you on which you are to humble yourselves starting the evening of the ninth day of the month. You are to observe your Sabbath from evening to evening.”

³⁹ “On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when you’ve harvested the produce of the land, you are to observe the festival of the LORD for seven days. The first day is to be a Sabbath rest, and the eighth day also is to be a Sabbath rest.

⁴ But the seventh year is to be a Sabbath of rest for the land—a Sabbath for the LORD. You are not to plant your field or prune your vineyard.

¹² “‘You are to keep the Sabbath day holy, just as the LORD your God commanded. ¹³ Six days you are to labor and do all your work, ¹⁴ but the seventh day is a Sabbath for the LORD your God. You are not to do any work—neither you, your children, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys, nor any of your livestock—as well as any of the foreigners who live among you, so that your male and female servants may rest as you do. ¹⁵ You are to remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, but the LORD your God brought you out from there with great power and a show of force. Therefore, the LORD your God has commanded you to observe the Sabbath day.ה

¹⁴ You revealed to them your holy Sabbath, and you mandated precepts, statutes, and laws through Moses your servant.

²⁰ You are to make my Sabbaths holy, and you are to let them serve as a sign between you and me, so that you may know that I am the LORD your God.’”

²⁸ and the nations will learn that I, the LORD, am the sanctifier of Israel when I place my sanctuary in their midst forever.”’”

²⁷ Then he told them, “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath. ²⁸ Therefore, the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.”

¹⁷ “Sanctify them by the truth. Your word is truth. ¹⁸ Just as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹ It is for their sakes that I sanctify myself, so that they, too, may be sanctified by the truth.

¹⁶ Therefore, let no one judge you in matters of food and drink or with respect to a festival, a New Moon, or Sabbath days.

²³ Final GreetingMay the God of peace himself make you holy in every way. And may your whole being—spirit, soul, and body—remain blameless when our Lord Jesus, the Messiah, appears.

¹ GreetingsFrom: Jude, a servant of Jesus the Messiah, and yet a brother of James.
To: Those who have been called, who are loved by God the Father and kept safe by Jesus, the Messiah.

²⁷ Nevertheless, that seventh day some of the people went out to gather, but they did not find any. ²⁸ Then the LORD asked Moses, “How long will you people refuse to keep my commandments and my instructions?

⁸ They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them, and they have made for themselves a molten calf. They have bowed down to it in worship, they have offered sacrifices to it, and they have said, ‘This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”

¹⁰ Now let me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may consume them, but I’ll make a great nation of you.”

¹⁵ and if you refuse my statutes, loathe my ordinances, and fail to carry out all of my commands, thereby breaching my covenant,

⁴³ They will leave the land so it can rest while it lies desolate without them. That’s when they’ll receive the punishment of their iniquity, because indeed they will have rejected my ordinances and despised my statutes.

¹¹ “How long will this people keep on spurning me and refusing to trust me, despite all the miracles that I’ve done among them?” the LORD asked Moses. ¹² “That’s why I’m going to attack them with pestilence and disinherit them. Instead, I’ll make you a great nation—even mightier than they are!”

²² none of those men who saw my glory and watched my miracles that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness—even though they’ve tested me these ten times and never listened to my voice—

²⁹ Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—every single one of you who has been counted among you, according to your number from 20 years and above, who complained against me.

³¹ Because he has despised the law of the LORD and has broken his commands, that person is certainly to be eliminated. His iniquity will remain on him.”
³² As it was when the Israelis were in the wilderness, they found a man who was gathering wood on the Sabbath day. ³³ The ones who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses, Aaron, and all the people. ³⁴ Then they confined him until it could be declared what should be done to him. ³⁵ Then the LORD told Moses, “The man is certainly to die. The entire community is to stone him to death outside the camp.” ³⁶ So the whole community brought him outside the camp and stoned him with stones so that he died, just as the LORD had commanded Moses.

²⁰ God Vindicates Moses and AaronThen the LORD told Moses and Aaron, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from among this community, and I’ll destroy them in a moment.”

⁴⁵ “Leave this community, so I can annihilate them in a moment.”
But they fell upon their faces.

²⁵ These families of Issachar numbered 64,300.

⁸ At Horeb you continually rebelled against the LORD, so that he was angry enough to destroy you.

¹² “Then the LORD told me, ‘Get going! Go down from here at once! Your people whom you brought out of Egypt have become corrupt. They have turned quickly from the way that I commanded them, and have cast an idol for their use.’
¹³ “Then the LORD told me, ‘I have examined this people, and they are stubborn indeed. ¹⁴ Let me alone! I will destroy them and blot out their name under heaven. Then I’ll make you into a nation that will be mighty and more numerous than they are.’
¹⁵ “So I turned and went down from the mountain while the mountain was on fire. The two Tablets of the Covenant were in both of my hands. ¹⁶ Then I saw how you had really sinned against the LORD your God! You had made for yourselves a calf, a cast idol. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD your God had commanded. ¹⁷ So I grabbed the two tablets and then threw them out of my hands, breaking them before your eyes. ¹⁸ I fell down in the LORD’s presence, just as I had the first 40 days and nights. I did not eat food or drink water because of your sin. You had sinned by committing this evil in the sight of the LORD, thereby provoking him to anger. ¹⁹ I feared the anger and wrath of the LORD against you, because he was irate enough to destroy you. But the LORD also listened to me at that time. ²⁰ It was as had been the case with Aaron, the LORD was very angry and about to destroy him, but I prayed for Aaron at that time. ²¹ Now, when you made the calf that made you sin, I grabbed it, burned it with fire, crushed it, and ground it thoroughly until it was pulverized to powder. Then I threw the powder into the river that was flowing from the mountain.”
²² Moses Interceded for Israel“You provoked the LORD again at Taberah, Massah, and Kibroth-hattaavah. ²³ When the LORD sent you from Kadesh-barnea and told you, ‘Go possess the land that I gave you,’ instead you disobeyed what the LORD your God said. You didn’t trust him or listen to his voice. ²⁴ You have been rebelling against the LORD since the day I knew you.

²⁷ because indeed I know your rebellion and stubbornness. Note that even while I’m still alive, you’ve been rebelling against the LORD—how much more so after my death!

⁸ Like all the things they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this very day, they have forsaken me and followed other gods. They’re also doing the same thing to you.

⁹ “‘Why did you despise what the LORD has promised by doing what is detestable in his sight?
“‘You struck down Uriah the Hittite with a battle sword.
“‘You took his wife to be your own.
“‘You killed him with the sword of the Ammonite army.

¹⁶ “But they—our ancestors—became arrogant and stubborn, refusing to listen to your commands. ¹⁷ They would not listen, and did not remember the miracles you did among them. Instead, they became stubborn and appointed a leader to return them to their slavery. “But you are a God of forgiveness, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, and rich in gracious love; therefore you did not abandon them. ¹⁸ Moreover, after they had cast a golden calf for themselves, they said, “This is your god who brought you out of Egypt!” and committed terrible blasphemies.

⁴⁰ How they rebelled against him in the desert, grieving him in the wilderness! ⁴¹ They tested God again and again, provoking the Holy One of Israel.

⁸ do not be stubborn like your ancestors were at Meribah, as on that day at Massah, in the wilderness, ⁹ where your ancestors tested me. They tested me, even though they had seen my awesome deeds. ¹⁰ For forty years I loathed that generation, so I said, “They are a people whose hearts continuously err, and they have not understood my ways.” ¹¹ So in my anger I declared an oath: “They are not to enter my place of rest.”

¹³ But they quickly forgot his deeds and did not wait for his counsel. ¹⁴ They were overwhelmed with craving in the wilderness, so God tested them in the wasteland. ¹⁵ God granted them their request, but sent leanness into their lives. ¹⁶ They were envious of Moses in the camp, and of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD. ¹⁷ The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, closing over Abiram’s clan. ¹⁸ Then a fire burned among their company, a flame that set the wicked ablaze. ¹⁹ They fashioned a calf at Horeb and worshipped a carved image. ²⁰ They exchanged their glory with the image of a grass-eating bull. ²¹ They forgot God their Savior, who performed great things in Egypt— ²² awesome deeds in the land of Ham, astonishing deeds at the Reed Sea. ²³ He would have destroyed them but for Moses, his chosen one, who stood in the breach before him to avert his destructive wrath. ²⁴ They rejected the desirable land, and they didn’t trust his promise. ²⁵ They murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to the voice of the LORD. ²⁶ So he swore an oath concerning them— that he would cause them to die in the wilderness, ²⁷ to cause their children to perish among the nations and be scattered among many lands. ²⁸ For they adopted the worship of Baal Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. ²⁹ They had provoked anger by their deeds, so that a plague broke out against them. ³⁰ But Phinehas intervened and prayed so that the plague was restrained. ³¹ And it was credited to him as a righteous act, from generation to generation—to eternity. ³² They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered on account of them. ³³ For they rebelled against him, so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips.

²⁵ because you neglected all my advice and did not want my correction,

¹³ Anyone who despises a word of advice will pay for it, but whoever heeds a command will be rewarded.

⁶ “Also, the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, and to bless the LORD’S name, observing the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold fast my covenant—

¹⁶ because they kept on rejecting my ordinances. They didn’t live life consistent with my statutes, they profaned my Sabbaths, and their hearts followed their idols.

²⁴ because they didn’t observe my ordinances. Instead, they rejected my statutes, profaned my Sabbaths, and worshipped their ancestors’ idols.

⁴ A Warning to JudahThis is what the LORD says: “For three transgressions of Judah —and now for a fourth— I will not turn away; because they rejected the Law of the LORD and did not keep his statutes. Their own lies made them wander off, following along the same path their ancestors walked.

⁸ Therefore, whoever rejects this instruction is not rejecting human authority but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit.

²⁸ Anyone who violates the Law of Moses dies without mercy “on the testimony of two or three witnesses.” ²⁹ How much more severe a punishment do you think that person deserves who tramples on God’s Son, treats as common the blood of the covenant by which it was sanctified, and insults the Spirit of grace?

⁹ I did this so my reputation might not be tarnished among the nations where they were living, among whom I made myself known in their presence when I brought them out of the land of Egypt.

²² The Coming Renewal of Israel“Therefore tell the house of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “I’m not about to act for your sake, you house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy reputation, which you have been defiling throughout all of the nations where you’ve gone. ²³ I’m going to affirm my great reputation that has been defiled among the nations (that is, that you have defiled in their midst), and those people will learn that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I affirm my holiness in front of their very eyes.

⁶ so that we would praise his glorious grace that he gave us in the Beloved One.

¹² so that we who had already fixed our hope on the Messiah might live for his praise and glory.

²³ will ever see the land that I promised to their ancestors. Those who spurned me won’t see it. ²⁴ Now as to my servant Caleb, because a different spirit is within him and he has remained true to me, I’m going to bring him into the land that he explored, and his descendants are to inherit it. ²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite live in the valley. Tomorrow, turn and then travel to the wilderness in the direction of the Reed Sea.”
²⁶ Then the LORD told Moses and Aaron, ²⁷ “How long will this wicked assembly keep complaining about me? I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelis that they’ve been murmuring against me. ²⁸ So tell them that as long as I live—consider this to be an oracle from the LORD—as certainly as you’ve spoken right into my ears, that’s how I’m going to treat you. ²⁹ Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—every single one of you who has been counted among you, according to your number from 20 years and above, who complained against me. ³⁰ You will certainly never enter the land about which I made an oath with my uplifted hand to settle you in it, except for Jephunneh’s son Caleb and Nun’s son Joshua.

⁶⁴ But none of these men among these numbered by Moses and by Aaron the priest (that is, when they numbered the Israelis in the wilderness of Sinai) survived to enter the land, ⁶⁵ because the LORD had said about them, “They’ll certainly die in the wilderness. No man will survive from them except Jephunneh’s son Caleb and Nun’s son Joshua.”

³⁴ Entrance is Denied“When the LORD heard your complaints, he became angry and declared, ³⁵ ‘I swear that not one man of this evil generation will see the good land that I promised to give to your ancestors,

¹¹ So in my anger I declared an oath: “They are not to enter my place of rest.”

²⁶ So he swore an oath concerning them— that he would cause them to die in the wilderness,

¹¹ So in my anger I swore a solemn oath that they would never enter my rest.”

¹⁸ And to whom did he swear that they would never enter his rest? It was to those who disobeyed him, was it not?

³ We who have believed are entering that rest, just as he has said, “So in my anger I swore a solemn oath that they would never enter my rest,” even though his actions had been finished since the creation of the world.

¹ Aaron Makes the Golden CalfWhen the people saw that Moses took a long time to come down the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and told him, “Come here and make us a god who will go before us, because, as for this fellow Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.”
² Aaron told them, “Tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters and bring them to me.”
³ All the people tore off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to him. ⁴ He took them from them and, using a tool, fashioned them into a molten calf. The people said, “This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”
⁵ When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of it, and then he proclaimed, “Tomorrow is to be a festival to the LORD.” ⁶ They got up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. Then the people sat down to eat and drink, and then they got up to play.
⁷ Moses Intercedes for IsraelThe LORD told Moses, “Go down immediately, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have behaved corruptly. ⁸ They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them, and they have made for themselves a molten calf. They have bowed down to it in worship, they have offered sacrifices to it, and they have said, ‘This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”

³⁹ That way, when you see the tassel, you’ll remember all the commands of the LORD and you’ll observe them. Then you won’t seek your own interests and desires that lead you to be unfaithful.

² who also invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. So the people ate what they had sacrificed and then worshipped their gods.

¹³ Israel Rebels in the Wilderness“But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They didn’t live by my statutes. They despised my ordinances, which if a person observes, he’ll live by them. They greatly profaned my Sabbaths. So I said I would pour out my anger on them and bring them to an end in the wilderness. ¹⁴ I did this so my reputation wouldn’t be tarnished among the nations in whose presence I had brought them out.

²⁵ “Was it to me that you brought offerings and gifts in the desert for 40 years, house of Israel? ²⁶ And you carried the tent of your king— and Saturn, your star god idols that you crafted for yourselves.

³⁹ but our ancestors refused to obey him. Instead, they rejected him and wished to return to Egypt. ⁴⁰ They told Aaron, ‘Make gods for us who will lead us. This Moses who led us out of the land of Egypt—we don’t know what happened to him!’ ⁴¹ “At that time they even made a calf to be their idol, offered a sacrifice to it, and delighted in what they had made with their hands. ⁴² So God turned away from them and gave them over to worship the heavenly bodies. As it is written in the book of the Prophets: ‘O house of Israel, you didn’t offer me slaughtered animals and sacrifices those 40 years in the wilderness, did you? ⁴³ You even took along the tent of Moloch, the star of your god Rephan, and the images you made in order to worship them. So I will take you into exile as far as Babylon.’

¹⁰ Look, this very day you saw with your own eyes that the LORD gave you into my control in the cave, and one of my men told me to kill you, but I had pity on you and responded, ‘I won’t lift my hand against his majesty because he’s the LORD’s anointed.’

¹⁹ You, in your great compassion, did not abandon them in the wilderness. The pillar of cloud did not leave them in daylight, in order to provide light for them on the path they took. Nor did the pillar of fire abandon them at night, in order to provide light for them and lead them on the path they took.

³⁷ For their hearts weren’t committed to him, and they weren’t faithful to his covenant. ³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and didn’t destroy them; He restrained his anger and didn’t vent all his wrath.

²⁷ For this is what the LORD says: “The entire land will be devastated, but I won’t completely destroy it.

¹⁸ “Yet even in those days,” declares the LORD, “I won’t destroy you completely.

² “Son of Man, this is what Lord GOD says to the land of Israel: ‘It’s over! All four corners of the land are out of time!

¹⁸ I’m going to deal with them in rage and anger. I’ll show neither pity nor compassion. They’ll cry loudly directly in my ears, but I won’t listen to them.”

¹⁰ So as for me, I’m not going to show pity, and I won’t look in their direction with mercy. I’m repaying them for what they have done.”

¹³ Ezekiel Reacts to Pelatiah’s DeathWhile I was prophesying, Benaiah’s son Pelatiah died, so I fell on my face and cried out with a loud voice. “Ah, Lord GOD,” I said, “are you going to put an end to the survivors within Israel?”

⁸ But with an overwhelming deluge he will bring utter desolation to Nineveh, and his enemies he will pursue with darkness. ⁹ What are you scheming against the LORD? He will bring about utter desolation— adversity will not strike twice!

³² “Now as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness ³³ and your children will wander throughout the wilderness for 40 years. They’ll bear the consequences of your idolatries until your bodies are entirely consumed in the wilderness.

¹³ “The LORD’s anger had flared up against Israel so that he made them wander in the wilderness for 40 years until that whole generation, who committed evil in the eyes of the LORD, had died. ¹⁴ And now, look! You’re acting just like your ancestors, like a brood of sinful men, who are provoking the fierce anger of the LORD against the Israelis one step at a time. ¹⁵ If you stop following him, he will once again abandon them in the wilderness. You’ll end up destroying this entire people.”

³ You saw with your own eyes what he did in Baal Peor. The LORD your God exterminated from among you every man who followed Baal of Peor. ⁴ But all of you who are clinging to the LORD your God are alive today. ⁵ See! I taught you the statutes and the ordinances, just as the LORD God commanded. Therefore, observe them when you enter the land you are about to possess. ⁶ Observe them carefully, because this will show your wisdom and discernment in the eyes of people who’ll listen to all these decrees. Then they’ll say: ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people.’

⁶ in order that the next generation— children yet to be born— will know them and in turn teach them to their children. ⁷ Then they will put their trust in God and they will not forget his awesome deeds. Instead, they will keep his commandments. ⁸ They will not be like the rebellious generation of their ancestors, a rebellious generation, whose heart was not steadfast, and whose spirits were unfaithful to God.

⁷ “I brought you into the fruitful land to eat its fruit and its good things. But you came in, defiled my land, and made my inheritance into an abomination.

⁹ She took her fornication so lightly that she polluted the land and committed adultery with stones and trees.

² “The LORD was very angry with your ancestors. ³ So tell them, ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “Return to me,” declares the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “and I will return to you. ⁴ Don’t be like your ancestors, to whom the former prophets proclaimed: ‘This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: “It’s time to turn from your evil lifestyles and from your evil actions,” ‘but they would neither listen nor pay attention to me,’” declares the LORD.’

⁴⁷ How terrible it will be for you! You build monuments for the prophets, and it was your ancestors who killed them! ⁴⁸ So you are witnesses and approve of the deeds of your ancestors, because they killed those for whom you are building monuments.

⁵¹ “You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

¹⁸ For you know that it was not with perishable things like silver or gold that you have been ransomed from the worthless way of life handed down to you by your ancestors,

¹ Moses Presents the Privileges of the Covenant“Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and the ordinances that I’m teaching you to observe so you may live and go in to take possession of the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is about to give you.

¹ The Ten Commandments
Moses called all of Israel together and told them: “Listen, Israel! Today I’m going to announce God’s laws and regulations so that you will learn them and take care to obey them.

⁶ “‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt—from the house of slavery.ב ⁷ “‘You are to have no other gods besides me

³² You must be careful to do what the LORD your God commanded you, turning neither to the left nor to the right.

⁴ because they will turn your children from me to serve other gods so that the LORD’s anger blazes against you and swiftly destroys you by fire. ⁵ This is what you are to do to them: tear down their altars, break their pillars, cut down their ritual pillars, and burn their carved idols in fire, ⁶ because you are a holy people to the LORD your God. The LORD your God chose you to be his people, his treasured possession from all the peoples on the face of the earth.”

¹ Remember the LORD’s Provisions“Be careful to observe every command that I’m instructing you today, in order that you may live, increase, and enter and take possession of the land that the LORD promised by an oath to your ancestors.

¹ A Copy of the Ten Commandments“At that time, the LORD told me, ‘Chisel two tablets of stone for yourself just like the first ones, and then come up to me on the mountain. Also make for yourself a wooden chest. ² I’ll write on the tablets what was on the first tablets that you broke. Then place them in the wooden chest.’ ³ So I made a chest out of acacia wood and chiseled two tablets of stones just like the first ones. Then I went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. ⁴ Then the LORD inscribed on the tablets what he wrote before, that is, the Ten Commandments that the LORD declared to you on the mountain from the middle of the fire during the day of the assembly. And the LORD gave them to me. ⁵ Then I turned, went down the mountain, and placed the tablets in the chest that I had made. They are there now, just as the LORD commanded me.”
⁶ Aaron Dies and the Descendants of Levi are Appointed“The Israelis traveled from the wells of the descendants of Jaakan to Moserah. Aaron died, and he was buried there. His son Eleazar succeeded him as priest. ⁷ From there they moved on to Gudgodah and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with flowing streams. ⁸ At that time the LORD set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD, to stand in the LORD’s presence, to serve, and to bless his name until this day. ⁹ That is why the descendants of Levi do not have a portion and an inheritance among their relatives. As for the LORD, he is their inheritance, just as the LORD your God told them. ¹⁰ When I stood on the mountain for 40 days and 40 nights as I did the first time, the LORD listened to me once again. The LORD was not willing to destroy you. ¹¹ So the LORD told me, ‘Get up and proceed to lead the people, so they may enter and take possession of the land that I promised to give their ancestors by an oath.’”
¹² Love the LORD“Now Israel, what does the LORD your God desire from you? Only this: fear him, walk in all his ways, love him, serve him with all your heart and in all your life,

¹ Remember God’s Power“Therefore love the LORD your God and be very careful to keep his injunctions, statutes, ordinances, and commands all the time.

¹ Destroying Altars to False Gods“These are the statutes and ordinances that you must carefully observe in the land that the LORD God of your ancestors has given you to possess every day that you live on the earth.

⁷ God’s Revelation in the LawThe Law of the LORD is perfect, restoring life. The testimony of the LORD is steadfast, making foolish people wise. ⁸ The precepts of the LORD are upright, making the heart rejoice. The commandment of the LORD is pure, giving light to the eyes. ⁹ The fear of the LORD is clean, standing forever. The judgments of the LORD are true; they are altogether righteous. ¹⁰ They are more desirable than gold, even much fine gold. They are sweeter than honey, even the drippings from a honeycomb. ¹¹ Moreover your servant is warned by them; and there is great reward in keeping them.

⁹ You must neither have a foreign god over you or worship a strange god. ¹⁰ I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, open your mouth that I may fill it.

⁴⁵ so they might keep his statutes and observe his laws. Hallelujah!

²² God Calls for Repentance“Turn back, unfaithful people, and I’ll heal your unfaithfulness.”
Israel Replies “Look, we’re coming to you because you are the LORD our God. ²³ Truly the hills are a deception, and the mountains are confusion. Truly, in the LORD our God is Israel’s salvation.”

²⁰ When they live by my statutes and keep my ordinances by observing them, then they’ll be my people and I will be their God.

²⁷ I’ll place my spirit within you, empowering you to live according to my regulations and to keep my just decrees.

²⁴ David’s Rule as King“‘“My servant King David will be there for them, and one shepherd will be appointed for them. They will live according to my decrees, keep my regulations, and practice them.

¹¹ For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all people. ¹² It trains us to renounce ungodly living and worldly passions so that we might live sensible, honest, and godly lives in the present age ¹³ as we wait for the blessed hope and glorious appearance of our great God and Savior, Jesus the Messiah. ¹⁴ He gave himself for us to set us free from every wrong and to cleanse us so that we could be his special people who are enthusiastic about doing good deeds.

¹¹ because the LORD made the heavens and the earth and the sea, and all that is in them, in six days, then he rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.ה

¹⁵ Prohibiting Work on the SabbathAt that time I saw in Judah some who were treading wine presses on the Sabbath, bringing in sacks of grain, loading them onto donkeys, along with wine, grapes, figs, and all kinds of loads. They brought them into Jerusalem on the Sabbath day. So I rebuked them on the day on which they were selling food. ¹⁶ Furthermore, Tyrians were living there who were importing fish and all kinds of merchandise, selling them to the people of Judah on the Sabbath, even in Jerusalem.
¹⁷ I rebuked the officials of Judah, saying to them, “What’s this evil thing that you’re doing by profaning the Sabbath day? ¹⁸ Didn’t your ancestors do the same? And didn’t our God bring on us and on this city all of this trouble? Now you’re adding to the wrath against Israel by profaning the Sabbath!”
¹⁹ As the Sabbath approached and it began to get dark at the gates of Jerusalem, I gave word to shut the gates, charging that they should not be opened until after the Sabbath. I stationed some of my men at the gates to ensure that no loads would be brought in on the Sabbath day. ²⁰ As a result, the merchants and sellers of all sorts of goods remained outside Jerusalem a couple of times. ²¹ I argued with them, “Why are you staying outside the wall? If you do this again, I’ll arrest you.” From that time on, they didn’t come anymore on the Sabbath. ²² Then I commanded the descendants of Levi to purify themselves and to come as gate keepers to sanctify the Sabbath day.
Remember me, my God, and show mercy to me according to the greatness of your gracious love.

¹³ “If you keep your feet from trampling the Sabbath, from pursuing your own interests on my holy day, if you call the Sabbath a delight and the LORD’s holy day honorable; and if you honor it by not going your own ways and seeking your own pleasure or speaking merely idle words,

²² Don’t bring any load out of your houses on the Sabbath day, nor are you to do any work. You are to consecrate the Sabbath day, just as I commanded your ancestors.

²⁴ If you listen to me carefully,” declares the LORD, “and don’t bring a load through the gates of this city on the Sabbath day, and you consecrate the Sabbath day and don’t do any work on it,

²⁷ But if you don’t listen to me, to consecrate the Sabbath day and not carry any load as you enter the gates of Jerusalem on the Sabbath day, then I’ll start a fire in its gates. It will consume the palaces of Jerusalem and won’t be extinguished.”’”

¹² Also, I instituted my Sabbath for them as a sign between me and them, so they would know that I am the LORD, who has set them apart.”

²⁴ When disputes arise, they are to serve as a judge, adjudicating matters according to my ordinances. They are to enforce my laws, my statutes, all of my appointed festivals, and they are to sanctify my Sabbaths.

⁵ the people complained against the LORD and Moses. “Why did you bring us out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?” they asked. “There’s no food and water, and we’re tired of this worthless bread.”

¹ Worship of Baal of PeorWhile Israel remained encamped in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality with Moabite women, ² who also invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. So the people ate what they had sacrificed and then worshipped their gods. ³ The people joined the Baal-peor cult. As a result, the anger of the LORD flared up against Israel, ⁴ so the LORD told Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight for the LORD, so the LORD’s burning anger may be withdrawn from Israel.”
⁵ Then Moses ordered the judges of Israel, “Each one of you is to execute the men in his own tribe who joined the Baal-peor cult.”
⁶ That very moment, one of the Israelis arrived, bringing to his brothers one of the Midianite women, right in front of Moses and the entire community of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting! ⁷ When Eleazar’s son Phinehas, grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up from the middle of the community, grabbed a javelin in his hand, ⁸ followed the Israeli man inside his tent, and impaled the two of them—the Israeli man and the woman—right through both of them and into her abdomen. Then the plague infecting the Israelis was brought to a halt. Nevertheless,

²¹ “Go ask the LORD for me and for those who survive in Israel and in Judah about the words that we’ve read in this book that we found, because the wrath of the LORD that we deserve to have poured out on us is very great, since our ancestors haven’t obeyed the command from the LORD that required us to do everything that is written in this book.”

²⁵ Because they abandoned me and have burned incense to other gods, provoking me to become angry at everything they’re doing, therefore my wrath is about to be poured out on this place, and it won’t be quenched.’”’

¹¹ The LORD has exhausted his wrath, pouring out his fierce anger. He kindled a fire in Zion, consuming its foundations.

¹⁵ “‘That’s how I’ll vent my anger on the wall and on the ones who coated it with whitewash. And I’ll say to you, “The wall is gone and so are those who coated it.”

¹¹ where I gave them my statutes and revealed my ordinances to them, which if a person observes, he’ll live by them.

³¹ I’m going to pour out my indignation all over you. I’ll blow my fierce wrath against you and deliver you into the control of brutal men who are skilled at destruction.

³⁶ The King Who Calls Himself God“‘The king will do as he pleases. He’ll exalt and magnify himself above every god, speaking amazing things against the God of Gods. He’ll succeed until the indignation is completed, because what has been determined must be carried out.

¹⁸ After he had put up with them for 40 years in the wilderness,

¹ The Vision of the Seven Angels Pouring Out Their BowlsThen I heard a loud voice from the Temple saying to the seven angels, “Go and pour the seven bowls of God’s wrath on the earth.”

²¹ Withdraw your hand far from me and keep me from being petrified with terror.

¹¹ For the sake of your name, LORD, forgive my sin, for it is great.

³⁸ But he, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and didn’t destroy them; He restrained his anger and didn’t vent all his wrath.

⁹ Help us, God, our deliverer, on account of your glorious name, deliver us and forgive our sins on account of your name. ¹⁰ Why should the nations say, “Where is their God?” Let vengeance for the blood of your servants be meted out before our eyes and among the nations.

¹ The Impotence of Idols Not to us, LORD, not to us, but to your name be given glory on account of your gracious love and faithfulness.

⁹ I defer my anger for my name’s sake, and as my first act I’m restraining it for you, so as not to cut you off. ¹⁰ Look, I have refined you, but not like silver; I have purified you in the furnace of affliction. ¹¹ For my own sake—Yes, for my own sake!—I’m doing it; indeed, how can I be profaned? Furthermore, I won’t give my glory to another.”

⁷ The People Cry for HelpLORD, even though our iniquities testify against us, do something for the sake of your name. Indeed, our apostasies are many, and we have sinned against you.

²¹ For the sake of your name don’t despise us. Don’t dishonor your glorious throne. Remember, don’t break your covenant with us!

⁸ The LORD planned to destroy the walls of cherished Zion. He measured them with his line. He did not withhold his hand from destruction. He made both ramparts and defensive walls mourn; they languish together.

¹⁷ Even then, I looked on them with compassion and didn’t completely destroy them in the wilderness.

¹⁷ ‘So now, O God, listen to the prayer of your servant and to his requests, and look with favor on your desolate sanctuary, for the sake of the Lord.

¹⁹ ‘Lord, listen!‘Lord, forgive!‘Lord, take note and take action!‘For your own sake, don’t delay, my God, because your city and your people are called by your name.’”

³³ Captivity among the Nations“I’ll scatter you among the nations and draw the sword after you so that your land becomes desolate and your towns become ruins.

⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. ⁶⁵ Among those nations you’ll have no rest. There’ll be no resting place for the soles of your feet. Instead, the LORD will give you an anxious heart, failing eyesight, and a despairing spirit. ⁶⁶ You’ll cling to life, being fearful by both night and day, with no assurance of survival. ⁶⁷ In the morning you’ll say, ‘I wish it were evening.’ Yet in the evening you’ll say, “I wish it were morning,” on account of what you’ll dread and what you’ll see. ⁶⁸ Finally, the LORD will bring you back to Egypt by ship, a place that I said you’ll never see again. There you’ll try to sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

²⁷ to cause their children to perish among the nations and be scattered among many lands.

⁴ I’ll make them a horrifying sight to all the kingdoms of the earth because of what Hezekiah’s son Manasseh, king of Judah, did in Jerusalem.

⁵ Then the angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land raised his right hand to heaven. ⁶ He swore an oath by the one who lives forever and ever, who created heaven and everything in it, the earth and everything in it, and the sea and everything in it: “There will be no more delay.

¹⁹ Do not gaze toward the heavens and observe the sun, the moon, the stars—the entire array of the sky—with the intent to worship and serve what the LORD your God gave every nation.

²⁶ if I look at the sun when it shines or the moon as it rises in steady splendor, ²⁷ so that in the depths of my deceived heart I worshipped them with my mouth and hands,

¹² oppresses the afflicted and the poor, robs others, doesn’t return security for a debt, looks to idols, does detestable things,

²⁷ Moreover, the LORD will scatter you among the nations, and you’ll be fewer in number in the nations where the LORD your God will drive you. ²⁸ There you’ll serve gods made by human hands, serving trees and stones that cannot see, hear, eat, nor smell.

³⁶ “The LORD will banish you and your king whom you will appoint over you to go to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, and there you’ll serve other gods of wood and stone.

¹² So I allowed them to continue in their stubbornness, living by their own advice.

⁴ Therefore I, too, will choose harsh treatment for them, and will bring upon them what they dread. For when I called, no one answered; when I spoke, they didn’t listen; but they did what I consider to be evil, and chose what doesn’t please me.”

⁹ On False Prophets“Now as to the prophet, if through deceit he delivers a message, I the LORD have deceived that prophet! I’ll reach out in opposition to him and exterminate him from among my people Israel. ¹⁰ They’ll bear the consequences of their guilt, and the prophet will be just as guilty as the one who seeks that prophet’s guidance. ¹¹ Then Israel’s house won’t wander away from me again, nor will they defile themselves again with all their transgressions. They’ll become my people and I’ll be their God,” declares the Lord GOD.

²⁶ I made them unclean because of their offerings, so they made all their firstborn to pass through the fire, so that I could make them astonished. Then they’ll know that I am the LORD.”

³⁹ The Coming Regathering of IsraelAnd now, you house of Israel, this is what the Lord GOD says, “Go ahead and serve your idols, both now and later, but later you’ll listen to me, and you won’t profane my sacred name again by your offerings and idols.

²¹ For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him. Instead, their thoughts turned to worthless things, and their senseless hearts were darkened. ²² Though claiming to be wise, they became fools ²³ and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images that looked like mortal human beings, birds, four-footed animals, and reptiles.
²⁴ For this reason, God delivered them to sexual impurity as they followed the lusts of their hearts and dishonored their bodies with one another. ²⁵ They exchanged God’s truth for a lie and worshipped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
²⁶ For this reason, God delivered them to degrading passions as their females exchanged their natural sexual function for one that is unnatural. ²⁷ In the same way, their males also abandoned their natural sexual function toward females and burned with lust toward one another. Males committed indecent acts with males, and received within themselves the appropriate penalty for their perversion.
²⁸ Furthermore, because they did not think it worthwhile to keep knowing God fully, God delivered them to degraded minds to perform acts that should not be done.

⁹ The coming of the lawless one will be accompanied by the power of Satan. He will use every kind of power, including miraculous signs, lying wonders, ¹⁰ and every type of evil to deceive those who are dying, those who refused to love the truth that would save them. ¹¹ For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.

¹² you are to dedicate to the LORD everything that first opens the womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the LORD.

²¹ Child Sacrifice Prohibited“You are not to present any of your children to Molech as a sacrifice. That way, you won’t defile the name of your God.”
Same Sex Unions Prohibited“I am the LORD.

¹⁷ They passed their sons and daughters through fire, practiced divination, cast spells, and sold themselves to practice what the LORD considered to be evil, thereby provoking him.

⁶ He made his son into a burnt offering, practiced witchcraft, used divination, and consorted with mediums and spirit-channelers. He practiced many things that the LORD considered to be evil and provoked him.

³ burned incense in the Ben-hinnom Valley, and burned his sons as an offering, following the detestable activities of the nations whom the LORD had expelled in front of the people of Israel.

⁶ He burned his sons as an offering in the Ben-hinnom Valley, practiced fortune-telling, witchcraft, sorcery, and communicated with mediums and separatists. He did a lot of things that the LORD considered to be evil, thus provoking him.

¹⁷ Why, LORD, do you make us wander from your ways and harden our hearts, so that we do not fear you? Turn back for the sake of your servants, for the sake of the tribes that are your heritage.

⁹ I’ll cause them to eat the flesh of their sons and daughters, and people will eat the flesh of their neighbors in the siege and in the distress to which their enemies and those seeking their lives will subject them.”’”

³⁵ They built the high places of Baal that are in the Hinnom Valley in order to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech—something that I didn’t command, nor did it ever enter my mind for them to require this utterly repugnant thing—and lead Judah into sin.”

⁷ The fatally wounded among you will fall, and at that time you’ll know that I am the LORD.

²⁰ “Then you took your sons and daughters whom you bore for me and sacrificed them for your idols to eat. As though your prostitutions were an insignificant thing, ²¹ you also slaughtered my sons and offered them to idols, incinerating them in fire.

²³ as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn son is to be designated as holy to the Lord.”

⁷ What, then, does this mean? It means that Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking, but the selected group obtained it while the rest were hardened. ⁸ As it is written, “To this day God has put them into deep sleep. Their eyes do not see, and their ears do not hear.”
⁹ And David says, “Let their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a punishment for them. ¹⁰ Let their eyes be darkened so that they cannot see, and keep their backs forever bent.”

⁷ You are to tell them whatever I have to say to them, whether they listen or not, since they are rebellious.”

⁴ Then he told me, “Son of Man, go to the house of Israel and tell them what I have to say to them,

¹¹ then go immediately to the exiles; that is, to your people’s descendants, and tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says…’ whether they listen or not.”

²⁷ But when I speak with you, I’ll open your mouth so you can say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “As for those who will listen, ‘Let them listen,’ but as for those who refuse, ‘Let them refuse,’ since they’re a rebellious group.”’”

²⁴ But when the righteous person abandons his righteous deeds and commits evil, detestable practices, as wicked people do, he won’t live, will he? None of the righteous acts that he had done will be remembered. He’ll die in his treacherous unfaithfulness and sins that he had committed.”

²⁴ As it is written, “God’s name is being blasphemed among the gentiles because of you.”

⁵ The beast was allowed to speak arrogant and blasphemous things, and it was given authority for 42 months.

¹⁸ That very day the LORD made this covenant with Abram: “I’m giving this land to your descendants, from the river of Egypt to the great Euphrates River— ¹⁹ including the land of the Kenites, the Kenizzites, the Kadmonites, ²⁰ the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Rephaim, ²¹ the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Girgashites, and the Jebusites.”

³ Remain in this land, and I’ll be with and bless you by giving all these lands to you and to your descendants in fulfillment of my solemn promise that I made to your father Abraham. ⁴ I’ll cause you to have as many descendants as the stars of the heavens, and I’ll certainly give all these lands to your descendants. Later on, through your descendants all the nations of the earth will bless one another.

³ You have seen everything that the LORD your God has done to all of these nations on your behalf, because it has been the LORD your God who has been fighting on your behalf. ⁴ Now look, I have allocated these nations that remain as an inheritance for your tribes, including all of the nations that I have eliminated, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea to the west.

¹⁴ “Look here: today I’m going down the path that everyone on earth takes, and you know with all your hearts and souls that not a single word of all of the good things that the LORD your God spoke about you has failed to happen. Everything has been fulfilled about you—not one of them has failed.

²² You gave them kingdoms and nations, apportioning them as frontier boundaries. They took possession of the land of Sihon, the land of the king of Heshbon, and the land of Og, king of Bashan. ²³ “You multiplied their descendants like the stars in heaven and brought them to the land about which you told their ancestors to enter and possess. ²⁴ So their descendants entered and took possession of the land. Before their eyes you subdued those living in the land—the Canaanites— putting them under their control, along with their kings and the peoples of the land, so they could do with them as they pleased. ²⁵ They conquered fortified cities and fertile ground, possessing houses filled with all kinds of good things, wells already dug, with vineyards, olive orchards, and fruit trees in abundance. So they ate, were satiated, and were well nourished, delighting themselves in your great goodness. ²⁶ “Then they disobeyed, rebelled against you, and threw your Law behind their backs. They murdered your prophets who had admonished the people to return to you, committing terrible blasphemies.

⁵⁵ He drove out nations before them and allotted their tribal inheritance, settling the tribes of Israel in their tents. ⁵⁶ But they tested the Most High God by rebelling against him, and they did not obey his statutes. ⁵⁷ They fell away and were as disloyal as their ancestors. They became unreliable, like a defective bow; ⁵⁸ they angered him with their high places and with their carved images they made him jealous.

⁸ He remembers his eternal covenant— every promise he made for a thousand generations, ⁹ like the covenant he made with Abraham, and his promise to Isaac. ¹⁰ He presented it to Jacob as a decree, to Israel as an everlasting covenant. ¹¹ He said: “I will give Canaan to you as the allotted portion that is your inheritance.”

⁵ you who burn with lust among the oaks, under every spreading tree, who slaughter your children in the ravines, under the clefts of the rocks? ⁶ “Among the smooth stones of the ravines is your portion— there they are as your lot. To them you have poured out drink offerings; you have brought grain offerings. Should I be lenient over such things? ⁷ “You have made your bed on a high and lofty mountain, and you went up to offer sacrifice there.

⁶ The Example of SamariaIn the time of King Josiah the LORD told me, “Have you seen what unfaithful Israel did? She went up on every high hill and under every green tree, and she committed fornication there.

¹³ “You’ll learn that I am the LORD, when the fatally wounded will be among their idols, around their altars, on every hill, on top of the mountains, under every luxuriant tree, and under all the full-grown foliage—every place where they’ve offered fragrant aromas to all their idols.

¹⁹ “Not only that, you took the food I gave you—my fine flour, olive oil, and honey with which I fed you, and you offered them to those gods in order to appease them. That’s exactly what happened,” says the Lord GOD.

⁶ That day I promised to bring them out of the land of Egypt to the land that I had explored for them—a land flowing with milk and honey. It’s the most beautiful of all lands.

²⁴ “You built raised mounds and high places for yourself on every plaza. ²⁵ At every street corner you made your beauty abhorrent when you made yourself available for sex to anyone who was passing by. By doing this, you kept on committing more and more immorality.

³¹ When you built your mound on every street corner and constructed your high place at every plaza, you weren’t like a common prostitute, in that you’ve insulted the wages of a prostitute

¹⁴ And now, look! You’re acting just like your ancestors, like a brood of sinful men, who are provoking the fierce anger of the LORD against the Israelis one step at a time.

¹⁹ However, after the leader had died, they would relapse to a condition more corrupt than their ancestors, following other gods, serving them, and worshiping them. They would not abandon their activities or their obstinate lifestyles.

²⁶ But they didn’t listen to me, and they didn’t pay attention. They stiffened their necks, and they did more evil than their ancestors.

¹⁴ Instead, they followed their rebellious hearts and the Baals, as their ancestors taught them.”

¹² You have done even more evil than your ancestors, and each one of you is stubbornly following his own evil desires, refusing to listen to me.

³² Then finish what your ancestors started!

¹⁰ There must never be found among you anyone who sacrifices his son or daughter in fire, practices divination, interprets omens, practices sorcery, ¹¹ casts spells, or who is a medium, an occultist, or a necromancer. ¹² Whoever practices these things is detestable to the LORD, and the LORD your God will expel them before you because of these things.

⁵ When Saul saw the Philistine camp, he was afraid, and his heart trembled greatly. ⁶ Saul inquired of the LORD, but the LORD did not answer him, either through dreams or Urim or through prophets.

¹³ Elisha asked the king of Israel, “What do I have in common with you? Go visit your parents’ prophets.”
The king of Israel replied, “No! The LORD has summoned these three kings so he can hand them over to Moab!”
¹⁴ But Elisha responded, “As the LORD of the Heavenly Armies lives, in whose presence I stand, I would never pay attention to you or even look in your direction were it not for my continuous respect for the presence of King Jehoshaphat of Judah.

⁸ For where is the hope of the godless when he is eliminated; when God takes away his life?

¹⁰ Will he take delight in the Almighty? Will he call on God at all times?”

¹⁸ Were I to cherish iniquity in my heart, the Lord would not listen to me.

³⁷ They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ³⁸ They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters— whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, thereby polluting the land with blood. ³⁹ Therefore, they became unclean because of what they did; they have acted like whores by their evil deeds.

²⁷ when what you dread comes like a storm, and your calamity comes on like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you. ²⁸ “Then they will call out to me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.

³¹ They have built high places at Topheth in the Valley of Ben-hinnom to burn their sons and daughters in the fire. I didn’t command this, and it never entered my mind!

¹² Although they fast, I won’t listen to their cry, and although they offer burnt offerings and grain offerings, I won’t accept them. Instead, I’ll put an end to them with the sword, with famine, and with a plague.”

⁵ They built the high places for Baal to burn their children in the fire as a burnt offering to Baal—something I didn’t command, didn’t say, nor did it ever enter my mind!

²⁰ “Then you took your sons and daughters whom you bore for me and sacrificed them for your idols to eat. As though your prostitutions were an insignificant thing,

³ “Tell the elders of Israel, ‘This is what the Lord GOD asks, “Did you come to inquire of me? As long as I live, I won’t let myself be sought by you,” declares the Lord GOD.’

¹³ Therefore, just as when I cried out and they would not listen, so also they will cry out, and I will not listen,’ says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

¹¹ Later, the other bridesmaids arrived and said, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us!’
¹² “But he replied, ‘I tell all of you with certainty, I don’t know you!’

¹ Stop Fighting with Each OtherWhere do those fights and quarrels among you come from? They come from your selfish desires that are at war in your bodies, don’t they? ² You want something but do not get it, so you commit murder. You covet something but cannot obtain it, so you quarrel and fight. You do not get things because you do not ask for them! ³ You ask for something but do not get it because you ask for it for the wrong reason—for your own pleasure.

²⁸ There you’ll serve gods made by human hands, serving trees and stones that cannot see, hear, eat, nor smell.

⁶⁴ Scattering among the Nations“He’ll scatter you among the peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you’ll serve other gods made of wood and stones, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.

¹⁷ You have seen their detestable practices, their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold that they had with them.

⁵ They told him, “Look, you’re old, and your sons don’t follow your example. So appoint a king to govern us like all the other nations.”

² You know when I rest and when I am active. You understand what I am thinking when I am distant from you.

²¹ Many plans occupy the mind of a man, but the LORD’s purposes will prevail.

¹⁹ and have thrown their gods into the fire—but they are not gods, but rather the products of human hands, mere wood and stone. So the Assyrians destroyed them.

¹⁷ Rather, we will keep doing everything that we said we would by offering sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and by pouring out liquid offerings to her just as we, our ancestors, our kings, and our leaders did in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem. Then we had plenty of bread, things went well for us, and we didn’t experience disaster.

²⁹ This will be a sign to you,’ declares the LORD, ‘that I’ll punish you in this place so that you may know that my words concerning disaster against you will surely stand.’

³⁷ Who can command, and it happens, without the Lord having ordered it?

⁵ God Rebukes those who Plot EvilJust then the Spirit of the LORD took control of me and told me, “You are to say, ‘This is what the LORD says: “You’ve said, O house of Israel, that I know what goes through your mind.

¹⁰ The Invasion Strategy“This is what the Lord GOD says: ‘This is what’s going to happen on the very day that you begin your invasion: You’ll be thinking, making evil plans,

⁴ As they drank the wine, they praised gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone.

² Do not be conformed to this world, but continuously be transformed by the renewing of your minds so that you may be able to determine what God’s will is—what is proper, pleasing, and perfect.

²⁰ The rest of the people who survived these plagues did not repent from their evil actions or stop worshiping demons and idols made of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see, hear, or walk.

⁵ Because of my anger, wrath, and great fury, I’ll fight against you myself with an outstretched hand and a strong arm.

¹⁸ For this is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘Just as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you enter Egypt. You will be a curse and an object of horror, ridicule, and scorn, and you will never again see this place.’

⁶ My wrath and my anger were poured out, and they burned in the cities of Judah and the streets of Jerusalem so that they have become a ruin and a desolate place, as is the case today.’

⁴ He bent his bow against us as would an enemy, his right hand cocked as would an adversary. He has killed everyone in whom we took pride; in the tent of cherished Zion he poured out his anger like fire.

¹¹ And all Israel flouted your Law, turning aside from it and not obeying your voice. Because we’ve sinned against him, the curse has been poured upon us, along with the oath written in the Law of Moses the servant of God. ¹² ‘He has confirmed his accusation that he spoke against us and against our rulers who governed us by bringing upon us great calamity, because nowhere in the universe has anything been done like what has been done to Jerusalem.

⁹ By this, then, Jacob’s guilt will be atoned for, and this will be the full harvest that comes from the removal of his sin: when he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalkstones, no Asherah poles or incense altars will be left standing. ¹⁰ For the fortified city stands desolate, a settlement abandoned and forsaken like the desert; calves graze there, and there they lie down and strip bare its branches. ¹¹ When its branches are dry, they are broken off, and women come and kindle fires with them, since this is a people who show no consideration. That is why the One who made them shows them no compassion; the One who created them shows them no mercy.
¹² Assyria and Egypt Exiles RedeemedAt that time, the LORD will winnow grain from the Euphrates River channel to the Wadi of Egypt, and you will be gathered in one by one, O people of Israel. ¹³ Furthermore, at that time, a great trumpet will be sounded, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and those who had been expelled to the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD on his holy mountain at Jerusalem.

³⁸ I’ll eliminate the rebels among you, along with those who are transgressing against me. I’ll bring them out of the land where you’ve lived, but they won’t be able to enter the land of Israel. Then you’ll know that I am the LORD.”

¹⁶ ‘I’m going to seek both the lost as well as the scattered, and bring them both back so their broken bones can be set and the sick can be healed. But in righteousness I’ll exterminate the fat and the stiff-necked.’”

⁹ “Look! I’m giving the order: I will sift the house of Israel throughout all the nations, as one sifts with a sieve, yet not a single kernel will reach the ground! ¹⁰ All sinners among my people will die by the sword, especially all who are saying, ‘Disaster will not come upon or conquer us!’”

⁹ “Therefore I’ll again accuse you,” declares the LORD, “and I’ll accuse your grandchildren.”

³⁵ you say, ‘I’m innocent. Surely his anger has turned away from me.’” “I’m about to bring charges against you because you say, ‘I haven’t sinned.’

³¹ A tumult reaches to the ends of the earth because the LORD is bringing an indictment against the nations. He judges all flesh. He has given the wicked over to the sword,’ declares the LORD.

²⁰ I’ll spread my net over him so that he’ll be caught in my snare. I’ll bring him to Babylon and carry out my sentence there because of his treachery toward me.

¹³ Now it is planted in the desert, in a dry and thirsty land!

³⁶ Just as I judged your ancestors in the wilderness in the land of Egypt, so I’ll judge you,” declares the LORD.

⁸ “‘“Many days from now—in the latter years—you will be summoned to a land that has been restored from violence. You will be gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which formerly had been a continuous waste, but which will be populated with people who have been brought back from the nations. All of them will be living there securely.

²² I’ll judge them with disease and bloodshed. I’ll shower him, his soldiers, and the vast army that accompanies him with a torrential flood, hailstones, fire, and sulfur.

¹⁴ Alluring a Wayward Wife“Therefore, look! I will now allure her. I will make her go out to the wilderness, and will speak to her heart.

¹ God Accuses Israel “Hear this message from the LORD, people of Israel. Indeed, the LORD brings a charge against the people who live in the land— for there is no truth and no gracious love or knowledge of God in the land.

¹⁰ Be in pain! Be in labor, you daughter of Zion, like a woman about to give birth, because now you will depart from the city, living in the open fields. To Babylon you will go. There you will be delivered, there the LORD will rescue you from the power of your enemies.”

¹ The LORD’s Indictment against IsraelPlease hear what the LORD says: “Get up and make your case before the mountains, and let the hills listen to your voice. ² Listen, you mountains, to the LORD’s argument! Listen, you strong foundations of the earth, because the LORD has a dispute with his people, and he will set out his case before Israel.

¹³ The land will become desolate because of its inhabitants, and as a result of their behavior. ¹⁴ Use your rod to shepherd your people, the flock that belongs to you, that lives alone in the forest of Carmel. Let them find pasture in Bashan and Gilead, as they did long ago. ¹⁵ As I did when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show you awesome things.

¹⁴ However, the woman was given the two wings of a large eagle so that she could fly away from the serpent to her place in the wilderness, where she could be taken care of for a time, times, and half a time.

⁷ Moses Intercedes for IsraelThe LORD told Moses, “Go down immediately, because your people whom you led out of Egypt have behaved corruptly. ⁸ They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them, and they have made for themselves a molten calf. They have bowed down to it in worship, they have offered sacrifices to it, and they have said, ‘This, Israel, is your god who brought you out of the land of Egypt.’”
⁹ Then the LORD told Moses, “I’ve seen these people and indeed they’re obstinate. ¹⁰ Now let me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may consume them, but I’ll make a great nation of you.”
¹¹ But Moses implored the LORD his God: “LORD, why are you angry with your people whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a show of force? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with an evil intention to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your anger and change your mind about the calamity against your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants to whom you swore by yourself as you told them, ‘I’ll increase the number of your descendants like the stars of the heavens, I’ll give your descendants all of this land about which I have spoken, and they are to possess it forever.’”
¹⁴ So the LORD changed his mind about the calamity he had said he would bring on his people.
¹⁵ Moses Destroys the Golden Calf and the Tablets of the LawThen Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two Tablets of the Testimony in his hand, tablets which were written on both sides. They were written on one side and the other. ¹⁶ The tablets were the work of God and the writing was God’s writing, inscribed on the tablets. ¹⁷ When Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he told Moses, “The sound of war is coming from the camp.”
¹⁸ Moses said, “It is not the sound of a victory shout, and it’s not the sound of a shout of defeat, but it’s the sound of singing that I hear.”
¹⁹ As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he became angry. He threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the base of the mountain. ²⁰ He took the calf that they had made, burned it with fire, and ground it into powder. He scattered it on the water and made the Israelis drink it. ²¹ Then Moses asked Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you brought such great sin upon them?”
²² Aaron said, “Sir, don’t be angry. You know the people—that they’re intent on evil. ²³ They told me, ‘Make a god for us who will go before us because, as for this fellow Moses who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ ²⁴ So I told them, ‘Whoever has gold ornaments, tear them off.’ When they gave it to me, I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
²⁵ The Descendants of Levi Punish the Guilty IsraelisWhen Moses saw that the people were out of control—since Aaron had let them get out of control, something that incited ridicule from their enemies— ²⁶ he stood in the gate of the camp and called out: “Whoever is for the LORD come over to me,” and all the sons of Levi gathered around him. ²⁷ He told them, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says, ‘Every man put his sword on his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and each of you kill his brother and friend and neighbor.’”
²⁸ The descendants of Levi did just as Moses told them, and about 3,000 people died that day. ²⁹ Moses said, “You have been ordained to serve the LORD today, and you have brought a blessing on yourselves today because every man opposed his son or brother.”
³⁰ Moses Again Intercedes for the PeopleThe next day Moses told the people, “You committed a great sin, and now I’ll go up to the LORD, and perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
³¹ Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Please, LORD, this people committed a great sin by making a god of gold for themselves. ³² Now, if you will, forgive their sin—but if not, blot me out of your book which you have written.”
³³ The LORD told Moses, “Whoever sins against me, I’ll blot him out of my book. ³⁴ Now, go, and lead the people where I told you, and now my angel will go before you, but on the day when I do punish, I’ll punish them for their sin.” ³⁵ Then the LORD sent a plague on the people because they made the calf (the one Aaron made).

¹ Israel ComplainsEventually, the people began complaining about their distress, and the LORD heard them. When the LORD heard, his anger flared up and the LORD’s fire incinerated some of them within the outskirts of the camp. ² When the people cried out to Moses, he prayed to the LORD and the fire stopped. ³ He then named that place Taberah, because the LORD’s fire had incinerated some of them.
⁴ Meanwhile, certain riff-raff among the people had an insatiable appetite for food. As a result, they wept and turned back, and the Israelis cried out, “If only somebody would feed us some meat! ⁵ How we remember the fish that we used to eat in Egypt for free! And the cucumbers, melons, leeks, onions, and garlic! ⁶ But now we can’t stand it anymore, because there’s nothing in front of us except this manna.”
⁷ Now manna was reminiscent of coriander seed, with an appearance similar to amber. ⁸ People would go out to gather it, then they would grind it in mills or pound it in mortars, and then they would boil it in pots or make cakes out of it that tasted like butter cakes. ⁹ When the dew fell in the camp, the manna came with it.
¹⁰ Moses RespondsMoses heard the people weeping throughout their entire families. Everyone gathered at the entrance to their tents so that the LORD was very angry. Moses thought the situation was bad, ¹¹ so he asked the LORD, “Why did you bring all this trouble to your servant? Why haven’t I found favor in your eyes? After all, you’re putting the burden of this entire people on me! ¹² Did I conceive this people or give birth to them, so that you would tell me to carry them near my heart like a wet nurse carries a suckling baby to the land that you promised to their forefathers? ¹³ Where am I going to get meat to give this people? After all, they’re crying in front of me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ ¹⁴ I cannot carry this whole nation! The burden is too heavy for me! ¹⁵ If this is how you treat me, please kill me right now, if I’ve found favor in your eyes, because I don’t want to keep staring at all of this misery!”
¹⁶ The Appointment of 70 EldersThen the LORD told Moses, “Gather together for me 70 men who are elders of Israel, men whom you know to be elders of the people and officers over them. Then bring them to the Tent of Meeting and let them stand there with you. ¹⁷ Then I’ll come down and speak with you. I’ll take some of the spirit that rests on you and apportion it among them, so that they may help you bear the burden of the people. That way, you won’t bear it by yourself.”
¹⁸ God Threatens to Provide Meat“But give this command to the people: ‘You are to consecrate yourselves, because tomorrow you’re going to eat meat, since you’ve complained where the LORD can hear it, “Who can give us meat to eat? After all, life was better with us in Egypt.” Therefore, the LORD is going to give you meat and you’ll eat— ¹⁹ not only for a day, or for two days, or for five days, or for ten days, or for 20 days, ²⁰ but for a whole month—until it comes out your nostrils and makes you vomit. This is because you’ve despised the LORD, who is among you, and you cried out in his presence by complaining, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?”’”
²¹ Moses Doubts God’s AbilityMoses responded, “I’m with 600,000 people on foot and you’re saying I am to give them enough meat to eat for a whole month? ²² What if we were to slaughter our entire inventory of flocks and herds for them? Would that be enough? What if we could gather all the fish in the sea in nets for them? Would that be enough, either?”
²³ God Rebukes MosesBut the LORD responded to Moses, “Is the LORD short on power? You’re now going to witness whether what I say will come to pass or not.”
²⁴ So Moses went out and told the people what the LORD had said. He gathered 70 men from the elders of the people and stationed them around the tent. ²⁵ The LORD came down in a cloud, spoke to Moses, and made an apportionment from the spirit who rested on him to the 70 elders. When the spirit rested on them, they prophesied, but that was it.
²⁶ Now two men had remained in camp. One was named Eldad and the other was named Medad. When the spirit rested on them, since they were among those who were listed but had not gone out to the tent, they stayed behind and prophesied in the camp. ²⁷ A young man ran and reported to Moses, “Eldad and Medad are prophesying in the camp!”
²⁸ In response, Nun’s son Joshua, Moses’ attendant and one of his choice men, exclaimed, “My master Moses! Stop them!”
²⁹ “Are you jealous on account of me?” Moses asked in reply. “I wish all of the LORD’s people were prophets and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!” ³⁰ Then Moses—that is, he and the elders of Israel—returned to the camp.
³¹ Quails Come to the CampJust then, a wind burst forth from the LORD, who brought quails from the sea and spread them all around the camp, about a day’s journey in each direction, completely encircling the camp about two cubits deep on top of the ground! ³² The people stayed up all that day, all that night, and all through the next day, gathering quails. The one who gathered least gathered enough to fill ten omers, as they spread out all around the camp. ³³ But even as they were chewing the meat and before they had swallowed it, the LORD became very angry with the people and struck them with a disastrous plague. ³⁴ That’s why the place was named Kibroth-hattaavah, because they buried the people there who had an insatiable appetite for meat. ³⁵ Later, the people left Kibroth-hattaavah for Hazeroth and camped there.

¹ The People RebelAt this, the entire assembly complained, started to shout, and cried through the rest of that night. ² All the Israelis complained against Moses and Aaron. Then the entire assembly responded, “We wish that we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness. ³ What’s the point in the LORD bringing us to this land? To die by the sword so our wives and children would become war victims? Wouldn’t it be better for us to return to Egypt?”
⁴ Then they told each other, “Let’s assign a leader and go back to Egypt.”
⁵ Moses and Aaron fell on their faces in front of the entire assembly of the congregation of Israel. ⁶ Nun’s son Joshua and Jephunneh’s son Caleb, who had accompanied the others who also had explored the land, tore their clothes ⁷ and attempted to reason with the entire congregation of Israel. They told them, “The land that we went through and explored is very, very good. ⁸ If the LORD is pleased with us, he’ll bring us into this land and give it to us. It flows with milk and honey. ⁹ However, don’t rebel against the LORD or be afraid of the people who live in the land, because we’ll gobble them right up. Their defenses will collapse, because the LORD is with us. You are not to be afraid of them.”
¹⁰ But the entire congregation was talking about stoning them to death.
God Rebukes Unbelieving IsraelSuddenly, the glory of the LORD appeared at the Tent of Meeting to all of the Israelis. ¹¹ “How long will this people keep on spurning me and refusing to trust me, despite all the miracles that I’ve done among them?” the LORD asked Moses. ¹² “That’s why I’m going to attack them with pestilence and disinherit them. Instead, I’ll make you a great nation—even mightier than they are!”
¹³ Moses Intercedes for IsraelBut Moses responded to the LORD, “When Egypt hears that you’ve brought this people out from among them with a mighty demonstration of power, ¹⁴ they’ll also proclaim to the inhabitants of this land that they’ve heard you’re among this people, LORD, whom they’ve seen face to face, since your cloud stands guard over them. You’ve guided them with a pillar of cloud by day and with a pillar of fire by night. ¹⁵ But if you slaughter this people all at the same time, then the nations who heard about your fame will say, ¹⁶ ‘The LORD slaughtered this people in the wilderness because he wasn’t able to bring them to the land that he promised them.’
¹⁷ “Now, let the power of the LORD be magnified, just as you promised when you said, ¹⁸ ‘The LORD is slow to anger and abundant in faithful love, forgiving iniquity and transgression, but he won’t acquit the guilty. He recalls the iniquity of fathers to the third and fourth generation.’
¹⁹ “Forgive, please, the iniquity of this people, according to your great, faithful love, in the same way that you’ve carried this people from Egypt to this place.”
²⁰ God Responds to MosesThe LORD responded, “I’ve forgiven them based on what you’ve said. ²¹ But just as I live, and just as the whole earth will be filled with the LORD’s glory, ²² none of those men who saw my glory and watched my miracles that I did in Egypt and in the wilderness—even though they’ve tested me these ten times and never listened to my voice— ²³ will ever see the land that I promised to their ancestors. Those who spurned me won’t see it. ²⁴ Now as to my servant Caleb, because a different spirit is within him and he has remained true to me, I’m going to bring him into the land that he explored, and his descendants are to inherit it. ²⁵ Now the Amalekite and the Canaanite live in the valley. Tomorrow, turn and then travel to the wilderness in the direction of the Reed Sea.”
²⁶ Then the LORD told Moses and Aaron, ²⁷ “How long will this wicked assembly keep complaining about me? I’ve heard the complaints of the Israelis that they’ve been murmuring against me. ²⁸ So tell them that as long as I live—consider this to be an oracle from the LORD—as certainly as you’ve spoken right into my ears, that’s how I’m going to treat you. ²⁹ Your corpses will fall in this wilderness—every single one of you who has been counted among you, according to your number from 20 years and above, who complained against me. ³⁰ You will certainly never enter the land about which I made an oath with my uplifted hand to settle you in it, except for Jephunneh’s son Caleb and Nun’s son Joshua. ³¹ However, I’ll bring your little ones—the ones whom you claimed would become war victims—into the land so that they’ll know by experience the land that you’ve rejected.
³² “Now as for you, your corpses will fall in this wilderness ³³ and your children will wander throughout the wilderness for 40 years. They’ll bear the consequences of your idolatries until your bodies are entirely consumed in the wilderness. ³⁴ Just as you explored the land for 40 days, you’ll bear the consequences of your iniquities for 40 years—one year for each day—as you experience my hostility. ³⁵ I, the LORD, have spoken. I will indeed do this to this evil congregation, who gathered together against me. They’ll be eliminated in this wilderness and will surely die.”
³⁶ God Kills the Unbelieving ExplorersAfter this, the men whom Moses sent out to explore the land, who returned and made the whole congregation complain against him by bringing an evil report concerning the land, ³⁷ and who produced an evil report about the land, died of pestilence in the LORD’s presence. ³⁸ However, Nun’s son Joshua and Jephunneh’s son Caleb, who had explored the land, remained alive.
³⁹ Rebellion against God’s PunishmentAfter Moses had told all of this to the Israelis, the people deeply mourned. ⁴⁰ So they got up early the next morning and traveled to the top of the mountain, telling themselves, “Look, we’re here and we’re going to go up to the place that the LORD had spoken about, even though we’ve sinned.”
⁴¹ But Moses asked them, “Why do you continue to sin against what the LORD said? Don’t you know that you can never succeed? ⁴² Don’t go up, since you know that the LORD is no longer with you. You’ll be attacked right in front of your own enemies. ⁴³ The Amalekites and Canaanites are there waiting for you. You’ll die violently, since you’ve turned your back and have stopped following the LORD. The LORD won’t be with you.”
⁴⁴ But they presumed to go up to the top of the mountain, even though the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD and Moses didn’t leave the camp. ⁴⁵ The Amalekites came down, accompanied by some Canaanites who lived in the mountains. They attacked and defeated them even while the Israelis were retreating to Hormah.

¹ The Rebellion of Korah, Dathan, and AbiramNow Izhar’s son Korah, the grandson of Kohath, a descendant of Levi, along with Eliab’s sons Dathan and Abiram, and Peleth’s son On, a descendant of Reuben, took charge ² of a rebellion against Moses, along with 250 community leaders, Israelis who were famous men and representatives from the assembly. ³ They gathered together against Moses and Aaron and told them, “You have appropriated too much for yourselves from the entire congregation, since all of them are holy, and the LORD is among them, too. Why do you exalt yourselves over the LORD’s assembly?”
⁴ When Moses heard this, he fell on his face. ⁵ Then he addressed Korah and his entire company, “In the morning, may the LORD reveal who belongs to him and who is holy. May he cause that person to approach him. May he cause to approach him the one whom he has chosen. ⁶ Korah, you and your entire company are to bring censers ⁷ and put fire and incense in them in the LORD’s presence tomorrow. It will be that the man whom the LORD chooses will be holy. You’re taking too much for yourselves, you descendants of Levi.”
⁸ Moses also told Korah, “Listen now, you descendants of Levi! ⁹ Is it such an insignificant thing to you that the God of Israel has separated you from the Israelis to draw you to himself, appointing you to do the work of the tent of the LORD and to stand before the community to minister to them? ¹⁰ He brought you near, along with all of your relatives, the descendants of Levi. Are you also seeking the priesthood? ¹¹ Therefore you and your group have conspired against the LORD and Aaron. What is it that causes you to complain against him?”
¹² So Moses sent for Eliab’s sons Dathan and Abiram, but they responded, “We’re not coming. ¹³ Is it such an insignificant thing that you brought us out of a land flowing with milk and honey, to kill us in the wilderness? Now you’re trying to make yourself be a prince and rule over us, aren’t you? ¹⁴ You still haven’t brought us into a land flowing with milk and honey, nor have you given us an inheritance of fields and vineyards. Do you really think that you can make these men look the other way? We won’t go up.”
¹⁵ Moses was very angry, so he told the LORD, “Please don’t accept their offering. I haven’t taken even one donkey from them nor have I hurt even one of them.”
¹⁶ Then Moses told Korah, “You and your entire company are to present yourselves in the LORD’s presence tomorrow—you, they, and Aaron. ¹⁷ Each man is to take a censer, put incense on it, and bring it into the LORD’s presence, each man with his censer, for a total of 250 censers. You and Aaron are each to bring his own censer.”
¹⁸ So each man took his censer, put fire coals inside of it, placed incense in it, and then stood at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, accompanied by Moses and Aaron. ¹⁹ When Korah had assembled the entire community in opposition to Moses and Aaron at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the glory of the LORD appeared to the entire community.
²⁰ God Vindicates Moses and AaronThen the LORD told Moses and Aaron, ²¹ “Separate yourselves from among this community, and I’ll destroy them in a moment.”
²² Then they fell on their faces and said, “God, the God of the spirits of all flesh, will you be angry at the entire congregation on account of one man’s sin?”
²³ Then the LORD instructed Moses, ²⁴ “Tell the community to move away from where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram are living.”
²⁵ So Moses got up and went to Dathan and Abiram, and the elders of Israel followed him. ²⁶ Then he told the community, “Move away from the camps of these wicked men and don’t touch anything that belongs to them. That way you won’t be destroyed along with all their sins.” ²⁷ So they all moved away from the entire area where Korah, Dathan, and Abiram were living.
Now Korah, Dathan, and Abiram stood at the entrance to their tents with their wives, sons, and little children. ²⁸ Then Moses said, “This is how you’ll know that the LORD has sent me to do all these awesome works—they’re not coming merely from me. ²⁹ If these people die a death similar to all other human beings, or if they are punished with a punishment common to other men, then the LORD didn’t send me. ³⁰ But if the LORD creates something new, so that the ground opens its mouth and swallows them and everything that belongs to them and they all descend directly to Sheol while still alive, then you’ll know that these men have spurned the LORD.”
³¹ God Executes Korah’s FamiliesJust as he finished saying all these things, the ground under them split open. ³² The earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, all their households, everyone who was affiliated with Korah, and all of their property. ³³ So they and all that belonged to them descended alive to Sheol. Then the earth closed over them. That’s how they were annihilated from the assembly.
³⁴ Then all of the Israelis who were around them ran away when they heard them crying, “…so the ground won’t swallow us up, too.” ³⁵ After this, fire came from the LORD and incinerated the 250 men who offered the incense.
³⁶ The Censers Used for the Altar Then the LORD instructed Moses, ³⁷ “Tell Aaron’s son Eleazar the priest to take out the censers out of the flames and scatter the coals far away, since they are holy. ³⁸ As for the censers of those rebels who died, fasten them into beaten plates to line the altar. Since they brought them into the LORD’s presence, they’re holy. They are to become a reminder to the Israelis.”
³⁹ So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers that had been burned and beat them into metal plates for the altar, ⁴⁰ to serve as a memorial to the Israelis, a reminder that no unauthorized person, who isn’t a descendant of Aaron, is to attempt to burn incense in the LORD’S presence, so that he may not become like Korah and his group, just as the LORD had spoken by the authority of Moses.
⁴¹ The Israelis Continue to ComplainNevertheless, the very next day, the whole congregation of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron, “You’ve killed the LORD’S people!”
⁴² When the community gathered together against Moses and Aaron, they turned toward the Tent of Meeting. All of a sudden, a cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. ⁴³ Then Moses and Aaron entered the Tent of Meeting.
⁴⁴ The LORD told Moses, ⁴⁵ “Leave this community, so I can annihilate them in a moment.”
But they fell upon their faces. ⁴⁶ Then Moses told Aaron. “Take the censer, put fire on it from the altar, and burn some incense. Then walk quickly to the congregation and atone for them, because wrath has already come out from the LORD—the plague has begun.”
⁴⁷ So Aaron took the censer, just as Moses had spoken, and ran out to the center of the assembly, where a plague had begun among the people. He set the incense on fire and atoned for the people. ⁴⁸ He stood between the dead and the living and restrained the plague. ⁴⁹ Those who died due to the plague numbered 14,700, not counting those who died due to the matter with Korah.
⁵⁰ Then Aaron returned to Moses at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting after the slaughter had been restrained.

¹ Worship of Baal of PeorWhile Israel remained encamped in Shittim, the people began to commit sexual immorality with Moabite women, ² who also invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods. So the people ate what they had sacrificed and then worshipped their gods. ³ The people joined the Baal-peor cult. As a result, the anger of the LORD flared up against Israel, ⁴ so the LORD told Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight for the LORD, so the LORD’s burning anger may be withdrawn from Israel.”
⁵ Then Moses ordered the judges of Israel, “Each one of you is to execute the men in his own tribe who joined the Baal-peor cult.”
⁶ That very moment, one of the Israelis arrived, bringing to his brothers one of the Midianite women, right in front of Moses and the entire community of Israel, while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting! ⁷ When Eleazar’s son Phinehas, grandson of Aaron the priest saw this, he jumped up from the middle of the community, grabbed a javelin in his hand, ⁸ followed the Israeli man inside his tent, and impaled the two of them—the Israeli man and the woman—right through both of them and into her abdomen. Then the plague infecting the Israelis was brought to a halt. Nevertheless, ⁹ 24,000 people died because of the plague.
¹⁰ God Commends PhinehasThe LORD told Moses, ¹¹ “Eleazar’s son Phinehas, grandson of Aaron the priest, has turned my wrath away from Israel. Because his zealousness reflected my own zeal for them, I didn’t consume Israel in my jealousy. ¹² Therefore, I’m certainly going to be giving him my covenant of peace, ¹³ for him and for his descendants after him, too, a covenant of perpetual priesthood, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelis.”
¹⁴ Now the name of the Israeli man who was slain, along with the Midianite woman, was Salu’s son Zimri, a leader from the tribe of Simeon. ¹⁵ The woman who was slain, that is, the Midianite woman, was named Cozbi. She was the daughter of Zur, a leader of one of the ancestral houses of Midian.
¹⁶ God Orders the Destruction of MidianLater, the LORD ordered Moses, ¹⁷ “Attack the Midianites and execute them, ¹⁸ because they’ve acted deceitfully, bringing trouble to you in this incident at Peor with Cozbi, daughter of a prince from Midian, who was killed during the plague that came about because of the incident at Peor.”

¹⁵ God granted them their request, but sent leanness into their lives. ¹⁶ They were envious of Moses in the camp, and of Aaron, the holy one of the LORD. ¹⁷ The earth opened and swallowed Dathan, closing over Abiram’s clan. ¹⁸ Then a fire burned among their company, a flame that set the wicked ablaze. ¹⁹ They fashioned a calf at Horeb and worshipped a carved image. ²⁰ They exchanged their glory with the image of a grass-eating bull. ²¹ They forgot God their Savior, who performed great things in Egypt— ²² awesome deeds in the land of Ham, astonishing deeds at the Reed Sea. ²³ He would have destroyed them but for Moses, his chosen one, who stood in the breach before him to avert his destructive wrath. ²⁴ They rejected the desirable land, and they didn’t trust his promise. ²⁵ They murmured in their tents, and didn’t listen to the voice of the LORD. ²⁶ So he swore an oath concerning them— that he would cause them to die in the wilderness, ²⁷ to cause their children to perish among the nations and be scattered among many lands. ²⁸ For they adopted the worship of Baal Peor and ate sacrifices offered to the dead. ²⁹ They had provoked anger by their deeds, so that a plague broke out against them. ³⁰ But Phinehas intervened and prayed so that the plague was restrained. ³¹ And it was credited to him as a righteous act, from generation to generation—to eternity. ³² They provoked wrath at the waters of Meribah, and Moses suffered on account of them. ³³ For they rebelled against him, so that he spoke thoughtlessly with his lips. ³⁴ They never destroyed the people, as the LORD had commanded them. ³⁵ Instead, they mingled among the nations and learned their ways. ³⁶ They worshipped their idols, and this became a trap for them. ³⁷ They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons. ³⁸ They shed innocent blood— the blood of their sons and daughters— whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan, thereby polluting the land with blood. ³⁹ Therefore, they became unclean because of what they did; they have acted like whores by their evil deeds. ⁴⁰ The LORD’s anger burned against his people, so that he despised his own inheritance. ⁴¹ He turned them over to domination by nations where those who hated them ruled over them. ⁴² Their enemies oppressed them, so that they were humiliated by their power. ⁴³ He delivered them many times, but they demonstrated rebellion by their evil plans; therefore they sunk deep in their sins. ⁴⁴ Yet when he saw their distress and heard their cries for help, ⁴⁵ he remembered his covenant with them, and so relented according to the greatness of his gracious love. ⁴⁶ He caused all their captors to show compassion toward them. ⁴⁷ Deliver us, LORD our God, gather us from among the nations so we may praise your holy name and rejoice in praising you. ⁴⁸ Blessed are you, LORD God of Israel, from eternity to eternity; Let all the people say, “Amen!” Hallelujah!

⁵ But God wasn’t pleased with most of those people, and so they were struck down in the wilderness.
⁶ Now their experiences serve as examples for us so that we won’t set our hearts on evil as they did. ⁷ Let’s stop being idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to play.” ⁸ Let’s stop sinning sexually, as some of them were doing, and on a single day 23,000 fell dead. ⁹ Let’s stop putting the Lord to the test, as some of them were doing, and were destroyed by snakes. ¹⁰ You must stop complaining, as some of them were doing, and were annihilated by the destroyer.

²⁵ I’ll bring the sword against you to execute the vengeance of my covenant. When you gather in your cities, I’ll send a pestilence. As a result, you’ll be delivered into the control of your enemies.

³² All the tithes from cattle and flocks that pass under the measuring rod are sacred to the LORD.

³⁰ “But if his sons abandon my laws and do not follow my ordinances, ³¹ if they profane my statutes; and do not keep my commands, ³² then I will punish their disobedience with a rod and their iniquity with lashes.

¹³ In the towns of the hill country, in the towns of the Shephelah, in the towns of the Negev, in the territory of Benjamin, in the areas around Jerusalem, and in the towns of Judah flocks will again pass under the hands of the one who counts them,’ says the LORD.”

⁵⁹ “since the Lord GOD says, ‘I’ll deal with you according to what you’ve done, when you despised your oath by breaking the covenant.
⁶⁰ “‘Meanwhile, as for me, I’ll remember my covenant with you from when you were young, because I’ll establish an eternal covenant with you.

¹⁷ God’s Message to His Sheep“Now as for you, my flock, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Watch out! I’m going to judge between one sheep and another, and between the rams and the goats.

² ‘You alone have I known from among all of the families of mankind; therefore I will hold you accountable for all your iniquities.’”

³² All the nations will be assembled in front of him, and he will cull them out, one from another, like a shepherd separates sheep from goats. ³³ He will put the sheep on his right but the goats on his left.

¹⁶ The LORD has made himself known, executing judgment. The wicked are ensnared by what their hands have made. Interlude

¹⁴ Of the remnant of Judah that came into the land of Egypt to settle there, no one will escape or survive to return to the land of Judah where they long to return and live. Indeed, they won’t return, except for some refugees.’”

²¹ But to those whose hearts delight in loathsome things and detestable practices, I’ll bring the consequences of their behavior crashing down on their own heads,” declares the Lord GOD.’”

⁹ My hand will oppose the prophets who see false visions and speak deceptive divinations. They won’t be included with the council of my people, nor will they be entered into the registry of Israel’s house or enter Israel’s land. Then you’ll know that I am the Lord GOD,

⁷ to punishment. They may have escaped one fire, but the coming fire will burn them up completely, and they will know that I am the LORD, when I set myself in opposition to them

⁴⁹ You’ll receive the consequences for your obscene conduct and bear the punishment for your sins of idolatry. Then you’ll know that I am the Lord GOD.”

¹⁷ God’s Message to His Sheep“Now as for you, my flock, this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘Watch out! I’m going to judge between one sheep and another, and between the rams and the goats. ¹⁸ Is it such an insignificant thing to you that you’re feeding in good pastures but trampling down the other pastures with your feet? Or that as you’re drinking from the clear streams you’re muddying the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ My flock is grazing on what you’ve been treading down with your feet and they’re drinking what you’ve been making muddy with your feet!’
²⁰ “Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says to them: ‘Watch me! I’m going to judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep, ²¹ since you’ve been bumping aside all the weaker sheep with your backsides and shoulders, butting them with your horns until they’re scattered around outside. ²² That’s how I’ll save my sheep so they won’t be plundered any longer. I’m going to judge between one sheep and another.’”

⁸ It will come about in all of the land,” declares the LORD, “that two thirds of the people living there will die, but a third will survive who live there. ⁹ And I will bring that surviving third through, testing them as if through fire, purifying them like silver, assaying them like gold. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘This is my people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’”

³ he will sit refining and purifying silver, purifying the descendants of Levi, refining them like gold and silver. Then they’ll bring a righteous offering to the LORD.

¹ The Great Day of the LORD“The coming day is certainly going to burn like a furnace. All the arrogant and all who practice evil will be stubble—the coming day will set them on fire,” says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. ² But the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in its light for those who fear my name. You will go out and leap like calves released from their stalls ³ and trample down the wicked. Indeed, they will become ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I do this,” says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

⁹ Don’t think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have father Abraham!’ because I tell you that God can raise up descendants for Abraham from these stones! ¹⁰ The ax already lies against the roots of the trees. So every tree that isn’t producing good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

¹² His winnowing fork is in his hand. He will clean up his threshing floor and gather his grain into the barn, but he will burn the chaff with inextinguishable fire.”

²⁷ Isaiah also calls out concerning Israel, “Although the descendants of Israel are as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, only a few will be saved. ²⁸ For the Lord will carry out his plan decisively, bringing it to completion on the earth.”
²⁹ It is just as Isaiah predicted: “If the Lord of the Heavenly Armies had not left us some descendants, we would have become like Sodom and would have been compared to Gomorrah.”

⁵ But God wasn’t pleased with most of those people, and so they were struck down in the wilderness.

⁶ Therefore, since it is still true that some will enter it, and since those who once heard the good news failed to enter it because of their disobedience,

⁵ Now I want to remind you, even though you are fully aware of these things, that the Lord who once saved his people from the land of Egypt later destroyed those who did not believe.

¹⁴ Go and cry out to the gods that you have chosen for yourselves. Let them deliver you in your time of trouble.”

¹³ Stop bringing useless offerings! Incense is detestable to me, as are your New Moons, Sabbaths, and calling of convocations. I cannot stand iniquity within a solemn assembly. ¹⁴ As for your New Moons and your appointed festivals, I abhor them. They’ve become a burden to me; I’ve grown weary of carrying that burden. ¹⁵ When you spread out your hands in prayer, I’ll hide my eyes from you. Even though you pray repeatedly, I won’t listen. Your hands are full of blood, your fingers drenched with iniquity.”

³ “Whoever slaughters an ox is just like one who kills a human being; whoever sacrifices a lamb is just like one who breaks a dog’s neck; whoever makes a grain offering is just like one who offers pig’s blood; and whoever makes a memorial offering of frankincense is just like one who blesses an idol. Yes, these have chosen their own ways, and they take delight in their contaminated actions.

⁹ Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear by false gods, burn incense to Baal, follow other gods that you don’t know, ¹⁰ and then come to stand before me in this house that is called by my name and say, ‘We’re delivered’ so we can continue to do all these things that are repugnant to God? ¹¹ Has this house that is called by my name become a hideout for bandits in your eyes? Look, I’m watching,” declares the LORD.

²⁵ This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of Israel, says: ‘You and your wives have spoken with your mouths and acted with your hands: “We will certainly carry through on the vows that we vowed to offer sacrifices to the Queen of Heaven and pour out liquid offerings to her!” Go ahead, carry through on your vows, and diligently do what you vowed!’ ²⁶ But listen to this message from the LORD, all you people of Judah who are living in the land of Egypt. ‘Look, I’ve sworn by my great name’, says the LORD, ‘my name will no longer be invoked by the mouth of any person in the entire land of Egypt, as he says, “As surely as the Lord GOD lives…”

²⁵ So I gave them statutes that weren’t good and ordinances by which they could not live. ²⁶ I made them unclean because of their offerings, so they made all their firstborn to pass through the fire, so that I could make them astonished. Then they’ll know that I am the LORD.”

³⁷ because they’ve committed adultery, and blood covers their hands. They’ve also committed adultery with their idols, making their sons born to me to pass through the fire as an offering to them.
³⁸ “They’ve also done this to me: They defiled my sanctuary and profaned my Sabbaths, all at the same time! ³⁹ When they killed their sons as offerings to their idols, they brought them to my sanctuary and defiled it. Look what they’ve done with my Temple!

⁷ God to Live among His People“Son of Man,” the Lord GOD told me, “This is where my throne is, where I place the soles of my feet, and where I will live among the Israelis forever. The house of Israel will no longer defile my holy name—neither they nor their kings—by their unfaithfulness, by the lifeless idols of their kings on their funeral mounds,

¹⁷ Ephraim has become entwined with idols; leave him alone!

⁴ The LORD’s Rebuke to Israel“Come to Bethel and sin, to Gilgal and sin even more! Bring along your morning sacrifices, and pay your tithes every other day. ⁵ While you’re at it, present a thank offering with leaven, and publicize your freewill offerings, letting everyone hear about it, because this is what you really love to do, you Israelis,” declares the Lord GOD.

⁴ “I will also stretch out my hand against Judah, and upon all inhabitants of Jerusalem. I’ll wipe out every trace of Baal from this place, and the name of the pagan priests, along with my own priests. ⁵ I’ll wipe out those who worship the stars that they view from their housetops, those who bow down and swear to the LORD and who also swear by Milcom,

²⁴ God and Riches
“No one can serve two masters, because either he will hate one and love the other, or be loyal to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and riches!”

¹¹ For this reason, God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie.

¹⁵ ‘I know your actions, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were cold or hot. ¹⁶ Since you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am going to spit you out of my mouth.

⁶ “I have set my king on Zion, my holy mountain.”

¹⁵ The mountain of God is as the mountain of Bashan; a mountain of many peaks is Mount Bashan. ¹⁶ You mountains of many peaks, why do you watch with envy the mountain in which God has chosen to dwell? Indeed, the LORD will live there forever.

² “It will come about in the last days that the mountain that is the LORD’s Temple will be established as the highest of mountains, and will be raised above the hills; all the nations will stream to it. ³ Many groups of people will come, commenting, “Come! Let’s go up to the Temple of the God of Jacob, that they may teach us his ways. Then let’s walk in his paths.”
The Rule of God from Jerusalem “Instruction will proceed from Zion, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt-offerings and their sacrifices will rise up to be accepted on my altar; for my house will be called a house of prayer for everyone.”

⁷ All Kedar’s flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you. and they’ll come up with acceptance upon my altar, and I’ll glorify my glorious house.”

²⁰ They will bring all—yes, all!— of your kindred from all the nations to my holy mountain Jerusalem as an offering to the LORD—on horses, in chariots, in wagons, and on mules—yes, even on mules!— and on camels,” says the LORD, “just as the Israelis bring a grain offering in a clean vessel to the LORD’s house.

²³ And from New Moon to New Moon, and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all humanity will come to worship before me,” says the LORD.

¹² They’ll come and cry out with joy on the heights of Zion. They’ll be radiant over the LORD’s goodness, over the grain, the new wine, the fresh oil, and over the young of the flocks and herds. Their lives will be like a well-watered garden. They’ll never again grow faint.

²³ I’ll transplant it on Israel’s land, and it will grow branches, bear fruit, and become a majestic cedar. All sorts of birds will rest under it, and they’ll settle down in the shade of its branches.

²² I’m going to make them a united people in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and I’ll set a single king to rule over them. They’ll never again be two separate people. They’ll never again be divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They will never again defile themselves with their idols, with other loathsome things, or with any of their sins. Instead, I will deliver them from all of the places where they have sinned, and then I’ll cleanse them. They will be my people and I will be their God.”’”
²⁴ David’s Rule as King“‘“My servant King David will be there for them, and one shepherd will be appointed for them. They will live according to my decrees, keep my regulations, and practice them. ²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob and on which your ancestors lived. They will live in that land, along with their children and grandchildren, forever. David my servant will be their everlasting leader. ²⁶ I’ll make a secure covenant with them, one that will last forever. I will establish them, make them increase in population, and will place my sanctuary in their midst forever. ²⁷ I will pitch my tent among them and will be their God. They will be my people, ²⁸ and the nations will learn that I, the LORD, am the sanctifier of Israel when I place my sanctuary in their midst forever.”’”

²⁷ When they will have completed this period, starting the next day, the priests are to offer your burnt offerings on the altar, along with your peace offerings, and I will accept you,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁷ God’s Blessings on His People“And truly you will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no foreigners will invade her again. ¹⁸ It will come about at that time that the mountains will drip with newly pressed wine, the hills will flow with milk, and the streams of Judah will flow abundantly. A fountain will spring from the Temple of the LORD, to water the Valley of the Acacias.

¹⁶ Just as you have drunk from the cup of my wrath upon my holy mountain, so will all nations drink from the cup of my wrath perpetually. They will drink, they will gulp it down, and they will be as if they had never existed!

¹ The Future Reign of God “But in the last days it will come about that the Temple Mount of the LORD will be firmly set as the leading mountain. It will be exalted above its surrounding hills, and people will stream toward it. ² Many nations will approach and say, ‘Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the LORD, and to the Temple of the God of Jacob. He will teach us about his ways, and we will walk according to his directions.’ “Indeed, the Law will proceed from Zion, and the message of the LORD from Jerusalem.

²⁰ Future Visits by Nations to Jerusalem“This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘In the future, people will come, including residents of many cities, ²¹ and they will travel from one place to another place and say, “Let’s go quickly to pray in the presence of the LORD and to inquire of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.’ And I will go, too. ²² Many people and powerful nations will come to inquire of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies in Jerusalem, and to pray in the presence of the LORD.”’”
²³ “This is what the LORD of the Heavenly Armies says: ‘In the future, ten men speaking all the languages of the nations will grab hold of one Jewish person by the hem of his garment and say, “Let us go up to Jerusalem with you, because we heard that God is with you.”’”

¹¹ Even so, from where the sun rises to where it sets my name will be great among the Gentiles. Incense will be brought to me everywhere, along with pure offerings, because my name will be great among the Gentiles,” says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.

⁴ Then the offering to the LORD by Judah and Jerusalem will be acceptable as it was in the past, even as in former years.

²⁰ For they could not endure the command that was given: “If even an animal touches the mountain, it must be stoned to death.” ²¹ Indeed, the sight was so terrifying that Moses said, “I am trembling with fear.” ²² Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to the heavenly Jerusalem, to tens of thousands of angels joyfully gathered together,

¹⁵ Therefore, through him let us always bring God a sacrifice of praise, that is, the fruit of our lips that confess his name.

⁵ you, too, as living stones, are building yourselves up into a spiritual house and a holy priesthood, so that you may offer spiritual sacrifices that are acceptable to God through Jesus, the Messiah.

¹ The Vision of a Woman Dressed with the SunA spectacular sign appeared in the sky: a woman dressed with the sun, who had the moon under her feet and a victor’s crown of twelve stars on her head.

¹⁰ He carried me away in the Spirit to a large, high mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven.

²¹ When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, he told himself, “I will never again curse the land because of human beings—even though human inclinations remain evil from youth—nor will I destroy every living being ever again, as I’ve done.

⁹ Then he is to wash its entrails and legs with water. After this, the priest is to offer all of it on the altar—a burnt offering by fire, an aroma that will be pleasing to the LORD.”

¹³ wash its entrails and legs with water, and then offer all of it on the altar—a burnt offering by fire, an aroma that will be pleasing to the LORD.”

¹⁷ He is then to tear it open by its wings, but not divide it completely into two parts. The priest is then to offer all of it on the wood over the fire as a burnt offering by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD.”

³ Moses spoke with Aaron about what the LORD had said: “Among those who are near me, I’ll show myself holy so that I’ll be glorified before all people.” So Aaron remained silent.

¹⁶ But the LORD of the Heavenly Armies is exalted in justice, and the Holy God proves himself to be righteously holy.

¹¹ At that time, the LORD will reach out his hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that is left of his people, from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. ¹² He will raise a banner for the nations and will assemble the dispersed of Israel; he will gather the scattered people of Judah from the corners of the earth.
¹³ Israel’s Victory over Its EnemiesEphraim’s jealousy will vanish, and those who are hostile to Judah will be eliminated; Ephraim will no longer be jealous of Judah, and Judah will not be hostile to Ephraim. ¹⁴ But they will swoop down on the slopes of the Philistines to the west, and they will plunder the people to the east. They’ll lay their hands on Edom and Moab, and the Ammonites will be subject to them. ¹⁵ The LORD will totally destroy the gulf of the Sea of Egypt. He will sweep his hand over the Euphrates River with a violent wind, breaking it up into seven streams, and making a way for people to cross on foot. ¹⁶ And there will be a highway for the remnant that is left of his people out of Assyria, as there was for Israel when they came up from the land of Egypt.

³ “I’ll gather the remnant of my flock from all the countries where I’ve driven them, and bring them back to their pasture where they’ll be fruitful and increase in numbers.

³ Indeed, the time will come,’ declares the LORD, ‘when I’ll restore the security of my people Israel and Judah,’ says the LORD. ‘I’ll bring them back to the land that I gave to their ancestors, and they’ll possess it.’”

¹⁸ Jacob’s Restoration“This is what the LORD says: ‘I’m going to restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob and have compassion on his dwellings. A city will be rebuilt on its ruins and a palace will sit on its rightful place.

³⁷ I’m about to gather my people from all the lands where I’ve driven them in my anger, wrath, and great indignation. I’ll bring them back to this place and let them live in safety.

¹⁷ “Therefore you are to say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says, “I’m going to gather you from among the nations, assembling you from the lands among which you have been dispersed. I’ll give you the land of Israel.

²⁸ I brought them to the land that I had promised to give them. But whenever they saw any high hill and or any leafy tree, they slaughtered their sacrifices there and presented their offerings that provoked my anger. There they presented their pleasing aromas and poured out their drink offering.

²² Tell her: ‘Pay attention to me, Sidon! I’m against you, and I’m going to glorify myself right in your midst.’ They’ll learn that I am the LORD when I carry out these punishments and manifest my holiness in her midst.

²⁵ This is what the Lord GOD says:
‘When I gather the house of Israel from the nations to which I’ve scattered them, I will show them my holiness before the watching world, and they will live on the land that I gave to my servant Jacob.

¹⁹ My flock is grazing on what you’ve been treading down with your feet and they’re drinking what you’ve been making muddy with your feet!’

²³ I’m going to affirm my great reputation that has been defiled among the nations (that is, that you have defiled in their midst), and those people will learn that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I affirm my holiness in front of their very eyes. ²⁴ I’m going to remove you from the nations, gather you from all of the territories, and bring you all back to your own land.

²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob and on which your ancestors lived. They will live in that land, along with their children and grandchildren, forever. David my servant will be their everlasting leader.

²³ I will exalt myself and demonstrate my holiness, making myself known to many people, who will learn that I am the LORD.’”

²⁷ When I bring them back from the nations and gather them together from the lands that belong to their enemies, I will demonstrate my holiness through them right in front of the eyes of the world, ²⁸ and they will learn that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into exile and who gathered them back to their land. I will not leave any of them remaining in exile. ²⁹ I’ll no longer hide my presence from them again when I pour out my Spirit on the house of Israel,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

¹⁴ I will surely restore my people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them. They will plant vineyards and drink the wine from them. They will plant gardens and eat the fruit from them.

¹⁷ “But there will be a delivered remnant on Mount Zion. There will be holiness, and the house of Jacob will take back their possessions. ¹⁸ “The house of Jacob will be a fire, and the house of Joseph a flame, but the house of Esau will be kindling. Then Jacob and Joseph will burn and consume Esau, and no survivor will remain from the house of Esau.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken it. ¹⁹ “Those in the Negev will possess Esau’s Mountain, and those in the Shephelah the Philistines. They will possess the fields of Ephraim and the fields of Samaria, while Benjamin will possess the territory of Gilead. ²⁰ The exiles, the Israeli host, will possess the territory of the Canaanites all the way to Zarephath. The exiles of Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev. ²¹ Deliverers will assemble on Mount Zion to judge Esau’s Mountain, and to the LORD will the kingdom belong!”

¹² At that time armies will invade you from Assyria, from Egyptian cities to the Euphrates River, from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain. ¹³ The land will become desolate because of its inhabitants, and as a result of their behavior. ¹⁴ Use your rod to shepherd your people, the flock that belongs to you, that lives alone in the forest of Carmel. Let them find pasture in Bashan and Gilead, as they did long ago. ¹⁵ As I did when you came out of the land of Egypt, I will show you awesome things. ¹⁶ The nations will look on and will be ashamed in spite of all their power; they will cup their hands over their mouths, and their ears will be deaf.

¹⁴ “Glory to God in the highest, and peace on earth to people who enjoy his favor!”

² Live lovingly, just as the Messiah also loved us and gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice, a fragrant aroma to God.

¹⁸ I have been paid in full and have more than enough. I am fully supplied, now that I have received from Epaphroditus what you sent—a fragrant aroma, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God.

¹⁵ Instead, exalt the Messiah” as Lord in your lives. Always be prepared to give a defense to everyone who asks you to explain the hope you have.

⁷ I’ll give them the ability to know me, for I am the LORD. They will be my people, and I will be their God when they return to me with all their heart.

³⁴ No longer will a person teach his neighbor or his relative: ‘Know the LORD.’ Instead, they’ll all know me, from the least to the greatest of them,” declares the LORD. “Indeed, I’ll forgive their iniquity, and I’ll remember their sin no more.”

¹⁷ “Therefore you are to say, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says, “I’m going to gather you from among the nations, assembling you from the lands among which you have been dispersed. I’ll give you the land of Israel. ¹⁸ When they return from there and cast away all of their loathsome things and detestable practices, ¹⁹ then I’ll give them a united heart, placing a new spirit within them. I’ll remove their stubborn heart and give them a heart that’s sensitive to me. ²⁰ When they live by my statutes and keep my ordinances by observing them, then they’ll be my people and I will be their God.

⁴⁴ Then you’ll know that I am the LORD, when I will have dealt with you for the benefit of my own reputation and not according to your evil attitudes or corrupt practices, you house of Israel,” declares the Lord GOD.

²⁴ That’s how Ezekiel will be an example for you. You’ll be doing exactly what he has done. When it happens, then you’ll know that I am the Lord GOD.”’

¹³ “‘I’ll silence the noise of your songs and the music of your harps won’t be heard anymore.

¹³ I’m going to bring them out from foreign nations and from foreign lands. Then I’ll bring them to their own land and feed them in Israel—on the mountains, in their valleys, and in all of their settlements throughout the land.

²¹ Then tell them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says: “Watch me take the Israelis out of the nations where they’ve gone and return them from every direction. I’m going to bring them back into their own land.

³ And this is eternal life: to know you, the only true God, and the one whom you sent—Jesus the Messiah.

²⁰ We also know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know the true God. We are in union with the one who is true, his Son Jesus the Messiah, who is the true God and eternal life.

³⁹ The remnants among you will waste away in the land of your enemies due to their iniquity. Indeed, they’ll also waste away on account of the iniquities of their ancestors with them.”
⁴⁰ Return from Captivity“Nevertheless, when they confess their iniquity, the iniquity of their ancestors, and their unfaithfulness by which they acted unfaithfully against me by living life contrary to me— ⁴¹ causing me to oppose them and take them to the land of their enemies so that the uncircumcised foreskin of their hearts can be humbled and so that they accept the punishment of their iniquity—

⁸ Please remember what you spoke in commanding your servant Moses. You said, ‘If you rebel, I will scatter you among the nations ⁹ but if you return to me, keeping my commands and doing them, even if your exiled people are in the farthest horizon, I will gather them from there and bring them to the place where I have chosen to establish my Name.’
¹⁰ These are your servants as well as your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power and by your strong hand.

⁶ As a result, I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

¹⁸ Ephraim’s Prayer and Confession“I’ve certainly heard Ephraim shuddering with grief as they said, ‘You have disciplined me, and I’m disciplined like an untrained calf. Restore me, and let me return, for you are the LORD my God.

⁶¹ Then you’ll remember your behavior and be ashamed when you greet your sisters—your elder sister and your younger sister. I’ll give them to you as daughters, but not on account of my covenant with you. ⁶² I’ll establish my covenant with you, and then you’ll know that I am the LORD. ⁶³ Then you will remember, be ashamed, and you won’t open your mouth anymore due to humiliation when I will have made atonement for you for everything that you’ve done,’ declares the Lord GOD.”

³¹ Then you’ll remember your lifestyles and practices that were not good. You’ll hate yourselves as you look at your own iniquities and loathsome practices.

¹⁵ “I will leave and go back to my place until they admit their offense and seek my face. When affliction comes to them, they will eagerly seek me.”

¹⁰ I will pour out on the house of David and on the residents of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and of supplications, and they will look to me—the one whom they pierced.’”
Mourning in JerusalemThen they will mourn for him, as for an only son. They will grieve bitterly for him, as for a firstborn son. ¹¹ At that time, Jerusalem will mourn deeply, like the mourning about Hadad-rimmon that took place in the plain of Megiddo. ¹² And so the land will mourn, families by families, alone by themselves—the family of the house of David by itself with their wives by themselves, the family of the house of Nathan by itself with their wives by themselves, ¹³ the family of the house of Levi by itself with their wives by themselves, the family of Shimei by itself with their wives by themselves— ¹⁴ all of the surviving families by themselves, along with their wives by themselves.

¹³ “But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even look up to heaven. Instead, he continued to beat his chest and said, ‘O God, be merciful to me, the sinner that I am!’

¹¹ See what great earnestness godly sorrow has produced in you! How ready you are to clear yourselves, how indignant, how alarmed, how full of longing and enthusiasm, how eager to seek justice! In every way you have demonstrated that you are innocent in this matter.

⁹ Help us, God, our deliverer, on account of your glorious name, deliver us and forgive our sins on account of your name.

¹⁶ But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the worst sinner, the Messiah Jesus might demonstrate all of his patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life.

² May my instructions descend like rain and may my words flow like dew, as light rain upon the grass, and as showers upon new plants.

²² After I spoke, they had nothing to say, when what I said hit them.

⁶ The Animals of the NegevAn oracle about the animals of the Negev: “Through a land of trouble, dryness, and distress, of lionesses and roaring lions, where there is no water, a land of vipers and darting snakes, he carries their riches on donkeys’ backs, and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a nation that cannot benefit them,

¹⁹ The towns in the Negev will be closed up, and there will be no one to open them. All Judah will be taken into exile and be completely exiled.

⁷ I’ll appoint people to destroy you— men with their weapons.They’ll cut down some of your choice cedars and incinerate them.

⁷ After this, you are to turn toward the rampart of Jerusalem and oppose it with your bare arms, because I’m going to prophesy about it.

² “Son of Man,” he said, “turn your face to oppose the mountains of Israel and prophesy against them.

² “Son of Man, look toward Jerusalem, preach against its sanctuaries, and prophesy against Israel’s land.

¹⁶ “Very well then, hear this message from the LORD: ‘You are saying, “Don’t prophesy against Israel, and don’t preach against the house of Isaac.”

⁶ To those who speak out, they will declare, ‘Don’t prophesy to anyone!’ so their shame won’t go away.

¹ Destruction of Lebanon and Bashan Open your doors, Lebanon, and fire will consume your cedars. ² Wail, cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen while the stately trees are destroyed. Wail, oak trees of Bashan, for the old growth forest has been cut down.

²² For a fire breaks out in my anger— burning to the deepest part of the afterlife, consuming the earth and its produce and igniting the foundations of the mountains.

¹⁸ “For wickedness has burned like a blaze that consumes briers and thorns; it sets thickets of the forest on fire, and skyward they swirl in a column of smoke. ¹⁹ From the wrath of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies the land has been scorched, and the people have become like fuel for the fire; no one will spare his neighbor.

⁸ They will be terrified; pain and anguish will seize them; they’ll writhe like a woman in labor. They’ll look aghast at one another; and their faces will be ablaze with fear.

¹ The Earth is Judged “Watch out! The LORD is about to depopulate the land and devastate it; he will turn it upside down and scatter its inhabitants. ² It will be the same for the lay people as for priests, the same for servants as for their masters, for female servants as for their mistresses, for buyers as for sellers, for lenders as for borrowers, and for creditors as for debtors. ³ The earth will be utterly depopulated and completely laid waste — for the LORD has spoken this message. ⁴ “The earth dries up and withers; the world languishes and fades away; heaven fades away, along with the earth. ⁵ The earth lies defiled beneath its inhabitants; because they have transgressed the laws, violated the statutes, and broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶ Therefore the curse keeps on consuming, and its inhabitants are declared guilty. Furthermore, the inhabitants of earth are ablaze, and few people are left.

³³ For the Fire Pit has long been prepared; truly it is for the king; it will indeed be made ready. And its pyre will be deep and wide, with abundant fire and wood. Like a stream of burning sulfur, the breath of the LORD will set it ablaze.

²⁴ “Then they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of the people who rebelled against me. For their worm will not die, nor will their fire be extinguished, and they will remain an object of revulsion to all humanity.”

¹⁴ But I’ll punish you according to what you have done,” declares the LORD. “I’ll start a fire in her forest, and it will consume everything around her.”’”

⁶ Therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: “Just as the wood from a grape vine is removed from the forest and used for kindling fires, I’m giving the inhabitants of Jerusalem over ⁷ to punishment. They may have escaped one fire, but the coming fire will burn them up completely, and they will know that I am the LORD, when I set myself in opposition to them

²⁴ Then all the trees of the fields will know that I, the LORD, bring down the lofty tree and exalt the lowly tree. I dry up the green tree and cause the dry tree to bud. I the LORD have spoken this, and I will fulfill it.”

¹⁴ Fire had burned through its branches, consuming its shoots and fruits. No strong branches remain in it, and there is no scepter to rule!’
“This is a lamentation, and it is to be used in mourning.”

³ Declare to Israel, ‘This is what the LORD says: “Watch out! I’m against you! I’m going to unsheathe my sword to kill both the righteous and the wicked among you. ⁴ Since I’m going to kill both the righteous and the wicked among you, I’ll be unsheathing my sword against everyone from south to north.

²⁰ just like a smelter gathers all the silver, bronze, lead, and tin to the center of a furnace and injects fire in order to melt it, I’m going to gather you in my anger and rage, make you settle down—and then I’m going to melt you down. ²¹ Indeed, I’m going to gather you together and exhale the fire of my fury, and then you’ll be melted from the inside out

⁴³ So if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better for you to enter life injured than to have two hands and go to hell, to the fire that cannot be put out. ⁴⁴ In that place, worms never die, and the fire is never put out.
⁴⁵ And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It’s better for you to enter life crippled than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁶ In that place, worms never die, and the fire is never put out.
⁴⁷ And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It’s better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell. ⁴⁸ In that place, worms never die, and the fire is never put out.
⁴⁹ Because everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be salted with salt.

³¹ And if they do this when the wood is green, what will happen when it is dry?”

²⁴ All the nations will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this land? What is the meaning of this fierce and great anger?’ ²⁵ Then they will answer themselves, ‘Because they’ve abandoned the covenant of their LORD, the God of their ancestors that he had made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. ²⁶ They followed and worshipped other gods whom they had not known and whom he did not assign to them. ²⁷ For this reason, the anger of the LORD raged against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that were written in this book. ²⁸ The LORD uprooted them from the land in his anger, wrath, and great fury, deporting them to another land, and that’s the way things are today.’

²⁰ then I will tear them up by the roots from the ground that I had given them! And as for this Temple that I have set apart for my name, I will throw it out of my sight and make it the butt of jokes and a means of ridicule among people worldwide! ²¹ “Furthermore, even though this Temple seems so exalted, everyone who passes by it will be so astounded that they will ask, ‘Why did the LORD do this to this land and to this Temple?’ ²² They will answer, ‘Because they abandoned the LORD God of their ancestors, who brought them from the land of Egypt, adopted other gods, worshipped them, and served them, therefore the LORD has brought all of this disaster on them.’”

¹¹ “LORD, your hand is lifted up, but they do not see it. And let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame— yes, let the fire reserved for your enemies consume them!

²⁰ Therefore, this is what the Lord GOD says: “I’m about to pour out my anger and my wrath on this place, on people and animals, on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground. It will burn, and it won’t be put out.”

² The captain of the guard took Jeremiah and told him, “The LORD your God has predicted this disaster on this place. ³ And now the LORD has brought it about and has done just as he said. Because you people sinned against the LORD and didn’t obey him, this has happened to you.

¹⁶ All of your enemies insult you with gaping mouths. They hiss and grind their teeth while saying, “We have devoured her completely. Yes, this is the day that we anticipated! We found it at last; we have seen it!” ¹⁷ The LORD did what he planned. He carried out his threat. Just as he commanded long ago, he has torn down without pity; He let the enemy boast about you and has exalted the power of your enemies.

² “Son of Man, compose a riddle and relate a parable to Israel’s house.

¹³ That’s why I speak to them in parables, because ‘they look but don’t see, and they listen but don’t hear or understand.’
¹⁴ “With them the prophecy of Isaiah is being fulfilled, which says: ‘You will listen and listen but never understand. You will look and look but never comprehend,

²⁵ Victory over the World“I have said these things to you in figurative language. The time is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figurative language, but will tell you plainly about the Father.

¹⁸ Some Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also debated with him. Some asked, “What is this blabbermouth trying to say?” while others said, “He seems to be preaching about foreign gods.” This was because Paul was telling the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.