Ezekiel 15 - 16 - Legacy Standard Bible

Ezekiel 15 - 16

Is Jerusalem Useful for Anything?

Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, how is the wood of the vine better than any wood of a branch which is among the trees of the forest? 3 Can wood be taken from it to make anything, or can men take a peg from it on which to hang any vessel? 4 If it has been put into the fire for fuel, and the fire has consumed both of its ends, and its middle part has been charred, is it then useful for anything? 5 Behold, while it is intact, it is not made into anything. How much less, when the fire has consumed it and it is charred, can it still be made into anything! 6 Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, ‘As the wood of the vine among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so have I given up the inhabitants of Jerusalem; 7 and I will give My face to be against them. Though they have come out of the fire, yet the fire will consume them. Then you will know that I am Yahweh, when I set My face against them. 8 Thus I will give over the land to desolation because they have acted unfaithfully,’” declares Lord Yahweh.

Jerusalem Plays the Harlot

Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, make known to Jerusalem her abominations 3 and say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh to Jerusalem, “Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite; your father was an Amorite and your mother a Hittite. 4 As for your birth, on the day you were born your navel cord was not cut, nor were you washed with water for cleansing; you were not rubbed with salt or even wrapped in cloths. 5 No eye had pity on you to do any of these things for you, to have compassion on you. Rather you were thrown out into the open field, for your soul was abhorred on the day you were born. 6 “Then I passed by you and saw you squirming in your blood. So I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ Indeed I said to you while you were in your blood, ‘Live!’ 7 I made you numerous like plants of the field. Then you grew up, became tall, and came into the age for fine ornaments; your breasts were formed, and your hair had grown. Yet you were naked and bare. 8 “Then I passed by you and saw you, and behold, you were at the time for love; so I spread My skirt over you and covered your nakedness. I also swore to you and entered into a covenant with you so that you became Mine,” declares Lord Yahweh. 9 “Then I washed you with water, rinsed your blood off from you, and anointed you with oil. 10 I also clothed you with embroidered cloth and put sandals of porpoise skin on your feet; and I wrapped you with fine linen and covered you with silk. 11 I also adorned you with ornaments and put bracelets on your hands and a necklace around your neck. 12 I also put a ring in your nose, earrings in your ears, and a splendid crown on your head. 13 Thus you were adorned with gold and silver, and your clothing was of fine linen, silk, and embroidered cloth. You ate fine flour, honey, and oil; so you were exceedingly beautiful and advanced to royalty. 14 Then your name went forth among the nations on account of your beauty, for it was perfect because of My majesty which I set on you,” declares Lord Yahweh. 15 “But you trusted in your beauty and played the harlot because of your name, and you poured out your harlotries on every passer-by who might be willing. 16 You took some of your clothes, made for yourself high places of various colors, and played the harlot on them, which should never come about nor happen. 17 You also took your splendid jewelry made of My gold and of My silver, which I had given you, and made for yourself male images that you might play the harlot with them. 18 Then you took your embroidered cloth and covered them and gave My oil and My incense before them. 19 Also My bread which I gave you, fine flour, oil, and honey with which I had you eat, you gave before them for a soothing aroma; so it happened,” declares Lord Yahweh. 20 “Moreover, you took your sons and daughters, whom you had borne to Me, and sacrificed them to idols to be devoured. Were your harlotries so small a matter? 21 You slaughtered My children and gave them up to idols by causing them to pass through the fire. 22 Besides all your abominations and harlotries you did not remember the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare—you were squirming in your blood! 23 “Now it happened after all your evil—‘Woe, woe to you!’ declares Lord Yahweh— 24 that you built yourself a shrine and made yourself a high place in every square. 25 You built yourself a high place at the head of every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry. 26 You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and you multiplied your harlotry to provoke Me to anger. 27 Behold now, I have stretched out My hand against you and cut off your rations. And I gave you up to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way. 28 Moreover, you played the harlot with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied; you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. 29 You also multiplied your harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this you were not satisfied.”’” 30 “How languishing is your heart,” declares Lord Yahweh, “while you do all these things, the actions of a bold-faced harlot. 31 When you built your shrine at the head of every way and made your high place in every square, in disdaining your earnings, you were not like a harlot. 32 You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband! 33 Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from all around for your harlotries. 34 Thus you are the opposite of those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give away your earnings and no earnings are given to you; thus you are the opposite.” 35 Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Yahweh. 36 Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols, 37 therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from all around and uncover your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness. 38 Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy. 39 I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will pull down your shrines, tear down your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your splendid jewelry, and will leave you naked and bare. 40 They will bring up an assembly against you, and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords. 41 They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will make you cease from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer give your earnings to your lovers. 42 So I will cause My wrath against you to be at rest, and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be quiet, and I will not be provoked anymore. 43 Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will bring your way down on your own head,” declares Lord Yahweh, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations. 44 “Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’ 45 You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite. 46 Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters. 47 Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your ways than they. 48 As I live,” declares Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done. 49 Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had lofty pride, abundant food, and quiet ease, but she did not strengthen the hand of the afflicted and needy. 50 Then they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. So I removed them when I saw it. 51 Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have done. 52 Also bear your dishonor in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your dishonor, in that you made your sisters appear righteous. 53 “Nevertheless, I will return their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them your own captivity, 54 in order that you may bear your dishonor and feel dishonor for all that you have done when you become a comfort to them. 55 Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state. 56 As the name of your sister Sodom was not heard in your mouth in your day of lofty pride, 57 before your wickedness was uncovered, so now you have become the reproach of the daughters of Edom and of all who are around her, of the daughters of the Philistines—those all around you who despise you. 58 You have borne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations,” declares Yahweh. 59 For thus says Lord Yahweh, “I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

Yahweh’s Everlasting Covenant

60 “Nevertheless, I Myself will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. 61 Then you will remember your ways and feel dishonor when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant. 62 Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh, 63 so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your dishonor, when I have atoned for you for all that you have done,” declares Lord Yahweh.

1 Thessalonians 1 - 3

Thanksgiving

Paul and Silvanus and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 2 We give thanks to God always for all of you, making mention of you in our prayers; 3 remembering without ceasing your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ before our God and Father, 4 knowing, brothers beloved by God, your election, 5 for our gospel did not come to you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full assurance; just as you know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6 You also became imitators of us and of the Lord, having received the word in much affliction with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7 so that you became a model to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8 For the word of the Lord has sounded forth from you, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith toward God has gone forth, so that we have no need to say anything. 9 For they themselves report about us what kind of an entrance we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, 10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

Entrusted with the Gospel

For you yourselves know, brothers, that our entrance to you was not in vain, 2 but after we had already suffered and been mistreated in Philippi, as you know, we had the boldness in our God to speak to you the gospel of God amid much struggle. 3 For our exhortation does not come from error or impurity or by way of deceit; 4 but just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who examines our hearts. 5 For we never came with a flattering word, as you know, nor with a pretext for greed—God is witness— 6 nor seeking glory from men, either from you or from others, even though as apostles of Christ we could have been a burden to you. 7 But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. 8 In this way, having fond affection for you, we were pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become beloved to us. 9 For you remember, brothers, our labor and hardship, how working night and day so as not to be a burden to any of you, we proclaimed to you the gospel of God. 10 You are witnesses, and so is God, of how devoutly and righteously and blamelessly we behaved toward you believers; 11 just as you know how we were exhorting and encouraging and bearing witness to each one of you as a father would his own children, 12 so that you would walk in a manner worthy of the God who calls you into His own kingdom and glory. 13 And for this reason we also thank God without ceasing that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also is at work in you who believe. 14 For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea, for you also suffered the same things at the hands of your own countrymen, even as they did from the Jews, 15 who both killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, and drove us out, and do not please God, and are hostile to all men, 16 hindering us from speaking to the Gentiles so that they may be saved; with the result that they always fill up the measure of their sins. But wrath has come upon them to the utmost. 17 But we, brothers, having been taken away from you for a short while—in face but not in heart—were all the more eager with great desire to see your face. 18 For we wanted to come to you—I, Paul, more than once—and yet Satan hindered us. 19 For who is our hope or joy or crown of boasting? Is it not even you, before our Lord Jesus at His coming? 20 For you are our glory and joy.

Timothy’s Good Report

Therefore when we could endure it no longer, we were pleased to be left behind at Athens alone, 2 and we sent Timothy, our brother and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you as to your faith, 3 so that no one would be shaken by these afflictions, for you yourselves know that we have been destined for this. 4 For indeed when we were with you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction, just as it happened and as you know. 5 For this reason, when I could endure it no longer, I also sent to know about your faith, lest somehow the tempter has tempted you, and our labor be in vain. 6 But now that Timothy has come to us from you, and has brought us good news of your faith and love, and that you always remember us kindly, longing to see us just as we also long to see you, 7 for this reason, brothers, in all our distress and affliction we were comforted about you through your faith; 8 for now we really live, if you stand firm in the Lord. 9 For what thanks can we render to God for you in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God because of you, 10 as we night and day keep praying most earnestly that we may see your face, and may complete what is lacking in your faith? 11 Now may our God and Father Himself and Jesus our Lord direct our way to you, 12 and may the Lord cause you to increase and abound in love for one another, and for all people, just as we also do for you, 13 so that He may strengthen your hearts blameless in holiness, before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all His saints.

Psalm 144

Blessed Be Yahweh, My Rock

Of David.

Blessed be Yahweh, my rock,

Who trains my hands for war,

My fingers for battle;

My lovingkindness and my fortress,

My stronghold and my deliverer,

My shield and He in whom I take refuge,

Who subdues my people under me.

O Yahweh, what is man, that You know him?

Or the son of man, that You think of him?

Man is like a breath;

His days are like a passing shadow.

O Yahweh, bow Your heavens, and come down;

Touch the mountains, that they may smoke.

Flash forth lightning and scatter them;

Send out Your arrows and confuse them.

Send forth Your hand from on high;

Set me free and deliver me out of many waters,

Out of the hand of foreigners

Whose mouth speaks worthlessness,

And whose right hand is a right hand of lying.

O God, I will sing a new song to You;

Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to You,

Who gives salvation to kings,

Who sets David His servant free from the evil sword.

Set me free and deliver me out of the hand of the sons of a foreigner,

Whose mouth speaks worthlessness

And whose right hand is a right hand of lying.

That our sons would be as grown‑up plants in their youth,

And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace;

That our granaries would be full, furnishing every kind of produce,

And our flocks would bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our fields outside;

That our cattle would bear

Without mishap and without loss,

And without outcry in our streets!

How blessed are the people for whom this is so;

How blessed are the people for whom God is Yahweh!