Ezekiel 3 - 4 - Legacy Standard Bible

Ezekiel 3 - 4

Ezekiel Sent to the House of Israel

Then He said to me, “Son of man, eat what you find; eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel.” 2 So I opened my mouth, and He fed me this scroll. 3 And He said to me, “Son of man, feed your stomach and fill your body with this scroll which I am giving you.” Then I ate it, and it was sweet as honey in my mouth. 4 Then He said to me, “Son of man, go now, come to the house of Israel, and you shall speak with My words to them. 5 For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible lips or a difficult tongue, but to the house of Israel, 6 nor to many peoples of unintelligible lips or a difficult tongue, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you; 7 yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn with a strong forehead and stiff heart. 8 Behold, I have made your face as strong as their faces and your forehead as strong as their foreheads. 9 Like diamond stronger than flint I have made your forehead. Do not be afraid of them or be dismayed before them, though they are a rebellious house.” 10 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, take into your heart all My words which I will speak to you and listen with your ears. 11 And go now, come to the exiles, to the sons of your people, and you shall speak to them and say to them, whether they listen or whether they refuse, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh.’” 12 Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard a great rumbling sound behind me, “Blessed be the glory of Yahweh in His place.” 13 And I heard the sound of the wings of the living creatures touching one another and the sound of the wheels beside them, even a great rumbling sound. 14 So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away; and I went embittered in the wrath of my spirit, and the hand of Yahweh was strong on me. 15 Then I came to the exiles who lived beside the river Chebar at Tel-abib, and I sat there seven days where they were living, causing consternation among them. 16 Now it happened at the end of seven days, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, 17 “Son of man, I have given you as a watchman to the house of Israel; so you will hear a word from My mouth, and you shall warn them from Me. 18 When I say to the wicked, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn him or speak out to warn the wicked from his wicked way that he may live, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. 19 Yet if you have warned the wicked and he does not turn from his wickedness or from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered yourself. 20 Again, when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before him, he will die; since you have not warned him, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your hand. 21 However, if you have warned the righteous man that the righteous should not sin and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took warning; and you have delivered yourself.” 22 And the hand of Yahweh was on me there, and He said to me, “Get up, go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.” 23 So I got up and went out to the plain; and behold, the glory of Yahweh was standing there, like the glory which I saw by the river Chebar, and I fell on my face. 24 The Spirit then entered me and caused me to stand on my feet, and He spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself up in your house. 25 Now as for you, son of man, they will put ropes on you and bind you with them so that you cannot go out among them. 26 Moreover, I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth so that you will be mute and cannot be a man who reproves them, for they are a rebellious house. 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth, and you will say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.

Ezekiel Bears Israel’s Iniquity

“Now as for you, son of man, get yourself a brick, set it before you, and inscribe a city on it, Jerusalem. 2 Then set a siege against it, build a siege wall against it, raise up a ramp against it, set up camps against it, and place battering rams against it all around. 3 Now as for you, get yourself an iron plate and set it up as an iron wall between you and the city, and establish your face toward it so that it is under siege, and besiege it. This is a sign to the house of Israel. 4 “Now as for you, lie down on your left side and lay the iniquity of the house of Israel on it; you shall bear their iniquity for the number of days that you lie on it. 5 Now I have set a number of days for you corresponding to the years of their iniquity, 390 days; thus you shall bear the iniquity of the house of Israel. 6 And you shall complete these, and you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side and bear the iniquity of the house of Judah; I have set it for you for forty days, a day for each year. 7 Then you shall establish your face toward the siege of Jerusalem with your arm bared and prophesy against it. 8 Now behold, I will set ropes upon you so that you cannot turn from one side to the other until you have completed the days of your siege.

Making Unclean Bread

9 “Now as for you, take wheat, barley, beans, lentils, millet, and spelt; set them in one vessel and make them into bread for yourself; you shall eat it according to the number of the days that you lie on your side, 390 days. 10 And your food which you eat shall be twenty shekels a day by weight; you shall eat it from time to time. 11 The water you drink shall be the sixth part of a hin by measure; you shall drink it from time to time. 12 You shall eat it as a barley cake, having baked it in their sight over human dung.” 13 Then Yahweh said, “Thus will the sons of Israel eat their bread unclean among the nations where I will banish them.” 14 But I said, “Ah, Lord Yahweh! Behold, I have never been defiled; for from my youth until now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has any offensive meat ever entered my mouth.” 15 Then He said to me, “See, I will set for you cow’s dung in place of human dung over which you will prepare your bread.” 16 Moreover, He said to me, “Son of man, behold, I am going to break the staff of bread in Jerusalem, and they will eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they will drink water by measure and in desolation 17 because bread and water will be lacking; and they will be in desolation with one another and rot away in their iniquity.

Ephesians 3 - 4

The Mystery of Christ Revealed

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus on behalf of you Gentiles— 2 if indeed you heard of the stewardship of God’s grace which was given to me for you; 3 that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. 4 About which, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, 5 which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it was now revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit: 6 that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, 7 of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. 8 To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to proclaim to the Gentiles the good news of the unfathomable riches of Christ, 9 and to bring to light for all what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; 10 so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. 11 This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. 13 Therefore I ask you not to lose heart at my afflictions on your behalf, which are your glory.

Prayer for Spiritual Power

14 For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, 15 from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, 16 that He would give you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being firmly rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God. 20 Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or understand, according to the power that works within us, 21 to Him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations forever and ever. Amen.

Unity of the Spirit

Therefore I, the prisoner in the Lord, exhort you to walk worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 being diligent to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. 7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift. 8 Therefore it says,

“When He ascended on high,

He led captive a host of captives,

And He gave gifts to men.”

9 (Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.) 11 And He Himself gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the full knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming, 15 but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, being joined and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the properly measured working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.

Put On the New Man

17 Therefore this I say, and testify in the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their mind, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart. 19 And they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. 20 But you did not learn Christ in this way— 21 if indeed you heard Him and were taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, 22 to lay aside, in reference to your former conduct, the old man, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, 23 and to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, 24 and to put on the new man, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. 25 Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. 26 Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and do not give the devil an opportunity. 28 He who steals must steal no longer, but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with one who has need. 29 Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for building up what is needed, so that it will give grace to those who hear. 30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness and anger and wrath and shouting and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. 32 Instead, be kind to one another, tender-hearted, graciously forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has graciously forgiven you.

Psalm 137 - 138

We Wept When We Remembered Zion

By the rivers of Babylon,

There we sat and also wept,

When we remembered Zion.

Upon the willows in the midst of it

We hung our lyres.

For there our captors asked us about the words of a song,

And our tormentors asked joyfully, saying,

“Sing for us one of the songs of Zion.”

How can we sing a song of Yahweh

In a foreign land?

If I forget you, O Jerusalem,

May my right hand forget her skill.

May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth

If I do not remember you,

If I do not exalt Jerusalem

Above my chief joy.

Remember, O Yahweh, against the sons of Edom

The day of Jerusalem,

Who said, “Tear it down! Tear it down

To its very foundation.”

O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one,

How blessed will be the one who repays you

With the recompense with which you have recompensed us.

How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your infants

Against the cliff.

I Will Give Thanks to Your Name

Of David.

I will give You thanks with all my heart;

I will sing praises to You before the gods.

I will worship toward Your holy temple

And give thanks to Your name for Your lovingkindness and Your truth;

For You have magnified Your word according to all Your name.

On the day I called, You answered me;

You made me bold with strength in my soul.

All the kings of the earth, O Yahweh, will give You thanks,

When they hear the words of Your mouth.

And they will sing of the ways of Yahweh,

For great is the glory of Yahweh.

For Yahweh is high,

Yet He sees the lowly,

But the one who exalts himself He knows from afar.

Though I walk in the midst of distress, You will revive me;

You will stretch forth Your hand against the wrath of my enemies,

And Your right hand will save me.

Yahweh will accomplish what concerns me;

O Yahweh, Your lovingkindness endures forever;

Do not fail the works of Your hands.