Bible in 90 Days

Baggage for Exile

12 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, you live in the midst of the rebellious house. They have eyes to see, but do not see, ears to hear, but do not hear, for they are a rebellious house. ³ You, son of man, prepare supplies for exile. Go into exile by day in their sight, go away as if into exile from your home to another place in their sight—perhaps they will recognize that they are a rebellious house. ⁴ You will bring out your baggage by day in their sight, as baggage for exile. You will go out at evening in their sight, like those going into exile. ⁵ As they watch, dig through the wall and go out through it. ⁶ Bear the burden on your shoulder in their sight. Carry it out in the darkness; cover your face so that you cannot see the ground. For I have made you a sign for the house of Israel.” ⁷ I did just as I was commanded: I brought out my baggage by day, as baggage for exile. In the evening, I dug through the wall with my hand. I carried it out in the darkness and bore it on my shoulder, as they watched.

⁸ In the morning, the word of Adonai came to me saying, ⁹ “Son of man, has the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’ ¹⁰ Say to them, ‘Thus says Adonai Elohim: this burden concerns the prince in Jerusalem and all the house of Israel there.’ ¹¹ Say, ‘I am a sign for you. Just as I have done, so it will be done to them—they will go into exile, into captivity. ¹² The prince who is among them will bear a burden on his shoulder, and go out in the darkness. They will dig through the wall to get out; he will cover his face so that he cannot see the land with his eyes. ¹³ I will spread out My net upon him, so he will be caught in My net. I will bring him to Babylon, to the land of the Chaldeans. He will not see it, though he will die there. ¹⁴ I will disperse toward every wind all that surround him to help him and all his troops. I will draw out the sword after them. ¹⁵ So they will know that I am Adonai when I scatter them among the nations and disperse them among the countries. ¹⁶ But I will let a few of them escape the sword, the famine and the pestilence, so they may tell about all their detestable practices among the nations where they go. And they will know that I am Adonai.”

¹⁷ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁸ “Son of man, eat your bread with quaking and drink your water with trembling and anxiety. ¹⁹ Say to the people of the land, this is what Adonai says concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem in the land of Israel: They will eat their bread with anxiety and drink their water with horror, because her land will be stripped of all that is in it, because of the violence of all who live there. ²⁰ The inhabited cities will be deserted and the land will become desolate. And you will know that I am Adonai.”

²¹ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ²² “Son of man, what is that proverb you people have in the land of Israel saying, ‘The days are prolonged and every vision fails?’ ²³ Tell them therefore, thus says Adonai Elohim, ‘I will put an end to this proverb. They will not use it anymore as a proverb in Israel.’ Say to them, ‘The days are at hand as well as the fulfillment of every vision. ²⁴ For no longer will every vision be deceitful and every oracle false in the house of Israel. ²⁵ For I am Adonai. I will speak whatever word I will speak and it will happen. It will not be delayed anymore; for in your days, rebellious house, I will speak the word and perform it.’” It is a declaration of Adonai.

²⁶ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ²⁷ “Son of man, behold, the house of Israel says, ‘The vision that he sees is for many days from now. He prophesies about times that are far off.’ ²⁸ Therefore say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim, ‘None of My words will be delayed anymore, but the word that I speak will be fulfilled.’” It is a declaration of Adonai.

False Prophets

13 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, prophesy concerning the prophets of Israel, who are prophesying, say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, hear the word of Adonai, ³ thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Woe to the foolish prophets who follow their own spirit—except they have seen nothing! ⁴ O Israel, your prophets have been like jackals among ruins. ⁵ You have not gone up into the breaches and repaired the walls for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of Adonai. ⁶ They have prophesied emptiness and predicted falsely, who say, “Adonai says.” Adonai has not sent them, yet they hope for confirmation of their word. ⁷ Did you not see an empty vision and speak a false omen, when you say, “Adonai says”—when I have not spoken?’”

⁸ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you have spoken falsely and prophesied lies, therefore behold, I am against you.” It is a declaration of Adonai. ⁹ “My hand will be against the prophets who see false visions and utter lying divinations. They will not remain in the assembly of My people, nor will they be recorded in the register of the house of Israel, nor enter into the land of Israel. You will know that I am Adonai. ¹⁰ Precisely because they have led My people astray saying, ‘Shalom’ when there is no shalom, they build a weak wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash. ¹¹ Say to those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall. There will be a down-pouring rain, and on you great hailstones will fall, and a storm wind will break out. ¹² Behold, when the wall has fallen, will it not be said about you, ‘Where is the whitewash that you plastered it with?’’’

¹³ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “I will cause a storm wind to burst out in My fury. There will be a down-pouring rain in My anger and great hailstones in destructive wrath. ¹⁴ I will tear down the wall that you have plastered with whitewash and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation of it is exposed. It will collapse and you will be consumed within it. Then you will know that I am Adonai. ¹⁵ I will spend My wrath against the wall and against those who plastered it with whitewash. I will say to you, the wall is no more! The whitewashers are no more— ¹⁶ the prophets of Israel who prophesy to Jerusalem and see visions of shalom for her, when there is no shalom.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁷ “Now you, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own imagination. Prophesy against them ¹⁸ saying, thus says Adonai Elohim, ‘Oy to the women who sew magic charms on all their wrists and make veils of every size for their heads in order to ensnare souls! You hunt down the souls of My people, but preserve yourselves. ¹⁹ You have profaned Me among My people for handfuls of barley and crumbs of bread, to kill those who should not die and to save those who should not live, by lying to My people, who listen to lies.’”

²⁰ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim, “Behold, I am against your magic charms with which you hunt people like birds. I will tear them from your arms. I will deliver the people you hunt like birds. ²¹ I will tear off your veils and deliver My people from your hands. They will never again be in your hand to be hunted. So you will know that I am Adonai. ²² Because you have discouraged the hearts of the righteous with your lies, when I have not grieved him; and strengthened the hands of the wicked so he may not return from his wicked way and live, ²³ therefore you will no longer see false visions or utter lying divinations again. I will deliver My people out of your hand. Then you will know that I am Adonai.”

14 Some of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. ² The word of Adonai came to me saying: ³ “Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts. They have put the stumbling block of their iniquity right before their faces. Should I let them inquire of me at all? ⁴ Therefore speak to them, and say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Every man from the house of Israel who sets up idols in his heart and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity right before his face, and then comes to the prophet—I, Adonai, will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, ⁵ so I may take hold of the house of Israel in their hearts. For they have all become estranged from Me through their idols.’”

⁶ Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: “Return, turn away from your idols; turn your faces from all your abominations. ⁷ For anyone from the house of Israel or the outsiders who dwell in Israel who breaks himself away from Me takes idols into his heart, puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and then comes to the prophet to inquire of Me through him—I, Adonai, will answer him Myself. ⁸ I will set My face against that man. I will make him a sign and a proverb and cut him off from among My people. Then you will know that I am Adonai.

⁹ “When the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, Adonai, have deceived that prophet. I will stretch out My hand against him. I will destroy him from among My people Israel. ¹⁰ They will bear their punishment—the punishment of the prophet will be the same as the punishment of the inquirer— ¹¹ so that the house of Israel will not wander again from Me or defile themselves again with all their transgressions. They will be My people and I will be their God.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹² The word of Adonai came to me saying, ¹³ “Son of man, suppose a land sins against Me by trespassing grievously and I stretch out My hand over it, break off its staff of bread, send famine upon it and cut it off from man and beast. ¹⁴ Even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—be in it, they would only deliver their own souls by their righteousness.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁵ “If I cause evil beasts to pass through the land and they ravage it and make it a wasteland, so that no one would pass through because of the beasts, ¹⁶ even if these three men were in it, as I live, says Adonai, they will not deliver sons or daughters. They would only deliver themselves, but the land will be desolate. ¹⁷ Or if I bring a sword on that land and say: ‘Let the sword go through the land,’ so that I cut off man and beast from it; ¹⁸ though these three men were in it, as I live, says Adonai, they will not deliver sons or daughters, for they will only deliver themselves.

¹⁹ “Or, suppose I were to send a plague to that land and pour out My fury upon it in blood, to cut off man and beast from it. ²⁰ Even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in it, as I live, says Adonai, they would not deliver either a son or a daughter. They would deliver only themselves by their righteousness.”

²¹ For thus Adonai says: “How much more if I send My four dreadful judgments against Jerusalem—the sword, the famine, the evil beasts and the plague—to cut man and beast off from it. ²² Yet behold, survivors would remain in it who would be brought out, both sons and daughters. Behold, when they come to you and you see their ways and their deeds, you would be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought against Jerusalem, all that I have brought on it. ²³ They would comfort you when you see their ways and their deeds. So you will know that I had not done all that I had done without cause.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Vine Wood for the Fire

15 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, how can the wood of a vine be better than the branch of any tree that is among the trees of the forest? ³ Can wood be taken from it to make anything useful? Can a peg be made from it to hang anything on? ⁴ Behold, when it is cast in the fire for fuel, both ends are devoured in fire and the middle is charred—is it useful for any work? ⁵ Look, when it was whole, it was not useful for any work—how much less, when the fire has devoured it and it is charred, will it be useful for any work? ⁶ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: Like the vine’s wood among the trees of the forest that I have given to the fire for fuel, so I will give up the inhabitants of Jerusalem. ⁷ I will set My face against them. Even if they come out of the fire, the fire will yet devour them. So you will know that I am Adonai, when I set My face against them. ⁸ I will make the land desolate, because they have acted so faithlessly.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Harlot, Hear the Word of Adonai

16 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, confront Jerusalem with her abominations ³ and say, thus says Adonai to Jerusalem: ‘Your origin and your birth are from the land of the Canaanite; your father was an Amorite, your mother was a Hittite. ⁴ As for your birth, on the day you were born your umbilical cord was not cut nor were you washed in water for cleansing. You were never rubbed with salt nor were you swaddled at all. ⁵ No eye pitied you enough to do any of these things to you out of compassion. Instead you were cast out in the open field, for you were detested on the day you were born.

⁶ “When I passed by you, and saw you kicking in your blood. I said to you, ‘In your blood, live!’ Yes, I said to you, ‘In your blood, live!’ ⁷ I made you grow as myriads, like a branch of the field. You grew up, got tall and came to full adornment. Your breasts were formed, your hair sprouted. Yet you were naked and bare.

⁸ “Again I passed by and saw you, and behold, you were truly at the time of love. I spread the corner of my garment over you and covered your nakedness. I swore to you and entered into a covenant with you,” says Adonai. “So you became Mine. ⁹ Then I washed you with water, rinsed off your blood from on you and anointed you with oil. ¹⁰ I clothed you with embroidery and put sandals of fine leather on you. I wrapped you in fine linen and covered you with silk. ¹¹ I adorned you with jewelry, put bracelets on your hands and a necklace on your neck. ¹² I put a ring in your nose, earrings on your ears and a crown of glory on your head. ¹³ So you were adorned with gold and silver, and your raiment was of fine linen, silk and embroidery. You ate fine flour, honey and oil. You became exceedingly beautiful, and advanced to the kingdom. ¹⁴ Your fame spread among the nations because of your beauty, for it was perfect, through My splendor, which I bestowed on you.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁵ “But you trusted in your beauty and used your fame to become a harlot. You poured out your enticements on everyone who passed by—they were his. ¹⁶ You took your garments, made high places decked out with various colors and fornicated on them—this should not happen, it should not be! ¹⁷ You also took your jewelry—My gold and My silver, which I gave you—made male images for yourself and committed harlotry with them. ¹⁸ You took your embroidered garments, covered them and placed My oil and My incense before them. ¹⁹ My bread that I gave you, fine flour, oil and honey that I fed you with, you set before them as a sweet aroma. That is what happened.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

²⁰ “You took your sons and your daughters whom you bore for Me, and sacrificed them to be eaten by them. Were your obscene practices not enough? ²¹ You slaughtered My children, making them pass through fire for them. ²² In all your abominations and harlotry, you have not remembered the days of your youth, when you were naked and bare, kicking about in your blood. ²³ So it was after all your wickedness—oy, oy to you!” It is a declaration of Adonai.

²⁴ “Then you built a mound for yourself. You made a high place for yourself in every square. ²⁵ You built your lofty place at the head of every street. You made your beauty an abomination. You spread your legs for everyone passing by and multiplied your harlotry. ²⁶ You committed immorality with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors. You multiplied your prostitution, to provoke Me.

²⁷ “So behold, I stretched out My hand over you. I diminished your ration. I gave you over to those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who were ashamed of your indecent conduct. ²⁸ Then you also played the harlot with the Assyrians, never being satisfied; you played the harlot with them, and still you were not satisfied. ²⁹ So you multiplied your harlotry toward the land of merchants—Chaldea—yet even with this, you were not satisfied.

³⁰ “How weak is your heart”—it is a declaration of Adonai Elohim—“while you are doing all these things, the work of a shameless harlot, ³¹ when you build your mound at the head of every road and make your high place in every street. Yet you were not like a harlot, since you scoffed at receiving payment. ³² You adulterous wife, who receives strangers instead of her husband! ³³ To all prostitutes gifts are given—but you gave your gifts to all your lovers! You bribed them to come to you from every side in your harlotry. ³⁴ So you are the opposite of other women—no one runs after you for favors. You give payment and none is given to you. So you are the opposite!

³⁵ “Therefore, harlot, hear the word of Adonai!” ³⁶ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because your filth was poured out and your nakedness exposed through your harlotry with your lovers, because of all the idols of your abominations, and because of the blood of your children that you gave to them, ³⁷ therefore behold, I will gather all your lovers—those you have pleased and all those you have loved, with all them that you have hated. I will gather them against you from every side. I will expose your nakedness to them, so they may all see your nakedness. ³⁸ So I will judge you, as women who commit adultery and shed blood are judged. Then I will bring on you the blood of fury and jealousy. ³⁹ I will give you into their hand. They will tear down your mound and break down your high places. They will strip you of your clothes and take your jewelry. They will leave you naked and bare. ⁴⁰ They will also incite an assembly against you, stone you with stones and thrust you through with their swords. ⁴¹ They will set your houses on fire and execute judgment on you in the sight of many women. So I will cause you to stop your harlotry. You will never again pay for a lover. ⁴² So I will calm My fury against you and My jealousy will turn away from you. Then I will be quiet and angry no longer.

⁴³ “Because you did not remember the days of your youth, but have enraged Me in all these things, behold, I will also bring your way on your head”—it is a declaration of Adonai. “Have you not committed this wickedness on top of all your abominations? ⁴⁴ Behold, everyone who uses proverbs will say this proverb against you, saying, ‘As the mother, so her daughter.’ ⁴⁵ You are your mother’s daughter, who despises her husband and her children. You are the sister of your sisters, who despised their husbands and their children. Your mother was a Hittite. Your father was an Amorite. ⁴⁶ Your elder sister who lives to your left is Samaria, she and her daughters. Your younger sister who lives to your right is Sodom, with her daughters. ⁴⁷ You have not only walked in their ways and gone after their abominations, but in a very short time, you have acted more corruptly than them in all your ways.”

⁴⁸ “As I live”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“your sister Sodom with her daughters have not done as you have done, you and your daughters. ⁴⁹ Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, gluttony, and careless ease—so had she and her daughters—and she did not strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. ⁵⁰ So they were haughty and committed abomination before Me; therefore I removed them when I saw it. ⁵¹ Moreover, Samaria did not commit even half of your sins. You multiplied your abominations beyond theirs. So you made your sisters seem righteous by all your disgusting things you have done. ⁵² You also bear your own shame, since you have interceded for your sisters. Because of your sins that you committed, more treacherous than theirs, they appear more righteous than you. So you also, be ashamed! Bear your disgrace, since you have justified your sisters.

⁵³ “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 So you will bear your own disgrace and be ashamed of all that you have done in becoming a consolation to them. ⁵⁵ Your sisters, Sodom and her daughters, Samaria and her daughters, will return to their former state. You and your daughters will return to your former state.

⁵⁶ “Was not your sister Sodom an object of scorn to you in the day of your pride, ⁵⁷ before your own wickedness was exposed? Now you have become an object of scorn for the daughters of Aram and all that surround her, for the daughters of the Philistines, for all around who despise you. ⁵⁸ You will bear your wickedness and your abominations.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

⁵⁹ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “I will do to you just as you have done, since you despised the oath by breaking the covenant. ⁶⁰ Nevertheless, I will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth. Moreover, I will establish an everlasting covenant with you. ⁶¹ Then you will remember your ways and be ashamed, when you receive your older and younger sisters. I will give them to you for daughters, yet not because of your covenant. ⁶² So I will establish My covenant with you, and you will know that I am Adonai. ⁶³ So you will remember, be ashamed and never open your mouth again because of your disgrace, when I have forgiven you of all that you have done.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Parable of Eagles and Branches

17 The word of Adonai came to me saying, ² “Son of man, propose a riddle and tell a parable to the house of Israel.” ³ Say, thus says Adonai Elohim: “A great eagle with large wings and broad wings, full of feathers which had varied colors, came to Lebanon and took hold of the top of the cedar. ⁴ He plucked off its topmost twigs, carried them to the land of trade and set it in a city of merchants. ⁵ Then he took some of the seed of the land and planted it in fruitful soil. He placed it beside abundant waters. He set it like a willow twig. ⁶ Then it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine, with its branches turned toward him, but its roots grew under him. So it became a vine, produced branches and sent out shoots.

⁷ “There was also another great eagle with large wings and many feathers. Behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and shot forth its branches toward him from the bed where it was planted, so that he might water it. ⁸ It was planted in good soil by much water, so it would bring forth branches, bear fruit and be a glorious vine.”

⁹ Say, thus says Adonai Elohim: “Will it thrive? Will it not be uprooted and stripped of its fruit so it withers? All its new roots will wither. It will not take a strong arm or many people to pull it up by its roots. ¹⁰ Behold, though planted, will it thrive? Will it not completely wither when the east wind strikes it? In the beds where it grew it will wither.”

¹¹ Then the word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹² Say now to the rebellious house, “Do you not know what these things mean?” Tell them: “Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took the king and the princes and brought them with him to Babylon. ¹³ He took one of the royal offspring, cut a covenant with him, putting him under oath. He also took away the leading men of the land, ¹⁴ so the kingdom might be lowly, not exalting itself, but keeping his covenant so it would hold up.

¹⁵ “However, he rebelled against him in sending his messengers into Egypt, so they might give him horses and many people. Will he succeed? Will one doing such things escape? Will he break a covenant and escape? ¹⁶ As I live”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“surely in the place of the king who put him on the throne, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, within Babylon he will die. ¹⁷ Pharaoh with his mighty army and great throng will be of no help to him in war, when ramps are cast up and siege towers erected, to cut off many lives.

¹⁸ “Since he has despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and behold, he had given his hand yet did all these things, he will not escape. ¹⁹ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “As I live, surely I will bring on his head My oath that he has despised and My covenant that he has broken. ²⁰ I will spread My net over him and he will be caught in My snare. Then I will bring him to Babylon, and judge him there for his treachery that he committed against Me. ²¹ All the fugitives of all his armies will fall by the sword. Those that remain will be scattered to every wind. Then you will know that I, Adonai, have spoken.”

²² Thus says Adonai Elohim: “I, even I, will take from a sprig from the top of the lofty cedar and will plant it. I will crop off a tender twig from the topmost of its young shoots, and I will plant it on a tall and prominent mountain. ²³ I will plant it on Israel’s high mountain. It will bring forth branches, bear fruit and be a magnificent cedar. Birds of every kind will nest under it—they will nest in the shade of its branches. ²⁴ Then all the trees of the field will know that I, Adonai, have brought down the high tree, exalted the lowly tree, dried up the green tree, and made the dry tree flourish. I, Adonai, have spoken and I will do it.”

No More Sour Grapes

18 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “What do you mean by using this proverb in the land of Israel saying,

³ As I live”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“you will never again use this proverb in Israel. ⁴ Behold, every living soul is Mine—the soul of father as well as the soul of son—both are Mine. Behold, the soul who sins is the one who will die.

⁵ “Suppose a man is just and does what is lawful and right: ⁶ He has not eaten at mountain shrines or lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel. He has not defiled his neighbor’s wife or come near to a woman during niddah. ⁷ He does not wrong anyone, returns his pledge for a debt, does not commit robbery, gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment. ⁸ He does not loan with interest or take unjust gain. He keeps his hand from iniquity, executes true justice between people, ⁹ walks in My laws and keeps My statutes, behaving honestly. Such a person is just—he will surely live.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁰ “Now suppose he fathers a son who is violent, who sheds blood and does any of these things to a brother ¹¹ (though the father himself does none of these things). He has even eaten at mountain shrines, defiled his neighbor’s wife, ¹² wronged the poor and needy, taken by robbery, not restored the pledge, lifted up his eyes to the idols, committed abomination, ¹³ loaned with interest and taken unjust gain. Will he then live? He will not live! He has done all these detestable things. He will surely be put to death and his blood will be on him.

¹⁴ “Now behold, suppose he fathers a son who sees all his father’s sins that he committed, and observing, does not do likewise. ¹⁵ He does not eat at mountain shrines, or lift up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, or defile his neighbor’s wife, ¹⁶ nor does he wrong anyone, take pledged property or commit robbery, but he gives his bread to the hungry and covers the naked with a garment, ¹⁷ withholds his hand from mistreating the poor, does not take interest or increase, practices My laws and walks in My statutes—he will not die for the iniquity of his father, he will surely live.

¹⁸ “As for his father, because he cruelly oppressed, committed robbery from his brother and did what is not good among his people—behold, he will die for his iniquity. ¹⁹ Yet you say, ‘Why does the son not bear the iniquity of the father with him?’ When the son has done what is lawful and right, has kept all My statutes and has done them, he will surely live. ²⁰ The soul that sins, he will die. The son will not bear the iniquity of the father with him, nor will the father bear the iniquity of the son with him. The righteousness of the righteous will be on him and the wickedness of the wicked will be on him. ²¹ But if the wicked turns from all his sins that he has committed, and keeps all My laws and does what is lawful and right, he will surely live, he will not die. ²² None of his transgressions that he committed will be remembered; because of his righteousness that he practiced, he will live.

²³ “Do I delight at all in the death of the wicked?” It is a declaration of Adonai. “Rather, should he not return from his ways, and live? ²⁴ But when the righteous turns away from his righteousness, and commits iniquity and does according to all the detestable acts that the wicked man does, will he live? None of his righteous deeds that he has done will be remembered; for his trespass that he trespassed and for his sin that he has sinned, for them he will die.^[a]

²⁵ “Yet you say, ‘Adonai’s way is unfair!’ Hear now, house of Israel! Is My way not fair? Is it not your ways that are unfair? ²⁶ When the righteous man turns away from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die for it; because of his iniquity that he did, he will die. ²⁷ But when the wicked man turns away from his wickedness that he committed and does what is lawful and right, his soul will live. ²⁸ Because he considers and turns away from all his transgressions that he committed, he will surely live, not die. ²⁹ Yet the house of Israel says, ‘The way of Adonai is unfair!’ House of Israel, are My ways not fair? Is it not your ways that are unfair?

³⁰ “Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, each one according to his ways.” It is a declaration of Adonai. “Return, and turn away from all your transgressions, so they would not be a stumbling block of iniquity for you. ³¹ Cast off from you all your transgressions that you have committed. Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. Why will you die, house of Israel? ³² For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“so return, and live!”

Two Lamentation Songs

This is a lamentation, and it is to be used as a lamentation.

Rebellion and Return

20 On the tenth day of the fifth month of the seventh year, some of the elders of Israel came to seek Adonai. They sat before me. ² The word of Adonai came to me saying: ³ “Son of man, speak to the elders of Israel. Say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Have you come to inquire of Me? As I live’—it is a declaration of Adonai—‘I will not be inquired of by you.’

⁴ “Will you judge them, son of man, will you judge them? Make them know the detestable practices of their fathers. ⁵ Say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: On the day I chose Israel, I lifted up My hand to the seed of the house of Jacob and made Myself known to them in the land of Egypt. I lifted up My hand to them saying, ‘I am Adonai your God.’ ⁶ On that day I lifted up My hand to them, to bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had sought out for them, flowing with milk and honey, the splendor of all lands. ⁷ I said to them, ‘Each of you must throw away every detestable thing from his eyes, and not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am Adonai your God.’

⁸ “But they rebelled against Me and were unwilling to listen to Me. None of them cast away the detestable things that were before their eyes, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. So I resolved to pour out My fury upon them, to expend My anger upon them in the midst of the land of Egypt. ⁹ But I acted, for the sake of My Name, to keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations, where they were, in whose sight I made Myself known to them, to bring them out from the land of Egypt. ¹⁰ So I led them out from the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. ¹¹ I gave them My laws and taught them My judgments, which if a man does, he will live by them. ¹² I also gave them My Shabbatot, as a sign between Me and them, so that they would know that I am Adonai who made them holy.

¹³ “But the house of Israel rebelled against Me in the wilderness. They did not walk in My statutes. They rejected My judgments, which if a man does, he will live by them. They greatly profaned My Shabbatot. Then I resolved to pour out My fury on them in the wilderness to consume them. ¹⁴ But for the sake of My Name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. ¹⁵ Yet I also lifted My hand to them in the wilderness, that I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the splendor of all lands. ¹⁶ For they rejected My laws, did not walk in My rulings and profaned My Shabbatot—for their heart went after their idols. ¹⁷ Nevertheless, My eye spared them from destruction, so I did not make a full end of them in the wilderness.

¹⁸ “I said to their children in the wilderness, ‘Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, do not keep their ordinances, do not defile yourselves with their idols. ¹⁹ I am Adonai your God. Walk in My statutes, keep My ordinances and do them. ²⁰ Keep My Shabbatot holy, so they will be a sign between Me and you, that you may know that I am Adonai your God.’

²¹ “But the children rebelled against Me; they did not walk in My statutes. They did not keep My ordinances to do them, which if a man does, he will live by them; they profaned My Shabbatot. Then I resolved to pour out My fury on them, to expend My anger on them in the wilderness. ²² Nevertheless, I withheld My hand. For the sake of My Name I did what would keep it from being profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I had brought them out. ²³ I also lifted up My hand to them in the wilderness, to scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries. ²⁴ For they had not obeyed My ordinances, but had rejected My statutes and profaned My Shabbatot. Their eyes went after their fathers’ idols. ²⁵ I also gave them statutes that were not good, ordinances by which they could not live. ²⁶ I let them become polluted in their own gifts, when they offered up all that opened the womb to pass through the fire, so that I might make them desolate, so that they would know that I am Adonai.

²⁷ “Therefore, son of man, speak to the house of Israel and say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Again your fathers have blasphemed Me, in that they dealt faithlessly with Me. ²⁸ When I brought them into the land, which I lifted up My hand to give to them, they saw every high hill and every leafy tree. There they slaughtered their sacrifices and presented their offensive offering. There they made their soothing aroma and poured out their drink offerings. ²⁹ So I asked them, ‘What is the high place where you are going?’ So the name of it is called Bamah^[b] to this day. ³⁰ Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: Will you pollute yourselves after the manner of your fathers and go after their abominations? ³¹ When offering your gifts, making your sons pass through the fire, you keep polluting yourselves with all your idols, up to this day. So should I be inquired of by you, house of Israel? As I live”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“I will not be inquired of by you. ³² What comes up in your mind will not happen at all, when you say, ‘Let us be like the nations, like the families of the countries, worshiping wood and stone.’ ³³ As I live,”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with fury poured out, I will be king over you. ³⁴ I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you out of the countries where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with fury poured out. ³⁵ I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples. I will judge you there face to face. ³⁶ Just as I judged your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will judge you.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

³⁷ “I will make you pass under the rod and bring you into the bond of the covenant. ³⁸ I will purge out the rebels from among you and those who transgress against Me. I will bring them out from the land where they dwell, but they will not enter the land of Israel. So you will know that I am Adonai.

³⁹ “As for you, house of Israel,” thus says Adonai Elohim: “Go on serving your idols, all of you! Yet afterward, you will surely listen to Me. My holy Name you will no longer profane with your gifts and your idols. ⁴⁰ For in My holy mountain, Israel’s high mountain”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“there the whole house of Israel, all of them, will serve Me in the land. There I will take pleasure in them. There I will receive your offerings, the first of your gifts, with all your holy things. ⁴¹ With your sweet aroma I will accept you, when I bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the countries where you have been scattered. I will be sanctified in you in the sight of the nations. ⁴² You will know that I am Adonai, when I bring you into the land of Israel, into the country where I lifted up My hand to give it to your fathers. ⁴³ There you will remember your ways and all your deeds, by which you defiled yourselves. You will loathe yourselves for all your evil that you have done. ⁴⁴ Then you will know that I am Adonai, when I deal with you for My Name’s sake and not according to your evil ways and your corrupt deeds, house of Israel.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

The Parable of the Sword

21 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face toward Teman and proclaim to the South. Prophesy against the brush land of the Negev. ³ Say to the brush land of the South: ‘Hear the word of Adonai!’ Thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will kindle a fire in you. It will devour every moist tree in you and every dry tree. Its leaping flame will not be extinguished. All faces from the south to the north will be scorched by it. ⁴ All flesh will see that I, Adonai, have kindled it; it will not be extinguished.’”

⁵ Then I said, “Ah, Adonai! They say of me. ‘Isn’t he just speaking in parables?’”

⁶ Then the word of Adonai came to me saying: ⁷ “Son of man, set your face toward Jerusalem and proclaim to the sanctuaries and prophesy against the land of Israel. ⁸ Say to the land of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I am against you. I will draw My sword from its sheath. I will cut off the righteous and the wicked from you. ⁹ Since I will cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked, therefore My sword will come out of its sheath against all flesh from the south to the north. ¹⁰ All flesh will know that I, Adonai, have drawn My sword from its sheath; it will not return any more. ¹¹ As for you, son of man, groan, with breaking of your sides and with bitterness you will groan before their eyes. ¹² Now when they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ you will say, ‘Because of the news that is coming. Every heart will melt, every hand will be limp, every spirit will be faint, and all knees will turn to water. Behold, it is coming, and it will happen!’” It is a declaration of Adonai Elohim.

A Sword Sharpened

¹³ The word of Adonai came to me saying, ¹⁴ “Son of man, prophesy and say, thus says Adonai, and say: ‘A sword! A sword! Sharpened and also polished! ¹⁵ Sharpened to slaughter ruthlessly! Polished so it will flash like lightning! Or should we rejoice? It is the rod,^[c] My son—despising every tree! ¹⁶ It is given to be polished, to be seized. The sword is sharpened, polished, to be put into the hand of the slayer. ¹⁷ Cry and wail, son of man! For it is against My people. It is against all the leaders of Israel. They are thrown over to the sword, along with My people. Therefore strike your thigh. ¹⁸ For it is a testing. What if they scorn even the rod? It must not be!” It is a declaration of Adonai. ¹⁹ You, son of man, prophesy. Strike your hands together. The sword will strike twice, even three times, a sword for the slain, a sword for a great slaughter—it surrounds them! ²⁰ So that their hearts will melt and many will stumble and fall, I have set the point of the sword against all their gates. Alas! It is made for lightning, it is polished for slaughter. ²¹ Slash to the right, turn to the left—wherever your blade is meeting! ²² I also will clap My hands together. So I will satisfy My wrath. I, Adonai, have spoken.’”

The Sword of God’s Judgment

²³ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ²⁴ “Now you, son of man, mark two ways for the sword of the king of Babylon to come. Both of them should originate from the same land. Mark a signpost; cut it out at the start of the road to the city. ²⁵ You are to mark out a way, so the sword can come to Rabbah of the children of Ammon and to Judah in fortified Jerusalem. ²⁶ For the king of Babylon stands at the fork in the road, at the start of the two roads, to seek divination. He shakes the arrows, consults the idols,^[d] he looks in the liver. ²⁷ In his right hand is the lot for Jerusalem—to set up battering rams, to open the mouth for slaughter, to lift up the voice with a war cry, to set up battering rams against the gates, to cast up ramps, to build a siege wall. ²⁸ It will seem to them like a false divination. They have sworn solemn oaths, but he will remember their iniquity, so they may be seized.”

²⁹ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you have caused your iniquity to be remembered, by exposing your transgressions, so that your sins appear in all your deeds—because you have come to remembrance, you will be seized with the hand. ³⁰ So you, wicked one, prince of Israel, the day has come to be slain, the time of final punishment.”

³³ “Now you, son of man, prophesy and say, thus says Adonai Elohim concerning the children of Ammon and concerning their taunt, say:

Blood and Injustice

22 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “You, son of man, will you judge? Will you judge the bloody city? So explain to her all her abominations. ³ Say, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘City that spills blood in her midst and makes idols for herself that defile—her time has come! ⁴ You have become guilty in your blood that you have spilled, and are defiled by your idols that you have made. So you have brought your days near, and have come up to your years. Therefore I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those near and far from you will mock you—with a defiled name and full of turmoil.’

⁶ “Behold, each prince of Israel has used his own arm’s strength in you to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother have been treated with contempt; the outsider has been oppressed in your midst; the orphan and the widow have been mistreated in you. ⁸ You have despised My holy things and profaned My Shabbatot. ⁹ Slanderous men are in you in order to shed blood. They have eaten at the mountain shrines; they commit immoral acts in your midst. ¹⁰ They have uncovered their fathers’ nakedness in you; they violate women that are in niddah within you. ¹¹ One has been detestable with his neighbor’s wife; another has wickedly defiled his daughter-in-law; yet another has violated his sister, his father’s daughter, in you. ¹² They accept bribes in order to shed blood in you; you have taken usurious interest. You have greedily gained by oppressing your neighbors, and you have forgotten Me.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹³ “Now look, I clap My hands at your dishonest gain that you have made and at your bloodshed in your midst. ¹⁴ Will your heart’s courage stand or your hands be strong in the days when I deal with you? I, Adonai, have spoken it and will do it. ¹⁵ I will scatter you among the nations and disperse you throughout the lands. I will purge your uncleanness from you. ¹⁶ You will be defiled in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am Adonai.”

¹⁷ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me—all of them are the copper, tin, iron and lead left inside a furnace—they are the dross of silver.” ¹⁹ Therefore, thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you have all become dross, therefore behold, I will gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ As one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead and tin into the furnace, to blow the fire upon it, to melt it; so I will gather you in My anger and in My fury. I will put you in and melt you. ²¹ I will gather you and blow the fire of My wrath upon you, so you may be melted in the midst of it. ²² As silver is melted in the furnace, so will you be melted within it. So you will know that I Adonai have poured out My fury on you.”

²³ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her: ‘You are a land that is not cleansed or rained upon in the day of indignation.’ ²⁵ There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing prey. They have devoured lives, they take wealth and valuables, they multiply widows in her midst. ²⁶ Her kohanim have done violence to My Torah and have profaned My holy things; they have made no distinction between the holy and the profane, nor have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean. They shut their eyes to My Shabbatot. So I am profaned among them. ²⁷ Her princes in her midst are like wolves tearing at prey, spilling blood and destroying lives for dishonest gain. ²⁸ Her prophets have plastered them with whitewash, seeing false visions and predicting lies to them, saying ‘Thus says Adonai Elohim,’ when Adonai has not spoken.

No One in the Breach

²⁹ “The people of the land have oppressively blackmailed, plundered in robbery, wronged the poor and needy and abused the outsider unjustly. ³⁰ I searched for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand in the breach before Me for the land, so that I would not destroy it, but I found no one. ³¹ Therefore I have poured out My fury on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; I have brought their own way upon their heads.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Jerusalem and Samaria take Lovers

23 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother. ³ They were harlots in Egypt; they were harlots in their youth; their bosoms were caressed there and their virgin breasts were fondled. ⁴ Their names were Oholah, the older one, and Oholibah,^[e] her sister. They became Mine, and they gave birth to sons and daughters. As for their names, Oholah is Samaria, and Oholibah is Jerusalem.

⁵ “Oholah prostituted herself, though she was Mine. She lusted after her lovers, the Assyrians, warriors, ⁶ dressed in blue, governors and rulers, all of them handsome young men, horsemen riding on horses. ⁷ She prostituted herself with them, all of the choice men of Assyria. She defiled herself with all the idols of everyone she lusted after. ⁸ She did not give up her harlotry in Egypt; for in her youth they had lain with her. They fondled her virgin breasts and poured out their lust on her. ⁹ Therefore I gave her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, whom she lusted after. ¹⁰ They stripped her naked, they took her sons and her daughters and slaughtered her with the sword. She became notorious among women. Judgments were executed upon her.

¹¹ “Now her sister Oholibah saw this, yet she was more depraved in her lust than her sister and her promiscuous acts worse. ¹² She lusted after the Assyrians, governors and rulers, warriors splendidly clad, horsemen riding on horses, all of them handsome young men. ¹³ I saw that she defiled herself; they both went the same way. ¹⁴ But she kept increasing her harlotry. She saw men carved on the wall, the images of the Chaldeans carved in red, ¹⁵ girded with sashes on their loins, with flowing turbans on their heads, all of them had the appearance of officers, the likeness of Babylonians of Chaldea, the land of their birth. ¹⁶ As soon as she saw them she lusted after them. She sent messengers to them in Chaldea. ¹⁷ The Babylonians came to her, to the bed of love, and defiled her with their lust. Yet when she was defiled by them, she turned away from them in disgust. ¹⁸ When she exposed her harlotry and uncovered her nakedness, My soul was disgusted by her, just as My soul was disgusted by her sister. ¹⁹ Yet she multiplied her harlotry—remembering the days of her youth, when she was a harlot in the land of Egypt. ²⁰ She lusted after their paramours, whose flesh is like the flesh of donkeys, and whose issue is like that of horses. ²¹ So you revisited the promiscuity of your youth, when the Egyptians used to fondle your bosom and youthful breasts.

²² “Therefore Oholibah, thus says Adonai Elohim, behold, I will stir up your lovers against you, from whom you turned in disgust. I will bring them against you on every side: ²³ the Babylonians and all the Chaldeans, Pekod, Shoa and Koa and all the Assyrians with them, handsome young men, governors and rulers all of them, commanders and officers, all of them riding on horses. ²⁴ They will come against you with armed chariots, whirling wheels and an assembly of people. They will set themselves against you on every side with armor, shield and helmet. I will delegate judgment to them, so they will judge you according to their standards of justice. ²⁵ I will vent My jealousy against you, letting them deal with you in fury. They will cut off your nose and your ears, and your survivors will fall by the sword. They will take your sons and your daughters, and your survivors will be devoured by fire. ²⁶ They will strip your clothes and take your beautiful jewelry. ²⁷ I will put an end to you and your immorality brought from the land of Egypt. You will no longer lift your eyes toward them or remember Egypt anymore.”

²⁸ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “Behold, I will give you into the hand of those you hate, into the hand of those you turned away from in disgust. ²⁹ They will treat you with hatred, take all your property and leave you naked and exposed. The vulgarity of your prostitutions will be uncovered—your debauchery and your promiscuity. ³⁰ These things will be done to you, for you have gone as a harlot after the nations, so you are defiled with their idols. ³¹ You have walked in the way of your sister, so I will give her cup into your hand.”

³⁵ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you have forgotten Me and thrust Me behind your back, you will also bear your obscenity and your harlotry.”

³⁶ Then Adonai said to me, “Son of man, will you pass judgment on Oholah and Oholibah? Confront them with their disgusting practices. ³⁷ For they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They have committed adultery with their idols and even offered their children, whom they bore for Me, to be devoured. ³⁸ Again, this they have done to Me—they defiled My Sanctuary on the same day and profaned My Shabbatot. ³⁹ On the same day that they slaughtered their children to their idols, they came into My Sanctuary to profane it. See, that is what they have done within My House!

⁴⁰ “Furthermore, they sent for men who come from far away. A messenger was sent to them, and look, they came! For them you bathed, painted your eyes and decked yourself with jewelry. ⁴¹ You sat on a glorious bed, with a table arranged before it, on which you set out My incense and My oil. ⁴² The sound of a carefree crowd was with her. Many of the men who came from the desert were drunkards. They put bracelets on their hands and beautiful crowns on their heads.”

⁴³ Then I said about her, worn out from harlotry: “Still they commit immorality with her—even her? ⁴⁴ They keep going to her, as they go to a prostitute. So they went to Oholah and to Oholibah—the obscene women. ⁴⁵ Righteous men would judge them as adulteresses are judged and as those who shed blood are judged. For they are adulteresses, and blood is on their hands.”

⁴⁶ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “Bring up an assembly against them. Give them over to terror and plunder. ⁴⁷ The assembly will stone them to death and dispatch them with their swords. They will slaughter their sons and daughters. They will burn down their houses. ⁴⁸ So I will make obscenity cease from the land, that all women may be taught not to imitate your obscenity. ⁴⁹ They will repay you both for wickedness and you will bear the sins of your idols. So you will know that I am Adonai.”

Parable of a Rusted Pot

24 The word of Adonai came to me in the tenth day of the tenth month of the ninth year saying: ² “Son of man, record this date, this exact day—this very day the king of Babylon has laid siege to Jerusalem. ³ Utter a parable concerning the rebellious house. Say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim:

Ezekiel’s Wife Dies

¹⁵ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁶ “Son of man, behold, I am about to take away the desire of your eyes with a single blow. But do not lament, do not weep or allow any tears to flow. ¹⁷ Sigh silently, do not observe mourning for the dead, keep your turban fastened, and keep your sandals on your feet. Do not cover your upper lip or eat the bread of mourners.”

¹⁸ So I spoke to the people in the morning and my wife died in the evening. In the morning I did just as I was commanded. ¹⁹ The people said to me, “Won’t you tell us what these things you are doing mean to us?”

²⁰ Then I said to them, “The word of Adonai came to me saying, ²¹ speak to the house of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will profane My Sanctuary, the pride of your might, the desire of your eyes and the longing of your soul. Your sons and your daughters that you have left behind will fall by the sword. ²² You will do just as I have done: you will not cover your upper lips or eat the bread of mourners. ²³ Your turbans will remain on your heads and your shoes on your feet—you will not lament or weep. But you will pine away in your iniquities and groan to each other. ²⁴ Ezekiel will be a sign for you; just as he has done, you will do. When this comes, you will know that I am Adonai.’

²⁵ “You, son of man, on the day when I take from them their stronghold, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, the longing of their soul, as well as their sons and their daughters— ²⁶ on that day a fugitive will come to you to tell you the news. ²⁷ On that day your mouth will be opened to him who escaped. You will speak and no longer be mute. So you will be a sign for them, and they will know that I am Adonai.”

Vengeance on Nearby Nations

25 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face toward the children of Ammon and prophesy against them. ³ Say to the children of Ammon—hear the word of Adonai, thus says Adonai Elohim—‘Because you said, “Aha!” against My Sanctuary when it was defiled, against the land of Israel when it was made desolate and against the house of Judah when they went into exile, ⁴ therefore behold, I will give you over to the children of the east as a possession. They will set up their camps among you and make their dwellings among you. They will eat your fruit and drink your milk. ⁵ I will make Rabbah a grazing place for camels and the children of Ammon a resting place for flocks. Then you will know that I am Adonai.’”

⁶ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because you have clapped your hands, stomped your feet and rejoiced with all the disdain of your soul against the land of Israel, ⁷ therefore behold, I will stretch out My hand over you. I will deliver you as plunder for the nations. I will cut you off from the people. I will cause you to perish from among the countries. I will destroy you. Then you will know that I am Adonai.”

⁸ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because Moab and Seir say, ‘See, the house of Judah is like all the other nations!’ ⁹ therefore behold, I will expose the mountain slope of Moab with all its cities, from its frontier cities, the glorious country of Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim. ¹⁰ I will deliver it, together with the children of Ammon, to the children of the east as a possession, so that the children of Ammon will not be remembered among the nations. ¹¹ Then I will execute judgments upon Moab. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”

¹² Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because Edom has taken severe vengeance against the house of Judah and has grievously offended by taking revenge upon them, ¹³ therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘I will stretch out My hand upon Edom. I will cut off man and beast from it. I will make it desolate. From Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword. ¹⁴ I will take My vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel. They will do in Edom according to My anger and according to My fury. They will know My vengeance.’” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because the Philistines have acted in revenge and have taken severe vengeance with scornful soul, destroying in unending hatred, ¹⁶ therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will stretch out My hand over the Philistines. I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the seacoast. ¹⁷ I will execute severe vengeance upon them with furious punishments. So they will know that I am Adonai, when I lay My vengeance upon them.’”

Downfall of Tyre

26 On the first day of the month in the eleventh year, the word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, because Tyre has said against Jerusalem, ‘Aha, she is shattered, the gateway of the peoples—she is turned over to me! I will be filled, now that she is laid waste!’ ³ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: Behold, I am against you, Tyre. I will bring up many nations against you, as the sea brings up its waves. ⁴ They will destroy the walls of Tyre and tear down her towers. I will sweep her dust from her and make her a bare rock. ⁵ She will be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea. For I have spoken it.” It is a declaration of Adonai. “She will become plunder for the nations, ⁶ and her daughters in the field will be slain by the sword. So they will know that I am Adonai.”

⁷ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “Behold, from the north I will bring against Tyre Nebuchadrezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings, with horses, with chariots, with horsemen and a vast army of troops. ⁸ He will slaughter your daughters in the field with the sword. He will build siege works against you, cast up an assault ramp against you and raise up shields against you. ⁹ He will thrust his battering engines against your walls. He will tear down your towers with his weapons. ¹⁰ You will be covered with dust from the multitude of his horses. At the noise of the horsemen, wheels and chariots, your walls will shake, when he enters your gates, as men enter a breached city. ¹¹ With the hoofs of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will kill your people with the sword. The pillars of your strength will come down to the ground. ¹² They will rob your riches and plunder your merchandise. They will tear down your walls and destroy your fine houses. They will cast your stones and your lumber and your dust into the midst of the sea. ¹³ I will put an end to the sound of your songs. The sound of your lyres will no longer be heard. ¹⁴ I will make you a bare rock; you will be a place for the spreading of nets, you will be built no more; for I, Adonai, have spoken.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim to Tyre: “Will the coastlands not shake at the sound of your downfall—when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in your midst? ¹⁶ Then all the princes of the sea will come down from their thrones. They will cast aside their robes. They will take off their richly woven garments; they will clothe themselves with trembling; they will sit on the ground. They will tremble every moment and be appalled at you. ¹⁷ They will lift a lament for you and say to you:

¹⁹ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “When I make you a desolate city, like the cities that are uninhabited, when I bring the flood upon you and the great waters cover you— ²⁰ then I will bring you down with them who descend into the Pit, to the people of long ago. I will make you dwell in the lowest parts of the earth, like the waste places of old, with those who go down to the Pit, so that you will not be inhabited or radiate splendor in the land of the living. ²¹ I will make you a horror, and you will no longer exist. Though you are sought for, you will never be found again.” It is a declaration of Adonai Elohim.

27 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “You, son of man, lift up a lament for Tyre.

¹² “‘Tarshish was your trading partner because of the abundance of all riches. With silver, iron, tin, and lead, they traded for your merchandise. ¹³ Javan, Tubal and Meshech were your traffickers—they gave lives of people and vessels of bronze for your wares. ¹⁴ Those from the house of Togarmah traded for your merchandise with horses, steeds and mules. ¹⁵ The men of Dedan traded with you; many coastlands were your customers; they brought you horns of ivory and ebony as your payment. ¹⁶ Aram was your customer because of your abundant goods—they traded for your merchandise with emerald, purple and embroidered cloth, fine linen, coral and rubies. ¹⁷ Judah and the land of Israel were your customers; they traded for your wares with wheat of Minnith, confections, honey, oil and balm. ¹⁸ Damascus was your customer because of the abundance of your goods and all your great wealth, with the wine of Helbon and wool of white^[f]. ¹⁹ Vedan and Javan from Uzal traded for your wares—ironwork, cinnamon and spices were bartered for your merchandise. ²⁰ Dedan was your dealer in saddlecloth for riding. ²¹ Arabia and all the princes of Kedar were your favored trading partners in lambs, rams and goats; in these they were your customers. ²² The merchants of Sheba and Raamah were your vendors—they traded for your wares with the finest spices, all precious stones and gold. ²³ Haran and Canneh and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur and Chilmad traded with you. ²⁴ They traded for your merchandise with gorgeous fabrics, garments of blue and richly woven work, carpets of multi-colored material, with cords twisted and tightly knotted. ²⁵ The ships of Tarshish serve as carriers for your wares.

Pride for Tyre

28 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, say to the prince of Tyre, thus says Adonai Elohim:

Lament for Tyre

¹¹ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹² “Son of man, lift up a lament for the king of Tyre. Say to him, thus says Adonai Elohim:

²⁰ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ²¹ “Son of man, set your face toward Sidon and prophesy against her. ²² Say, thus says Adonai Elohim:

‘Behold, I am against you, Zidon. I will be glorified in your midst. They will know that I am Adonai, when I execute judgments in her, and show my holiness through her. ²³ I will send a plague to her and blood in her streets. The wounded will fall in her midst by the sword on every side. So they will know that I am Adonai.’

²⁴ “Never again will there be a briar pricking at the house of Israel or a piercing thorn from any around them who scorn them. They will know that I am the Lord Adonai.”

²⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “When I have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered and show my holiness through them in the eyes of the nations, then they will live in their own land which I gave to My servant Jacob. ²⁶ They will live safely there, and they will build houses and plant vineyards. They will live securely when I have executed judgments on all those around them that treated them with contempt. So they will know that I am Adonai their God.”

Prophecy Against Egypt

29 On the twelfth day of the tenth month of the tenth year, the word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt. Prophesy against him and against all Egypt, ³ speak and say, thus says Adonai Elohim:

⁸ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Behold, I will bring a sword against you. I will cut off from you man and beast. ⁹ The land of Egypt will become desolate and waste. Then they will know that I am Adonai. Because he said, ‘The Nile is mine—I made it!’ ¹⁰ therefore behold, I am against you and against your rivers. I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from Migdol to Syene, as far as the border of Ethiopia. ¹¹ No human foot will pass through it, and no foot of beast will pass through it. It will be uninhabited for 40 years. ¹² I will make the land of Egypt a desolation among devastated countries. Her cities will be a desolation 40 years among ruined cities. I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries.”

¹³ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “At the end of 40 years, I will gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered. ¹⁴ I will restore the fortunes of Egypt. I will cause them to return to the land of Pathros, the land of their origin. But they will be a lowly kingdom there. ¹⁵ It will be the lowliest of the kingdoms. It will no longer exalt itself above the nations. I will diminish them, so that they no longer rule over the nations. ¹⁶ It will no longer be as security for the house of Israel, bringing to mind the iniquity of their turning after them. So they will know that I am Adonai.”

¹⁷ On the first day of the first month of the twenty-seventh year, the word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁸ “Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon made his army labor hard against Tyre. Every head became bald and every shoulder chafed. But he and his army had no profit from Tyre for the labor that he had expended against it.”

¹⁹ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. He will carry off her abundance, take her spoil and take her prey. It will be the wages for his army. ²⁰ I have given him the land of Egypt as his wages for which he served, because they worked for Me.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Messianic Horn

²¹ “In that day I will cause a horn to shoot up for the house of Israel. I will open your mouth among them. They will know that I am Adonai.”

Doom of Egypt

30 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, prophesy, and say, thus says Adonai Elohim:

⁵ Ethiopia, Put and Lud, all the mixed people, Libya, and children of the covenant land will fall with them by the sword.’”

⁹ “On that day, messengers will go out from before Me in ships to frighten Ethiopians out of complacency. Anguish will come on them as on the day of Egypt—for, behold, it is coming!”

¹⁰ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “I will put away the pomp of Egypt by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. ¹¹ He and his people with him, the ruthless of the nations, will be brought in to destroy the land. They will draw their swords against Egypt and fill the land with the slain. ¹² I will make the rivers dry. I will sell the land into the hand of evildoers. I will make the land desolate, and all that is in it, by the hand of strangers. I, Adonai, have spoken it.”

²⁰ On the seventh day of the first month of the eleventh year, the word of Adonai came to me saying: ²¹ “Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt. Behold, it has not been bound up to be healed or put in a splint, so that it is wrapped up with a bandage, to grow strong to wield the sword.”

²² Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt. I will break his arms, the strong one and the one that was broken. I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. ²³ I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them throughout the countries. ²⁴ I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon and put My sword into his hand. I will break the arms of Pharaoh, so he will groan before him like a fatally wounded man. ²⁵ I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, but Pharaoh’s arms will fall. So they will know that I am Adonai when I put My sword into the hand of the king of Babylon and he stretches it out against the land of Egypt. ²⁶ I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations and disperse them through the countries. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”

Fall of the Haughty Cedar

31 On the first day of the third month of the eleventh year, the word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, say to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his multitude:

¹² Ruthless barbarians from the nations cut it down. They cast it down on the mountains and in all the valleys its branches fell. Its branches have laid broken in all the streambeds of the land. All the people of the earth have come out from its shade and abandoned it.

¹³ All the birds of the sky lived on its fallen trunk and all the beasts of the field upon its fallen branches.

¹⁴ So none of all the trees by the water should exalt themselves in their height or set their top among the leafy boughs. None of their well-watered mighty ones should attain their height.

For they have all been given to death, to the lowest regions under the earth, among the children of men who go down to the Pit.”

¹⁸ ‘Who is like you in glory and greatness among the trees of Eden? You will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lowest parts of the earth. You will lie among the uncircumcised, with those slain by the sword.’

Lamentations for Pharaoh

32 On the first day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year, the word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, lift up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him:

¹⁷ On the fifteenth day of the month in the twelfth year, the word of Adonai came to me saying:

Watchman, Blow the Shofar

33 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, speak to the children of your people and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, suppose the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him as their watchman. ³ If, when he sees the sword coming upon the land, he blows the shofar and warns the people, ⁴ then whoever hears the sound of the shofar but ignores the warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood will be on his own head. ⁵ He heard the sound of the shofar and ignored the warning; his blood will be on himself. However, if he had taken warning, he would have saved his soul. ⁶ But if the watchman sees the sword come and does not blow the shofar, the people are not warned. Then the sword does come and takes a person from among them—he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

⁷ “You, son of man, I have set you as a watchman for the house of Israel. When you hear the word from My mouth, warn them from Me. ⁸ When I say to the wicked: ‘Wicked one, you will surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked about his way—that wicked one will die in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at your hand. ⁹ If you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it and he does not turn from his way, then he will die in his iniquity—but you have saved your soul.

¹⁰ “You, son of man, say to the house of Israel: ‘You have said, “Surely our transgressions and our sins are upon us and we are pining away in them. So how can we live.” ¹¹ Say to them: ‘As I live’—it is a declaration of Adonai—‘I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Return, return from your evil ways. Why will you die, O house of Israel?’

¹² “You, son of man, say to the children of your people: ‘The righteousness of the righteous person will not deliver him in the day of his transgression. Nor will the wickedness of the wicked person make him stumble in it on the day he turns away from his wickedness. Nor will the righteous person be able to live by it on the day he sins. ¹³ When I tell the righteous that he will surely live, but he trusts in his own righteousness and commits iniquity, none of his righteous deeds will be remembered. But in his iniquity that he has committed, he will die. ¹⁴ When I say to the wicked, “You will surely die,” yet he turns from his sin and does what is just and right— ¹⁵ if the wicked restores a pledge, gives back what he had taken by robbery, walks in the laws of life, committing no iniquity—he will surely live, he will not die. ¹⁶ None of his sins that he has committed will be remembered against him. He has done what is just and right; he will surely live.’

¹⁷ “Yet the children of your people say, ‘The way of Adonai isn’t fair!’ but it is their way, theirs that is unfair. ¹⁸ When a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits iniquity, he will die in it. ¹⁹ When a wicked person turns from his wickedness and does what is just and right, he will live by it. ²⁰ Yet you say, ‘The way of Adonai is not fair!’ House of Israel, I will judge every one of you according to his ways.”

Jerusalem Falls

²¹ In the twelfth year of our exile, on the fifth day of the tenth month, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me saying, “The city has been struck down.” ²² The hand of Adonai had been upon me in the evening, before the survivor came. He had opened my mouth by the time of his coming to me in the morning. So my mouth was opened and I was no longer mute.

²³ Then the word of Adonai came to me saying: ²⁴ “Son of man, the inhabitants of these ruins in the land of Israel keep saying, ‘Abraham was only one, yet he inherited the land. Since we are many, the land is given to us as a possession.’

²⁵ “Therefore say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘You eat with the blood, lift up your eyes to your idols and shed blood. Should you possess the land? ²⁶ You rely on your sword, commit abominations and each of you defiles his neighbor’s wife. Should you possess the land?’ ²⁷ Say this to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘As I live, surely those who are in the ruins will fall by the sword. Whoever is in the open field I will give to the beasts to be devoured, and whoever is in the strongholds and in the caves will die of the plague. ²⁸ I will make the land a desolation and a horror. The pride of her power will cease. The mountains of Israel will be desolate, so that no one will pass through.’ ²⁹ They will know that I am Adonai, when I have made the land a desolate waste, because of all their abominations that they have committed.”

³⁰ “Now as for you, son of man, the children of your people are talking about you by the walls and in the doorways of the houses. Each one speaks to one another, each saying to his brother: ‘Come now, hear what message is coming forth from Adonai!’ ³¹ So they come to you, as people come, and sit before you as My people and hear your words—but they do not do them—for with their mouth they express doting love, but their heart goes after their own dishonest gain. ³² Look, you are like a love song to them, one who has a beautiful voice and can play well on an instrument. They hear your words, but do not practice them. ³³ When this comes to pass—behold, it is coming—they will know that a prophet has been among them.”

Adonai, Our Shepherd

34 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel. Prophesy and say to those shepherds, thus says Adonai Elohim: “Oy, shepherds of Israel who only take care of themselves! Should shepherds not take care of the sheep? ³ You eat the fat. You clothe yourself with the wool. You kill the fat ones. But you do not take care of the sheep. ⁴ You do not strengthen the weak, heal the sick, bind up the broken, bring back the stray or seek the lost. Instead, you have ruled over them with force and cruelty. ⁵ They were scattered for lack of a shepherd. They became food for all the beasts of the field as they were scattered. ⁶ My sheep wandered through all the mountains and on every high hill. Over all the face of the earth My sheep were scattered. No one searched. No one sought.”

⁷ Therefore, shepherds, hear the word of Adonai: ⁸ “As I live”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“as surely as My sheep became prey and My sheep became food for all the beasts of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My sheep,” ⁹ therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of Adonai, ¹⁰ thus says Adonai Elohim: “Behold, I am against the shepherds and I will demand My flock from their hand. I will dismiss them from tending the flock. The shepherds will no longer feed themselves. I will rescue My sheep from their mouth, so they will not be food for them.”

¹¹ For thus says Adonai Elohim: “Here I am! I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out. ¹² As a shepherd seeks out his sheep on the day he is among his scattered flock, so I will seek out My sheep. I will rescue them out of all the places where they have been scattered, on a day of cloud and thick darkness. ¹³ I will bring them out from the peoples. I will gather them from the countries. I will bring them back to their own land. I will shepherd them upon the mountains of Israel, by the streams and in all the habitable places of the land. ¹⁴ I will shepherd them in a good pasture—their grazing place will be on the high mountains of Israel. There they will lie down on good grazing ground. They will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. ¹⁵ I will tend My flock and make them lie down”—it is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁶ “I will seek the lost, bring back the stray, bind up the broken and strengthen the sick. But the fat and the strong I will destroy—I will tend them with justice. ¹⁷ As for you, My flock”—thus says Adonai Elohim—“behold, I will judge between sheep and sheep, between rams and male goats. ^{[k] 18} Was it too little for you that you were feeding in the good pasture? Must you trample down the rest of your pastures with your feet? You were drinking clear water. Must you muddy the rest with your feet? ¹⁹ Yet My sheep must eat what you have trampled with your feet and drink what you have muddied with your feet!”

²⁰ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim to them: “Behold, I Myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. ²¹ Because you thrust with your side and with shoulder and gore all the weak with your horns, until you have scattered them all over, ²² I will save My flock. They will no longer be prey. I will judge between sheep and sheep. ²³ So I will set up One Shepherd over them, My servant David—He will tend them, He will feed them Himself and be their shepherd. ^{[l] 24} I, Adonai, will be their God, and My servant David will be Prince among them. I, Adonai, have spoken.

²⁵ “I will make a covenant of shalom with them. I will remove the evil beasts from the land, so they may dwell safely in the wilderness and sleep in the forest. ²⁶ I will make them and the places around My hill a blessing. I will cause the rain to come down in its season. There will be showers of blessing. ²⁷ The tree of the field will yield its fruit. The ground will yield its produce. They will be secure in their land. Then they will know that I am Adonai, when I have broken the bars of their yoke and have delivered them from the hand of those who enslaved them. ²⁸ They will no longer be prey to the nations. The beast of the earth will not devour them. They will live in security. No one will make them afraid. ²⁹ I will make their agriculture renowned. They will no longer be consumed with hunger in the land. They will no longer bear the scorn of the nations. ³⁰ They will know that I, Adonai their God, am with them. They, the house of Israel, are My people.” It is a declaration of Adonai. ³¹ “So you, My sheep, the sheep of My pasture, you are human, and I am your God.” It is a declaration of Adonai Elohim.

Edom Made Desolate

35 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face against Mount Seir and prophesy against it. ³ Say to it, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I am against you, Mount Seir. I will stretch out My hand over you and make you utterly desolate. ⁴ I will lay your cities waste. You will be devastated. So you will know that I am Adonai.

⁵ “Because you have a long-standing hatred and have delivered Bnei-Yisrael to the power of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time of their final punishment, ⁶ therefore, as I live’—it is a declaration of Adonai—‘I will destine you for blood, and bloodshed will pursue you. Since you did not hate bloodshed, therefore bloodshed will pursue you. ⁷ I will make Mount Seir an utter desolation. I will cut off from it all who come and go. ⁸ I will fill its mountains with its slain; on your hills, your valleys and all your streams those slain by the sword will fall. ⁹ I will make you everlasting desolations; your cities will not be inhabited. Then you will know that I am Adonai.

¹⁰ “Because you said: ‘These two nations and these two lands will be mine! We will possess them’—though Adonai was there— ¹¹ “therefore, as I live”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“I will deal with you with the same anger and envy that you had because of your hatred against them. I will make Myself known among them, when I judge you. ¹² You will know that I, Adonai, have heard all your blasphemies that you uttered against the mountains of Israel saying: “They are laid desolate—they are given for us to devour!” ¹³ You have magnified yourselves against Me with your mouth. You multiplied your words against Me. I heard it.”

¹⁴ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “When the whole earth rejoices, I will make you desolate. ¹⁵ As you rejoiced over inheriting the house of Israel, because it was desolate, so I will do to you. You will be desolate, Mount Seir and all Edom—all of it. Then they will know that I am Adonai.”

Comfort to the Land of Israel

36 “You, son of man, prophesy to the mountains of Israel and say: ‘Mountains of Israel, hear the word of Adonai. ² Thus says Adonai Elohim: “The enemy has said against you, ‘Aha! Even the ancient high places have become our possession!’ ³ Therefore prophesy and say, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Because they ravaged and crushed you from every side, so that you became the possession of the rest of the nations and you became the talk and evil gossip of people,’ ⁴ therefore, mountains of Israel, hear the word of Adonai, thus says Adonai Elohim to the mountains, the hills, the streams and the valleys, the desolate wastes and the cities that are forsaken, which have become prey and derision to the rest of the surrounding nations. ⁵ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Surely in the fire of My wrath I have spoken against the rest of the nations, and against all Edom, that have taken My land for themselves as a possession with the joy of all their heart and contempt in their souls, in order to seize it as plunder.’ ⁶ Therefore, prophesy to the land of Israel and say to the mountains and the hills, the streams and the valleys, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I have spoken in My wrath and in My fury, because you have suffered the scorn of the nations.’ ⁷ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘I have lifted My hand. Surely the nations that surround you will themselves suffer scorn.

⁸ “‘But you, mountains of Israel, you will shoot forth your branches and yield your fruit for My people Israel; for their return is near. ⁹ For behold, I am for you. I will turn to you. You will be tilled and sown. ¹⁰ I will settle a large population upon you—the whole house of Israel, all of it. The cities will be inhabited. The desolate places will be built up. ¹¹ I will multiply man and beast upon you. They will increase and be fruitful. I will cause you to be inhabited as you were before. I will do better for you than at your beginnings. You will know that I am Adonai. ¹² I will cause people, my people Israel, to walk upon you. They will possess you, and you will be their inheritance. You will no longer deprive them of children.’”

¹³ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Because they say to you, ‘You are a devourer of men and you deprive your nation of children,’ ¹⁴ therefore you will no longer devour men and you will no longer deprive your nation of children.” It is a declaration of Adonai. ¹⁵ “I will no longer let the scorn of the nations be heard against you. You will no longer bear disgrace from the peoples. You will no longer cause your nation to stumble.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁶ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁷ “Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their way and by their deeds. Their way before Me was like the uncleanness of a woman in her niddah. ¹⁸ So I poured out My fury on them for the blood which they had shed upon the land and because they had defiled it with their idols. ¹⁹ I scattered them among the nations, so they were dispersed through the countries. According to their way and their deeds I judged them. ²⁰ Wherever they went among the nations, they profaned My holy Name, since it was said about them, ‘These are the people of Adonai, yet they had to leave His land.’ ²¹ But I had concern for My holy Name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations wherever they went.

²² “Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘I do not do this for your sake, house of Israel, but for My holy Name, which you profaned among the nations wherever you went. ²³ I will sanctify My great Name, which has been profaned among the nations—which you have profaned among them. The nations will know that I am Adonai’”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“‘when I am sanctified in you before their eyes.’”

New Heart, New Spirit

²⁴ “‘For I will take you from the nations, gather you out of all the countries and bring you back to your own land. ²⁵ Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. ²⁶ Moreover I will give you a new heart. I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the stony heart from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. ^{[m] 27} I will put My Ruach within you. Then I will cause you to walk in My laws, so you will keep My rulings and do them. ²⁸ Then you will live in the land that I gave to your fathers. You will be My people and I will be your God.

²⁹ “So I will save you from all your uncleanness. I will call for the grain and make it plentiful. I will not bring a famine upon you. ³⁰ I will multiply the fruit of the tree and the produce of the field, so that you will no longer bear the disgrace of famine among the nations. ³¹ When you remember your evil ways and your deeds that were not good, you will be disgusted with yourselves because of your iniquities and your abominations. ³² Not for your sake will I do this”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“let that be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, house of Israel!”

³³ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “In the day that I pronounce you clean from all your iniquities, I will cause the cities to be inhabited and the ruins will be rebuilt. ³⁴ The land that was desolate will be tilled instead of being a wasteland in the sight of all that passed by. ³⁵ They will say, ‘This land that was a wasteland has become like the garden of Eden. The waste, desolate and ruined cities are fortified and inhabited.’ ³⁶ Then the nations that are left all around you will know that I, Adonai, have rebuilt the ruined places, and replanted what was desolate. I, Adonai, have spoken it. So I will do it.”

³⁷ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “I will again be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them—I will populate them with people like a flock. ³⁸ Like the holy flock, like the flock of Jerusalem during her moadim, so the waste cities will be filled with flocks of people.^[n] Then they will know that I am Adonai.”

Dry Bones Live

37 The hand of Adonai was upon me. The Ruach Adonai carried me out and set me down in the middle of the valley. It was full of bones. ² He led me all around them. Behold, there were very many on the floor of the valley. Behold, they were very dry. ³ Then He said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?”^[o]

I answered, “Adonai Elohim, You know.”

⁴ “Prophesy over these bones,” He said to me. “Say to them: ‘Dry bones, hear the word of Adonai!’ ⁵ Thus says Adonai Elohim to these bones: “Behold, I will cause Ruach^[p] to enter you, so you will live. ⁶ I will attach tendons to you, bring flesh on you and cover you with skin. Then I will put breath in you. You will live. You will know that I am Adonai.”

⁷ So I prophesied just as I was commanded. As I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake. Then the bones came together, bone to its bone. ⁸ I saw, and behold, there were tendons on them, flesh came up and skin covered them above, but there was no breath in them.

⁹ Then He said to me, “Prophesy to the Ruach. Prophesy, son of man, and say to the Ruach, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Come from the four winds, Ruach! Breathe upon these slain, that they may live.” ¹⁰ So I prophesied just as He commanded me. The Ruach came into them and they lived. They stood up on their feet, a vast army.

¹¹ Then He said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say: ‘Our bones are dried up; our hope is lost; we are cut off—by ourselves.’ ¹² Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will open your graves. I will bring you up out of your graves, My people. I will bring you back to the land of Israel. ¹³ You will know that I am Adonai, when I have opened your graves and brought you up out of your graves, My people. ¹⁴ I will put My Ruach in you and you will live. I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I, Adonai, have spoken and that I have done it.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Reunification of Southern and Northern Kingdoms

¹⁵ The word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁶ “You, son of man, take one stick and write on it, ‘For Judah’—for Bnei-Yisrael joined with him. Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph’—the stick of Ephraim and all the house of Israel joined with him. ¹⁷ Join them one to another for yourself, as one stick, so they may become one in your hand.

¹⁸ “When the children of your people speak to you saying, ‘Won’t you tell us what you mean by these?’ ¹⁹ say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph—which is in the hand of Ephraim and the tribes of Israel joined with him—and I will put them together with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick. They will be one in My hand.’ ²⁰ The sticks that you write on will be in your hand before their eyes.

²¹ “Then say to them, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I will take Bnei-Yisrael from among the nations, where they have gone. I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land. ²² I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel, and one king will be king to them all. They will no longer be two nations and never again be divided into two kingdoms. ²³ They will never again be defiled with their idols, their detestable things or with any of their transgressions. I will save them out of all their dwellings in which they sinned. I will purify them. Then they will be My people and I will be their God. ²⁴ My servant David will be king over them. They will all have One Shepherd. They will walk in My ordinances and observe My rulings and do them. ²⁵ They will live in the land that I gave to My servant Jacob, where your ancestors lived. They will live there—they, their children and their children’s children, forever, and My servant David will be their prince forever. ²⁶ I will cut a covenant of shalom with them—it will be an everlasting covenant with them. I will give to them and multiply them. I will set up My Sanctuary among them forever. ^{[q] 27} My dwelling-place will be over them. I will be their God and they will be My people. ²⁸ Then the nations will know that I am Adonai who sanctifies Israel, when My Sanctuary is in their midst forever.’”

Gog’s Alliance Invades Israel

38 The word of Adonai came to me saying: ² “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.^[r] Prophesy against him ³ and say, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. ⁴ I will turn you about and put hooks into your jaws. I will bring you out, with all your army, horses and horsemen—all of them splendidly dressed—a vast assembly with breastplate and shield, all of them wielding swords. ⁵ With them will be Persia, Cush and Put, all of them with shield and helmet, ⁶ Gomer and all his troops, the house of Togarmah from the extreme north and all his troops—many peoples with you.

⁷ “‘Be prepared, prepare yourself, you and all your company gathered around you. Be a guard for them. ⁸ After many days you will be summoned. In the latter years, you will come against the land that has been brought back from the sword and regathered from many peoples on the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. But they were brought out from the peoples. When all of them are dwelling securely, ⁹ you will come up, you will come like a storm, you will be like a cloud covering the land—you and all your troops and many peoples with you.’”

¹⁰ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “It will come to pass in that day that things will come into your heart and you will devise an evil plan. ¹¹ You will say, ‘I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who live securely, all of them living without walls, having no bars or gates, ¹² in order to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places now inhabited and against the people gathered from the nations, who have been acquiring livestock and property, who live in the center of the world.’

¹³ “Sheba, Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its young lions will say to you: ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your company to plunder? To carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and property, to make off with immense spoils?’

¹⁴ “Therefore, son of man, prophesy, say to Gog, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘In that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know? ¹⁵ You will come from your place out of the extreme north—you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and mighty army. ¹⁶ You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud covering the land. It will happen in the last days. I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me—when I am sanctified through you, Gog, before their eyes.’”

¹⁷ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Are you the one that I spoke about in former times through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? ¹⁸ In that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“My fury will rise up in My nostrils. ¹⁹ In My jealousy and the fire of My wrath I have spoken! Surely in that day there will be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰ The fish of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping things that creep upon the ground and all humans upon the face of the earth will shake at My presence. The mountains will be thrown down. The steep places will fall. Every wall will fall to the ground. ²¹ I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“every man’s sword will be against his brother. ²² I will punish him with pestilence and blood. I will pour out rain on him, on his troops and on the many peoples with him, a torrential rain, with hailstones, fire and brimstone. ²³ So I will magnify and sanctify Myself. I will make Myself known in the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am Adonai.”

Destruction of Gog

39 “You, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. ² I will turn you around, drive you along, and lead you up from the extreme north. I will bring you upon the mountains of Israel. ³ Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. ⁴ You will fall on the mountains of Israel—you, all your troops and the people that are with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of birds of prey and to the beasts of the field. ⁵ You will fall on an open field, for I have spoken.’” It is a declaration of Adonai.

⁶ “I will send fire on Magog and on those who live securely in the islands. Then they will know that I am Adonai. ⁷ So I will make My holy Name known among My people Israel. I will not let My holy Name be profaned anymore. The nations will know that I am Adonai, the Holy One in Israel. ⁸ Behold, it is coming. It will be done”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“this is the day that I have spoken about.

⁹ “The inhabitants of Israel’s cities will go out and kindle fires with the weapons—shields and breastplates, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears. They will make fires with them for seven years. ¹⁰ They will not take wood out of the field or cut anything from the forests, for they will make fire from the weapons. They will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹¹ “On that day, I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of the travelers east of the sea. It will block those who travel through, since they will bury Gog and all his multitude there. Then they will call it the valley of Hamon-Gog. ^{[s] 12} The house of Israel will bury them for seven months, in order to cleanse the land. ¹³ All the people of the land will bury them. It will be memorable for them, a day when I am glorified.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁴ “Men will be continually set apart to travel through the land and bury the travelers remaining on the face of the land, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months, they will make their search. ¹⁵ When they travel through the land, if any sees a man’s bone, he will set up a sign by it, until the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon-gog. ¹⁶ Hamonah will also be the name of the city. So they will cleanse the land.

¹⁷ “You, son of man”—thus says Adonai Elohim—“say to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field: ‘Assemble and come! Gather from all around to My sacrificial feast that I have prepared for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. You will eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—as rams, lambs, goats, bulls—all of them fatlings of Bashan. ¹⁹ So you will eat fat until you are gorged and you will drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrificial feast that I have prepared for you. ²⁰ You will be filled at My table with horses and horsemen, with mighty men and all the warriors.’” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Israel Will Know Adonai

²¹ “I will put My glory among the nations. All the nations will see My judgment that I will execute and My hand that I will lay on them. ²² The house of Israel will know that I am Adonai their God, from that day onward. ²³ The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity, because they broke faith with Me. So I hid My face from them and gave them into the hand of their enemies. All of them fell by the sword. ²⁴ I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions. I hid My face from them.”

²⁵ Therefore thus says Adonai Elohim: “Now I will restore Jacob from exile, when I have compassion on the whole house of Israel. I will be zealous for My holy Name. ²⁶ They will bear their shame and all their disloyalty by which they broke faith with Me, when they were living securely in their land, with no one making them afraid. ²⁷ When I have brought them back from the peoples and have gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, I will be sanctified in them in the eyes of many nations. ²⁸ Then they will know that I am Adonai their God, since it was I who caused them to go into exile among the nations and I who will gather them back to their own land. I will never again leave them there. ²⁹ I will never again hide My face from them. For I have poured out My Ruach upon the house of Israel.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

Measurements of a New Temple

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, in the beginning of the year, in the tenth day of the month—in the fourteenth year after the city was struck down, on that very day—the hand of Adonai was on me, and He brought me there. ² In visions God brought me to the land of Israel and set me down upon a very high mountain. On it, toward the south, was something like the construction of a city. ³ He brought me there, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was like bronze.^[t] He had a linen cord in his hand and a measuring rod.^[u] He was standing in the gateway.

⁴ The man said to me, “Son of man, see with your eyes, hear with your ears, set your heart on all that I show you—for I brought you here in order to show you—and report all that you see to the house of Israel.”

⁵ Behold, an outer wall was all around the House. The measuring rod in the man’s hand was six cubits long,^[v] each of which was a normal cubit and a handbreadth. When he measured the thickness of the wall structure, it was one rod, and the height was one rod.

⁶ Then he went to the gate that faced east and went up its steps. When he measured the threshold of the gate, it was one rod wide. Also the other threshold was one rod wide. ⁷ Each guard chamber was one rod long and one rod wide. The space between the chambers was five cubits. The threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate, facing the House, measured one rod. ⁸ When he measured the porch of the gate toward the House, it was one rod. ⁹ When he measured the porch of the gate, it was eight cubits; its pillars were two cubits. The porch of the gate faced the House. ¹⁰ Now the guard chambers of the east gate were three on this side, and three on the other side—the three had the same measurement. The side pillars had the same measure on this side and on that side. ¹¹ When he measured the width of the entrance of the gate, it was ten cubits, and the length of the gate was 13 cubits. ¹² A barrier wall was in front of the guard chambers, one cubit on each side. Each chamber was six cubits on each side. ¹³ When he measured the gate from the roof of the one chamber to the roof of the other, the width was 25 cubits, door facing door. ¹⁴ Then he did the pillars—60 cubits. A gateway extended all around to the pillar of the courtyard. ¹⁵ Now from the front of the gate of the entrance to the front of the inner porch of the gate measured 50 cubits. ¹⁶ There were shuttered windows toward the chambers and toward their pillars within the surrounding gate, and likewise the porches had windows all around inside. On each pillar were palm trees.

¹⁷ Then he brought me to the outer court.^[w] Behold, there were rooms and pavement, made for the surrounding court, with 30 rooms along the pavement. ¹⁸ The pavement was by the side of the gates, as wide as the gates were long. This was the lower pavement. ¹⁹ He measured the width from the front of the lower gate to the exterior front of the inner court—it was 100 cubits, to the east and to the north.

²⁰ Next he measured the length and width of the gate of the outer court facing toward the north. ²¹ Its guard chambers were three on this side and three on that side. Its pillars and its porches had the same measurements as the first gate—50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ²² Its windows, porches and palm trees were the same measurements as the gate facing toward the east. Its stairway had seven steps, and its porch was in front of them. ²³ A gate to the inner court was opposite the other gate, northward and eastward. He measured 100 cubits from gate to gate.

²⁴ Then he led me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate toward the south. He measured its pillars and its porches. They had the same measurements. ²⁵ The gate and its porch had windows all around, like the other windows, 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ²⁶ Its stairway had seven steps, and its porches were in front of them. It had palm-trees on its pillars, one on this side and another on that side. ²⁷ There was a gate to the inner court toward the south. He measured from gate to gate toward the south—100 cubits.

²⁸ Then he brought me to the inner court through the south gate. When he measured the south gate, it had the same measurements. ²⁹ Its chambers, pillars and porch had the same measurements. There were windows in it and in the surrounding porch. It was 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ³⁰ There were porches all around, 25 cubits long and five cubits wide. ³¹ Its porch was toward the outer court. Palm-trees were on its pillars. Its stairway had eight steps.

³² Then he brought me into the inner court toward the east. He measured it with the same measurements. ³³ Its chambers, pillars and porch had the same measurements. There were windows in it and in its surrounding porch. It was 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ³⁴ Its porch was toward the outer court. Palm trees were on its pillars on this side and on that side. Its stairway had eight steps.

³⁵ He brought me to the north gate. He measured it with the same measurements: ³⁶ its chambers, pillars and porch. There were windows in it all around. It was 50 cubits long and 25 cubits wide. ³⁷ Its pillars were toward the outer court. Palm trees were on its pillars, on this side and on that side. Its stairway had eight steps. ³⁸ A chamber with its entry was by the pillars at the gates; there they rinse the burnt offering. ³⁹ In the porch of the gate were two tables on this side and two tables on that side, on which to slaughter the burnt offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. ⁴⁰ Off to the side, on the outside as one goes up to the entry of the north gate, were two tables. On the other side of the porch of the gate were two tables. ⁴¹ Four tables were on one side and four tables were on the other side, by the side of the gate—eight tables, on which they would slaughter. ⁴² There were four tables of hewn stone for the burnt offering, a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide, and a cubit high. The instruments for the slaughter of the burnt offering and the sacrifice were laid on them. ⁴³ Hooks, a handbreadth long, were fastened in the House all around. The flesh of the offering was to be placed upon the tables.

⁴⁴ Outside the inner gate in the inner court were chambers for the singers, one of which was at the side of the north gate, facing south. The one at the side of the east gate faced north. ⁴⁵ He said to me, “This chamber that faces toward the south is for the kohanim who keep charge of the House. ⁴⁶ The chamber that faces toward the north is for the kohanim who keep charge of the altar. These are the sons of Zadok, those from the sons of Levi who come near to Adonai to minister to Him.”

⁴⁷ Then he measured the court. It was 100 cubits long and 100 cubits wide, a square. The altar was in front of the House. ⁴⁸ He brought me to the porch of the House. He measured each pillar of the porch, five cubits on this side and five cubits on that side. The width of the gate was three cubits on this side and three cubits on that side. ⁴⁹ The length of the porch was 20 cubits and the width 11 cubits. It was ascended by way of steps, where pillars stood, one on each side.

The Inner Sanctuary

41 Then he brought me to the Temple, and measured the pillars—six cubits wide on one side, six cubits wide on the other side, which was the width of the tent. ² The width of the entrance was ten cubits. The sides of the entrance were five cubits on the one side and five cubits on the other side. He measured its length, 40 cubits and its width, 20 cubits. ³ He went to the inner room and measured each pillar of the entrance, two cubits; the doorway, six cubits; and the width of the doorway, seven cubits. ⁴ When he measured the inner room’s length, it was 20 cubits, and the width was 20 cubits, in front of the Temple. He said to me, “This is the Holy of Holies.”

⁵ When he measured the wall of the House, it was six cubits, and the width of every side chamber was four cubits, surrounding the House on every side. ⁶ There were 33 side chambers. There were supports in the wall, which belonged to the House for the side chambers all around, so that they were not supported by the wall of the House. ⁷ The side chambers were wider as they wound about higher and higher. Because the winding about of the House went higher and higher round about the house, therefore the width of the House expanded. One went up from the lowest row to the highest by way of the middle. ⁸ I saw also that the House had a raised platform all around; the foundations of the side chambers were a full rod of six cubits up to the joint. ⁹ The thickness of the outer wall of the side chambers was five cubits. The space between the side chambers of the House ¹⁰ and the outer chambers was 20 cubits wide all around the House on every side. ¹¹ The doors of the side chambers were toward the space, one door toward the north and another door toward the south. The width of the space was five cubits all around.

¹² The building that was before the separate area at the side toward the west was 70 cubits wide. The wall of the building was five cubits thick all around and its length was 90 cubits. ¹³ When he measured the House, it was 100 cubits long; the separate area and the building with its walls, was 100 cubits long; ¹⁴ and the width of the face of the House and the separate area toward the east was also 100 cubits.

¹⁵ When he measured the length of the building facing the separate area behind it, with its galleries on each side, it was 100 cubits. Now the inner Sanctuary and the porches of the court— ¹⁶ the thresholds, the shuttered windows, and the galleries all around in three stories opposite the thresholds—were paneled with wood all around, from the ground up to the windows (even the windows were covered), ¹⁷ over the space above the door, as far as the inner House, and on all the wall outside all around inside and outside, by measurement. ¹⁸ It was made with cheruvim and palm trees. A palm tree was between cheruv and cheruv. Every cheruv had two faces: ¹⁹ the face of a man toward the palm tree on one side and the face of a young lion toward the palm tree on the other side. Thus was it made on all the House all around. ²⁰ The cheruvim and palm trees were made from the ground up to above the door and on the wall of the Temple.

²¹ The Temple’s doorposts were square. Now the front of the Sanctuary had something resembling ²² an altar—three cubits high and two cubits long, made of wood. Its corners, its base and its sides were also of wood. He said to me, “This is the table of the Presence of Adonai.”

²³ The Temple and the inner Sanctuary each had double doors. ²⁴ The doors each had two turning leaves—two leaves for one door and two leaves for the other. ²⁵ Cheruvim and palm trees were made on them, on the doors of the Temple, just like those made on the walls. There were thick beams of wood on the face of the porch outside. ²⁶ There were shuttered windows and palm trees on one side and on the other, on the sides of the porch, the side chambers of the House and the thick beams.

The Outer Courtyard

42 He led me out to the outer courtyard toward the north. He brought me to the chamber that was opposite the separate area and opposite the building toward the north. ² The length of the building with the door on the north was 100 cubits and the width was 50 cubits. ³ Opposite the 20 cubit space belonging to the inner court and opposite the pavement belonging to the outer court was gallery by gallery in three stories. ⁴ In front of the chambers was a walkway ten cubits wide and 100 cubits long. Their doorways were toward the north. ⁵ The upper chambers were narrower, because the galleries took more away from them than from the lower and the middle ones in the building. ⁶ For they were in three stories and had no pillars like the pillars of the courtyards; therefore more space was taken away than from the lower and the middle floors, in comparison with the ground. ⁷ A wall that was outside by the side of the chambers, toward the outer court in front of the chambers, was 50 cubits in length. ⁸ For the chambers that were toward the outer court were 50 cubits long while those facing the Temple were 100 cubits. ⁹ Below these chambers was the entrance on the east side, as one enters them from the outer courtyard.

¹⁰ In the thickness of the wall of the courtyard toward the east, in front of the separate area and in front of the building, there were chambers. ¹¹ The passageway in front of them were similar to the chambers on the north, as long and wide as them, with all their exits and similar arrangements and doors. ¹² Corresponding to the doorways of the chambers on the south, there was a doorway at the head of the passageway—a way directly in front of the wall toward the east, as one enters them.

¹³ Then he said to me, “The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate area, they are the holy chambers, where the kohanim who are near to Adonai eat the most holy things. There they will put the most holy things—the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering—for the place is holy. ¹⁴ Once the kohanim enter, they are not to go out of the holy place into the outer court without leaving there their garments in which they minister—for they are holy. They will put on other garments and approach the area for the people.”

¹⁵ When he had finished measuring the inner House, he brought me out by way of the gate facing east and measured all around. ¹⁶ When he measured the east side with the measuring rod, it was 500 rods, with the measuring rod round about. ¹⁷ When he measured the north side, it was 500 rods by the measuring rod. ¹⁸ When he measured the south side, it was 500 rods, with the measuring rod. ¹⁹ Then he turned about to the west side and measured 500 rods with the measuring rod. ²⁰ So he measured the four sides. It had a wall all around—the length was 500 and the width was 500—to make a distinction between the holy and the profane.

The Glory Returns

43 Then he led me to the gate, the gate looking east, ² and behold, the glory of the God of Israel was coming from the east. His voice was like the sound of many waters. The earth was radiant with His glory. ³ The appearance of the vision that I saw was like the vision that I saw when I came to destroy the city. The visions were like the vision that I saw by the river Chebar. So I fell on my face. ⁴ Then the glory of Adonai came into the House by way of the gate facing the east. ⁵ The Ruach took me up and brought me into the inner court. Then behold, the glory of Adonai filled the House.

⁶ Then I heard someone speaking to me from the House, while a man was standing beside me. ⁷ He said to me, “Son of man, this is the place of My throne, the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of Bnei-Yisrael forever. The house of Israel will no longer defile My holy Name—neither they nor their kings—by their prostitution or by the corpses of their kings in their high places. ⁸ Whenever they set their threshold next to My threshold and their doorpost next to My doorpost, with only a wall between Me and them, they defiled My holy Name by their abominations that they committed. So I have finished them off in My fury. ⁹ Now let them put away their prostitution and the corpses of their kings, far from Me. Then I will dwell among them forever.

¹⁰ “You, son of man, describe the House to the house of Israel, so they will be ashamed of their iniquities. Let them measure accurately. ¹¹ If they are ashamed of all they have done, sketch out the House for them, its layout, its exits and its entrances, its complete design, with all its ordinances and all its laws. Write it down in their sight, so they may observe its complete design and all its ordinances and do them. ¹² This is the Torah of the House: the whole territory around it on top of the mountain will be most holy. Behold, this is the Torah of the House.

The Altar

¹³ “These are the measurements of the altar by cubits (a cubit being a normal cubit plus a handbreadth). Its gutter will be a cubit deep and a cubit wide. Its rim will be one span surrounding the edge. This will be the base of the altar. ¹⁴ From the base on the ground to the lower ledge will be two cubits and the width one cubit. From the smaller ledge to the larger ledge will be four cubits and the width a cubit. ¹⁵ The altar hearth will be four cubits high. Four horns will project upward from the hearth. ¹⁶ The hearth will be 12 cubits long by 12 wide, with four sides square. ¹⁷ The ledge will be 14 cubits long and 14 wide with four sides square. The border surrounding it will be half a cubit and its bottom will be a cubit all around. Its steps will face east.”

¹⁸ Then he said to me, “Son of man, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘These are the statutes for the altar on the day when they will construct it, in order to offer burnt offerings on it and to sprinkle blood on it. ¹⁹ Give a young bull for a sin offering to the Levitical kohanim who are from the offspring of Zadok, who come near to Me to minister to Me’”—it is a declaration of Adonai. ²⁰ “You are to take some of its blood and put it on its four horns, on the four corners of the ledge and on the border around it. So you will purify it and make atonement for it. ²¹ Take the bull of the sin offering and burn it in the appointed place of the House, outside the Sanctuary.

²² “On the second day, offer a male goat without blemish as a sin offering. They will purify the altar as they purified it with the bull. ²³ When you have finished purifying it, offer a young bull without blemish and a ram out of the flock without blemish. ²⁴ Present them before Adonai. The kohanim will cast salt upon them. They will offer them up as a burnt offering to Adonai. ²⁵ Every day for seven days, prepare a goat as a sin offering. They will prepare a young bull and a ram out of the flock, without blemish. ²⁶ They will make atonement for the altar and cleanse it for seven days. This is how they will consecrate it. ²⁷ When they have completed the days, from the eighth day and onward the kohanim will make your burnt offerings upon the altar as well as your fellowship offerings. Then I will accept you”—it is a declaration of Adonai.

Prince at the Eastern Gate

44 Then he brought me back to the outer gate of the Sanctuary looking east. It was shut. ² Adonai said to me: “This gate is to be shut. It must not be opened. No one may enter through it, for Adonai God of Israel has entered through it. So it is to be kept shut. ³ Only the prince, since he is a prince, will sit there to eat bread before Adonai. He will enter by way of the porch of the gate and go out the same way.”

Levitical Priesthood

⁴ Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the House. I looked, and behold, the glory of Adonai filled the House of Adonai. So I fell upon my face. ⁵ Adonai said to me, “Son of man, set your heart, behold with your eyes and hear with your ears all that I say to you concerning all the ordinances of Adonai’s House and all its laws. Set your heart to the entrance of the House, with all exits of the Sanctuary. ⁶ Say to the rebellious, to the house of Israel, thus says Adonai Elohim: ‘Enough of your abominations, house of Israel! ⁷ You brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My Sanctuary, to profane it—My House—when you offer My bread, the fat and the blood. They have broken My covenant, to add to all your abominations. ⁸ You have not kept charge of My holy things, but you have set keepers of My service in My Sanctuary to please yourselves.’”

⁹ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, may enter My Sanctuary, not any foreigner who is among Bnei-Yisrael. ¹⁰ For the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray after their idols, will bear their iniquity. ¹¹ Yet they will be ministers in My Sanctuary, overseers of the gates of the House and ministering in the House. They will slaughter the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people. They will stand before them to minister to them. ¹² Because they ministered to them before their idols, and became a stumbling block of iniquity to the house of Israel, therefore I have lifted up My hand against them”—it is a declaration of Adonai. “They will bear their iniquity. ¹³ They will not come near to Me, to minister to Me as kohanim, nor come near to any of My holy things, to the things that are most holy. They will bear their shame and their abominations, which they have committed.

¹⁴ “Yet I will appoint them to keep charge of the House, for all its service and for all that will be done in it. ¹⁵ So the Levitical kohanim, the sons of Zadok who kept charge of My Sanctuary when Bnei-Yisrael wandered from Me, will draw near to Me to minister to Me. They will stand before Me to offer Me the fat and the blood”—it is declaration of Adonai. ¹⁶ “They are ones who will enter My Sanctuary and draw near to My table to minister to Me. They will keep My charge. ¹⁷ It will be that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they will be clothed with linen garments. No wool will come on them, while they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. ¹⁸ They will have linen turbans upon their heads and linen underclothes upon their loins; they will not wear anything that causes sweat. ¹⁹ Before they go out to the outer court—to the outer courtyard to the people—they must take off their garments in which they minister and leave them in the holy chambers. They will put on other garments, so they do not consecrate the people while in their garments. ²⁰ They must not shave their heads or let their locks grow long, but must carefully trim the hair of their heads. ²¹ No kohen may drink wine before entering the inner court. ²² None may take a widow or a divorced woman as his wife, for they must take virgins of the offspring of the house of Israel or a widow who is the widow of a kohen.

²³ “They will teach My people the difference between the holy and the common and explain to them the difference between the unclean and the clean. ²⁴ In a lawsuit, they will stand to judge, and judge in accordance with My ordinances. They will keep My laws and My statutes in all My moadim and keep My Shabbatot holy. ²⁵ They must not come near a dead person to defile themselves—only for a father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister who had no husband may they defile themselves. ²⁶ After he is cleansed, they will count seven days for him. ²⁷ On the day he goes into the Sanctuary, into the inner court to minister in the Sanctuary, he is to offer his sin offering.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

²⁸ “It will be an inheritance for them. I am their inheritance. Do not give them any possession in Israel for I am their possession. ²⁹ They will eat the grain offering, the sin offering and the guilt offering. Every devoted thing in Israel will be theirs. ³⁰ The first of all the firstfruits of everything and every offering of every kind from all your offerings will belong to the kohanim. You will also give the kohen the first of your dough, to make a blessing to rest on your house. ³¹ The kohanim may not eat any carcass, whether bird or beast, that dies of itself or is torn.”

Levitical Land

45 “When you allot the land for inheritance, set apart an offering to Adonai, a holy portion of the land. The length will be 25,000 and the width will be 10,000.^[x] It will be holy within all its surrounding borders. ² Out of this, there will be the Holy Place, 500 long by 500 wide, square all around, and 50 cubits for the open land surrounding it. ³ From this area you are to measure a length of 25,000 and a width of 10,000, in which will be the Sanctuary, which is most holy. ⁴ It is to be the holy portion of the land, for the kohanim ministering in the Sanctuary, who draw near to serve Adonai. It will be a place for their houses as well as a place consecrated for the Sanctuary. ⁵ An area 25,000 long by 10,000 wide will be for the Levites, the ministers of the House. It will be a possession for themselves—20 chambers.

⁶ “You will give the city possession of an area 5,000 wide by 25,000 long, alongside the offering of the holy allotment. It will be for the whole house of Israel.

The Prince’s Allotment

⁷ “The prince will have a portion on either side of the holy allotment and the city’s property, adjacent to the holy offering and the city’s property, on the west side westward and on the east side eastward. Its length will correspond to one of the tribal portions, from the western boundary to the eastern boundary. ⁸ It will be land for him as a possession in Israel. My princes will no longer oppress My people. They will give land to the house of Israel according to their tribes.”

⁹ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “Let it be enough for you, princes of Israel. Get rid of violence and destruction, execute justice and righteousness, take away your oppression from My people”—it is a declaration of Adonai. ¹⁰ “You are to have just balances, an honest dry measure and an honest liquid measure. ^{[y] 11} The dry and liquid measure will be of a uniform measure: the bath will contain a tenth part of a homer, and the ephah a tenth part of a homer; the standard measure will be the homer. ¹² The shekel will be 20 gerahs; 20 plus 25 plus 15 shekels will be your mina.

¹³ “This is the offering that you are to set apart: a sixth of an ephah out of a homer of wheat, a sixth of an ephah out of a homer of barley, ¹⁴ along with the set portion of oil—a bath of oil—as the tithe of the bath for each kor, which is ten baths (or a homer, since ten baths are a homer), ¹⁵ and one lamb of the flock out of 200, from the well-watered pastures of Israel. These are for the grain offering, burnt offering and fellowship offerings, to make atonement for them.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁶ “All the people of the land must give this contribution to the prince in Israel. ¹⁷ It will be the prince’s role to give the burnt offerings, grain offerings and drink offerings at the feasts, New Moons and Shabbatot, in all the moadim of the house of Israel. He will prepare the sin offering, the meal offering, the burnt offering and the fellowship offerings, to make atonement for the house of Israel.”

Offerings for Moadim

¹⁸ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “In the first month, in the first day of the month, take a young bull without blemish and purify the Sanctuary. ¹⁹ The kohen will take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it upon the doorposts of the House and upon the four corners of the ledge of the altar and upon the posts of the gate of the inner court. ²⁰ So you will do on the seventh day of the month for everyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance. So you will make atonement for the House.

²¹ “In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you will have the Passover, a feast of seven days when matzah will be eaten. ²² On that day the prince will prepare a bull as a sin offering for himself and for all the people of the land. ²³ He will prepare a burnt offering to Adonai for the seven days of the feast—seven bulls and seven rams without blemish daily for seven days and a male goat daily for a sin offering. ²⁴ He will prepare as a grain offering, an ephah for a bull, an ephah for a ram and a hin of oil for each ephah. ²⁵ He will do this in the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month, during the Feast, for seven days, for sin offering as well as burnt offering, grain offering as well as oil.”

46 Thus says Adonai Elohim: “The gate of the inner court that faces the east will be shut for the six working days. On Yom Shabbat it will be opened and in the day of the New Moon it will be opened. ² The prince will enter by way of the porch of the gate from outside, and stand by the post of the gate. Then the kohanim will prepare his burnt offering and his fellowship offerings. He will worship at the threshold of the gate, and then go out. The gate will not be shut until the evening. ³ The people of the land will worship at the door of that gate before Adonai on Shabbatot and New Moons.

⁴ “The burnt offering that the prince offers to Adonai on Yom Shabbat will be six lambs without blemish and a ram without blemish. ⁵ The grain offering will be an ephah for the ram. The grain offering for the lambs will be a gift of his hand and a hin of oil for an ephah. ⁶ On the day of the New Moon it will be a young bull without blemish, six lambs and a ram—they must be without blemish. ⁷ He will prepare a grain offering, an ephah for the bull and an ephah for the ram, for the lambs whatever his hand may reach and a hin of oil for an ephah. ⁸ When the prince enters, he will enter by way of the porch of the gate and he will also exit by that way. ⁹ When the people of the land come before Adonai at the moadim, whoever enters by way of the north gate to worship will exit by way of the south gate. Whoever enters by way of the south gate must exit by way of north gate. He should not return by the way of the gate where he came in, since he must exit straight ahead. ¹⁰ When they enter, the prince will come in among them. When they go out, they will go out together.

¹¹ “At the feasts and the moadim, the grain offering will be an ephah for a bull and an ephah for a ram, and for the lambs a gift of his hand and a hin of oil for an ephah. ¹² Now if the prince prepares a freewill offering, burnt offering or fellowship offerings as a freewill offering to Adonai, the gate for him facing east must be opened for him. Then he will prepare his burnt offering and his fellowship offerings as he does on Yom Shabbat. Then he will go out. After he exits, the gate should be shut.

¹³ “You are to prepare a lamb of the first year, without blemish, for a burnt offering to Adonai daily—morning by morning you are to prepare it. ¹⁴ Also you will prepare a grain offering with it morning by morning, a sixth of an ephah and a third of a hin of oil, to moisten the fine flour—a grain offering to Adonai continually. It is perpetual statute. ¹⁵ They will prepare the lamb, the grain offering and the oil, morning by morning, for a continual burnt offering.”

¹⁶ Thus says Adonai Elohim: “If the prince gives a gift to any of his sons as his inheritance, it will belong to his sons. It will be their possession by inheritance. ¹⁷ But if he gives of his inheritance as a gift to one of his servants, it will be his until the year of liberty, when it will revert to the prince. His inheritance will belong to his sons. ¹⁸ The prince must not take from the people’s inheritance, evicting them wrongfully out of their property. He must give inheritance to his sons out of his own property, so that My people will not be displaced, anyone from his own property.”

¹⁹ Then he brought me through the entrance that was at the side of the gate, into the holy chambers for the kohanim, looking north. Behold, there was a place at the far western end. ²⁰ He said to me, “This is the place where the kohanim will boil the guilt offering and the sin offering, where they will bake the grain offering, so they do not bring them into the outer court, to consecrate the people.”

²¹ Then he brought me out to the outer courtyard and led me past the four corners of the courtyard. Behold, in every corner of the courtyard there was another courtyard. ²² In the four corners of the courtyard there were enclosed courts, 40 cubits long by 30 wide—these four in the corners had the same size. ²³ There was a row of masonry surrounding them, surrounding the four. Boiling places were built under the surrounding rows. ²⁴ He said to me, “These are the boiling places where the ministers of the House will boil the sacrifices of the people.”

River of Life

47 Then he brought me back to the door of the House. Behold, water was flowing out from under the threshold of the House eastward—for the front of the House faced east. The water was flowing down from under the right side of the House, south of the altar. ² He brought me out by way of the north gate and led me around outside by the way of the outer gate, the way of the gate looking east. Behold, water was trickling out from the right side.

³ When the man went out eastward with a line in his hand, he measured a 1,000 cubits. Then he led me into the water—water to the ankles. ⁴ Again he measured a 1,000, and led me into the water—water to the knees. Again he measured a 1,000, and he led me into the water—water up to the waist. ⁵ Again he measured a 1,000, and now it was a river that I could not pass through, for the water had risen, water to swim in—a river that could not be crossed. ⁶ He said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man?”

Then he brought me back to the bank of the river. ⁷ When I had returned, behold, there were very many trees on one side and on the other, along the bank of the river. ^{[z] 8} Then he said to me, “These waters go out toward the eastern region. They go down to the Arabah and enter the sea. When they arrive at the sea, the waters of the sea will flow and will become fresh. ^{[aa] 9} It will be that every living creature that swarms will live wherever the rivers go. There will be a very great multitude of fish, because this water goes there and makes the salt water fresh. So everything will be healed and live wherever the river goes. ¹⁰ Fishermen will stand by it; from En-gedi to En-eglaim, it will be a place for spreading of nets. Their fish will be of many different kinds—like the fish of the Great Sea, a huge quantity. ¹¹ Its swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be set aside for salt. ¹² On the river, on its bank, on this side and that side, will grow every kind of tree for food. Its leaf will not wither; its fruit will not fail; it will bear new fruit every month, because its water flows out from the Sanctuary. Its fruit will be for food and its leaf will be for healing.”

Borders of the Holy Land

¹³ Thus says Adonai Elohim, “This will be the border, by which you will divide the land for inheritance according to the twelve tribes of Israel, Joseph receiving two portions. ¹⁴ You will inherit it, each one like another, as I lifted My hand to give to your fathers. So this land will fall to you as an inheritance.

¹⁵ “This will be the boundary of the land: on the north side, from the Great Sea, by way of Hethlon, to the entrance of Zedad— ¹⁶ Hamath, Berothah, Sibraim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Hamath, as far as Hazer-hatticon, which is on the border of Hauran. ¹⁷ So the border from the sea will be Hazar-enon at the border of Damascus, with the territory of Hamath to the north. This will be the northern side.

¹⁸ The east side, between Hauran, Damascus, Gilead and the land of Israel, will be by the Jordan. You will measure from the northern border to the eastern sea. This will be the eastern side.

¹⁹ The south side southward will be from Tamar as far as the waters of Meriboth-kadesh, to the Wadi of Egypt and to the Great Sea. This will be the southern side toward the south.

²⁰ The west side will be the Great Sea, from the southern border as far as the front of the entrance of Hamath. This will be the western side.

²¹ You are to divide this land for yourselves to the tribes of Israel. ²² So you are to divide it by lot for an inheritance for you and for the outsiders who dwell among you, whoever bears children among you. They will be to you like the native-born of Bnei-Yisrael; they will be allotted an inheritance along with you among the tribes of Israel. ²³ In whatever tribe the outsider lives, there you will give him his inheritance.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

48 “Now these are the names of the tribes: Dan’s portion will be from the northern frontier, beside the way of Hethlon to the entrance of Hamath, Hazar-enan at the northern border of Damascus, beside Hamath, and from eastern side to the sea. ² Next to the territory of Dan, from the east side to the west will be Asher’s one, ³ Next to the territory of Asher, from the east side to the west will be Naphtali’s one. ⁴ Next to the territory of Naphtali, from the east side to the west, will be Manasseh’s one. ⁵ Next to the territory of Manasseh, from the east side to the west will be Ephraim’s one. ⁶ Next to the territory of Ephraim, from the east side to the west, will be Reuben’s one. ⁷ Next to the territory of Reuben, from the east side to the west, will be Judah’s one.

⁸ By Judah’s border, from the east side to the west, will be the contribution which you will set aside, 25,000 cubits in width and in length like one of the portions, from the east side to the west. The Sanctuary will be in the midst of it. ⁹ The allotment that you will set apart to Adonai will be 25,000 in length and 10,000 in width. ¹⁰ The holy allotment will be apportioned for these—for the kohanim. Toward the north it will be 25,000 cubits and toward the west 10,000 in width, toward the east 10,000 in width and toward the south 25,000 in length. Adonai’s Sanctuary will be in the midst of it. ¹¹ The sanctified portion will be for the kohanim of the sons of Zadok, who kept My charge and did not go astray as the Levites went astray when Bnei-Yisrael went astray. ¹² It will be for them a portion set apart from the offering of the land, most holy, by the border of the Levites.

¹³ Alongside the border of the kohanim, the Levites will have 25,000 in length and 10,000 in width. The entire length will be 25,000 and the width 10,000. ¹⁴ They must not sell or exchange any of it or transfer the choice portion of the land, for it is holy to Adonai. ¹⁵ The 5,000 that remain in the width, in front of the 25,000 thousand, will be for common use, for the city, for living and for pastureland.

“The city will be in the midst of it, ¹⁶ and will have these measurements: the north side; 4,500; the south side 4,500; the east side, 4,500; and the west side, 4,500. ¹⁷ The city will have open land: toward the north 250, toward the south 250, toward the east 250, and toward the west 250. ¹⁸ The remainder of the length, according to the holy allotment, will be 10,000 eastward and 10,000 westward. It will be alongside the holy allotment. Its produce will be food for those who serve the city. ¹⁹ Those who serve the city, out of all the tribes of Israel, will till it. ²⁰ The whole allotment will be 25,000 by 25,000, square; you will set apart the holy allotment with the property of the city.

²¹ “What is remaining from this side and on the other of the holy allotment and the city property will be for the prince. What is adjacent to the 25,000 of the allotment toward the eastern border, and westward adjacent to the 25,000 toward the western border, alongside the portions, will be for the prince. The holy allotment and the Sanctuary of the House will be in the midst of it. ²² The property of the Levites and the property of the city will be in the middle of what belongs to the prince; what belongs to the prince will be between Judah’s border and Benjamin’s border.

²³ As for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west, will be Benjamin’s one. ²⁴ Next to the territory of Benjamin, from the east side to the west, will be Simeon’s one. ²⁵ Next to the territory of Simeon, from the east side to the west, will be Issachar’s one. ²⁶ Next to the territory of Issachar, from the east side to the west, will be Zebulon’s one. ²⁷ Next to the territory of Zebulun, from the east side to the west, will be Gad’s one. ²⁸ Next to the territory of Gad, at the south side southward, the border will be from Tamar to the waters of Meribath-kadesh, to the Wadi, to the Great Sea. ²⁹ This is the land that you will divide by lot to the tribes of Israel as an inheritance, and these are their portions.” It is a declaration of Adonai.

³⁰ “These are the exits of the city: on the north side, 4,500 by measure, ³¹ will be the gates of the city named after of the tribes of Israel—three gates northward—the Reuben Gate, one; the Judah Gate, one; the Levi Gate, one. ³² At the east side, 4,500, will be three gates: the Joseph Gate, one; the Benjamin Gate, one; Dan Gate, one. ³³ At the south side, 4,500 by measure, will be three gates: the Simeon Gate, one; the Issachar Gate, one; the Zebulun Gate, one. ³⁴ At the west side, 4,500, with their three gates: the Gad Gate, one; the Asher Gate, one; the Naphtali Gate, one. ³⁵ It will be 18,000 cubits all around.

“From that day on, the name of the city will be: ‘Adonai Is There.’”

The Unfaithful Wife

1 The word of Adonai that came to Hosea son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel. ² When Adonai first spoke with Hosea, Adonai said to Hosea:

³ So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son. ⁴ Then Adonai said to him:

⁶ Then she conceived again, and bore a daughter. And He said to him:

⁸ After she weaned Lo-ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son. ⁹ Then He said:

Restoring the Covenant Promises

Compassion and Covenant Love

Buying Back His Wife

3 Then Adonai said to me: “Go again! Love a woman who is loved by a companion and committing adultery—just as Adonai has loved the Bnei-Yisrael, while they were turning to other gods and loving raisin cakes.”

² So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and an omer and a half of barley. ³ Then I said to her: “For many days you must stay with me. You must not practice prostitution. You must not have a man, and I will be the same toward you.”

⁴ For Bnei-Yisrael will remain for many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without sacred pillar, and without ephod or teraphim. ^{[al] 5} Afterwards, Bnei-Yisrael will return, and they will seek Adonai their God and David their king. Then they will turn in awe to Adonai and to His goodness in the last days.

Destroyed For Lack of Knowledge

Judgment for Betrayal

Prayer of Teshuvah

Covenant Loyalty More Than Sacrifice

Iniquity of Senseless Ephraim

Idols Thrown Down

Days of Desolation Are Coming

Israel to be Shamed in Captivity

Plow Up Your Ground

My Son Called Out

Ephraim Multiplies Lies

No Other Savior

Salvation Like Dew for Israel

1 The word of Adonai that came to Joel the son of Pethuel:

Mourn the Land’s Destruction

The Day is Near!

Call for Teshuvah

Blow the Shofar

Rain and Restoration

Promise of the Ruach Adonai

Valley of Jehoshaphat

⁴ “Moreover, what are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon^[bs] and all regions of Philistia? Did you render retribution for Me? Even if you were rendering retribution for Me, swiftly, speedily, will I return your retribution back on your own head. ⁵ For you took My silver and My gold, and you carried My valuable treasures into your temples.

⁶ “The children of Judah and of Jerusalem you sold to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own territory.

⁷ “Behold, I am rousing them from the place where you sold them, and I will return your retribution on your own head. ⁸ I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba^[bt], to a nation far off—for Adonai has spoken.”

Shalom in Zion

The Lion Roars at the Nations

1 The words of Amos, who was among the shepherds from Tekoa. He perceived these words concerning Israel during the days of Uzziah, king of Judah, and during the days of Jeroboam son of Joash, king of Israel, two years before the earthquake. ² He said:

2 Thus says Adonai:

The Prophet Reveals Destruction

3 Hear this word that Adonai has spoken against you, Bnei Yisrael, against the whole family that I brought up from the land of Egypt, saying:

Word for Worldly Women

Yet You Have Not Returned

Prepare to Meet Your God

Seek Adonai and Live

5 Hear this word that I take up as a lament over you, O house of Israel:

⁴ For thus says Adonai to the house of Israel:

Sins of Injustice

Dreadful Day of Adonai

Justice Better Than Sacrifices

At Ease in Zion

⁹ If ten people remain in one house, they will die. ¹⁰ One’s beloved—the one burning incense for him—will lift him up to carry the bones out of the house, and he will say to one in the innermost recess of the house: “Is anyone else still with you?” And he will say: “No one.” Then he will say, “Hush! For we must not mention the Name of Adonai.”

Locusts and the Trial by Fire

7 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, He was forming locusts at the beginning of the spring crop—after the cutting of the king’s hay. ² When the locust-swarm had finished devouring the vegetation of the land, I said:

⁴ This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: Behold, Adonai Elohim was calling for the trial by fire, and it would have devoured the great deep, and it would have devoured the territory. ⁵ But I said:

Plumb Line on a Wall

⁷ This is what He has revealed to me: Behold, my Lord was standing by a vertical wall, and in His hand was a plumb line. ⁸ Then Adonai said to me: “What do you see, Amos?”

¹⁰ Then Amaziah, the priest of Beth-el, sent word to King Jeroboam of Israel, saying: “Amos has been conspiring against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot endure all his words. ¹¹ For this is what Amos has said: ‘Jeroboam will die by the sword, and Israel will surely go captive from his land.’”

¹² Then Amaziah said to Amos: “Seer, go away! Flee back to the land of Judah. Eat bread there, and prophesy there. ¹³ But at Bethel you are not to prophesy any more—for it is a royal sanctuary and a house of the kingdom.”

¹⁴ So Amos responded and said to Amaziah: “I am no prophet, nor am I a son of a prophet. Rather, I am a shepherd tending fig trees. ¹⁵ But Adonai took me from following the flock and Adonai said to me: ‘Go, prophesy to My people Israel.’ ¹⁶ So now, hear the word of Adonai: You are saying, ‘Do not prophesy against Israel and do not preach against the house of Isaac.’ ¹⁷ Therefore, this is what Adonai says:

A Basket of Summer Fruit

8 This is what my Lord Adonai has shown me: See, there was a basket of summer fruit. ² He said: “Amos, what do you see?”

No Escaping His Eyes

9 I saw my Lord standing by the altar, and He said:

David’s Sukkah Restored

Edom’s Arrogance and Ruin

¹ The vision of Obadiah. Thus says Adonai Elohim concerning Edom:

The House of Jacob will be a Fire

Jonah Runs From His Mission

1 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah,^[cn] son of Amittai, saying: ² “Rise, go to the great city Nineveh and call out to her, for their evil has risen before me.”

³ But Jonah rose to flee to Tarshish, from the presence of Adonai. He went down to Jaffa and found a ship going to Tarshish, paid the fee and went down into it to go with them to Tarshish—away from the presence of Adonai.

⁴ Then Adonai hurled a forceful wind into the sea and there was such a mighty storm on the sea that the ship was about to shatter. ⁵ So the sailors were afraid and cried out, each man to his own god. Then they cast the cargo that was in the ship into the sea to lighten it. But Jonah had gone down into the lowest part of the ship, to lay down and fell fast asleep.

⁶ So the chief sailor came near to him and said to him, “What, are you sleeping? Get up! Call out to your god. Perhaps the gods will consider us, so we will not perish!”

⁷ Then each man said to his companion, “Come, let’s cast lots—so we may know because of whom this evil is happening to us.” So they cast lots and the lot fell on Jonah.^[co]

⁸ Then they said to him, “Tell us, now! On whose account is this evil happening to us? What is your profession and where did you come from? What is your land and from what nation are you?”

⁹ He said to them, “I am a Hebrew and I fear Adonai God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.”

¹⁰ Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear and they said to him, “What have you done?” For the men knew that he had fled from the presence of Adonai, because he had told them. ¹¹ So they said to him, “What should we do to you so the sea will become calm for us?”—for the storm was raging on.

¹² “Pick me up and throw me into the sea,” he said to them, “then the sea will become calm for you. For I know it is because of me that this great storm is upon you.”

¹³ Nevertheless the men rowed hard to return to the land, but they could not, because the sea kept raging against them. ¹⁴ So they cried to Adonai and said, “Please, Adonai, don’t let us perish on account of the soul of this man and don’t put innocent blood on us. For you, Adonai, have done as you pleased.”

¹⁵ So they picked up Jonah and threw him into the sea—and the sea stilled from its raging. ¹⁶ Then the men became afraid with an overwhelming fear of Adonai, and they offered a sacrifice to Adonai and made vows.

2 Now Adonai prepared a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.^[cp][cq]

Jonah’s Prayer of Distress

² Then Jonah prayed to Adonai his God from the belly of the fish, ³ saying:

¹¹ Then Adonai spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto the dry land.

Nineveh Repents

3 Now the word of Adonai came to Jonah a second time, saying, ² “Rise and go to Nineveh, the great city, and cry out to it the proclamation that I am telling you.”

³ So Jonah rose and went to Nineveh according to the word of Adonai. Now Nineveh was a great city to God—the length of a three day journey. ⁴ So Jonah began to come into the city for one day’s journey, and he cried out saying: “Another forty days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”

⁵ Then the people of Nineveh believed God and called for a fast and wore sackcloth—from the greatest of them to the least of them. ⁶ When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he rose from his throne, took off his robe, covered himself in sackcloth, and sat in the ashes. ⁷ He made a proclamation saying:

“In Nineveh, by the decree of the king and his nobles, no man or beast, herd or flock, may taste anything. They must not graze nor drink water. ⁸ But cover man and beast with sackcloth. Let them cry out to God with urgency. Let each one turn from his evil way and from the violence in his hands. ⁹ Who knows? God may turn and relent, and turn back from his burning anger, so that we may not perish.”

¹⁰ When God saw their deeds—that they turned from their wicked ways—God relented from the calamity that He said He would do to them, and did not do it.

Jonah’s Displeasure at God’s Mercy

4 But it greatly displeased Jonah and he resented it. ² So he prayed to Adonai and said, “Please, Lord, was not this what I said when I was still in my own country? That’s what I anticipated, fleeing to Tarshish—for I knew that you are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and full of kindness, and relenting over calamity. ³ So please, Adonai, take my soul from me—because better is my death than my life.”

⁴ Yet Adonai said, “Is it good for you to be so angry?”

⁵ So Jonah went out from the city and sat east of the city. There He made a sukkah and he sat under it, in the shade, until he saw what would happen in the city. ⁶ Then Adonai God prepared a plant and it grew up over Jonah, to give shade over his head to spare him from his discomfort. So Jonah was very happy about the plant. ⁷ But God at dawn the next day prepared a worm that crippled the plant and it withered away. ⁸ When the sun rose, God prepared a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on Jonah’s head so that he became faint. So he implored that his soul would die, saying, “My death would be better than my life!”

⁹ Then God said to Jonah, “Is it good for you to be so angry about the plant?”

“It is,” he said, “I am angry enough to die!”

¹⁰ But Adonai said, “You have pity on the plant for which you did no labor or make it grow, that appeared overnight and perished overnight. So shouldn’t I have pity on Nineveh—the great city that has in it more than 120,000 people who don’t know their right hand from their left—as well as many animals?”

1 The word of Adonai that came to Micah the Morashtite in the days of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah—visions he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.

Smashing Idols in the High Places

Covetous Schemers

Unjust Leaders, False Prophets

3 Then I said:

Torah Will Go Forth From Zion

Eternal Ruler from Bethlehem

The Remnant of Jacob

Adonai Pleads His Case

6 Hear what Adonai is saying:

What Is Adonai Seeking From You?

None Upright Among Mankind

Zion’s Vindication

He Will Again Have Compassion

Judgment of Nineveh

1 The oracle^[de] concerning Nineveh—the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

Devastation of Nineveh

City of Corpses

The Harlot Humiliated

Burden for Justice in Judah

1 The oracle^[dm] that Habakkuk the prophet saw.

Adonai’s Answer: Chaldeans

Appeal for Justice on Chaldea

Vision for an Appointed Time

Trust, Judgment and Glory

Habakkuk’s Confidence in Adonai

For the choir director: On my stringed instruments.

Hand of Judgment Upon Idolaters

1 The word of Adonai that came to Zephaniah son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah, in the days of Josiah son of Amon, king of Judah:

The Day Is At Hand

Judgment of Nearby Nations

Downfall of Disobedient Jerusalem

The Future Restoration of Israel’s Remnant

A Call to Build the House of Adonai

1 In the second year of King Darius, in the sixth month, on the first day of the month, the word of Adonai came through Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah^[ed], and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, kohen gadol^[ee]: ² “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: ‘This people say the time has not come—the time for the House of Adonai to be rebuilt.’”

³ Then the word of Adonai came through Haggai the prophet: ⁴ “Is it a time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, while this House lies in ruins? ⁵ But now,” thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot:

⁷ Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “Set your heart on your ways! ⁸ Go up to the hills, bring wood and build the House. Then I will delight in it and I will be glorified,” says Adonai. ⁹ “You have looked for much, but indeed, there is little. What you have brought home, I have blown away. Why is this?”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—“because My House lies in ruins, while you are running, each to his own house. ¹⁰ Therefore, because of you, the sky has withheld dew and the earth has withheld its yield. ¹¹ For I have called for drought on the land, the hills and the grain, on the new wine, the oil, on what the ground brings forth, on mankind and beast, as well as all labor of hands.”

¹² Then Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel and Joshua son of Jehozadak, kohen gadol, and all the remnant of the people, heeded the voice of Adonai their God and the words of Haggai the prophet, since Adonai their God had sent him. So the people revered Adonai. ¹³ Then Haggai, the messenger of Adonai, spoke to the people with the message of Adonai, “I am with you!”—it is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁴ Then Adonai stirred the spirit of Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua son of Jehozadak, kohen gadol, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people, and they came and did work on the House of Adonai-Tzva’ot their God, ¹⁵ on the twenty-fourth day of the sixth month, in the second year of King Darius.

Glory of this Latter House

2 On the twenty-first day of the seventh month, the word of Adonai came through Haggai the prophet: ² Speak now to Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua son of Jehozadak, kohen gadol, and to the remnant of the people: ³ “Who remains among you who saw this House in its former glory? So how do you see it now? Does it not seem as nothing in comparison in your eyes? ⁴ But now, Zerubbabel, chazak!”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“and be strong, Joshua son of Jehozadak, kohen gadol, and all people of the land, chazak!”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“and work! For I am with you!”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁵ “According to the word I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt. My Ruach is standing in your midst. Do not fear!”

⁶ For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: “In just a little while I will shake the heavens and the earth, the sea and the dry land, ^{[ef] 7} and I will shake all the nations. The treasures of all the nations will come, and I will fill this House with glory,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁸ “The silver is mine and the gold is mine!”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁹ “The glory of this latter House will be greater than the former,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “In this place, I will grant shalom”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.

Adonai’s Promise to Zerubbabel

¹⁰ On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Adonai came to Haggai the prophet, ¹¹ “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: ‘Ask now the kohanim for a ruling. ¹² If a person carries consecrated meat in the corner of his garment, and with his corner he touches bread, stew, wine, oil or any food, will it become holy too?’”

Then the kohanim answered and said, “No.”

¹³ So Haggai said, “If one who is unclean by contact with a corpse touches any of these, does it become unclean?”

The kohanim answered and said, “It does become unclean.”

¹⁴ Then, Haggai answered and said, “So it is with this people. So is this nation before Me”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“and so is every work of their hands. What they were offering there was unclean. ¹⁵ But now, set your heart back from this day onward. Before stone was set upon stone in the Temple of Adonai, ¹⁶ how were things? When one came to a grain-heap of twenty measures, there were ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw fifty measures, there were twenty. ¹⁷ I struck you with blight and with mildew and with hail—every work of your hands—so you were nothing to Me”—it is a declaration of Adonai. ¹⁸ “Now, set your heart back from this day on—from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month. Since the day the Temple of Adonai was founded, set your heart: ¹⁹ Is there still seed in the storehouse? Also the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate and the olive tree—are they still bearing fruit? From this day on I am going to bless you.”

²⁰ Then the word of Adonai came a second time to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, ²¹ “Say to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah: ‘I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, ²² and I will overturn the throne of kingdoms and destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overturn the chariot and its rider, so horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.

²³ “On that day’”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—‘I will take you, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, my servant’—it is a declaration of Adonai—“‘and I will set you like a signet ring. For I have chosen you.’” It is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.

Return to the Lord

1 In the eighth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of Adonai came to the prophet Zechariah^[eg], son of Berechiah son of Iddo, saying:

² “Adonai has been furious with your fathers. ³ Therefore tell them, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, ‘Return to Me’^[eh]—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—‘and I will return to you,’ says Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁴ Do not be like your fathers to whom the former prophets cried out saying, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, ‘Turn back now from your evil ways and from your evil deeds.’ But they did not listen or pay attention to Me.’ It is a declaration of Adonai.

⁵ “Your fathers, where are they? And the prophets, do they live forever? ⁶ But My words and My decrees, which I commanded My servants the prophets—did they not overtake your fathers? Then they repented and said ‘As He determined, Adonai-Tzva’ot has dealt with us according to our ways and our deeds.’”

Among the Myrtle Trees

⁷ On the twenty-fourth day of the eleventh month, which is the month Shevat, in the second year of Darius, the word of Adonai came to the prophet Zechariah son of Berechiah, son of Iddo, saying: ⁸ “In the night I saw, and behold, a man riding upon a red horse was standing among the myrtle trees that were in the ravine. Behind him were red, sorrel and white horses.^[ei]

⁹ Then I asked, ‘What are these, my lord?’

Now the angel speaking with me said to me, ‘I will show you what these are.’

¹⁰ Then the man standing among the myrtle trees answered and said, ‘These are the ones Adonai has sent to walk back and forth throughout the earth.’

¹¹ They answered the angel of Adonai who stood among the myrtle trees saying, ‘We have walked throughout the earth, and behold, all the earth sits quietly and is still.’

¹² Then the angel of Adonai answered and said, ‘Adonai-Tzva’ot, how long will You withhold compassion on Jerusalem and on the cities of Judah with whom You have been angry for 70 years?’ ¹³ Adonai answered the angel who was speaking to me with pleasant, comforting words.

¹⁴ Then the angel speaking to me said, ‘Cry out saying, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “I am exceedingly zealous for Jerusalem and for Zion ¹⁵ and I am infuriated with the haughty nations. I was a little angry with them, but they furthered their own calamity.”

¹⁶ “Therefore,” thus says Adonai, “I will return to Jerusalem with compassion. My House will be built there,” declares Adonai-Tzva’ot “and a measuring line will be stretched out over Jerusalem.” ¹⁷ Again cry out, saying, thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “My cities will again overflow with prosperity and Adonai will again comfort Zion and will again choose Jerusalem.’”^[ej]

Four Horns and Four Craftsmen

2 Then I lifted up my eyes and behold, I saw four horns! ² I said to the angel speaking with me, ‘What are these?’

He said to me, ‘These are the horns that have scattered Judah, Israel and Jerusalem.’

³ Then Adonai showed me four craftsmen. ⁴ I asked, ‘What are these coming to do?’

He answered, ‘These are the horns that scattered Judah, so that no one could raise his head, but the craftsmen have come to frighten them, to cast down the horns of the nations that have lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it.’

Measuring Jerusalem

⁵ I lifted up my eyes—and behold, I saw a man with a measuring line in his hand. ^{[ek] 6} I asked, ‘Where are you going?’

He answered me, ‘To measure Jerusalem to see how wide and how long it is.’^[el]

⁷ Then behold, the angel speaking with me left and another angel went out to meet him, ⁸ saying to him, ‘Run, speak to this young man saying: “Jerusalem will be inhabited as a village without walls because of the great number of men and livestock in it. ⁹ For I”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“will be a wall of fire around it and I will be the glory inside it. ¹⁰ Oy, oy! Flee from the land of the north”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“because I scattered you like the four winds of heaven”—it is a declaration of Adonai. ¹¹ “Oy, Zion! Escape, you who are living with the daughter of Babylon.”

¹² “For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, He has sent me after glory to the nations that plundered you—because whoever touches you touches the apple of His eye— ¹³ ‘For behold, I will shake My hand against them and they will be plunder to their servants.’ Then you will know that Adonai-Tzva’ot has sent me.

¹⁴ “‘Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion! For behold, I am coming and I will live among you’^[em]—it is a declaration of Adonai. ¹⁵ ‘In that day many nations will join themselves to Adonai and they will be My people and I will dwell among you.’ Then you will know that Adonai-Tzva’ot has sent me to you. ¹⁶ Adonai will inherit Judah as His portion in the holy land and will once again choose Jerusalem. ¹⁷ Be silent before Adonai, all flesh, for He has aroused Himself from His holy dwelling.”

Joshua the Kohen Gadol

3 Then he showed me Joshua the kohen gadol standing before the angel of Adonai and the satan^[en], standing at his right hand to accuse him. ^{[eo] 2} Adonai said to the satan, ‘Adonai rebukes you, the satan. Indeed Adonai, who has chosen Jerusalem, rebukes you.^[ep] Is not this man a brand plucked out of the fire?’

³ Now Joshua was wearing filthy garments and standing before the angel ⁴ who answered and spoke to those standing before him saying, ‘Remove the filthy garments from him.’ Then to Joshua he said, ‘See, I have removed your iniquity from you and will dress you with fine clothing.’^[eq]

⁵ Then I said, ‘Place a clean turban on his head.’

So they put a pure turban on his head and clothed him with garments while the angel of Adonai stood by.

⁶ The angel of Adonai exhorted Joshua saying:

⁷ ‘Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “If you will walk in My ways and keep My charge, then you will judge My House and watch over My courts and I will give you a place to walk among these standing here. ⁸ Listen well, Joshua kohen gadol, both you and your companions seated before you, because they are men who are a sign—behold, I will bring forth My servant the Branch. ⁹ For behold! The stone I have laid before Joshua is one stone with seven facets. On it I will engrave an inscription,” declares Adonai-Tzva’ot, “that I will remove the iniquity of this land in one day. ¹⁰ In that day,” declares Adonai-Tzva’ot, “every man will invite his neighbor to sit under the vine and under the fig tree.’”

Two Olive Trees and the Capstone

4 Then the angel who had been speaking with me returned and woke me—like a man who is wakened from his sleep.

² He asked me, ‘What do you see?’

I replied, ‘Behold, I see a solid gold menorah with its bowl at the top of it, and its seven lamps on it with seven pipes for the lamps that are on the top of it. ³ Also two olive trees are by it, one on the right side of the bowl and the other on the left side of it.’^[er]

⁴ Then I responded by saying to the angel speaking with me, ‘What are these, my lord?’

⁵ The angel who spoke with me responded by asking me, ‘You do not know what these are?’

I replied, ‘No, my lord.’

⁶ Then he responded to me by saying, ‘This is the word of Adonai to Zerubbabel saying: “Not by might, nor by power, but by My Ruach!” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁷ “What are you, great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you will become a plain. He will bring out the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace” to it.’”

⁸ Again the word of Adonai came to me saying: ⁹ “The hands of Zerubbabel have laid the foundation of this House. His hands will also finish it. Then you will know that Adonai-Tzva’ot has sent me to you. ¹⁰ For who despises the day of small things? These seven—which are the eyes of Adonai that run back and forth throughout the whole earth—will rejoice when they see the plumb line in Zerubbabel’s hand.”

¹¹ Then I responded by asking him, “What are these two olive trees, on the right and on the left of the menorah?” ¹² Again I asked him, “What are these two olive branches beside the two golden pipes that empty the golden oil out of them?”

¹³ He said to me, “You do not know what these are?”

I said, “No, my lord.”

¹⁴ So he said, “These are the two anointed ones, who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.”

Flying Scroll and Basket

5 Once again I lifted up my eyes and behold, I saw a flying scroll!

² Then the angel asked me, “What do you see?”

I replied, “I see a flying scroll twenty cubits long and ten cubits wide.”

³ He said to me: “This is the curse that goes out over the face of the whole land: everyone who steals will be swept away from here according to it, and everyone who swears will be swept away from here according to it.” ⁴ “I will send it out”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—“and it will enter into the house of the thief and into the house of the one who swears falsely by My Name and will reside inside his house destroying it, both its wood and its stones.”

⁵ Then the angel speaking with me came forward, and said to me, “Now lift up your eyes and see what is appearing.”

⁶ I asked, “What is it?”

He replied, “This is the measuring basket^[es] that goes out.” He continued, “This is their eye in all the land.” ⁷ Then behold, a lead cover was lifted and a woman was sitting in the middle of the measuring basket. ⁸ The angel exclaimed, ‘This is Wickedness!’ Then he shoved her back inside the measuring basket, throwing the lead weight over its mouth.

⁹ After this I lifted up my eyes and behold, I saw two women emerging with the wind in their wings (they had wings like the wings of a stork) and they raised the measuring basket between the earth and the heaven.

¹⁰ I asked the angel who was speaking with me, “Where are they taking the measuring basket?”

¹¹ He said, “To build a temple for her in the land of Shinar. When it is prepared, she will live there in her own place.”

Four Chariots

6 Again I lifted up my eyes, and behold, I saw four chariots emerging from between the two mountains—mountains of bronze! ² The first chariot had red horses, the second chariot black horses, ³ the third chariot white horses and the fourth chariot had strong dapple horses.^[et]

⁴ Then I responded by saying to the angel speaking with me, “What are these, my lord?”

⁵ The angel answered me saying, “These are the four winds of heaven that go forth from the presence of the Lord of all the earth. ^{[eu] 6} The chariot with the black horses is going to the land of the north and the white ones have gone out after them, but the dappled ones have gone out to the land of the south.” ⁷ When the strong ones went out, they requested to go to walk throughout the earth. He said, “Go! Walk throughout the earth.” So they walked throughout the earth.”

⁸ Then he called and spoke to me saying, ‘Look! Those going toward the land of the north have given rest to My Ruach in the north country.’

Crowns for Joshua

⁹ And the word of Adonai came to me saying: ¹⁰ ‘Take from the exiles, from Heldai, Tobijah, and Jedaiah who have come from Babylon, and go the same day, go to the house of Josiah son of Zephaniah! ¹¹ Take silver and gold, make crowns and set on the head of Joshua son of Johozadak, the kohen gadol. ¹² Then speak to him saying, “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: Behold, a man whose Name is the Branch will branch out from his place and build the Temple of Adonai. ¹³ He will build the Temple of Adonai. He will bear splendor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus He will be a kohen on His throne. So a counsel of shalom will be between them both. ¹⁴ The crowns will be in the Temple of Adonai as a memorial to Helem, Tobijah and Jedaiah, and to Chen son of Zephaniah. ¹⁵ Those who are far off will come and build in the Temple of Adonai.” Then you will know that Adonai-Tzva’ot has sent me to you. It will come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of Adonai your God.”

Justice and Chesed

7 In the fourth year of King Darius, the word of Adonai came to Zechariah on the fourth day of the ninth month, in Kislev. ² Now Bethel sent Sarezer and Regem-melech together with his men to seek the favor of Adonai, ³ and to speak to the kohanim of the House of Adonai-Tzva’ot and to the prophets saying, “Should I mourn and consecrate myself in the fifth month as I have done for so many years?”

⁴ Then the word of Adonai-Tzva’ot came to me saying: ⁵ “Speak to all the people of the land and to the kohanim saying, ‘When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and in the seventh months for the past seventy years, did you really fast for Me? ⁶ When you eat and drink, are you not eating and drinking for yourself? ⁷ Are not these the words that Adonai proclaimed through the former prophets when Jerusalem with its surrounding cities were inhabited and prosperous, when the Negev and the lowland were inhabited?’”

⁸ Again the word of Adonai came to Zechariah saying, ⁹ “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot: ‘Administer true judgment and practice mercy and compassion each to his brother. ¹⁰ Do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the outsider or the poor. Furthermore, do not let any of you devise evil against one another in your heart.’

¹¹ “But they refused to pay attention. They stubbornly turned their backs and stopped their ears from hearing. ¹² Indeed, they made their hearts as hard as flint preventing them from hearing the Torah or the words that Adonai-Tzva’ot sent by His Ruach through the former prophets. Consequently, great wrath came from Adonai-Tzva’ot. ¹³ It came about that just as He called and they did not listen, so they would call and I would not listen,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. ¹⁴ ‘I scattered them with a whirlwind among all the nations they have not known. Thus the land was left so desolate behind them that no one passed through or returned, for they made the pleasant land desolate.’”

Zealous for Zion

8 Then the word of Adonai-Tzva’ot came saying: ² “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “I am exceedingly zealous for Zion, I am burning with jealousy for her.” ³ Thus says Adonai, “I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the City of Truth and the mountain of Adonai-Tzva’ot will be called the Holy Mountain.” ⁴ Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “Once again old men and old women will sit in the streets of Jerusalem, each with his staff in his hand because of his age. ⁵ The streets of the city will be full of boys and girls playing in its streets.”

⁶ “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, ‘It may seem difficult in the eyes of the remnant of this people in those days, but will it also be difficult in My eyes?’—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot. ⁷ “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, ‘Behold, I will save My people from the land of the east and from the land of the west. ⁸ I will bring them back and they will live in the midst of Jerusalem. They will be My people and I will be their God, in truth and righteousness.’ ^{[ev] 9} “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, ‘Let your hands be strong—you who hear these words spoken by the prophets who were there the day the foundation of the House of Adonai-Tzva’ot was laid—so that the Temple may be rebuilt. ¹⁰ Before those days there were no wages for man or animal, nor was there any shalom from adversity for those who came or went because I set every one against his neighbor. ¹¹ But now I will not treat the remnant of this people as in the former days”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot.

¹² “For there will be a sowing of shalom: the vine will yield its fruit, the ground will produce its increase, and the heavens will give their dew. I will cause the remnant of this people to inherit all these things. ¹³ It will happen that just as you were a curse among the nations, house of Judah and house of Israel, so will I save you and you will be a blessing. Fear not! Let your hands be strong!’

¹⁴ For thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “Just as I determined to harm you when your fathers provoked Me to anger,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, ‘and I did not relent, ¹⁵ so I have again determined in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Fear not! ¹⁶ These are the things that you are to do: speak the truth one to another; administer the judgment of truth and shalom in your gates; ^{[ew] 17} do not let any of you devise evil in your hearts against your neighbor; and do not love false oaths, for I hate all these things,”—it is a declaration of Adonai.

¹⁸ Again the word of Adonai-Tzva’ot came saying: ¹⁹ “Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “The fast of the fourth, the fast of the fifth, the fast of the seventh and the fast of the tenth month will become joy, gladness and cheerful moadim. Therefore, love truth and shalom!’ ²⁰ Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “Peoples and the inhabitants of many cities will again come. ²¹ The inhabitants of one city will go to another saying ‘Let us go to entreat the favor of Adonai and to seek Adonai-Tzva’ot. I also am going.’ ²² Indeed, many peoples and powerful nations will come to seek Adonai-Tzva’ot in Jerusalem, and to entreat the favor of Adonai.” ²³ Thus says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “In those days it will come to pass that ten men from every language of the nations will grasp the corner of the garment of a Jew saying, ‘Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.’”

Judgment on Israel’s Enemies

Zion’s Coming King

Good Shepherd Cares for Judah

Devastation of Surrounding Lands

Two Staffs

⁴ Thus said Adonai my God: “Shepherd the flock marked for slaughter! ⁵ Their buyers slay them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Adonai, for I am rich!’ Their own shepherds do not spare them. ⁶ I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of the land”—it is a declaration of Adonai. “Behold, I will hand everyone over to his neighbor and his king. They will devastate the land, and I will not deliver them from their hand.”

⁷ So I pastured the flock for the slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took two staffs—one I called Favor and the other I called Union—and I pastured the flock. ⁸ Next I disposed of the three shepherds in one month—for my soul was impatient with them and their soul also detested me. ⁹ Then I said, “I will not shepherd you! Let the dying die, let the perishing perish, and let those who are left eat one another’s flesh!” ¹⁰ So I took my staff called Favor and broke it to pieces, in order to break my covenant that I made with all people. ¹¹ It was broken on that day. The afflicted of the flock that were watching me knew that this was the word of Adonai.”

¹² Then I said to them, “If it seems good to you, pay me my wages, but if not, don’t bother!” So they weighed out my wages—30 pieces of silver.^[fe]

¹³ Then Adonai said to me, “Throw it to the potter—that exorbitant price at which they valued Me!” So I took the 30 pieces of silver and threw them into the House of Adonai, to the potter.^[ff]

¹⁴ Then I broke my second staff called Union, in order to break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. ¹⁵ Again Adonai said to me, “Once more take up the equipment of a foolish shepherd! ¹⁶ For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the dying, seek out the young or heal the injured or nourish the healthy. Instead he will eat the meat of the choice sheep, even tearing off their hoofs.”

Jerusalem, a Cup of Reeling

12 The burden of the word of Adonai concerning Israel.

A declaration of Adonai, who stretched out the heavens, laid the foundation of the earth and formed the spirit of man within him: ² “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples when they besiege Jerusalem as well as Judah. ³ Moreover, in that day I will make Jerusalem a massive stone for all the people. All who try to lift it will be cut to pieces. Nevertheless, all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against her. ⁴ In that day”—it is a declaration of Adonai—“I will strike every horse with confusion and its rider with madness. I will keep My eyes on the house of Judah but will blind every horse of the peoples. ⁵ Then the leaders of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength through Adonai-Tzva’ot their God.”

⁶ “In that day I will make the leaders of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a burning torch among sheaves. They will devour on the right and on the left all the surrounding peoples, yet Jerusalem will remain in her place, in Jerusalem. ⁷ Adonai also will save the tents of Judah first, so that the honor of the house of David and the honor of the inhabitants of Jerusalem will not exceed that of Judah. ⁸ In that day Adonai will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem so that the weakest among them that day will be like David and the house of David will be like God—like the angel of Adonai before them. ⁹ It will happen in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.

Mourning the Pierced One

¹⁰ “Then I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication, when they will look toward Me whom they pierced.^[fh] They will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son and grieve bitterly for him, as one grieves for a firstborn. ¹¹ In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, mourning like Hadad-rimmon in the valley of Megiddo. ¹² The land will mourn clan by clan. The clan of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves, the clan of the house of Nathan by itself, and their wives by themselves, ¹³ the clan of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves, the clan of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves. ¹⁴ Each of the remaining clans will mourn by itself and their wives by themselves.”

Final Cleansing from Sin

13 “In that day a spring will be opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ^{[fi] 2} It will happen in that day”—it is a declaration of Adonai-Tzva’ot—“that I will erase the names of the idols from the land and they will no longer be remembered. Furthermore, I will remove the prophets and the unclean spirit from the land. ³ If anyone still prophesies his father and his mother to whom he was born will say to him, ‘You cannot live because you tell lies in the Name of Adonai.’ When he prophesies, his own father and mother, the ones who bore him, will pierce him through. ⁴ Therefore in that day each ‘prophet’ will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. He will no longer wear a hairy mantle in order to deceive ⁵ but will say, ‘I am not a prophet. I am a farmer—I have been a bondservant from my youth.’ ⁶ Then someone will ask him, “What are these wounds between your hands?”—and he will answer, “Those that I received in the house of my friends.”

Coming to the Mount of Olives

14 Behold, a day of Adonai is coming when your plunder will be divided in your midst. ² I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem to wage war. The city shall be captured, the houses ransacked and the women ravished. Half of the city will be exiled but the remainder of the people will not be cut off from the city. ³ Then Adonai will go forth and fight against those nations as He fights in a day of battle. ⁴ In that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives which lies to the east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a huge valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north and half of it toward the south. ⁵ Then you will flee through My mountain valley because the mountain valley will reach to Azel. Yes, you will flee like you fled from the earthquake in the days of King Uzziah of Judah. Then Adonai my God will come and all the kedoshim with Him.^[fl]

⁶ In that day there will be no light, cold or frost. ⁷ It will be a day known only to Adonai, neither day nor night—even in the evening time there will be light. ^{[fm] 8} Moreover, in that day living waters will flow from Jerusalem, half toward the eastern sea and half toward the western sea, both in the summer and in the winter. ^{[fn] 9} Adonai will then be King over all the earth. In that day Adonai will be Echad and His Name Echad.^[fo]

¹⁰ The whole land, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem, will become like the Arabah. Jerusalem will be raised up and occupy her place, from the Benjamin Gate to the place of the First Gate, to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the king’s winepresses. ¹¹ People will dwell in her, and no longer will there be a ban of destruction—Jerusalem will live in security.

¹² Now this is the plague with which Adonai will strike all the peoples that wage war against Jerusalem: their flesh will rot while they are standing on their feet; their eyes will rot in their sockets; and their tongues will rot in their mouths. ¹³ It will happen in that day that a great panic from Adonai will be among them. Each person will seize the hand of his neighbor and they will attack each other. ¹⁴ Even Judah will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding peoples will be gathered together—an abundance of gold, silver and apparel. ¹⁵ A similar plague will strike the horse, the mule, the camel, the donkey and all the animals in that camp.

¹⁶ Then all the survivors from all the nations that attacked Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot, and to celebrate Sukkot. ¹⁷ Furthermore, if any of the nations on earth do not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, Adonai-Tzva’ot, they will have no rain. ¹⁸ If the Egyptians do not go up and celebrate, they will have no rain. Instead, there will be the plague that Adonai will inflict on the nations that do not go up to celebrate Sukkot. ¹⁹ This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate Sukkot. ²⁰ In that day “Holy to Adonai” will be inscribed on the bells of the horses and the pots in House of Adonai will be like the sacred bowls in front of the altar. ²¹ In fact every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be Holy to Adonai-Tzva’ot, so that everyone who comes to sacrifice will take them, and cook in them. In that day there will no longer be a Canaanite^[fp] in the House of Adonai-Tzva’ot.^[fq]

Jacob Loved Adonai

1 An oracle^[fr]: The word of Adonai to Israel by Malachi^[fs].

Despicable Sacrifices

⁶ “A son honors his father, and a servant his master. So if I am Father, where is My honor? If I am Master, where is My reverence?”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“you, kohanim who despise My Name!”

But you say, “How did we despise Your Name?”

⁷ “By offering defiled bread on My altar.” But you say, “How did we defile You?” When you say, “The table of Adonai is despicable.”

⁸ “When you bring a blind one as sacrifice, is it not wrong? Or when you bring a lame or sick one, is it not wrong? Offer them now to your governor! Would he be pleased with you? Or will he acknowledge you favorably?” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

⁹ “So now, implore God’s favor! Then, will He be gracious to us? Since this has come from your hands, will He accept any of it from you?” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

¹⁰ “If just one of you would shut the doors, and not light My altar uselessly! I have no delight in you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “Nor will I accept any offering from your hand.

¹¹ “For from sunrise to its setting^[ft] My Name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to My Name with a pure grain offering, for My Name will be great among the nations,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

¹² But you are profaning it when you say, “The table of Adonai is defiled, and as for its fruit, its food—despicable!” ¹³ You also say, “It’s so tedious!”

“And you sniff at it,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot. “So you bring plunder, the lame and the sick. Then you bring them as the offering. Should I accept this from your hand?” says Adonai.

¹⁴ “Moreover, cursed is a deceiver who has in his flock a male, but makes a vow and sacrifices something blemished to my Lord. For I am a great King,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot, “and My Name shall be revered among the nations.”

Warning to the Kohanim and Levites

Covenant With Your Wife

¹⁷ You wearied Adonai with your words.

Yet you say: “How did we weary Him?”

When you say: “Everyone doing evil is good in the sight of Adonai, and He delights in them.” Or, “Where is the God of justice?”

My Messenger is Coming

Bring the Whole Tithe

⁷ “From the days of your ancestors you have turned aside from My statutes, and have not kept them. Return to Me, and I will return to you,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

Yet you say: “How should we return?”

⁸ “Will a man rob^[fz] God? For you are robbing Me!”

But you say: “How have we robbed You?”

“In the tithe and the offering. ⁹ You have been cursed with the curse, yet you keep robbing Me—the whole nation! ¹⁰ Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse. Then there will be food in My House. Now test Me in this”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“if I will not open for you the windows of heaven, and pour out blessing for you, until no one is without enough. ¹¹ I will rebuke the devouring pest for you, so it will not destroy the fruit of your land, nor will your vine be barren in the field,” Adonai-Tzva’ot says. ¹² “All the nations will call you blessed. For you will be a land of delight,” says Adonai-Tzva’ot.

¹³ “Your words against Me are grievous,” says Adonai.

Yet you say: “What did we say against You?”

¹⁴ You say: “Serving God is worthless.” Also: “What good is it that we kept His service or that we walked as mourners before Adonai-Tzva’ot? ¹⁵ So now we are calling the proud blessed. Those who practice iniquity are built up. Indeed, they have tested God, and escaped!”

¹⁶ Then those who revere Adonai spoke with each other, and Adonai took notice and heard, and a scroll of remembrance^[ga] was written before Him, for those who revere Adonai, even those who esteem His Name.

¹⁷ “So they shall be Mine,”—says Adonai-Tzva’ot—“in the day I make My own special possession. So I will spare them, as one spares his son serving him. ¹⁸ Then you will return and distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him.”

The Day Is Coming

²² “Remember the Torah of Moses My servant, whom I commanded at Horeb—statutes and ordinances for all Israel.

²³ “Behold, I am going to send you Elijah the prophet^[gc], before the coming of the great and terrible day of Adonai. ²⁴ He will turn the hearts of fathers to the children, and the hearts of children to their fathers—else I will come and strike the land with utter destruction.”

Torah Is a Tree of Wisdom

Psalm 1

Coronation of Messianic King

Psalm 2

Magen David

Psalm 3

Prayer for Sleep in Shalom

Psalm 4

Morning Prayer for Justice

Psalm 5

Prayer for Mercy

Psalm 6

Adonai Magen

Psalm 7

Humanity is God’s Splendor

Psalm 8

Our Righteous Judge

Psalm 9

Freedom from Terror

Psalm 10

Judgment from Heaven

Psalm 11

Silence the Flattering Lips

Psalm 12

Trust in His Chesed

Psalm 13

There Is No God?

Psalm 14

Walking with Integrity

Psalm 15

The Path of Eternal Life

Psalm 16

A Plea for Vindication

Psalm 17

Adonai lives! Blessed Be My Rock

Psalm 18

Glory from Heaven and Torah

Psalm 19

Adonai-Nissi

Psalm 20

The Victorious King

Psalm 21

Suffering Servant

Psalm 22

Adonai-Ro-eh

Psalm 23

The King of Glory

Psalm 24

Teach Me Your Paths

Psalm 25

Walking with Integrity

Psalm 26

Let Your Heart Take Courage

Psalm 27

Hoshia-na!

Psalm 28

God Thunders Throughout Creation

Psalm 29

Joy Comes in the Morning

Psalm 30

Refuge, Sukkah, Shelter

Psalm 31

Confess, Return and Learn

Psalm 32

All Creation Praise the Creator

Psalm 33

Taste and See

Psalm 34

Justice for the Oppressed

Psalm 35

With God Is the Fountain of Life

Psalm 36

Inheritance of the Kedoshim

Psalm 37

A Burden Too Heavy for Me

Psalm 38

Make Me Know the Number of My Days

Psalm 39

Written About Me in the Scroll

Psalm 40

Even My Close Friend

Psalm 41

My Soul Thirsts for God

Psalm 42

Send Forth Your Light

Psalm 43

Arise, O God of Our Fathers

Psalm 44

A Royal Wedding Song

Psalm 45

He Makes Wars Cease

Psalm 46

In Celebration of God’s Reign

Psalm 47

Consider Zion’s Towers

Psalm 48

Rich and Poor Alike

Psalm 49

A Sacrifice of Thanks

Psalm 50

Create in Me a Clean Heart

Psalm 51

Treacherous Tongue!

Psalm 52

A Fool Denies God

Psalm 53

Surely God is My Helper

Psalm 54

Betrayal by a Friend

Psalm 55

In God I Trust

Psalm 56

Be Exalted Over All the Earth

Psalm 57

God Really Judges

Psalm 58

God Is My Strong Tower

Psalm 59

Song of Victory Over Edom

Psalm 60

Lead Me to the Rock

Psalm 61

My Rock and My Salvation

Psalm 62

You Are My God

Psalm 63

Protect Me from Conspiracies

Psalm 64

Praise is Awaitng You in Zion

Psalm 65

How Awesome Your Deeds

Psalm 66

Let All Peoples Praise You

Psalm 67

Triumphal Procession up to the Temple

Psalm 68

Scorn and Disgrace, Gall and Vinegar

Psalm 69

My Help and My Deliverer

Psalm 70

My Hope When I Am Gray

Psalm 71

A Powerful King for the Poor

Psalm 72

²⁰ The prayers of David son of Jesse are complete.

God Is the Strength of My Heart

Psalm 73

Intercession for Restoration of Zion

Psalm 74

He Lowers One and Lifts Another

Psalm 75

Who Can Stand in Your Presence?

Psalm 76

Remember the Wonders

Psalm 77

Israel from Moses to David

Psalm 78

A Lament Over Jerusalem

Psalm 79

Restore Us, Revive Us

Psalm 80

Hear O Israel

Psalm 81

A Rebuke for Unjust Judges

Psalm 82

Nations Conspire Against Israel

Psalm 83

Pilgrim Road to Adonai’s Courts

Psalm 84

Restore Your People from Captivity

Psalm 85

Slow to Anger, Full of Chesed

Psalm 86

This One Was Born in Zion

Psalm 87

Cry of Desperation

Psalm 88

Covenant with David’s Seed

Psalm 89

Get a Heart of Wisdom

Psalm 90

Dwell in the Shelter of Elyon

Psalm 91

It Is Good to Praise

Psalm 92

Majestic and Unshakable

Psalm 93

He Will Not Abandon His People

Psalm 94

Today, Hear His Voice

Psalm 95

Sing a New Song

Psalm 96

Exalted Above All Gods

Psalm 97

Creation Rejoices in His Salvation

Psalm 98

Worship at His Holy Hill

Psalm 99

Enter His Gates with Thanksgiving

Psalm 100

Pledge of Integrity

Psalm 101

Prayer in Affliction

Psalm 102

As a Father Has Compassion

Psalm 103

Adonai Rejoices in His Works!

Psalm 104

Tell His Wonders for Israel

Psalm 105

Adonai Still Faithful to Israel

Psalm 106

His Chesed and His Wonders

Psalm 107

With God We Do Valiantly

Psalm 108

Prayer Against an Accuser

Psalm 109

My Lord is a Kohen Forever

Psalm 110

The Beginning of Wisdom

Psalm 111

Blessed is the Righteous Man

Psalm 112

From the Rising of the Sun

Psalm 113

Passover Song

Psalm 114

Bless the Maker of Heaven and Earth

Psalm 115

Lift Up the Cup of Salvation

Psalm 116

Praise Him, All You Nations

Psalm 117

His Chesed Endures Forever

Psalm 118

Learn Torah Letter by Letter

Psalm 119

ALEPH א

BET ב

GIMEL ג

DALET ד

HEY ה

VAV ו

ZAYIN ז

CHET ח

TET ט

YOD י

KAF כ

LAMED ל

MEM מ

NUN נ

SAMECH ס

AYIN ע

PE פ

TZADHE צ

KOF ק

RESH ר

SHIN ש

TAV ת

I Am for Shalom

Psalm 120

He Watches Over You

Psalm 121

Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem

Psalm 122

Be Gracious to Your Servants

Psalm 123

Had He Not Been on Our Side

Psalm 124

Like the Mountains Around Jerusalem

Psalm 125

Joyful Restoration of Zion

Psalm 126

He Gives Sleep to His Children

Psalm 127

Blessing on Those Who Fear God

Psalm 128

Haters Won’t Prevail

Psalm 129

Forgiveness and Full Redemption

Psalm 130

Be Still My Soul

Psalm 131

Promise of Ben-David

Psalm 132

Blessing of Unity

Psalm 133

Call to Evening Worship

Psalm 134

Jacob as His Treasure

Psalm 135

His Chesed Endures Forever!

Psalm 136

By the Rivers of Babylon

Psalm 137

Your Right Hand Delivers Me

Psalm 138

How Precious Your Thoughts!

Psalm 139

Protection from the Wicked

Psalm 140

Evening Petition for Protection

Psalm 141

A Refuge from Trouble

Psalm 142

Hide Not Your Face from Me

Psalm 143

Rescue from Battle

Psalm 144

Glory of the Kingdom

Psalm 145

Justice of the Kingdom

Psalm 146

He Builds Up Jerusalem

Psalm 147

Praise Him, All Creation!

Psalm 148

Praise with Singing and Dancing

Psalm 149

Praise with Shofar and Cymbals

Psalm 150

The Value of Wise Sayings

1 The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel:

The Wisdom of Parents

Avoid a Bloodthirsty Gang

Wisdom Calls, But Who Listens?

Seek Treasures of Wisdom

In All Your Ways Acknowledge Him

Discipline as the Father’s Love

Precious Pearls, A Tree of Life

A Father’s Lesson: Get Wisdom!

Ways of Wisdom and Wickedness

Beware Seduction

5 My son, pay attention to my wisdom.

Economic Entanglements

Laziness and Perversity

A Father’s Warning Against Adultery

Treasure Torah’s Teaching

Wisdom Appeals at the Gates

Wisdom Before Creation

Wisdom and Folly Invite

Diligence and Laziness

10 The proverbs of Solomon.

Sayings of the Mouth Matter

Dread or Hope

Integrity of Scales and Soul

Righteousness Builds Up a City

Rewards for Righteous or Ruthless

The Righteous and the Wicked

Caring for Animals and Land

Fruit of Mouth

Diligence or Sloth

Guard the Way of Integrity

The Wise and the Foolish

Wisdom Builds Up, Folly Tears Down

Poverty and Riches

Tongue of the Wise

Pursue Righteousness and Reproof

Heart Attitude Matters

Commit Your Heart to Adonai

The Delights of a Just King

Slow to Anger

Beware Bribes and Rebellion

A Fool’s Big Mouth

Overcoming Opposition and Offenses

Better to be Poor with Integrity

Watch Your Temper

Listen to Wise Counsel

Sluggards, Scoffers, and Disgraceful Sons

Loyalty, Integrity, Justice

Adonai’s Lamp Searches

Adonai Weighs the Heart

Violence and Ruin of the Wicked

Advice About Appetites

Wisdom’s Path to the Future

Lingering Long Over Wine

Strength Through Wise Counsel

Counsel on Friendship

Lesson of the Lazy

The Glory of Searching a Matter

25 These also are proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah copied:

A Fitting Reproof is Precious

Proverbs for Daily Life

Folly of Fools

Folly of Slackers

Folly of Lashon Ha-Ra

Do Not Boast

Iron Sharpens Iron

Confidence, Discernment, Integrity

Wisdom About Finances

What is The Name of His Son?

A Filthy, Haughty Generation

Lessons from Creatures

A Mother’s Warning

31 The words of King Lemuel, an oracle that his mother taught him:

A Woman of Valor

Job and His Children

1 There was a man in the land of Uz whose name was Job. Now that man was blameless and upright; he feared God and shunned evil. ² He had seven sons and three daughters ³ and his possessions were 7,000 sheep, 3,000 camels, 500 yoke of oxen and 500 female donkeys, and a very large household. That man was the greatest of all the people of the East.

⁴ Now it was customary for his sons to hold a banquet, each on his own day in his own house. They would send to invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them. ⁵ When the round of banquet days was completed, Job would send for them and consecrate them. He would rise early in the morning and offer burnt offerings, according to the number of them all. For Job said, “Perhaps my children have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did everyday.

The Adversary Tests Job

⁶ One day the sons of God came to present themselves before Adonai, and the satan^[lg] also came with them. ⁷ Adonai said to the satan, “Where have you come from?”

The satan responded to Adonai and said, “From roaming the earth and from walking on it.”^[lh]

⁸ Adonai said to the satan, “Did you notice my servant Job? There is no one like him on the earth—a blameless and upright man, who fears God and spurns evil.”

⁹ Then the satan responded to Adonai, saying, “Does Job fear God for nothing? ¹⁰ Have you not made a hedge around him, his household, and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land. ¹¹ But now, stretch out Your hand and strike everything he has, and he will certainly curse You to Your face!”

¹² Then Adonai said to the satan, “Everything he has is in your hand. Only do not extend your hand against him!” So the satan departed from the presence of Adonai.

¹³ One day when his sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, ¹⁴ a messenger came to Job, saying, “The oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing near them, ¹⁵ when the Sabeans attacked and carried them off. They also killed the servants with the edge of the sword—I alone escaped to tell you!”

¹⁶ While this one was still speaking another came in and said, “The fire of God has fallen from heaven and has burned up the sheep and servants—it has consumed them, and I—I alone—escaped to tell you!”

¹⁷ While this one was still speaking another came in and said, “The Chaldeans formed three bands and raided the camels and took them all away. They also killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I—only I alone—escaped to tell you!”

¹⁸ While this one was still speaking another came in and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine at their oldest brother’s house ¹⁹ when suddenly a mighty wind came from beyond the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house, and it collapsed on the young people and they died. And I—only I alone—escaped to tell you!”

²⁰ Then Job got up, tore his robe, shaved his head, fell to the ground and worshiped. ²¹ Then he said:

²² Through all this, Job did not sin nor did he cast reproach on God.

Affliction of the Body

2 Again the day came when the sons of God came to present themselves before Adonai, and the satan also arrived among them to present himself before Adonai. ² Adonai said to him, “Where are you coming from?”

The satan answered Adonai, “From roaming the earth and from walking on it.”

³ Then Adonai said to the satan, “Have you noticed My servant Job? For there is no one like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and spurns evil. And he still holds firmly to his integrity, though you incited Me against him to ruin him without any reason.”

⁴ The satan replied to Adonai saying, “Skin for skin! A man will give up all he has for his own life. ⁵ But now, stretch out Your hand and strike his bone and his flesh, and he will certainly curse You to Your face!”

⁶ Adonai said to the satan, “Very well, he is in your hand—only spare his life!”

⁷ So the satan departed from the presence of Adonai, and afflicted Job with painful boils, from the sole of his foot to the top of his head. ⁸ He took a piece of broken pottery to scrape himself while he was sitting among the ashes.

⁹ Then his wife said to him, “Are you still holding firmly to your integrity? Curse God and die!”

¹⁰ He said to her, “You speak as any foolish woman would speak. Should we accept the good from God and not accept the bad?”

Through all this Job did not sin with his lips.

Three Friends Sit Shiva

¹¹ When Job’s three friends heard about all this calamity that had come upon him, each of them came from his own place—Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite. They met together to come and mourn with him and to comfort him. ¹² But when they saw him from a distance they did not recognize him, and they raised their voices and wept. Each one tore his robe and threw dust into the air onto their heads. ¹³ Then they sat with him on the ground for seven days and seven nights. No one spoke a word to him because they saw that his pain was very great.

Job Curses His Own Birth

3 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day. ² Then Job answered and said:

Eliphaz: God is Righteous

4 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded and said:

Testimony of an Accusing Spirit

Eliphaz: God is Correcting You

Job Cries For Justice

6 Job responded and said:

Futility of Days

Bildad: God Restores the Righteous

8 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered and said:

Job: Who is Righteous Before God?

9 Job responded and said:

Do Not Condemn Me!

Zophar: God Sees Iniquity

11 Then, Zophar the Naamathite answered and said:

Job: Everything is in His Hand

12 Job responded and said:

Job Challenges God

Death and Resurrection

Eliphaz Rebukes Job

15 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded and said:

Job Reproves His Friends

16 Job answered, saying:

Hope in Sheol?

Bildad Rebukes Job

18 Then, Bildad the Shuhite replied, saying:

Job: Have Pity on Me

19 Job responded, saying:

My Redeemer Lives!

Zophar: Death and Hell for the Wicked

20 Then Zophar the Naamathite responded and said:

Job’s Dialogue on the Wicked

21 Then Job replied:

Eliphaz Keeps Pointing at Sin

22 Then Eliphaz the Temanite responded saying:

Job’s Argument with God

23 Then Job answered:

Futility of Injustice

Bildad: Justified With God?

25 Then Bildad the Shuhite answered:

Job: God is Awesome

26 Then Job responded and said:

What Hope has the Godless?

27 And Job took up his discourse again, saying:

Where Can Wisdom be Found?

Job Remembers Better Days

29 Again Job took up his discourse saying:

Cry of Great Agony

Job Asks for Judgment

The words of Job are ended.

Young Elihu Speaks

32 So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. ² Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite of the clan of Ram became very angry. He was angry with Job for justifying himself rather than God. ³ He was also angry with his three friends because they had not found an answer, and yet had condemned Job. ⁴ Now Elihu had waited to speak to Job because they were older. ⁵ When Elihu saw that there was no answer in the mouth of these three men, his anger was aroused.

⁶ Then Elihu son of Barachel the Buzite responded and said:

Testing Job’s Claims

34 Then Elihu answered:

35 Then Elihu answered, saying:

Elihu Magnifies the Almighty

36 Then Elihu said further:

Word out of the Whirlwind

38 Then Adonai answered Job out of the whirlwind.

He said:

Insignificant Before God

40 Then Adonai answered Job, saying:

⁶ Then Adonai answered Job from the whirlwind:

Behemoth and Leviathan

Job Retracts

42 Job answered Adonai and said:

Job Restored

⁷ After Adonai had spoken these words to Job, Adonai said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “My anger is kindled against you and against your two friends, because you have not spoken about Me what is right, like My servant Job has. ⁸ So now, take for yourselves seven young bulls and seven rams and go to My servant Job and offer a burnt offering for yourselves. My servant Job will pray for you, for I will accept Job’s prayer^[mb] and not deal with you according to your folly because you have not spoken correctly about Me, like My servant Job.”

⁹ So Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite, and Zophar the Naamathite went and did what Adonai told them; and Adonai accepted Job’s prayer.

¹⁰ So Adonai restored what Job had lost, after he prayed for his friends and Adonai doubled everything that Job had before. ¹¹ Then all his brothers, all his sisters and everyone who had known him before, came to him and ate bread with him in his house. They consoled him and comforted him for all the calamity that Adonai had brought upon him. Each of them gave him a piece of money and a gold ring.

¹² So Adonai blessed Job’s latter days more than at his beginning. He had 14,000 sheep, 6,000 camels, 1,000 yoke of oxen and 1,000 female donkeys. ¹³ He also had seven sons and three daughters. ¹⁴ He called the name of the first Jemimah, the name of the second Keziah, and the name of the third Keren-happuch. ¹⁵ Nowhere in the land were there found women as beautiful as the daughters of Job. Their father gave them an inheritance along with their brothers.

¹⁶ After this, Job lived 140 years; he saw his children and their children for four generations. ¹⁷ And so Job died, old and full of days.

1 The song of songs^[mc] of Solomon

A Bride Sings of Her Lover

Chorus: Daughters of Zion

The Bride

The Lover and Bride Express Affection

The Bride’s Revelry

The King on his Wedding Day

The King Delights in His Bride

Awake and Waiting

Acclaiming the Bride’s Beauty

The Bride’s Appeal

Protecting Love

Elimelech’s Family in Moab

1 It came to pass in the days when judges were governing, there was a famine in the land. A man went from the town of Bethlehem^[mh] in Judah to dwell in the region of Moab with his wife and his two sons. ² The man’s name was Elimelech, his wife’s name was Naomi, and his two sons were named Mahlon and Chilion. They were Ephratites from Bethlehem in Judah. They came to the region of Moab and remained there.

³ Then Naomi’s husband Elimelech died, so she was left with her two sons. ⁴ They married Moabite women—one was named Orpah and the second was named Ruth, and they dwelt there about ten years. ⁵ Then those two, Mahlon and Chilion, also died. So the woman was left without her children and her husband.

⁶ Then she got up, along with her daughters-in-law to return from the region of Moab, because in the region of Moab she had heard that Adonai had taken note of His people and given them food. ⁷ So she left the place where she was, along with her two daughters-in-law, and they started out on the road to return to the land of Judah.

⁸ So Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go, return each of you to your mother’s house. May Adonai show you the same kindness that you have shown to the dead and to me. ⁹ May Adonai grant that you find rest, each of you in the house of her own husband.” Then she kissed them and they wept loudly.

¹⁰ “No!” they said to her, “we will return with you to your people.”

¹¹ Now Naomi said, “Go back, my daughters! Why should you go with me? Do I have more sons in my womb who could become your husbands? ¹² Go home, my daughters! I am too old to have a husband. Even if I were to say that there was hope for me and I could get married tonight, and then bore sons, ¹³ would you wait for them to grow up? Would you therefore hold off getting married? No, my daughters, it is more bitter for me than for you—for the hand of Adonai has gone out against me!”

¹⁴ Again they broke into loud weeping. Then Orpah kissed her mother-in-law goodbye. But Ruth clung to her. ¹⁵ She said, “Look, your sister-in-law is going back to her people and her gods. Return, along with your sister-in-law!”

Ruth’s Covenant With Naomi

¹⁶ Ruth replied,

¹⁸ When she saw that Ruth was determined to go with her, she no longer spoke to Ruth about it.

¹⁹ So the two of them went on until they arrived in Bethlehem. As soon as they arrived in Bethlehem the whole city was excited because of them, and the women asked, “Is this Naomi?”

²⁰ “Do not call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara—since Shaddai has made my life bitter. ^{[mi] 21} I went away full, but Adonai has brought me back empty. Why should you call me Naomi, since Adonai has testified against me and Shaddai has brought calamity on me?”

²² So Naomi and her daughter-in-law Ruth the Moabitess returned from the region of Moab. They arrived in Bethlehem at the beginning of the barley harvest.

Gleaning in Boaz’s Field

2 Now, Naomi had a relative on her husband’s side—from Elimelech’s family—a prominent man of substance whose name was Boaz.

² Ruth the Moabitess, said to Naomi, “Please let me go out to the field and glean grain behind anyone in whose eyes I may find favor.”

Naomi said to her, “Go ahead, my daughter.” ³ So Ruth went out and gleaned in the field behind the reapers. She just so happened to be in the field of Boaz, who was from Elimelech’s family.

⁴ Soon after Boaz arrived from Bethlehem, he said to the harvesters, “Adonai be with you.”

They replied, “May Adonai bless you.”

⁵ Then Boaz asked the foreman of his harvesters, “Whose young woman is this?”

⁶ “She is a Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the region of Moab,” the foreman replied. ⁷ “She asked ‘Please allow me to glean and gather among the barley sheaves behind the harvesters.’ So she came and has been working in the field since morning until now, except for a little while in the shelter.”

⁸ Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen to me, my daughter. Do not go to glean in another field or even pass on from here, but stay close to my female workers. ⁹ Keep your eyes on the field that they are harvesting, and follow after them. I strongly ordered the young men not to touch you. When you are thirsty, you can go to the jars and drink from the water the young men have drawn.”

¹⁰ Then she fell upon her face, bowing to the ground, and said to him, “Why have I found favor in your eyes that you have noticed me, even though I am a foreigner?”

¹¹ Boaz replied and said to her, “All that you have done for your mother-in-law since your husband’s death has been fully reported to me—how you left your father and mother and the land of your birth, and came to a people you did not know before. ¹² May Adonai repay you for what you have done, and may you be fully rewarded by Adonai, God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge.”

¹³ She said, “May I continue to find favor in your eyes, my lord, for you have comforted me and spoken kindly to your maidservant, even though I am not one of your maidservants.”

¹⁴ At mealtime Boaz said to her, “Come over here and eat some bread and dip your piece into the wine vinegar.” So she sat beside the harvesters and he held out to her roasted grain. She ate until she was full, and some was still left. ¹⁵ When she got up to glean, Boaz gave orders to his workers saying, “Let her glean even among the sheaves, do not humiliate her. ¹⁶ Also be sure to pull out some grain for her from the sheaves and leave them for her to pick up, and do not rebuke her.”

¹⁷ So she gleaned in the field until evening. When she thrashed what she had gathered, there was about an ephah of barley. ¹⁸ She carried it back to town, where her mother-in-law saw what she had gleaned. Ruth took some out and gave her what was left over after eating her fill.

¹⁹ Her mother-in-law asked her, “Where did you glean today? Where did you work? May the one who noticed you be blessed!”

She told her mother-in-law with whom she had worked and she said, “The name of the man for whom I worked is Boaz.”

²⁰ So Naomi said to her daughter-in-law, “May he be blessed by Adonai who has not stopped his kindness to the living or to the dead.” Then Naomi said to her, “This man is closely related to us, one of our kinsmen-redeemers.”^[mj]

²¹ Then Ruth the Moabitess said, “He even said to me, ‘Stay close to my workers until they have finished the entire harvest.’”

²² Naomi answered her daughter-in-law Ruth, “It is good, my daughter-in-law, that you go out with his female workers, so that you will not be harmed in another field.”

²³ So she stayed close to Boaz’s female workers, gleaning until both the barley harvest and the wheat harvest were completed. Meanwhile she lived with her mother-in-law.

Naomi the Matchmaker

3 Naomi her mother-in-law said to her “My daughter, should I not be seeking a resting place for you, so it may go well for you? ² Now, is Boaz, with whose female workers you have been, not our relative? Look, he will be winnowing barley tonight at the threshing floor. ³ So bathe and perfume yourself, put on your cloak and go down to the threshing floor. But do not make yourself known to the man until he has finished eating and drinking. ⁴ Let it be that when he lies down and you know the place where he lies down, go uncover his feet and lie down there. He will tell you what to do.”

⁵ Ruth answered her, “I will do everything you say.” ⁶ So she went down to the threshing floor and did everything her mother-in-law had said.

⁷ After Boaz ate, drank, and was in a good mood, he went to lie down at the far side of the grain pile. So she came to the grain pile quietly, uncovered his feet, and lay down. ⁸ Now in the middle of the night, the man was startled and pulled back—and to his surprise, a woman was lying at his feet!

⁹ “Who are you?” he asked.

“I am Ruth, your handmaid,” she answered. “Spread the corner of your garment over your handmaid, for you are a goel.”

¹⁰ “May you be blessed by Adonai, my daughter!” he replied. “You have made the latter act of loyalty greater than the first, by not running after the young men, whether rich or poor. ¹¹ Now my daughter, do not be afraid! Everything you propose, I will do for you, for everyone in town knows that you are a woman of valor. ¹² Although it is true that I am a goel, there is one who is a closer goel than me. ¹³ Stay here tonight, and in the morning, if he will be your goel—good! Let him do so. But if he is not willing to be your goel, then I will be your goel myself, as surely as Adonai lives. Lie down until morning.”

¹⁴ So she lay at his feet until morning, but got up before one person could be distinguished from another, for he said, “Do not let it be known that the woman came to the threshing floor.” ¹⁵ Then he said, “Bring the cloak you are wearing and hold it out.” She held it out and he poured six measures of barley into it and put it on her. Then he returned to town.

¹⁶ When Ruth came back to her mother-in-law, Naomi asked, “How did it go, my daughter?”

So Ruth told her all that the man had done for her. ¹⁷ She said “He gave me six measures of barley, for he said, ‘You shouldn’t go back to your mother-in-law empty-handed.’”

¹⁸ “Wait, my daughter,” Naomi said, “until you find out how the matter turns out, for he will not rest until he has settled the matter today.”

Who Will Redeem?

4 Meanwhile Boaz had gone up to the gate and sat down there. And all of a sudden, the goel about whom Boaz had spoken passed by. “Come over,” he called, “and sit down here, my friend.” So he came over and sat down.

² Then Boaz took ten of the town’s elders and said, “Sit down here,” so they sat down. ³ Then he said to the goel, “Naomi, who has returned from the region of Moab, is selling the parcel of land that belongs to our brother Elimelech. ⁴ I thought I should inform you saying, ‘Buy it in the presence of the people sitting here, and in the presence of the elders of my people. If you want to redeem it, redeem it. But if it will not be redeemed, then tell me, so that I can know, because there is no one else in line to redeem it. I am after you.’”

“I will redeem it,” he said.

⁵ Then Boaz said, “On the day you buy the field from Naomi’s hand, you will also acquire Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the deceased, in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance.”

⁶ The kinsman said, “Then I cannot redeem it for myself, or else I might endanger my own inheritance. You, take my right of redemption for yourself, for I cannot redeem it.”

⁷ Now in the past in Israel, one removed his sandal and gave it to another, in order to finalize the redemption and transfer of a matter. This was a legal transaction in Israel.

⁸ So the kinsman said to Boaz, “Buy it for yourself,” then took off his shoe.

⁹ Boaz announced to the elders and all the people: “You are witnesses today that I have bought from Naomi all that belonged to Elimelech and all that belonged to Chilion and Mahlon. ¹⁰ Moreover, I have acquired Ruth the Moabitess, the widow of Mahlon to be my wife in order to raise up the name of the deceased over his inheritance, so that the name of the deceased will not be cut off from his brothers or from the gate of his town. You are witnesses today.”

¹¹ All the people at the gate and the elders said, “We are witnesses. May Adonai make the woman who has come into your house like Rachel and like Leah, who both built up the house of Israel. May you prosper in Ephrath and be renowned in Bethlehem. ¹² May your house be like the house of Perez, whom Tamar bore to Judah,^[mk] through the seed that Adonai will give you by this young woman.”

¹³ So Boaz took Ruth, and she became his wife. When he went to her, Adonai enabled her to conceive, and she gave birth to a son. ¹⁴ Then the women said to Naomi, “Blessed be Adonai, who has not left you without a goel today. May his name be famous throughout Israel. ¹⁵ Moreover, He will be to you a renewer of life and a sustainer of your old age, for your daughter-in-law, who loves you and is better to you than seven sons, has given birth to him.”

¹⁶ Naomi took the child and held it to her bosom, and took care of him. ¹⁷ The neighboring women gave him a name saying “A son has been born to Naomi!” So they called him Obed. He was the father of Jesse, the father of David.

¹⁸ These are the generations of Perez: Perez fathered Hezron, ¹⁹ Hezron fathered Ram, Ram fathered Amminadab, ²⁰ Amminadab fathered Nahshon, Nahshon fathered Salmon, ²¹ Salmon fathered Boaz, Boaz fathered Obed, ²² Obed fathered Jesse, and Jesse fathered David.

Song of Jerusalem’s Groaning

Lament for Zion