The Day of the Wrath of the Lord

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “And you, ^aO son of man, thus says the Lord God to the land of Israel: ^bAn end! The end has come upon the four corners of the land.¹ 3 Now ^bthe end is upon you, and ^cI will send my anger upon you; ^dI will judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. 4 ^eAnd my eye will not spare you, nor will I have pity, but ^fI will punish you for your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. ^gThen you will know that I am the Lord.

5 “Thus says the Lord God: Disaster ^hafter disaster!² Behold, it comes. 6 ^bAn end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. 7 ⁱYour doom³ has come to you, O inhabitant of the land. ^jThe time has come; the day is near, a day of tumult, and not ^kof joyful shouting on the mountains. 8 Now I will soon ^lpour out my wrath upon you, and ^mspend my anger against you, ^dand judge you according to your ways, and I will punish you for all your abominations. 9 ^eAnd my eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. I will punish you according to your ways, while your abominations are in your midst. ⁿThen you will know that I am the Lord, who strikes.

10 ^o“Behold, the day! Behold, it comes! ^pYour doom has come; ^qthe rod has blossomed; pride has budded. 11 ^rViolence has grown up into ^qa rod of wickedness. ^sNone of them shall remain, nor their abundance, nor their wealth; neither shall there be preeminence among them.⁴ 12 ^jThe time has come; the day has arrived. Let not ^tthe buyer rejoice, nor ^tthe seller mourn, ^ufor wrath is upon all their multitude.⁵ 13 For ^vthe seller shall not return to what he has sold, while they live. ^wFor the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not turn back; and because of his iniquity, none can maintain his life.⁶

14 “They have blown the trumpet and made everything ready, but none goes to battle, ^xfor my wrath is upon all their multitude. 15 ^yThe sword is without; pestilence and famine are within. ^zHe who is in the field dies by the sword, ^zand him who is in the city famine and pestilence devour. 16 ^aAnd if any survivors escape, they will be on the mountains, like ^bdoves of the valleys, all of them moaning, each one over his iniquity. 17 ^cAll hands are feeble, and all knees turn to water. 18 ^dThey put on sackcloth, and ^ehorror covers them. Shame is on all faces, and ^fbaldness on all their heads. 19 They cast their silver into the streets, and their gold is like an unclean thing. ^gTheir silver and gold are not able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They cannot satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. ^hFor it was ⁱthe stumbling block of their iniquity. 20 ^jHis beautiful ornament they used for pride, and ^kthey made their abominable images and their detestable things of it. Therefore ^lI make it an unclean thing to them. 21 And I will give it into the hands of ^mforeigners for prey, ⁿand to the wicked of the earth for spoil, and ^lthey shall profane it. 22 I will turn my face from them, and ^lthey shall profane my treasured⁷ place. Robbers shall enter ^land profane it.

23 ^o“Forge a chain!^{8 p}For the land is full of bloody crimes ^qand the city is full of violence. 24 I will bring ^rthe worst of the nations to take possession of their houses. ^sI will put an end to the pride of the strong, ^tand their holy places⁹ shall be profaned. 25 ^uWhen anguish comes, ^vthey will seek peace, but there shall be none. 26 ^wDisaster comes upon disaster; ^xrumor follows rumor. ^yThey seek a vision from the prophet, while ^zthe law¹⁰ perishes from the priest and ^acounsel from the elders. 27 The king mourns, the prince is wrapped in despair, and the hands of the people of the land are paralyzed by terror. According to their way ^bI will do to them, and according to their judgments I will judge them, ^cand they shall know that I am the Lord.”

Abominations in the Temple

1 ^dIn the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, ^eas I sat in my house, with ^fthe elders of Judah sitting before me, ^gthe hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. 2 Then I looked, and behold, ^ha form that had the appearance of a man.^{11 h}Below what appeared to be his waist was fire, and above his waist was something like the appearance of brightness, like ⁱgleaming metal.¹² 3 He ^jput out the form of a hand and took me by a lock of my head, and the Spirit lifted me up ^kbetween earth and heaven and ^lbrought me in ^mvisions of God to Jerusalem, ⁿto the entrance of the gateway of the inner court that faces north, ^owhere was the seat of the ^pimage of jealousy, ^qwhich provokes to jealousy. 4 And behold, ^rthe glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw ^sin the valley.

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

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

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

16 And he brought me into ^mthe inner court of the house of the Lord. And behold, at the entrance of the temple of the Lord, ⁿbetween the ^oporch and ^pthe altar, were about twenty-five men, ^qwith their backs to the temple of the Lord, and their faces toward the east, worshiping ^rthe sun toward the east. 17 Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, O ^sson of man? Is it too light a thing for the house of Judah to commit ^tthe abominations that they commit here, that ^uthey should fill the land with violence and ^vprovoke me still further to anger? Behold, they put the branch to their¹³ nose. 18 Therefore ^wI will act in wrath. ^xMy eye will not spare, nor will I have pity. ^yAnd though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.”

Idolaters Killed

1 Then he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying, “Bring near the executioners of the city, ^zeach with his destroying weapon in his hand.” 2 And behold, six men came from the direction of ^athe upper gate, which faces north, each with his weapon for slaughter in his hand, and with them was ^ba man clothed in linen, with a writing case at his waist. And they went in and stood beside ^cthe bronze altar.

3 Now ^dthe glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub on which it rested to ^ethe threshold of the house. And he called to ^bthe man clothed in linen, who had the writing case at his waist. 4 And the Lord said to him, “Pass through the city, through Jerusalem, and ^fput a mark on the foreheads of the men who ^gsigh and groan over all the abominations that are committed in it.” 5 And to ^hthe others he said in my hearing, “Pass through the city after him, and strike. ⁱYour eye shall not spare, and you shall show no pity. 6 ^jKill old men outright, young men and maidens, little children and women, but ^ktouch no one on whom is the mark. And ^lbegin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were before the house. 7 Then he said to them, ^m“Defile the house, and fill the courts with the slain. Go out.” So they went out and struck in the city. 8 And while they were striking, and I was left alone, ⁿI fell upon my face, and cried, ^o“Ah, Lord God! ^pWill you destroy all the remnant of Israel ^qin the outpouring of your wrath on Jerusalem?”

9 Then he said to me, ^r“The guilt of the house of Israel and Judah is exceedingly great. ^sThe land is full of blood, and the city full of injustice. For ^tthey say, ‘The Lord has forsaken the land, and the Lord does not see.’ 10 As for me, ^umy eye will not spare, nor will I have pity; ^vI will bring their deeds upon their heads.”

11 And behold, ^wthe man clothed in linen, with the writing case at his waist, brought back word, saying, “I have done as you commanded me.”

Lamedh

Greeting

1 Paul, ^aan apostle of Christ Jesus ^bby the will of God,

To the saints who are in Ephesus, and ^care faithful¹ in Christ Jesus:

2 ^dGrace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Spiritual Blessings in Christ

3 ^eBlessed be ^fthe God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing ^gin the heavenly places, 4 ^heven as he ⁱchose us in him ^jbefore the foundation of the world, that we should be ^kholy and blameless before him. In love 5 ^lhe predestined us² for ^madoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ, ⁿaccording to the purpose of his will, 6 ^oto the praise of his glorious grace, with which he has blessed us in ^pthe Beloved. 7 ^qIn him we have ^rredemption ^sthrough his blood, ^tthe forgiveness of our trespasses, ^uaccording to the riches of his grace, 8 which he lavished upon us, in all wisdom and insight 9 ^vmaking known³ to us the mystery of his will, ⁿaccording to his purpose, which he ^wset forth in Christ 10 as a plan for ^xthe fullness of time, ^yto unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

11 In him we have obtained ^zan inheritance, ^ahaving been predestined ^baccording to the purpose of him who works all things according to ^cthe counsel of his will, 12 so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be ^dto the praise of his glory. 13 In him you also, when you heard ^ethe word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, ^fwere sealed with the ^gpromised Holy Spirit, 14 who is ^hthe guarantee⁴ of our ⁱinheritance until ^jwe acquire ^kpossession of it,^{5 l}to the praise of his glory.

Thanksgiving and Prayer

15 For this reason, ^mbecause I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love⁶ toward all the saints, 16 I ⁿdo not cease to give thanks for you, ^oremembering you in my prayers, 17 that ^pthe God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, ^qmay give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, 18 ^rhaving the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is ^sthe hope to which he has called you, what are ^tthe riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, ^uaccording to the working of ^vhis great might 20 that he worked in Christ ^wwhen he raised him from the dead and ^xseated him at his right hand ^yin the heavenly places, 21 ^zfar above ^aall rule and authority and power and dominion, and above ^bevery name that is named, not only in ^cthis age but also in the one to come. 22 And ^dhe put all things under his feet and gave him as ^ehead over all things to the church, 23 ^fwhich is his body, ^gthe fullness of him ^hwho fills ⁱall in all.