Day 312 of 730

¹He said to me, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you."

²The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me.

³He said to me, "Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day.

⁴The children are impudent and stiff-hearted: I am sending you to them; and you shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God.'

⁵They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

⁶You, son of man, do not be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions: do not be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house.

⁷You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious.

⁸But you, son of man, hear what I tell you; do not be rebellious like that rebellious house: open your mouth, and eat that which I give you."

⁹When I looked, behold, a hand was put forth to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein;

¹⁰He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

¹He said to me, "Son of man, eat that which you find. Eat this scroll, and go, speak to the house of Israel."

²So I opened my mouth, and he caused me to eat the scroll.

³He said to me, "Son of man, cause your belly to eat, and fill your bowels with this scroll that I give you." Then I ate it; and it was as sweet as honey in my mouth.

⁴He said to me, "Son of man, go to the house of Israel, and speak my words to them.

⁵For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel;

⁶not to many peoples of a strange speech and of a hard language, whose words you can not understand. Surely, if I sent you to them, they would listen to you.

⁷But the house of Israel will not listen to you; for they will not listen to me: for all the house of Israel are obstinate and hard-hearted.

⁸Behold, I have made your face hard against their faces, and your forehead hard against their foreheads.

⁹As an adamant harder than flint have I made your forehead: do not be afraid of them, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house."

¹⁰Moreover he said to me, "Son of man, all my words that I shall speak to you receive in your heart, and hear with your ears.

¹¹Go to them of the captivity, to the children of your people, and speak to them, and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God'; whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear.

¹²Then the Spirit lifted me up, and I heard behind me the voice of a great rushing, saying, "Blessed be the glory of the Lord from his place."

¹³I heard the noise of the wings of the living creatures as they touched one another, and the noise of the wheels beside them, even the noise of a great rushing.

¹⁴So the Spirit lifted me up, and took me away; and I went in bitterness, in the anger of my spirit; and the hand of the Lord was strong on me.

¹⁵Then I came to them of the exiles at Tel Aviv, that lived by the river Chebar, and to where they lived; and I sat there overwhelmed among them seven days.

¹⁶It happened at the end of seven days, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹⁷"Son of man, I have made you a watchman to the house of Israel: therefore hear the word from my mouth, and give them warning from me.

¹⁸When I tell the wicked, 'You shall surely die'; and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at your hand.

¹⁹Yet if you warn the wicked, and he doesn't turn from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.

²⁰"Again, when a righteous man does turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die: because you have not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteous deeds which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at your hand.

²¹Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man, that the righteous not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning; and you have delivered your soul."

²²The hand of the Lord was there on me; and he said to me, "Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with you."

²³Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and behold, the glory of the Lord stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river Chebar; and I fell on my face.

²⁴Then the Spirit entered into me, and set me on my feet; and he spoke with me, and said to me, "Go, shut yourself inside your house.

²⁵But you, son of man, behold, they shall lay bands on you, and shall bind you with them, and you shall not go out among them:

²⁶and I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be mute, and shall not be to them a reprover; for they are a rebellious house.

²⁷But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God': He who hears, let him hear; and he who forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

¹Help, Lord; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men.

²Everyone lies to his neighbor. They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.

³May the Lord cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that boasts,

⁴who have said, "With our tongue we will prevail. Our lips are our own. Who is lord over us?"

⁵"Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy, I will now arise," says the Lord; "I will set him in safety from those who malign him."

⁶The words of the Lord are flawless words, as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.

⁷You will keep them, Lord. You will preserve them from this generation forever.

⁸The wicked walk on every side, when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.

¹My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you;

²So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding;

³Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding;

⁴If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures:

⁵then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

⁶For the Lord gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

⁷He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity;

⁸that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his holy ones.

⁹Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path.

¹⁰For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul.

¹¹Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you,

¹²to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things;

¹³who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness;

¹⁴who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil;

¹⁵who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths:

¹⁶To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words;

¹⁷who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God:

¹⁸for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead.

¹⁹None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life:

²⁰that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous.

²¹For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it.

²²But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.