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First Reading: Ezekiel Chapter 25 and 26

Ezekiel 25

1 And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, set thy face toward the children of Ammon, and prophesy against them:

3 and say unto the children of Ammon, Hear the word of the Lord Jehovah: Thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Because thou saidst, Aha, against my sanctuary, when it was profaned; and against the land of Israel, when it was made desolate; and against the house of Judah, when they went into captivity:

4 therefore, behold, I will deliver thee to the children of the east for a possession, and they shall set their encampments in thee, and make their dwellings in thee; they shall eat thy fruit, and they shall drink thy milk.

5 And I will make Rabbah a stable for camels, and the children of Ammon a couching-place for flocks: and ye shall know that I am Jehovah.

6 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast clapped thy hands, and stamped with the feet, and rejoiced with all the despite of thy soul against the land of Israel;

7 therefore, behold, I have stretched out my hand upon thee, and will deliver thee for a spoil to the nations; and I will cut thee off from the peoples, and I will cause thee to perish out of the countries: I will destroy thee; and thou shalt know that I am Jehovah.

8 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because that Moab and Seir do say, Behold, the house of Judah is like unto all the nations;

9 therefore, behold, I will open the side of Moab from the cities, from his cities which are on his frontiers, the glory of the country, Beth-jeshimoth, Baal-meon, and Kiriathaim,

10 unto the children of the east, `to go' against the children of Ammon; and I will give them for a possession, that the children of Ammon may not be remembered among the nations.

11 and I will execute judgments upon Moab; and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

12 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because that Edom hath dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and hath greatly offended, and revenged himself upon them;

13 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, I will stretch out my hand upon Edom, and will cut off man and beast from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman; even unto Dedan shall they fall by the sword.

14 And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel; and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my wrath; and they shall know my vengeance, saith the Lord Jehovah.

15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with despite of soul to destroy with perpetual enmity;

16 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I will stretch out my hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast.

17 And I will execute great vengeance upon them with wrathful rebukes; and they shall know that I am Jehovah, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them.

Ezekiel 26

1 And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first `day' of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying,

2 Son of man, because that Tyre hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken `that was' the gate of the peoples; she is turned unto me; I shall be replenished, now that she is laid waste:

3 therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah, Behold, I am against thee, O Tyre, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth its waves to come up.

4 And they shall destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.

5 She shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea; for I have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah; and she shall become a spoil to the nations.

6 And her daughters that are in the field shall be slain with the sword: and they shall know that I am Jehovah.

7 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from the north, with horses, and with chariots, and with horsemen, and a company, and much people.

8 He shall slay with the sword thy daughters in the field; and he shall make forts against thee, and cast up a mound against thee, and raise up the buckler against thee.

9 And he shall set his battering engines against thy walls, and with his axes he shall break down thy towers.

10 By reason of the abundance of his horses their dust shall cover thee: thy walls shall shake at the noise of the horsemen, and of the wagons, and of the chariots, when he shall enter into thy gates, as men enter into a city wherein is made a breach.

11 With the hoofs of his horses shall he tread down all thy streets; he shall slay thy people with the sword; and the pillars of thy strength shall go down to the ground.

12 And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise; and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses; and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the waters.

13 And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.

14 And I will make thee a bare rock; thou shalt be a place for the spreading of nets; thou shalt be built no more: for I Jehovah have spoken it, saith the Lord Jehovah.

15 Thus saith the Lord Jehovah to Tyre: shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded groan, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

16 Then all the princes of the sea shall come down from their thrones, and lay aside their robes, and strip off their broidered garments: they shall clothe themselves with trembling; they shall sit upon the ground, and shall tremble every moment, and be astonished at thee.

17 And they shall take up a lamentation over thee, and say to thee, How art thou destroyed, that wast inhabited by seafaring men, the renowned city, that was strong in the sea, she and her inhabitants, that caused their terror to be on all that dwelt there!

18 Now shall the isles tremble in the day of thy fall; yea, the isles that are in the sea shall be dismayed at thy departure.

19 For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: When I shall make thee a desolate city, like the cities that are not inhabited; when I shall bring up the deep upon thee, and the great waters shall cover thee;

20 then will I bring thee down with them that descend into the pit, to the people of old time, and will make thee to dwell in the nether parts of the earth, in the places that are desolate of old, with them that go down to the pit, that thou be not inhabited; and I will set glory in the land of the living:

21 I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt no more have any being; though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Second Reading: Psalms Chapter 140

Psalms 140

1 Deliver me, O Jehovah, from the evil man; Preserve me from the violent man:

2 Who devise mischiefs in their heart; Continually do they gather themselves together for war.

3 They have sharpened their tongue like a serpent; Adders' poison is under their lips. Selah

4 Keep me, O Jehovah, from the hands of the wicked; Preserve me from the violent man: Who have purposed to thrust aside my steps.

5 The proud have hid a snare for me, and cords; They have spread a net by the wayside; They have set gins for me. Selah

6 I said unto Jehovah, Thou art my God: Give ear unto the voice of my supplications, O Jehovah.

7 O Jehovah the Lord, the strength of my salvation, Thou hast covered my head in the day of battle.

8 Grant not, O Jehovah, the desires of the wicked; Further not his evil device, `lest' they exalt themselves. Selah

9 As for the head of those that compass me about, Let the mischief of their own lips cover them.

10 Let burning coals fall upon them: Let them be cast into the fire, Into deep pits, whence they shall not rise.

11 An evil speaker shall not be established in the earth: Evil shall hunt the violent man to overthrow him.

12 I know that Jehovah will maintain the cause of the afflicted, And justice for the needy.

13 Surely the righteous shall give thanks unto thy name: The upright shall dwell in thy presence. Psalm 141 A Psalm of David.

Bible Background

BIBLE SUPERSTARS

EZEKIEL

Part 1 of 2

We are not given a great deal of detail of the life of Ezekiel. We do know that he was an exile taken from his homeland by the Babylonians. He was called by God to be a watchman for the house of Israel--it was his responsibility to warn even though God did not expect the rebellious people to hear. It was around this time that II Chronicles 36:15-16 tells us that "The LORD, the God of their fathers, sent word to them through his messengers again and again, because he had pity on his people and on his dwelling place. But they mocked God's messengers, despised his words and scoffed at his prophets until the wrath of the LORD was aroused against his people and there was no remedy."

Ezekiel was truly an unusal person in his time. While others rebelled against God, he obeyed even when God showed him horrifying events and required odd and sometimes painful things of him such as eating a scroll and lying on his side for 390 days.

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