The Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

1 “And you, ^rson of man, ^stake a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem. 2 ^tAnd put siegeworks against it, ^uand build a siege wall against it, ^vand cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, ^wand plant battering rams against it all around. 3 And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; ^xand set your face toward it, ^yand let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is ^za sign for the house of Israel.

4 “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment¹ of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, ^ayou shall bear their punishment. 5 For I assign to you a number of days, ^b390 days, ^cequal to the number of the years of their punishment. ^aSo long shall you bear ^dthe punishment of the house of Israel. 6 And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and ^ebear ^fthe punishment of the house of Judah. ^gForty days I assign you, a day for each year. 7 ^hAnd you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, ⁱwith your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city. 8 And behold, ^jI will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed ^kthe days of your siege.

9 “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer,² and put them into a single vessel and make your ^lbread from them. ^mDuring the number of days that you lie on your side, ⁿ390 days, you shall eat it. 10 And your food that you eat shall be ^oby weight, ^ptwenty shekels³ a day; from day to day⁴ you shall eat it. 11 And water you shall drink ^oby measure, the sixth part of a hin;⁵ from day to day you shall drink. 12 And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it ^qin their sight on human dung.” 13 And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat ^rtheir bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” 14 Then I said, ^s“Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself.^{6 t}From my youth up till now I have never eaten ^uwhat died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has ^vtainted meat come into my mouth.” 15 Then he said to me, “See, I assign to you cow’s dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread.” 16 Moreover, he said to me, ^w“Son of man, behold, ^xI will break the supply⁷ of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread ^oby weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water ^oby measure and in dismay. 17 I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and ^ylook at one another in dismay, and ^zrot away because of their punishment.

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

1 “And you, ^aO son of man, take a ^bsharp sword. Use it as ^ca barber’s razor and ^dpass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. 2 ^eA third part you shall burn in the fire ^fin the midst of the city, ^gwhen the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. ^hAnd a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and ⁱI will unsheathe the sword after them. 3 ^jAnd you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. 4 ^kAnd of these again you shall take some and cast them into the midst of the fire and burn them in the fire. From there a fire will come out into all the house of Israel.

5 “Thus says the Lord God: ^lThis is Jerusalem. I have set her ^min the center of the nations, with countries all around her. 6 And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness ⁿmore than the nations, and against my statutes more than ^mthe countries all around her; for they have rejected my rules and have not walked in my statutes. 7 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you are ^omore turbulent than the nations that are all around you, ^pand have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, ^qand have not⁸ even acted according to the rules of the nations that are all around you, 8 therefore thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, even I, ^ram against you. ^sAnd I will execute judgments⁹ in your midst ^tin the sight of the nations. 9 And because of all your abominations I will do with you ^uwhat I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. 10 Therefore ^vfathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. ^sAnd I will execute judgments on you, ^wand any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. 11 Therefore, ^xas I live, declares the Lord God, surely, ^ybecause you have defiled my sanctuary ^zwith all your detestable things and with all your ^aabominations, ^btherefore I will withdraw.^{10 c}My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. 12 ^dA third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; ^da third part shall fall by the sword all around you; ^dand a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

13 ^e“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that ^fI am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—^ewhen I spend my fury upon them. 14 Moreover, I will make you ^ga desolation and ^han object of reproach among ⁱthe nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. 15 You shall be¹¹ a reproach and a taunt, a warning ^jand a horror, to ⁱthe nations all around you, ^kwhen I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and ^lwith furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— 16 when I send against you^{12 m}the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon ⁿyou and break your supply¹³ of bread. 17 I will send famine and ^owild beasts against you, ^pand they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and ^qblood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”

Judgment Against Idolatry

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 ^r“Son of man, ^sset your face toward ^tthe mountains of Israel, and ^uprophesy against them, 3 and say, ^vYou mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to ^wthe mountains and ^xthe hills, to ^ythe ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, ^zand I will destroy your high places. 4 ^zYour altars shall become desolate, and your ^aincense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. 5 ^zAnd I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, ^band I will scatter your bones around your altars. 6 Wherever you dwell, ^cthe cities shall be waste and ^dthe high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined,¹⁴ your idols broken and destroyed, your ^aincense altars cut down, and your works wiped out. 7 And the slain shall fall in your midst, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

8 ^e“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations ^fsome who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, 9 then those of you who escape ^gwill remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how ^hI have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes ⁱthat go whoring after their idols. ^gAnd they will be loathsome in their own sight for the evils that they have committed, for all their abominations. 10 And they shall know that I am the Lord. ^jI have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

11 Thus says the Lord God: ^k“Clap your hands ^land stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, ^mfor they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. 12 ⁿHe who is far off shall die of pestilence, and he who is near shall fall by the sword, and he who is left and is preserved shall die of famine. ^oThus I will spend my fury upon them. 13 And you shall know that I am the Lord, ^pwhen their slain lie among their idols around their altars, ^qon every high hill, ^ron all the mountaintops, ^sunder every green tree, and under ^tevery leafy oak, wherever ^uthey offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. 14 And ^vI will stretch out my hand against them and ^wmake the land desolate and waste, ^xin all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to ^yRiblah.¹⁵ Then ^zthey will know that I am the Lord.”

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.¹⁶ 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!¹⁷ Behold, it comes. 6 ^bAn end has come; the end has come; it has awakened against you. Behold, it comes. 7 ⁱYour doom¹⁸ 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.¹⁹ 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.²⁰ 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.²¹

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 treasured²² place. Robbers shall enter ^land profane it.

23 ^o“Forge a chain!^{23 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 places²⁴ 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 law²⁵ 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.”

The Certainty of God’s Promise

13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater by whom to swear, ^ehe swore by himself, 14 saying, ^f“Surely I will bless you and multiply you.” 15 And thus Abraham,^{1 g}having patiently waited, obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and in all their disputes ^han oath is final for confirmation. 17 So when God desired to show more convincingly to ⁱthe heirs of the promise ^jthe unchangeable character of his purpose, ^khe guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that by two unchangeable things, in which ^lit is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope ^mset before us. 19 We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters into ⁿthe inner place behind the curtain, 20 where Jesus has gone ^oas a forerunner on our behalf, ^phaving become a high priest forever after the order of Melchizedek.

The Priestly Order of Melchizedek

1 For this ^qMelchizedek, king of ^rSalem, priest of ^sthe Most High God, met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, 2 and to him Abraham apportioned a tenth part of everything. He is first, by translation of his name, king of righteousness, and then he is also king of Salem, that is, king of peace. 3 He is without father or mother ^tor genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but resembling the Son of God he continues a priest forever.

4 See how great this man was to whom Abraham ^uthe patriarch gave a tenth of the spoils! 5 And ^vthose descendants of Levi who receive the priestly office have a commandment in the law to take tithes from the people, that is, from their brothers,² though these also are descended from Abraham. 6 But this man ^wwho does not have his descent from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed ^xhim who had the promises. 7 It is beyond dispute that the inferior is blessed by the superior. 8 In the one case tithes are received by mortal men, but in the other case, by one ^yof whom it is testified that ^zhe lives. 9 One might even say that Levi himself, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, 10 for he was still in the loins of his ancestor when Melchizedek met him.

Jesus Compared to Melchizedek

11 ^aNow if perfection had been attainable through the Levitical priesthood (for under it the people received the law), what further need would there have been for another priest to arise after the order of Melchizedek, rather than one named after the order of Aaron? 12 For when there is a change in the priesthood, there is necessarily a change in the law as well. 13 For the one of whom these things are spoken belonged to another tribe, from which no one has ever served at the altar. 14 For it is evident that our Lord was descended ^bfrom Judah, and in connection with that tribe Moses said nothing about priests.

Let Us Go to the House of the Lord

A Song of ^mAscents. Of David.