Today's Reading

¹The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²"Son of man, prophesy against the prophets of Israel who prophesy, and say to those who prophesy out of their own heart, 'Hear the word of the Lord:

³Thus says the Lord God, "Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing!

⁴Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places.

⁵You have not gone up into the gaps, neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of the Lord."

⁶They have seen falsehood and lying divination, who say, "The Lord says"; but the Lord has not sent them: and they have made men to hope that the word would be confirmed.

⁷"Haven't you seen a false vision, and haven't you spoken a lying divination, in that you say, "The Lord says"; but I have not spoken?

⁸Therefore thus says the Lord God: Because you have spoken falsehood, and seen lies, therefore, behold, I am against you, says the Lord God.

⁹My hand shall be against the prophets who see false visions, and who divine lies: they shall not be in the council of my people, neither shall they be written in the writing of the house of Israel, neither shall they enter into the land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the Lord God.

¹⁰Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, 'Peace'; and there is no peace; and when one builds up a wall, behold, they plaster it with whitewash:

¹¹tell those who plaster it with whitewash, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and you, great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall tear it.

¹²Behold, when the wall has fallen, shall it not be said to you, 'Where is the plaster with which you have plastered it?'

¹³"'"Therefore thus says the Lord God: I will even tear it with a stormy wind in my wrath; and there shall be an overflowing shower in my anger, and great hailstones in wrath to consume it.

¹⁴So will I break down the wall that you have plastered with whitewash, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation shall be uncovered; and it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in its midst: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

¹⁵Thus will I accomplish my wrath on the wall, and on those who have plastered it with whitewash; and I will tell you, 'The wall is no more, neither those who plastered it;

¹⁶to wit, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace,'"' says the Lord God."

¹⁷"You, son of man, set your face against the daughters of your people, who prophesy out of their own heart; and prophesy against them,

¹⁸and say, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Woe to the women who sew pillows on all elbows, and make kerchiefs for the head of persons of every stature to hunt souls! Will you hunt the souls of my people, and save souls alive for yourselves?

¹⁹You have profaned me among my people for handfuls of barley and for pieces of bread, to kill the souls who should not die, and to save the souls alive who should not live, by your lying to my people who listen to lies."

²⁰"'Therefore thus says the Lord God: "Behold, I am against your pillows, with which you there hunt the souls to make them fly, and I will tear them from your arms; and I will let the souls go, even the souls whom you hunt to make them fly.

²¹Your kerchiefs also will I tear, and deliver my people out of your hand, and they shall be no more in your hand to be hunted; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

²²Because with lies you have grieved the heart of the righteous, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, and be saved alive:

²³Therefore you shall no more see false visions, nor practice divination. I will deliver my people out of your hand; and you shall know that I am the Lord."'"

¹Then came certain of the elders of Israel to me, and sat before me.

²The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

³"Son of man, these men have taken their idols into their heart, and put the stumbling block of their iniquity before their face: should I be inquired of at all by them?

⁴Therefore speak to them, and tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Every man of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet; I the Lord will answer him therein according to the multitude of his idols;

⁵that I may take the house of Israel in their own heart, because they are all estranged from me through their idols."'

⁶"Therefore tell the house of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord God: "Return, and turn yourselves from your idols; and turn away your faces from all your abominations.

⁷For everyone of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who live in Israel, who separates himself from me, and takes his idols into his heart, and puts the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and comes to the prophet to inquire for himself of me; I the Lord will answer him by myself:

⁸and I will set my face against that man, and will make him an astonishment, for a sign and a proverb, and I will cut him off from the midst of my people; and you shall know that I am the Lord.

⁹"'"If the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, the Lord, have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand on him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.

¹⁰They shall bear their iniquity: the iniquity of the prophet shall be even as the iniquity of him who seeks him;

¹¹that the house of Israel may go no more astray from me, neither defile themselves any more with all their transgressions; but that they may be my people, and I may be their God," says the Lord God.'"

¹²The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

¹³"Son of man, when a land sins against me by committing a trespass, and I stretch out my hand on it, and break the staff of its bread, and send famine on it, and cut off from it man and animal;

¹⁴though these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they should deliver but their own souls by their righteousness, says the Lord God."

¹⁵"If I cause evil animals to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no man may pass through because of the animals;

¹⁶though these three men were in it, as I live," says the Lord God, "they should deliver neither sons nor daughters; they only should be delivered, but the land should be desolate.

¹⁷"Or if I bring a sword on that land, and say, 'Sword, go through the land'; so that I cut off from it man and animal;

¹⁸though these three men were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they should deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they only should be delivered themselves.

¹⁹"Or if I send a pestilence into that land, and pour out my wrath on it in blood, to cut off from it man and animal;

²⁰though Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, as I live, says the Lord God, they should deliver neither son nor daughter; they should but deliver their own souls by their righteousness.

²¹"For thus says the Lord God: 'How much more when I send my four severe judgments on Jerusalem, the sword, and the famine, and the evil animals, and the pestilence, to cut off from it man and animal!

²²Yet, behold, therein shall be left a remnant that shall be carried forth, both sons and daughters: behold, they shall come forth to you, and you shall see their way and their doings; and you shall be comforted concerning the evil that I have brought on Jerusalem, even concerning all that I have brought on it.

²³They shall comfort you, when you see their way and their doings; and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it,' says the Lord God."

¹The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²"Son of man, what is the vine tree more than any tree, the vine-branch which is among the trees of the forest?

³Shall wood be taken of it to make any work? Or will men take a pin of it to hang any vessel thereon?

⁴Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel; the fire has devoured both its ends, and its midst is burned: is it profitable for any work?

⁵Behold, when it was whole, it was meet for no work: how much less, when the fire has devoured it, and it is burned, shall it yet be meet for any work!

⁶"Therefore thus says the Lord God: 'As the vine tree among the trees of the forest, which I have given to the fire for fuel, so will I give the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

⁷I will set my face against them; they shall go forth from the fire, but the fire shall devour them; and you shall know that I am the Lord, when I set my face against them.

⁸I will make the land desolate, because they have committed a trespass,' says the Lord God."

¹Now in the things which we are saying, the main point is this. We have such a high priest, who sat down on the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens,

²a servant of the sanctuary, and of the true tabernacle, which the Lord set up, and not man.

³For every high priest is appointed to offer both gifts and sacrifices. Therefore it is necessary that this high priest also have something to offer.

⁴Now if he were on earth, he would not be a priest at all, seeing there are priests who offer the gifts according to the Law;

⁵who serve a copy and shadow of the heavenly things, even as Moses was warned by God when he was about to make the tabernacle, for he said, "See, you shall make everything according to the pattern that was shown to you on the mountain."

⁶But now he has obtained a more excellent ministry, by so much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which on better promises has been given as Law.

⁷For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second.

⁸For finding fault with them, he said, "Behold, the days come," says the Lord, "that I will make a New Covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah;

⁹not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; for they did not continue in my covenant, and I disregarded them," says the Lord.

¹⁰"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days," says the Lord; "I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

¹¹They will not teach every man his fellow citizen, and every man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them.

¹²For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness. I will remember their sins no more."

¹³In that he says, "A New Covenant," he has made the first old. But that which is becoming old and grows aged is near to vanishing away.

¹Like snow in summer, and as rain in harvest, so honor is not fitting for a fool.

²Like a fluttering sparrow, like a darting swallow, so the undeserved curse doesn't come to rest.

³A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools!

⁴Do not answer a fool according to his folly, lest you also be like him.

⁵Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own eyes.

⁶One who sends a message by the hand of a fool is cutting off feet and drinking violence.

⁷Like the legs of the lame that hang loose: so is a parable in the mouth of fools.

⁸As one who binds a stone in a sling, so is he who gives honor to a fool.

⁹Like a thornbush that goes into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.

¹⁰As an archer who wounds all, so is he who hires a fool or he who hires those who pass by.

¹¹As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.

¹²Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.

¹³The sluggard says, "There is a lion in the road! A fierce lion roams the streets!"

¹⁴As the door turns on its hinges, so does the sluggard on his bed.

¹⁵The sluggard buries his hand in the dish. He is too lazy to bring it back to his mouth.

¹⁶The sluggard is wiser in his own eyes than seven men who answer with discretion.

¹⁷Like one who grabs a dog's ears is one who passes by and meddles in a quarrel not his own.

¹⁸Like a madman who shoots firebrands, arrows, and death,

¹⁹is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, "Am I not joking?"

²⁰For lack of wood a fire goes out. Without gossip, a quarrel dies down.

²¹As coals are to hot embers, and wood to fire, so is a contentious man to kindling strife.

²²The words of a whisperer are as dainty morsels, they go down into the innermost parts.

²³Like silver dross on an earthen vessel are the lips of a fervent one with an evil heart.

²⁴A malicious man disguises himself with his lips, but he harbors evil in his heart.

²⁵When his speech is charming, do not believe him; for there are seven abominations in his heart.

²⁶His malice may be concealed by deception, but his wickedness will be exposed in the assembly.

²⁷Whoever digs a pit shall fall into it. Whoever rolls a stone, it will come back on him.

²⁸A lying tongue hates those it hurts; and a flattering mouth works ruin.