The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Sunday November 10, 2019 (NIV)

God’s Sword of Judgment

21 The word of the Lord came to me again: ² “Son of man, face^(A) Jerusalem and preach against the sanctuaries. Prophesy against the land of Israel, ³ and say to it, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am against you.^(B) I will draw my sword from its sheath and cut off from you both the righteous and the wicked. ⁴ Since I will cut off^[a] both the righteous and the wicked, my sword will therefore come out of its sheath against all people from the south to the north.^{(C) 5} So all people will know that I, the Lord, have taken my sword from its sheath—it will not be sheathed again.’^(D)

⁶ “But you, son of man, groan! Groan bitterly with a broken heart^[b] right before their eyes. ⁷ And when they ask you, ‘Why are you groaning?’ then say, ‘Because of the news that is coming.^(E) Every heart will melt, and every hand will become weak. Every spirit will be discouraged, and all knees will run with urine.^[c] Yes, it is coming and it will happen. This is the declaration of the Lord God.’”

⁸ The word of the Lord came to me: ⁹ “Son of man, prophesy, ‘This is what the Lord says!’ You are to proclaim,

¹² “Cry out and wail, son of man, for it is against my people. It is against all the princes of Israel! They are given over to the sword with my people. Therefore strike your thigh in grief.^{(I) 13} Surely it will be a trial! And what if the sword despises even the scepter? The scepter will not continue.”^[e] This is the declaration of the Lord God.

¹⁴ “So you, son of man, prophesy and clap your hands together:^(J)

¹⁷ I also will clap my hands together, and I will satisfy my wrath.^(M) I, the Lord, have spoken.”

¹⁸ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁹ “Now you, son of man, mark out two roads that the sword of Babylon’s king can take. Both of them should originate from the same land. And make a signpost at the fork in the road to each city. ²⁰ Mark out a road that the sword can take to Rabbah of the Ammonites^(N) and to Judah into fortified Jerusalem. ²¹ For the king of Babylon stands at the split in the road, at the fork of the two roads, to practice divination: he shakes the arrows, consults the idols, and observes the liver. ²² The answer marked^[i] Jerusalem appears in his right hand, indicating that he should set up battering rams,^(O) give the order to^[j] slaughter, raise a battle cry, set battering rams against the gates, build a ramp, and construct a siege wall. ²³ It will seem like false divination to those who have sworn an oath to the Babylonians,^[k](P) but it will draw attention to their guilt so that they will be captured.

²⁴ “Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because you have drawn attention to your guilt, exposing your transgressions, so that your sins are revealed in all your actions—since you have done this, you will be captured by them. ²⁵ And you, profane and wicked prince of Israel,^[l](Q) the day has come^(R) for your punishment.^[m]

²⁶ “This is what the Lord God says:

²⁸ “Now you, son of man, prophesy, and say, ‘This is what the Lord God says concerning the Ammonites and their contempt.’ You are to proclaim,

Indictment of Sinful Jerusalem

22 The word of the Lord came to me: ² “As for you, son of man, will you pass judgment? Will you pass judgment against the city of blood? Then explain all her detestable practices to her.^{(Z) 3} You are to say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: A city that sheds blood^(AA) within her walls so that her time of judgment has come and who makes idols for herself so that she is defiled! ⁴ You are guilty of the blood you have shed,^(AB) and you are defiled from the idols you have made. You have brought your judgment^[q] days near and have come to your years of punishment.^[r] Therefore, I have made you a disgrace to the nations and a mockery to all the lands. ⁵ Those who are near and those far away from you will mock you, you infamous one full of turmoil.

⁶ “‘Look, every prince of Israel^(AC) within you has used his strength to shed blood. ⁷ Father and mother are treated with contempt,^(AD) and the resident alien is exploited within you. The fatherless and widow are oppressed in you.^{(AE) 8} You despise my holy things and profane my Sabbaths.^{(AF) 9} There are men within you who slander in order to shed blood.^(AG) People who live in you eat at the mountain shrines;^[s] they commit depraved acts within you. ¹⁰ Men within you have sexual intercourse with their father’s wife and violate women during their menstrual impurity.^{(AH) 11} One man within you commits a detestable act with his neighbor’s wife;^(AI) another defiles his daughter-in-law with depravity; and yet another violates his sister, his father’s daughter.^{(AJ) 12} People who live in you accept bribes in order to shed blood.^(AK) You take interest and profit on a loan and brutally extort your neighbors.^(AL) You have forgotten me.^(AM) This is the declaration of the Lord God.

¹³ “‘Now look, I clap my hands together against the dishonest profit you have made^(AN) and against the blood shed among you. ¹⁴ Will your courage endure^(AO) or your hands be strong in the days when I deal with you? I, the Lord, have spoken, and I will act.^{(AP) 15} I will disperse you among the nations and scatter you among the countries;^(AQ) I will purge your uncleanness.^{(AR) 16} You^[t] will be profaned in the sight of the nations. Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”^(AS)

Jerusalem as God’s Furnace

¹⁷ The word of the Lord came to me: ¹⁸ “Son of man, the house of Israel has become merely dross to me.^(AT) All of them are copper, tin, iron, and lead inside the furnace;^(AU) they are just dross from silver. ¹⁹ Therefore, this is what the Lord God says: Because all of you have become dross, I am about to gather you into Jerusalem. ²⁰ Just as one gathers silver, copper, iron, lead, and tin into the furnace to blow fire^(AV) on them and melt them, so I will gather you in my anger and wrath, put you inside, and melt you. ²¹ Yes, I will gather you together and blow on you with the fire of my fury, and you will be melted within the city. ²² As silver is melted inside a furnace, so you will be melted inside the city. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out my wrath on you.”^(AW)

Indictment of a Sinful Land

²³ The word of the Lord came to me: ²⁴ “Son of man, say to her, ‘You are a land that has not been cleansed,^(AX) that has not received rain in the day of indignation.’ ²⁵ The conspiracy of her prophets^(AY) within her is^[u] like a roaring lion tearing its prey: they devour people, seize wealth and valuables, and multiply the widows within her. ²⁶ Her priests do violence to my instruction and profane my holy things.^(AZ) They make no distinction between the holy and the common, and they do not explain the difference between the clean and the unclean.^(BA) They close their eyes to my Sabbaths, and I am profaned among them.

²⁷ “Her officials within her are like wolves tearing their prey, shedding blood, and destroying lives in order to make profit dishonestly. ²⁸ Her prophets plaster for them with whitewash by seeing false visions and lying divinations,^(BB) saying, ‘This is what the Lord God says,’ when the Lord has not spoken. ²⁹ The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery.^(BC) They have oppressed the poor and needy and unlawfully exploited the resident alien. ³⁰ I searched for a man among them who would repair the wall^(BD) and stand in the gap before me on behalf of the land so that I might not destroy it,^(BE) but I found no one. ³¹ So I have poured out my indignation on them and consumed them with the fire of my fury. I have brought their conduct down on their own heads.”^(BF) This is the declaration of the Lord God.

The Perfect Sacrifice

10 Since the law has only a shadow of the good things^(A) to come, and not the reality itself of those things, it can never perfect the worshipers by the same sacrifices they continually offer year after year. ² Otherwise, wouldn’t they have stopped being offered, since the worshipers, purified once and for all, would no longer have any consciousness of sins? ³ But in the sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year after year. ⁴ For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

⁵ Therefore, as he was coming into the world, he said:

⁸ After he says above, You did not desire or delight in sacrifices and offerings, whole burnt offerings and sin offerings (which are offered according to the law^(C)), ⁹ he then says, See, I have come to do your will.^[b] He takes away the first to establish the second. ¹⁰ By this will, we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all time.^(D)

¹¹ Every priest stands day after day ministering and offering the same sacrifices time after time, which can never take away sins.^{(E) 12} But this man, after offering one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God.^{[c](F) 13} He is now waiting until his enemies are made his footstool.^{(G) 14} For by one offering he has perfected forever those who are sanctified. ¹⁵ The Holy Spirit also testifies to us about this. For after he says:

the Lord says,

¹⁷ andI will never again remember

Psalm 108

A Plea for Victory

A song. A psalm of David.