The Daily Audio Bible Reading for Tuesday November 2, 2021 (NIV)

A Watchman for Israel

^16 (A)And at the end of seven days, the word of the Lord came to me: ^17 (B)“Son of man, ^(C)I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel. Whenever you hear a word from my mouth, you shall ^(D)give them warning from me. ^18 (E)If I say to the wicked, ^(F)‘You shall surely die,’ ^(G)and you give him no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, in order to save his life, that wicked person ^(H)shall die for^[a] his iniquity, ^(I)but his blood I will require at your hand. ^19 (J)But if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his wickedness, or from his wicked way, he shall die for his iniquity, ^(K)but you ^(L)will have delivered your soul. ^20 (M)Again, if a righteous person turns from his righteousness and commits injustice, ^(N)and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die. ^(O)Because you have not warned him, he shall die for his sin, ^(P)and his righteous deeds that he has done shall not be remembered, ^(Q)but his blood I will require at your hand. ²¹ But if you warn the righteous person not to sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live, because he took warning, and you will have delivered your soul.”

^22 (R)And the hand of the Lord was upon me there. And he said to me, “Arise, go out into ^(S)the valley,^[b] and ^(T)there I will speak with you.” ²³ So I arose and went out into the valley, and behold, ^(U)the glory of the Lord stood there, like the glory that I had seen ^(V)by the Chebar canal, ^(W)and I fell on my face. ^24 (X)But the Spirit entered into me and set me on my feet, and he spoke with me and said to me, “Go, shut yourself within your house. ²⁵ And you, O son of man, behold, ^(Y)cords will be placed upon you, and you shall be bound with them, so that you cannot go out among the people. ²⁶ And I will make your tongue cling to the roof of your mouth, so that ^(Z)you shall be mute and unable to reprove them, ^(AA)for they are a rebellious house. ^27 (AB)But when I speak with you, I will open your mouth, and you shall say to them, ^(AC)‘Thus says the Lord God.’ ^(AD)He who will hear, let him hear; and he who will refuse to hear, let him refuse, for they are a rebellious house.

The Siege of Jerusalem Symbolized

4 “And you, ^(AE)son of man, ^(AF)take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem. ^2 (AG)And put siegeworks against it, ^(AH)and build a siege wall against it, ^(AI)and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, ^(AJ)and 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; ^(AK)and set your face toward it, ^(AL)and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is ^(AM)a sign for the house of Israel.

⁴ “Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment^[c] of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, ^(AN)you shall bear their punishment. ⁵ For I assign to you a number of days, ^(AO)390 days, ^(AP)equal to the number of the years of their punishment. ^(AQ)So long shall you bear ^(AR)the 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 ^(AS)bear ^(AT)the punishment of the house of Judah. ^(AU)Forty days I assign you, a day for each year. ^7 (AV)And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, ^(AW)with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city. ⁸ And behold, ^(AX)I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed ^(AY)the days of your siege.

⁹ “And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer,^[d] and put them into a single vessel and make your ^(AZ)bread from them. ^(BA)During the number of days that you lie on your side, ^(BB)390 days, you shall eat it. ¹⁰ And your food that you eat shall be ^(BC)by weight, ^(BD)twenty shekels^[e] a day; from day to day^[f] you shall eat it. ¹¹ And water you shall drink ^(BE)by measure, the sixth part of a hin;^[g] from day to day you shall drink. ¹² And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it ^(BF)in their sight on human dung.” ¹³ And the Lord said, “Thus shall the people of Israel eat ^(BG)their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them.” ¹⁴ Then I said, ^(BH)“Ah, Lord God! Behold, I have never defiled myself.^{[h] (BI)}From my youth up till now I have never eaten ^(BJ)what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has ^(BK)tainted 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, ^(BL)“Son of man, behold, ^(BM)I will break the supply^[i] of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread ^(BN)by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water ^(BO)by measure and in dismay. ¹⁷ I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and ^(BP)look at one another in dismay, and ^(BQ)rot away because of their punishment.

Jerusalem Will Be Destroyed

5 “And you, ^(BR)O son of man, take a ^(BS)sharp sword. Use it as ^(BT)a barber's razor and ^(BU)pass it over your head and your beard. Then take balances for weighing and divide the hair. ^2 (BV)A third part you shall burn in the fire ^(BW)in the midst of the city, ^(BX)when the days of the siege are completed. And a third part you shall take and strike with the sword all around the city. ^(BY)And a third part you shall scatter to the wind, and ^(BZ)I will unsheathe the sword after them. ^3 (CA)And you shall take from these a small number and bind them in the skirts of your robe. ^4 (CB)And 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: ^(CC)This is Jerusalem. I have set her ^(CD)in the center of the nations, with countries all around her. ⁶ And she has rebelled against my rules by doing wickedness ^(CE)more than the nations, and against my statutes more than ^(CF)the 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 ^(CG)more turbulent than the nations that are all around you, ^(CH)and have not walked in my statutes or obeyed my rules, ^(CI)and have not^[j] 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, ^(CJ)am against you. ^(CK)And I will execute judgments^[k] in your midst ^(CL)in the sight of the nations. ⁹ And because of all your abominations I will do with you ^(CM)what I have never yet done, and the like of which I will never do again. ¹⁰ Therefore ^(CN)fathers shall eat their sons in your midst, and sons shall eat their fathers. ^(CO)And I will execute judgments on you, ^(CP)and any of you who survive I will scatter to all the winds. ¹¹ Therefore, ^(CQ)as I live, declares the Lord God, surely, ^(CR)because you have defiled my sanctuary ^(CS)with all your detestable things and with all your ^(CT)abominations, ^(CU)therefore I will withdraw.^{[l] (CV)}My eye will not spare, and I will have no pity. ^12 (CW)A third part of you shall die of pestilence and be consumed with famine in your midst; ^(CX)a third part shall fall by the sword all around you; ^(CY)and a third part I will scatter to all the winds and will unsheathe the sword after them.

^13 (CZ)“Thus shall my anger spend itself, and I will vent my fury upon them and satisfy myself. And they shall know that ^(DA)I am the Lord—that I have spoken in my jealousy—^(DB)when I spend my fury upon them. ¹⁴ Moreover, I will make you ^(DC)a desolation and ^(DD)an object of reproach among ^(DE)the nations all around you and in the sight of all who pass by. ¹⁵ You shall be^[m] a reproach and a taunt, a warning ^(DF)and a horror, to ^(DG)the nations all around you, ^(DH)when I execute judgments on you in anger and fury, and ^(DI)with furious rebukes—I am the Lord; I have spoken— ¹⁶ when I send against you^{[n] (DJ)}the deadly arrows of famine, arrows for destruction, which I will send to destroy you, and when I bring more and more famine upon ^(DK)you and break your supply^[o] of bread. ¹⁷ I will send famine and ^(DL)wild beasts against you, ^(DM)and they will rob you of your children. Pestilence and ^(DN)blood shall pass through you, and I will bring the sword upon you. I am the Lord; I have spoken.”

Judgment Against Idolatry

6 The word of the Lord came to me: ^2 (DO)“Son of man, ^(DP)set your face toward ^(DQ)the mountains of Israel, and ^(DR)prophesy against them, ³ and say, ^(DS)You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God! Thus says the Lord God to ^(DT)the mountains and ^(DU)the hills, to ^(DV)the ravines and the valleys: Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, ^(DW)and I will destroy your high places. ^4 (DX)Your altars shall become desolate, and your ^(DY)incense altars shall be broken, and I will cast down your slain before your idols. ^5 (DZ)And I will lay the dead bodies of the people of Israel before their idols, ^(EA)and I will scatter your bones around your altars. ⁶ Wherever you dwell, ^(EB)the cities shall be waste and ^(EC)the high places ruined, so that your altars will be waste and ruined,^[p] your idols broken and destroyed, your ^(ED)incense 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 (EE)“Yet I will leave some of you alive. When you have among the nations ^(EF)some who escape the sword, and when you are scattered through the countries, ⁹ then those of you who escape ^(EG)will remember me among the nations where they are carried captive, how ^(EH)I have been broken over their whoring heart that has departed from me and over their eyes ^(EI)that go whoring after their idols. ^(EJ)And 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. ^(EK)I have not said in vain that I would do this evil to them.”

¹¹ Thus says the Lord God: ^(EL)“Clap your hands ^(EM)and stamp your foot and say, Alas, because of all the evil abominations of the house of Israel, ^(EN)for they shall fall by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. ^12 (EO)He 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. ^(EP)Thus I will spend my fury upon them. ¹³ And you shall know that I am the Lord, ^(EQ)when their slain lie among their idols around their altars, ^(ER)on every high hill, ^(ES)on all the mountaintops, ^(ET)under every green tree, and under ^(EU)every leafy oak, wherever ^(EV)they offered pleasing aroma to all their idols. ¹⁴ And ^(EW)I will stretch out my hand against them and ^(EX)make the land desolate and waste, ^(EY)in all their dwelling places, from the wilderness to ^(EZ)Riblah.^[q] Then ^(FA)they will know that I am the Lord.”

4 Therefore, while the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem ^(A)to have failed to reach it. ² For good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because ^(B)they were not united by faith with those who listened.^{[a] 3} For we who have believed enter that rest, as he has said,

although his works were finished from the foundation of the world. ⁴ For he has somewhere spoken of the seventh day in this way: ^(D)“And God rested on the seventh day from all his works.” ⁵ And again in this passage he said,

⁶ Since therefore it remains for some to enter it, and those who formerly received the good news ^(F)failed to enter because of disobedience, ⁷ again he appoints a certain day, “Today,” saying through David so long afterward, in the words already quoted,

⁸ For if Joshua had given them rest, God^[b] would not have spoken of another day later on. ⁹ So then, there remains a Sabbath rest for the people of God, ¹⁰ for whoever has entered God's rest has also ^(H)rested from his works as God did from his.

¹¹ Let us therefore strive to enter that rest, so ^(I)that no one may fall by the same sort of disobedience. ¹² For ^(J)the word of God is living and ^(K)active, ^(L)sharper than any ^(M)two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and ^(N)discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. ¹³ And ^(O)no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are ^(P)naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Jesus the Great High Priest

¹⁴ Since then we have ^(Q)a great high priest ^(R)who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, ^(S)let us hold fast our confession. ¹⁵ For we do not have a high priest ^(T)who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been ^(U)tempted as we are, ^(V)yet without sin. ^16 (W)Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.