Nov 18th

that you built yourself a shrine and made yourself a high place in every square.

You built yourself a high place at the head of every street and made your beauty abominable, and you spread your legs to every passer-by to multiply your harlotry.

You also played the harlot with the Egyptians, your lustful neighbors, and you multiplied your harlotry to provoke Me to anger.

Behold now, I have stretched out My hand against you and cut off your rations. And I gave you up to the desire of those who hate you, the daughters of the Philistines, who are ashamed of your lewd way.

Moreover, you played the harlot with the Assyrians because you were not satisfied; you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied.

You also multiplied your harlotry with the land of merchants, Chaldea, yet even with this you were not satisfied.” ’ ”

“How languishing is your heart,” declares Lord Yahweh, “while you do all these things, the actions of a bold-faced harlot.

When you built your shrine at the head of every way and made your high place in every square, in disdaining your earnings, you were not like a harlot.

You adulteress wife, who takes strangers instead of her husband!

Men give gifts to all harlots, but you give your gifts to all your lovers to bribe them to come to you from all around for your harlotries.

Thus you are the opposite of those women in your harlotries, in that no one plays the harlot as you do, because you give away your earnings and no earnings are given to you; thus you are the opposite.”

Therefore, O harlot, hear the word of Yahweh.

Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Because your lewdness was poured out and your nakedness uncovered through your harlotries with your lovers and with all your abominable idols, and because of the blood of your sons which you gave to idols,

therefore, behold, I will gather all your lovers with whom you took pleasure, even all those whom you loved and all those whom you hated. So I will gather them against you from all around and uncover your nakedness to them that they may see all your nakedness.

Thus I will judge you like women who commit adultery or shed blood are judged; and I will bring on you the blood of wrath and jealousy.

I will also give you into the hands of your lovers, and they will pull down your shrines, tear down your high places, strip you of your clothing, take away your splendid jewelry, and will leave you naked and bare.

They will bring up an assembly against you, and they will stone you and cut you to pieces with their swords.

They will burn your houses with fire and execute judgments on you in the sight of many women. Then I will make you cease from playing the harlot, and you will also no longer give your earnings to your lovers.

So I will cause My wrath against you to be at rest, and My jealousy will depart from you, and I will be quiet, and I will not be provoked anymore.

Because you have not remembered the days of your youth but have enraged Me by all these things, behold, I in turn will bring your way down on your own head,” declares Lord Yahweh, “so that you will not commit this lewdness on top of all your other abominations.

“Behold, everyone who quotes proverbs will quote this proverb concerning you, saying, ‘Like mother, like daughter.’

You are the daughter of your mother, who loathed her husband and children. You are also the sister of your sisters, who loathed their husbands and children. Your mother was a Hittite and your father an Amorite.

Now your older sister is Samaria, who lives north of you with her daughters; and your younger sister, who lives south of you, is Sodom with her daughters.

Yet you have not merely walked in their ways or done according to their abominations; but, as if that were too little, you acted more corruptly in all your ways than they.

As I live,” declares Lord Yahweh, “Sodom your sister and her daughters have not done as you and your daughters have done.

Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had lofty pride, abundant food, and quiet ease, but she did not strengthen the hand of the afflicted and needy.

Then they were haughty and committed abominations before Me. So I removed them when I saw it.

Furthermore, Samaria did not commit half of your sins, for you have multiplied your abominations more than they. Thus you have made your sisters appear righteous by all your abominations which you have done.

Also bear your dishonor in that you have made judgment favorable for your sisters. Because of your sins in which you acted more abominably than they, they are more in the right than you. Yes, be also ashamed and bear your dishonor, in that you made your sisters appear righteous.

“Nevertheless, I will return their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters, the captivity of Samaria and her daughters, and along with them your own captivity,

in order that you may bear your dishonor and feel dishonor for all that you have done when you become a comfort to them.

Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state, and you with your daughters will also return to your former state.

As the name of your sister Sodom was not heard in your mouth in your day of lofty pride,

before your wickedness was uncovered, so now you have become the reproach of the daughters of Edom and of all who are around her, of the daughters of the Philistines—those all around you who despise you.

You have borne the penalty of your lewdness and abominations,” declares Yahweh.

For thus says Lord Yahweh, “I will also do with you as you have done, you who have despised the oath by breaking the covenant.

“Nevertheless, I Myself will remember My covenant with you in the days of your youth, and I will establish an everlasting covenant with you.

Then you will remember your ways and feel dishonor when you receive your sisters, both your older and your younger; and I will give them to you as daughters, but not because of your covenant.

Thus I will establish My covenant with you, and you shall know that I am Yahweh,

so that you may remember and be ashamed and never open your mouth anymore because of your dishonor, when I have atoned for you for all that you have done,” declares Lord Yahweh.

Now the word of Yahweh came to me saying,

“Son of man, propound a riddle and speak a parable to the house of Israel,

and you will say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “A great eagle with great wings, long pinions, and a full plumage of many colors came to Lebanon and took away the top of the cedar.

He plucked off the topmost of its young twigs and brought it to a land of merchants; he set it in a city of traders.

He also took some of the seed of the land and planted it in a field fit for seed. He placed it beside abundant waters; he set it like a willow.

Then it sprouted and became a low, spreading vine with its foliage turned toward him, but its roots remained under it. So it became a vine and yielded shoots and sent out branches.

“But there was another great eagle with great wings and much plumage; and behold, this vine bent its roots toward him and sent out its foliage toward him from the beds where it was planted, that he might water it.

It was planted in a good field beside abundant waters, that it might yield branches and bear fruit and become a majestic vine.” ’

Say, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “Will it succeed? Will he not pull up its roots and cut off its fruit, so that it dries up—so that all its sprouting leaves dry up? And neither by great strength nor by many people can it be raised from its roots again.

And behold, though it is planted, will it succeed? Will it not completely dry up as soon as the east wind strikes it—dry up on the beds where it sprouted?” ’ ”

Moreover, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Do you not know what these things mean?’ Say, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, took its king and princes, and brought them to him in Babylon.

He took one of the royal seed and cut a covenant with him and brought him under oath. He also took away the dominant one of the land,

that the kingdom might become lowly, not lifting itself up, but keeping his covenant that it might continue.

But he rebelled against him by sending his messengers to Egypt that they might give him horses and many troops. Will he succeed? Will he who does such things escape? Can he indeed break the covenant and escape?

As I live,’ declares Lord Yahweh, ‘Surely in the country of the king who made him king, whose oath he despised and whose covenant he broke, in Babylon he shall die.

And Pharaoh with his mighty military force and great assembly will not help him in the war, when they cast up ramps and build siege walls to cut off many lives.

Now he despised the oath by breaking the covenant, and behold, he pledged his allegiance, yet did all these things; he shall not escape.’ ”

Therefore, thus says Lord Yahweh, “As I live, surely My oath which he despised and My covenant which he broke, I will put on his head.

I will spread My net over him, and he will be caught in My snare. Then I will bring him to Babylon and enter into judgment with him there regarding the unfaithful act which he has committed against Me.

All the choice men in all his troops will fall by the sword, and the remnant will be scattered to every wind; and you will know that I, Yahweh, have spoken.”

Thus says Lord Yahweh, “I will also take a sprig from the lofty top of the cedar and set it out; I will pluck from the topmost of its young twigs a tender one, and I will plant it on an exalted and lofty mountain.

On the high mountain of Israel I will plant it, that it may lift up boughs and yield fruit and become a majestic cedar. And birds of every kind will dwell under it; they will dwell in the shade of its branches.

And all the trees of the field will know that I am Yahweh; I bring down the exalted tree, exalt the low tree, dry up the green tree, and make the dry tree flourish. I am Yahweh; I have spoken, and I will do it.”

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form of things, can never, by the same sacrifices which they offer continually year by year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, would they not have ceased to be offered, because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have consciousness of sins?

But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year.

For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says,

After saying above, “Sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have not desired, nor have You taken pleasure in them” (which are offered according to the Law),

then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” He takes away the first in order to establish the second.

By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins;

but He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God,

waiting from that time until His enemies are put as a footstool for His feet.

For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

And the Holy Spirit also testifies to us, for after saying,

He then says,

Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus,

by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh,

and since we have a great priest over the house of God,

let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.

Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful.

And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds,

not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.