Ezekiel’s Call

¹“Son of man,” He said to me, “stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.”

²And as He spoke to me, the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet, and I heard Him speaking to me.

³“Son of man,” He said to me, “I am sending you to the Israelites, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me. To this very day they and their fathers have rebelled against Me.

⁴They are obstinate and stubborn children. I am sending you to them, and you are to say to them, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says.’

⁵And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

⁶But you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns surround you, and you dwell among scorpions. Do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their presence, though they are a rebellious house.

⁷But speak My words to them, whether they listen or refuse to listen, for they are rebellious.

⁸And you, son of man, listen to what I tell you. Do not be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

⁹Then I looked and saw a hand reaching out to me, and in it was a scroll,

¹⁰which He unrolled before me. And written on the front and back of it were words of lamentation, mourning, and woe.

Jacob Prepares to Meet Esau

¹Jacob also went on his way, and the angels of God met him.

²When Jacob saw them, he said, “This is the camp of God.” So he named that place Mahanaim.

³Jacob sent messengers ahead of him to his brother Esau in the land of Seir, the country of Edom.

⁴He instructed them, “You are to say to my master Esau, ‘Your servant Jacob says: I have been staying with Laban and have remained there until now.

⁵I have oxen, donkeys, flocks, menservants, and maidservants. I have sent this message to inform my master, so that I may find favor in your sight.’”

⁶When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you—he and four hundred men with him.”

⁷In great fear and distress, Jacob divided his people into two camps, as well as the flocks and herds and camels.

⁸He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one camp, then the other camp can escape.”

⁹Then Jacob declared, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, the LORD who told me, ‘Go back to your country and to your kindred, and I will make you prosper,’

¹⁰I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. Indeed, with only my staff I came across the Jordan, but now I have become two camps.

¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid that he may come and attack me and the mothers and children with me.

¹²But You have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper, and I will make your offspring like the sand of the sea, too numerous to count.’”

¹³Jacob spent the night there, and from what he had brought with him, he selected a gift for his brother Esau:

¹⁴200 female goats, 20 male goats, 200 ewes, 20 rams,

¹⁵30 milk camels with their young, 40 cows, 10 bulls, 20 female donkeys, and 10 male donkeys.

¹⁶He entrusted them to his servants in separate herds and told them, “Go on ahead of me, and keep some distance between the herds.”

¹⁷He instructed the one in the lead, “When my brother Esau meets you and asks, ‘To whom do you belong, where are you going, and whose animals are these before you?’

¹⁸then you are to say, ‘They belong to your servant Jacob. They are a gift, sent to my lord Esau. And behold, Jacob is behind us.’”

¹⁹He also instructed the second, the third, and all those following behind the herds: “When you meet Esau, you are to say the same thing to him.

²⁰You are also to say, ‘Look, your servant Jacob is right behind us.’” For he thought, “I will appease Esauwith the gift that is going before me. After that I can face him, and perhaps he will accept me.”

²¹So Jacob’s gifts went on before him, while he spent the night in the camp.

Jacob Wrestles with God

²²During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants, and his eleven sons, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok.

²³He took them and sent them across the stream, along with all his possessions.

²⁴So Jacob was left all alone, and there a manwrestled with him until daybreak.

²⁵When the man saw that he could not overpower Jacob, he struck the socket of Jacob’s hip and dislocated it as they wrestled.

²⁶Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷“What is your name?” the man asked.“Jacob,” he replied.

²⁸Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob,but Israel,because you have struggled with God and with men, and you have prevailed.”

²⁹And Jacob requested, “Please tell me your name.”But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed Jacob there.

³⁰So Jacob named the place Peniel,saying, “Indeed, I have seen God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

³¹The sun rose above him as he passed by Penuel,and he was limping because of his hip.

³²Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was struck near that tendon.

Judgment on Moab

¹Concerning Moab, this is what the LORD of Hosts, the God of Israel, says:“Woe to Nebo,for it will be devastated.Kiriathaim will be captured and disgraced;the fortress will be shattered and dismantled.

²There is no longer praise for Moab;in Heshbonthey devise evil against her:‘Come, let us cut her off from nationhood.’You too, O people of Madmen,will be silenced;the sword will pursue you.

³A voice cries out from Horonaim:‘Devastation and great destruction!’

⁴Moab will be shattered;her little ones will cry out.

⁵For on the ascent to Luhiththey weep bitterly as they go,and on the descent to Horonaimcries of distress resoundover the destruction:

⁶‘Flee! Run for your lives!Become like a juniper in the desert.’

⁷Because you trust in your works and treasures,you too will be captured,and Chemosh will go into exilewith his priests and officials.

⁸The destroyer will move against every city,and not one town will escape.The valley will also be ruined,and the high plain will be destroyed,as the LORD has said.

⁹Put salt on Moab,for she will be laid waste;her cities will become desolate,with no one to dwell in them.

¹⁰Cursed is the one who is remissin doing the work of the LORD,and cursed is he who withholdshis sword from bloodshed.

¹¹Moab has been at ease from youth,settled like wine on its dregs;he has not been poured from vessel to vesselor gone into exile.So his flavor has remained the same,and his aroma is unchanged.

¹²Therefore behold, the days are coming,declares the LORD,when I will send to him wanderers,who will pour him out.They will empty his vesselsand shatter his jars.

¹³Then Moab will be ashamed of Chemosh,just as the house of Israel was ashamedwhen they trusted in Bethel.

¹⁴How can you say, ‘We are warriors,mighty men ready for battle’?

¹⁵Moab has been destroyedand its towns have been invaded;the best of its young menhave gone down in the slaughter,declares the King,whose name is the LORD of Hosts.

¹⁶Moab’s calamity is at hand,and his affliction is rushing swiftly.

¹⁷Mourn for him, all you who surround him,everyone who knows his name;tell how the mighty scepter is shattered—the glorious staff!

¹⁸Come down from your glory; sit on parched ground,O daughter dwelling in Dibon,for the destroyer of Moab has come against you;he has destroyed your fortresses.

¹⁹Stand by the road and watch,O dweller of Aroer!Ask the man fleeing or the woman escaping,‘What has happened?’

²⁰Moab is put to shame, for it has been shattered.Wail and cry out!Declare by the Arnonthat Moab is destroyed.

²¹Judgment has come upon the high plain—upon Holon, Jahzah,and Mephaath,

²²upon Dibon, Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim,

²³upon Kiriathaim, Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon,

²⁴upon Kerioth, Bozrah, and all the towns of Moab,those far and near.

²⁵The horn of Moab has been cut off,and his arm is broken,”declares the LORD.

²⁶“Make him drunk,because he has magnified himself against the LORD;so Moab will wallow in his own vomit,and he will also become a laughingstock.

²⁷Was not Israel your object of ridicule?Was he ever found among thieves?For whenever you speak of himyou shake your head.

²⁸Abandon the towns and settle among the rocks,O dwellers of Moab!Be like a dovethat nests at the mouth of a cave.

²⁹We have heard of Moab’s pomposity,his exceeding pride and conceit,his proud arrogance and haughtiness of heart.

³⁰I know his insolence,”declares the LORD,“but it is futile.His boasting is as empty as his deeds.

³¹Therefore I will wail for Moab;I will cry out for all of Moab;I will moan for the men of Kir-heres.

³²I will weep for you, O vine of Sibmah,more than I weep for Jazer.Your tendrils have extended to the sea;they reach even to Jazer.The destroyer has descendedon your summer fruit and grape harvest.

³³Joy and gladness are removed from the orchardand from the fields of Moab.I have stopped the flow of wine from the presses;no one treads them with shouts of joy;their shouts are not for joy.

³⁴There is a cry from Heshbon to Elealeh;they raise their voices to Jahaz,from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah;for even the waters of Nimrim have dried up.

³⁵In Moab, declares the LORD,I will bring an endto those who make offerings on the high placesand burn incense to their gods.

³⁶Therefore My heart laments like a flute for Moab;it laments like a flute for the men of Kir-heres,because the wealth they acquired has perished.

³⁷For every head is shavedand every beard is clipped;on every hand is a gash,and around every waist is sackcloth.

³⁸On all the rooftops of Moaband in the public squares,everyone is mourning;for I have shattered Moab like an unwanted jar,”declares the LORD.

³⁹“How shattered it is! How they wail!How Moab has turned his back in shame!Moab has become an object of ridicule and horrorto all those around him.”

⁴⁰For this is what the LORD says:“Behold, an eagle swoops downand spreads his wings against Moab.

⁴¹Kirioth has been taken,and the strongholds seized.In that day the heart of Moab’s warriorswill be like the heart of a woman in labor.

⁴²Moab will be destroyed as a nationbecause he vaunted himself against the LORD.

⁴³Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of Moab,”declares the LORD.

⁴⁴“Whoever flees the panicwill fall into the pit,and whoever climbs from the pitwill be caught in the snare.For I will bring upon Moabthe year of their punishment,”declares the LORD.

⁴⁵“Those who flee will stand helpless in Heshbon’s shadow,because fire has gone forth from Heshbonand a flame from within Sihon.It devours the foreheads of Moaband the skulls of the sons of tumult.

⁴⁶Woe to you, O Moab!The people of Chemosh have perished;for your sons have been taken into exileand your daughters have gone into captivity.

⁴⁷Yet in the latter days I will restore Moab from captivity,”declares the LORD.Here ends the judgment on Moab.

Sing for Joy to God Our Strength

¹Sing for joy to God our strength;make a joyful noise to the God of Jacob.

²Lift up a song, strike the tambourine,play the sweet-sounding harp and lyre.

³Sound the ram’s horn at the New Moon,and at the full moon on the day of our Feast.

⁴For this is a statute for Israel,an ordinance of the God of Jacob.

⁵He ordained it as a testimony for Josephwhen he went out over the land of Egypt,where I heard an unfamiliar language:

⁶“I relieved his shoulder of the burden;his hands were freed from the basket.

⁷You called out in distress, and I rescued you;I answered you from the cloud of thunder;I tested you at the waters of Meribah.Selah

⁸Hear, O My people, and I will warn you:O Israel, if only you would listen to Me!

⁹There must be no strange god among you,nor shall you bow to a foreign god.

¹⁰I am the LORD your God,who brought you up out of Egypt.Open wide your mouth,and I will fill it.

¹¹But My people would not listen to Me,and Israel would not obey Me.

¹²So I gave them up to their stubborn heartsto follow their own devices.

¹³If only My people would listen to Me,if Israel would follow My ways,

¹⁴how soon I would subdue their enemiesand turn My hand against their foes!

¹⁵Those who hate the LORD would feign obedience,and their doom would last forever.

¹⁶But I would feed you the finest wheat;with honey from the rock I would satisfy you.”