The Living Bible (257 page)
Authors: Inc. Tyndale House Publishers
Tags: #BIBLES / Other Translations / Text
How the finest gold has lost its luster! For the inlaid
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Temple walls are scattered in the streets!
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The cream of our youth—the finest of the gold—are treated as earthenware pots.
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Even the jackals feed their young, but not my people, Israel. They are like cruel desert ostriches, heedless of their babies’ cries. The children’s tongues stick to the roofs of their mouths for thirst, for there is not a drop of water left. Babies cry for bread, but no one can give them any.
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Those who used to eat fastidiously are begging in the streets for anything at all. Those brought up in palaces now scratch in garbage pits for food.
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For the sin of my people is greater than that of Sodom, where utter disaster struck in a moment without the hand of man.
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Our princes were lean and tanned,
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the finest specimens of men;
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but now their faces are as black as soot. No one can recognize them. Their skin sticks to their bones; it is dry and hard and withered.
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Those killed by the sword are far better off than those who die of slow starvation.
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Tenderhearted women have cooked and eaten their own children; thus they survived the siege.
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But now at last the anger of the Lord is satisfied; his fiercest anger has been poured out. He started a fire in Jerusalem that burned it down to its foundations.
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Not a king in all the earth—no one in all the world—would have believed an enemy could enter through Jerusalem’s gates!
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Yet God permitted it because of the sins of her prophets and priests, who defiled the city by shedding innocent blood.
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Now these same men are blindly staggering through the streets, covered with blood, defiling everything they touch.
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“Get away!” the people shout at them. “You are defiled!” They flee to distant lands and wander there among the foreigners; but none will let them stay.
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The Lord himself has dealt with them; he no longer helps them, for they persecuted the priests and elders who stayed true to God.
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We look for our allies
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to come and save us, but we look in vain. The nation we expected most to help us makes no move at all.
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We can’t go into the streets without danger to our lives. Our end is near—our days are numbered. We are doomed.
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Our enemies are swifter than the eagles; if we flee to the mountains, they find us. If we hide in the wilderness, they are waiting for us there.
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Our king—the life of our life, the Lord’s anointed—was captured in their snares. Yes, even our mighty king, about whom we had boasted that under his protection we could hold our own against any nation on earth!
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Do you rejoice, O people of Edom, in the land of Uz? But you, too, will feel the awful anger of the Lord.
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Israel’s exile for her sins will end at last, but Edom’s never.
O Lord, remember all that has befallen us; see what sorrows we must bear!
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Our homes, our nation, now are filled with foreigners.
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We are orphans—our fathers dead, our mothers widowed.
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We must even pay for water to drink; our fuel is sold to us at the highest of prices.
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We bow our necks beneath the victors’ feet; unending work is now our lot.
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We beg for bread from Egypt, and Assyria too.
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Our fathers sinned but died before the hand of judgment fell. We have borne the blow that they deserved!
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Our former servants have become our masters; there is no one left to save us.
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We went into the wilderness to hunt for food, risking death from enemies.
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Our skin was black from famine.
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They rape the women of Jerusalem and the girls in Judah’s cities.
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Our princes are hanged by their thumbs. Even aged men are treated with contempt.
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They take away the young men to grind their grain, and the little children stagger beneath their heavy loads.
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The old men sit no longer in the city gates; the young no longer dance and sing.
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The joy of our hearts has ended; our dance has turned to death.
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Our glory is gone. The crown is fallen from our head. Woe upon us for our sins.
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Our hearts are faint and weary; our eyes grow dim.
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Jerusalem and the Temple of the Lord are desolate, deserted by all but wild animals lurking in the ruins.
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O Lord, forever you remain the same! Your throne continues from generation to generation.
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Why do you forget us forever? Why do you forsake us for so long?
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Turn us around and bring us back to you again! That is our only hope! Give us back the joys we used to have!
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Or have you utterly rejected us? Are you angry with us still?
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Ezekiel was a priest (the son of Buzi) who lived with the Jewish exiles beside the Chebar Canal in Babylon.
One day late in June, when I was thirty years old,
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the heavens were suddenly opened to me and I saw visions from God.
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I saw, in this vision, a great storm coming toward me from the north, driving before it a huge cloud glowing with fire, with a mass of fire inside that flashed continually; and in the fire there was something that shone like polished brass.
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Then from the center of the cloud, four strange forms appeared that looked like men,
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except that each had four faces and two pairs of wings!
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Their legs were like those of men, but their feet were cloven like calves’ feet, and shone like burnished brass.
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And beneath each of their wings I could see human hands.
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The four living beings were joined wing to wing, and they flew straight forward without turning.
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Each had the face of a man in front,
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with a lion’s face on the right side of his head,
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and the face of an ox on the left side, and the face of an eagle at the back!
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Each had two pairs of wings spreading out from the middle of his back. One pair stretched out to attach to the wings of the living beings on each side, and the other pair covered his body.
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Wherever their spirit
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went they went, going straight forward without turning.
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Going up and down among them were other forms that glowed like bright coals of fire or brilliant torches, and it was from these the lightning flashed.
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The living beings darted to and fro, swift as lightning.
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As I stared at all of this, I saw four wheels on the ground beneath them, one wheel belonging to each.
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The wheels looked as if they were made of polished amber, and each wheel was constructed with a second wheel crosswise inside.
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They could go in any of the four directions without having to face around.
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The four wheels had rims and spokes, and the rims were filled with eyes around their edges.
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When the four living beings flew forward, the wheels moved forward with them. When they flew upwards, the wheels went up too. When the living beings stopped, the wheels stopped. For the spirit of the four living beings was in the wheels; so wherever their spirit went, the wheels and the living beings went there too.
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The sky spreading out above them looked as though it were made of crystal; it was inexpressibly beautiful.
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The wings of each stretched straight out to touch the others’ wings, and each had two wings covering his body.
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And as they flew, their wings roared like waves against the shore, or like the voice of God, or like the shouting of a mighty army. When they stopped, they let down their wings.
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And every time they stopped, there came a voice from the crystal sky above them.
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For high in the sky above them was what looked like a throne made of beautiful blue sapphire stones, and upon it sat someone who appeared to be a Man.
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From his waist up, he seemed to be all glowing bronze, dazzling like fire; and from his waist down he seemed to be entirely flame, and there was a glowing halo like a rainbow all around him. That was the way the glory of the Lord appeared to me. And when I saw it, I fell face downward on the ground and heard the voice of someone speaking to me: