Bible in a Year · Day 263 of 365
Today’s reading: Ezekiel 28–30 (3 chapters)
Read the passage below, or open your own Bible and follow along. The text here is the World English Bible, a public-domain translation, printed in full so the day’s reading is all on one page.
About Ezekiel
Ezekiel was a priest taken to Babylon, and his book is full of visions that are hard to picture and hard to forget. He sees the glory of God by a river, then watches that glory leave the temple, and later watches it return. He acts out the siege, lies on his side for weeks, and shaves his head as signs for a people who will not listen. The book also holds the valley of dry bones and the promise of a new heart of flesh. Much of it is dated, which gives the reader a timeline through the exile.
What to watch for. Watch the movement of God's glory, out of the temple and back again, and notice how the promise of a new heart in chapter 36 answers the diagnosis of chapter 36. Read the dry bones as a promise to people who think they are finished.
Ezekiel 28
1Yahweh’s word came again to me, saying, 2Son of man, tell the prince of Tyre, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because your heart is lifted up, and you have said, I am a god, I sit in the seat of God, in the middle of the seas; yet you are man, and not God, though you set your heart as the heart of God — 3behold, you are wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that is hidden from you; 4by your wisdom and by your understanding you have gotten yourself riches, and have gotten gold and silver into your treasures; 5by your great wisdom and by your traffic you have increased your riches, and your heart is lifted up because of your riches —
6therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Because you have set your heart as the heart of God, 7therefore, behold, I will bring strangers on you, the terrible of the nations; and they shall draw their swords against the beauty of your wisdom, and they shall defile your brightness. 8They shall bring you down to the pit; and you shall die the death of those who are slain, in the heart of the seas. 9Will you yet say before him who kills you, I am God? but you are man, and not God, in the hand of him who wounds you. 10You shall die the death of the uncircumcised by the hand of strangers: for I have spoken it, says the Lord Yahweh.
11Moreover Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 12Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You were the seal of full measure, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty. 13You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared. 14You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, so that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the middle of the stones of fire. 15You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
16By the abundance of your traffic they filled your insides with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, covering cherub, from the middle of the stones of fire. 17Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you. 18By the multitude of your iniquities, in the unrighteousness of your traffic, you have profaned your sanctuaries; therefore I have brought out a fire from the middle of you; it has devoured you, and I have turned you to ashes on the earth in the sight of all those who see you. 19All those who know you among the peoples shall be astonished at you: you have become a terror, and you shall exist no more. 20Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
21Son of man, set your face toward Sidon, and prophesy against it, 22and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against you, Sidon; and I will be glorified among you; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall have executed judgments in her, and shall be sanctified in her. 23For I will send pestilence into her, and blood into her streets; and the wounded shall fall within her, with the sword on her on every side; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. 24There shall be no more a pricking brier to the house of Israel, nor a hurting thorn of any that are around them, that scorned them; and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh. 25Thus says the Lord Yahweh: When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the peoples among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations, then shall they dwell in their own land which I gave to my servant Jacob.
26They shall dwell securely therein; yes, they shall build houses, and plant vineyards, and shall dwell securely, when I have executed judgments on all those who do them despite all around them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh their God.
Ezekiel 29
1In the tenth year, in the tenth month, on the twelfth day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 2“Son of man, set your face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him and against all Egypt. 3Speak and say, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the middle of his rivers, that has said, ‘My river is my own, and I have made it for myself.’ 4I will put hooks in your jaws, and I will make the fish of your rivers stick to your scales; and I will bring you up out of the middle of your rivers, with all the fish of your rivers which stick to your scales. 5I’ll cast you out into the wilderness, you and all the fish of your rivers. You’ll fall on the open field. You won’t be brought together, nor gathered. I have given you for food to the animals of the earth and to the birds of the sky.
6All the inhabitants of Egypt will know that I am Yahweh, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. 7When they took hold of you by your hand, you broke, and tore all their shoulders; and when they leaned on you, you broke, and paralyzed all of their thighs.” 8Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: “Behold, I will bring a sword on you, and will cut off man and animal from you. 9The land of Egypt shall be a desolation and a waste; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. Because he has said, ‘The river is mine, and I have made it;’ 10therefore, behold, I am against you, and against your rivers, and I will make the land of Egypt an utter waste and desolation, from the tower of Seveneh even to the border of Ethiopia.
11No foot of man shall pass through it, nor foot of animal shall pass through it, neither shall it be inhabited forty years. 12I will make the land of Egypt a desolation in the middle of the countries that are desolate; and her cities among the cities that are laid waste shall be a desolation forty years; and I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries.” 13For thus says the Lord Yahweh: “At the end of forty years will I gather the Egyptians from the peoples where they were scattered; 14and I will bring back the captivity of Egypt, and will cause them to return into the land of Pathros, into the land of their birth; and they shall be there a base kingdom. 15It shall be the base of the kingdoms; neither shall it any more lift itself up above the nations: and I will diminish them, that they shall no more rule over the nations.
16It shall be no more the confidence of the house of Israel, bringing iniquity to memory, when they turn to look after them: and they shall know that I am the Lord Yahweh.”’” 17It came to pass in the seven and twentieth year, in the first month, in the first day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, 18Son of man, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon caused his army to serve a great service against Tyre: every head was made bald, and every shoulder was worn; yet had he no wages, nor his army, from Tyre, for the service that he had served against it. 19Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I will give the land of Egypt to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon; and he shall carry off her multitude, and take her plunder, and take her prey; and it shall be the wages for his army. 20I have given him the land of Egypt as his recompense for which he served, because they worked for me, says the Lord Yahweh.
21In that day will I cause a horn to sprout for the house of Israel, and I will give you the opening of the mouth among them; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
Ezekiel 30
1Yahweh’s word came again to me, saying, 2Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas for the day! 3For the day is near, even the day of Yahweh is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations. 4A sword shall come on Egypt, and anguish shall be in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt; and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be broken down. 5Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed people, and Cub, and the children of the land that is allied with them, shall fall with them by the sword.
6Yahweh says: They also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: they shall fall by the sword in it from the tower of Seveneh, says the Lord Yahweh. 7They shall be desolate in the middle of the countries that are desolate; and her cities shall be in the middle of the cities that are wasted. 8They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed. 9In that day messengers will go out from before me in ships to make the careless Ethiopians afraid; and there shall be anguish on them, as in the day of Egypt; for, behold, it comes. 10Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon.
11He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought in to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with the slain. 12I will make the rivers dry, and will sell the land into the hand of evil men; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I, Yahweh, have spoken it. 13Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease from Memphis; and there shall be no more a prince from the land of Egypt: and I will put a fear in the land of Egypt. 14I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No. 15I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No.
16I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be broken up; and Memphis shall have adversaries in the daytime. 17The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and they shall go into captivity. 18At Tehaphnehes also the day shall withdraw itself, when I shall break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her power shall cease in her: as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. 19Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt; and they shall know that I am Yahweh. 20In the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, Yahweh’s word came to me, saying,
21Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up, to apply medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword. 22Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong arm, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. 23I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. 24I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand: but I will break the arms of Pharaoh, and he shall groan before him with the groaning of a mortally wounded man. 25I will hold up the arms of the king of Babylon; and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I am Yahweh, when I shall put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall stretch it out on the land of Egypt.
26I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.
Next · Day 264: Ezekiel 31–34 →
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public-domain translation. Day numbering follows the calendar year; you can start at Day 1 on any date.
