30¹ And the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ² Son of man, prophesy and say, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Howl ye, Alas for the day! ³ For the day is at hand, yea, the day of Jehovah is at hand, a day of clouds; it shall be the time of the nations. ⁴ And the sword shall come upon Egypt, and there shall be anguish in Ethiopia, when the slain shall fall in Egypt, and they shall take away her multitude, and her foundations shall be overthrown. ⁵ Cush, and Phut, and Lud, and all the mingled people, and Chub, and the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. ⁶ Thus saith Jehovah: They also that uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her strength shall come down: from Migdol to Syene shall they fall in her by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah. ⁷ And they shall be desolated in the midst of the countries that are desolated, and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. ⁸ And they shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers shall be broken. ⁹ In that day shall messengers go forth from me in ships, to make careless Ethiopia afraid; and anguish shall come upon them, as in the day of Egypt: for behold, it cometh! ¹⁰ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease by the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon. ¹¹ He and his people with him, the terrible of the nations, shall be brought to destroy the land; and they shall draw their swords against Egypt, and fill the land with slain. ¹² And I will make the rivers dry, and sell the land into the hand of the wicked; and I will make the land desolate, and all that is therein, by the hand of strangers: I Jehovah have spoken [it]. ¹³ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also destroy the idols, and I will cause the images to cease out of Noph; and there shall be no more a prince out of the land of Egypt; and I will put fear in the land of Egypt. ¹⁴ And I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgment in No. ¹⁵ And I will pour my fury upon Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. ¹⁶ And I will set a fire in Egypt: Sin shall be in great anguish, and No shall be rent asunder, and at Noph [there shall be] enemies in open day. ¹⁷ The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these shall go into captivity. ¹⁸ And at Tehaphnehes the day shall be darkened, when I break there the yokes of Egypt, and the pride of her strength shall cease in her; as for her, a cloud shall cover her, and her daughters shall go into captivity. ¹⁹ Thus will I execute judgments in Egypt; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

²⁰ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first [month], on the seventh of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ²¹ Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it shall not be bound up to apply remedies, to put a bandage to bind it, to make it strong to hold the sword. ²² Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I am against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and will break his arms, the strong one, and that which was broken; and I will cause the sword to fall out of his hand. ²³ And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. ²⁴ And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and put my sword in his hand; and I will break Pharaoh's arms, so that he shall groan before him with the groanings of a deadly-wounded [man]. ²⁵ And I will strengthen the arms of the king of Babylon, and the arms of Pharaoh shall fall down; and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have put my sword into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall have stretched it out upon the land of Egypt. ²⁶ And I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries: and they shall know that I [am] Jehovah.

31¹ And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the third [month], on the first of the month, [that] the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ² Son of man, say unto Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom art thou like in thy greatness? ³ Behold, Assyria was a cedar in Lebanon, with fair branches and a shadowing shroud, and of a high stature: and his top was amidst the thick boughs. ⁴ The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high; its streams ran round about his plantation, and it sent out its rivulets unto all the trees of the field. ⁵ Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long, because of great waters, when he shot forth. ⁶ All the fowl of the heavens made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all the great nations. ⁷ Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: because his root was by great waters. ⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him; the cypresses were not like his boughs, and the plane-trees were not as his branches: no tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. ⁹ I had made him fair by the multitude of his branches; and all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.

¹⁰ Therefore thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Because thou hast lifted up thyself in stature, ... and he hath set his top amidst the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height, ¹¹ I have given him into the hand of the mighty one of the nations; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness. ¹² And strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off and have left him; upon the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken in all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. ¹³ Upon his fallen [trunk] do all the fowl of the heavens dwell, and all the beasts of the field are upon his branches: ¹⁴ to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, nor set their top amidst the thick boughs, and that none of them that drink water stand up in his height by himself; for they are all given over unto death in the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down to the pit. ¹⁵ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: In the day when he went down to Sheol, I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained the floods thereof, and the great waters were stayed; and I made Lebanon black for him, and all the trees of the field fainted for him. ¹⁶ I made the nations to shake at the sound of his fall, when I cast him down to Sheol, with them that go down into the pit; and all the trees of Eden, the choice and best of Lebanon, all that drink water, were comforted in the lower parts of the earth. ¹⁷ They also went down into Sheol with him unto them that were slain with the sword, and [that were] his arm, that dwelt under his shadow in the midst of the nations. ¹⁸ To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? Yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden, unto the lower parts of the earth; thou shalt lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

32¹ And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, on the first of the month, that the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ² Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou wast like a young lion among the nations, and thou wast as a monster in the seas; and thou didst break forth in thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers. ³ Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: I will also spread out my net over thee with an assemblage of many peoples; and they shall bring thee up in my net. ⁴ And I will leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowl of the heavens to settle upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee. ⁵ And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with the heap of thy [members]; ⁶ and I will water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the water-courses shall be full of thee. ⁷ And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heavens, and make the stars thereof black; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light. ⁸ All the bright lights of the heavens will I make black over thee, and bring darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord Jehovah. ⁹ And I will vex the heart of many peoples, when I bring [the news of] thy destruction among the nations, into the countries that thou hast not known. ¹⁰ And I will make many peoples amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid at thee, when I brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, each one for his life, in the day of thy fall. ¹¹ For thus saith the Lord Jehovah: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee. ¹² By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall: the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall spoil the pride of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed. ¹³ And I will destroy all the beasts thereof, from beside the great waters; and the foot of man shall not trouble them any more, nor shall the cloven hoofs of beasts trouble them. ¹⁴ Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord Jehovah. ¹⁵ When I shall make the land of Egypt a desolation, and the country shall be left desolate of all that was in it, when I have smitten all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I [am] Jehovah. ¹⁶ It is a lamentation, and [thus] they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall say it in lamenting; they shall say it in lamenting over Egypt and over all her multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

¹⁷ And it came to pass in the twelfth year, on the fifteenth of the month, the word of Jehovah came unto me, saying, ¹⁸ Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, her and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the lower parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit. ¹⁹ Whom dost thou surpass in beauty? Go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised. ²⁰ They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword. The sword hath been given: draw her out, and all her multitudes. ²¹ The strong among the mighty, with them that helped him, shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol: they are gone down, they lie still, the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. ²² There is Asshur and all his assemblage, his graves round about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword; ²³ their graves are set in the sides of the pit, and his assemblage is round about his grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword,—who caused terror in the land of the living. ²⁴ There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised unto the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit. ²⁵ They have set him a bed in the midst of the slain, with all his multitude: their graves are round about him, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though their terror was caused in the land of the living; and they have borne their confusion with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that are slain. ²⁶ There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude, their graves round about them, all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living. ²⁷ And they lie not with the mighty, [that are] fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war; and whose swords are laid under their heads, and whose iniquities are upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. ²⁸ Thou also shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword. ²⁹ There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, who in their might are laid with them that are slain by the sword: they lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit. ³⁰ There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, that are gone down with the slain—ashamed of the terror which they caused through their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and bear their confusion with them that go down to the pit. ³¹ Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord Jehovah. ³² For I have caused my terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword, Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord Jehovah.

Good Stewards of God's Grace

4¹ Christ, then, having suffered for us in [the] flesh, do ye also arm yourselves with the same mind; for he that has suffered in [the] flesh has done with sin, ² no longer to live the rest of [his] time in [the] flesh to men's lusts, but to God's will. ³ For the time past [is] sufficient [for us] to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, walking in lasciviousness, lusts, wine-drinking, revels, drinkings, and unhallowed idolatries.

⁴ Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with [them] to the same sink of corruption, speaking injuriously [of you]; ⁵ who shall render account to him who is ready to judge [the] living and [the] dead. ⁶ For to this [end] were the glad tidings preached to [the] dead also, that they might be judged, as regards men, after [the] flesh, but live, as regards God, after [the] Spirit.

⁷ But the end of all things is drawn nigh: be sober therefore, and be watchful unto prayers; ⁸ but before all things having fervent love among yourselves, because love covers a multitude of sins; ⁹ hospitable one to another, without murmuring; ¹⁰ each according as he has received a gift, ministering it to one another, as good stewards of [the] various grace of God. ¹¹ If any one speak—as oracles of God; if any one minister—as of strength which God supplies; that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom is the glory and the might for the ages of ages. Amen.

Suffering as a Christian

¹² Beloved, take not [as] strange the fire [of persecution] which has taken place amongst you for [your] trial, as if a strange thing was happening to you; ¹³ but as ye have share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice, that in the revelation of his glory also ye may rejoice with exultation. ¹⁴ If ye are reproached in [the] name of Christ, blessed [are ye]; for the [Spirit] of glory and the Spirit of God rests upon you: [on their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified.] ¹⁵ Let none of you suffer indeed as murderer, or thief, or evildoer, or as overseer of other people's matters; ¹⁶ but if as a christian, let him not be ashamed, but glorify God in this name. ¹⁷ For the time of having the judgment begin from the house of God [is come]; but if first from us, what [shall be] the end of those who obey not the glad tidings of God? ¹⁸ And if the righteous is difficultly saved, where shall the impious and [the] sinner appear? ¹⁹ Wherefore also let them who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls in well-doing to a faithful Creator.