30¹ The word of Yahweh came again to me, saying, ² Son of man, prophesy, and say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Wail, Alas for the day! ³ For the day is near, even the day of Yahweh is near; it shall be a day of clouds, a time of the nations. ⁴ A 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. ⁵ Ethiopia, and Put, and Lud, and all the mixed people, and Cub, and the children of the land that is in league, shall fall with them by the sword. ⁶ Thus says Yahweh: They also who uphold Egypt shall fall; and the pride of her power shall come down: from the tower of Seveneh shall they fall in it by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh. ⁷ They shall be desolate in the midst of the countries that are desolate; and her cities shall be in the midst of the cities that are wasted. ⁸ They shall know that I am Yahweh, when I have set a fire in Egypt, and all her helpers are destroyed. ⁹ In that day shall messengers go forth 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. ¹⁰ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will also make the multitude of Egypt to cease, by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon. ¹¹ He 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. ¹² I 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. ¹³ Thus 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. ¹⁴ I will make Pathros desolate, and will set a fire in Zoan, and will execute judgments on No. ¹⁵ I will pour my wrath on Sin, the stronghold of Egypt; and I will cut off the multitude of No. ¹⁶ I 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. ¹⁷ The young men of Aven and of Pibeseth shall fall by the sword; and these cities shall go into captivity. ¹⁸ At 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. ¹⁹ Thus will I execute judgments on Egypt; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

²⁰ It happened in the eleventh year, in the first month, in the seventh day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ²¹ Son of man, I have broken the arm of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and behold, it has not been bound up, to apply healing medicines, to put a bandage to bind it, that it be strong to hold the sword. ²² Therefore 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. ²³ I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and will disperse them through the countries. ²⁴ I 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 groanings of a deadly wounded man. ²⁵ I 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. ²⁶ I will scatter the Egyptians among the nations, and disperse them through the countries; and they shall know that I am Yahweh.

31¹ It happened in the eleventh year, in the third month, in the first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ² Son of man, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to his multitude: Whom are you like in your greatness? ³ Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with beautiful branches, and with a forest-like shade, and of high stature; and its top was among the thick boughs. ⁴ The waters nourished it, the deep made it to grow: its rivers ran all around its plantation; and it sent out its channels to all the trees of the field. ⁵ Therefore its stature was exalted above all the trees of the field; and its boughs were multiplied, and its branches became long by reason of many waters, when it shot them forth. ⁶ All the birds of the sky made their nests in its boughs; and under its branches did all the animals of the field bring forth their young; and under its shadow lived all great nations. ⁷ Thus was it beautiful in its greatness, in the length of its branches; for its root was by many waters. ⁸ The cedars in the garden of God could not hide it; the fir trees were not like its boughs, and the plane trees were not as its branches; nor was any tree in the garden of God like it in its beauty. ⁹ I made it beautiful by the multitude of its branches, so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied it.

¹⁰ Therefore thus said the Lord Yahweh: Because you are exalted in stature, and he has set his top among the thick boughs, and his heart is lifted up in his height; ¹¹ I will even deliver 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 Strangers, the terrible of the nations, have cut him off, and have left him: on the mountains and in all the valleys his branches are fallen, and his boughs are broken by all the watercourses of the land; and all the peoples of the earth are gone down from his shadow, and have left him. ¹³ On his ruin all the birds of the sky shall dwell, and all the animals of the field shall be on his branches; ¹⁴ to the end that none of all the trees by the waters exalt themselves in their stature, neither set their top among the thick boughs, nor that their mighty ones stand up on their height, even all who drink water: for they are all delivered to death, to the lower parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with those who go down to the pit. ¹⁵ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: In the day when he went down to Sheol I caused a mourning: I covered the deep for him, and I restrained its rivers; and the great waters were stayed; and I caused Lebanon to mourn 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 those who descend 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 to those who are slain by the sword; yes, those who were his arm, that lived under his shadow in the midst of the nations. ¹⁸ To whom are you thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet you will be brought down with the trees of Eden to the lower parts of the earth: you shall lie in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword. This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.

32¹ It happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ² Son of man, take up a lamentation over Pharaoh king of Egypt, and tell him, You were likened to a young lion of the nations: yet you are as a monster in the seas; and you did break forth with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers. ³ Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net. ⁴ I will leave you on the land, I will cast you forth on the open field, and will cause all the birds of the sky to settle on you, and I will satisfy the animals of the whole earth with you. ⁵ I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height. ⁶ I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of you. ⁷ When I shall extinguish you, I will cover the heavens, and make its stars dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give its light. ⁸ All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord Yahweh. ⁹ I will also trouble the hearts of many peoples, when I shall bring your destruction among the nations, into the countries which you have not known. ¹⁰ Yes, I will make many peoples amazed at you, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for you, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of your fall. ¹¹ For thus says the Lord Yahweh: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you. ¹² By the swords of the mighty will I cause your multitude to fall; the terrible of the nations are they all: and they shall bring to nothing the pride of Egypt, and all its multitude shall be destroyed. ¹³ I will destroy also all its animals from beside many waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of animals trouble them. ¹⁴ Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, says the Lord Yahweh. ¹⁵ When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate and waste, a land destitute of that of which it was full, when I shall strike all those who dwell therein, then shall they know that I am Yahweh. ¹⁶ This is the lamentation with which they shall lament; the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith; over Egypt, and over all her multitude, shall they lament therewith, says the Lord Yahweh.

¹⁷ It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, ¹⁸ Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, to the lower parts of the earth, with those who go down into the pit. ¹⁹ Whom do you pass in beauty? Go down, and be laid with the uncircumcised. ²⁰ They shall fall in the midst of those who are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword; draw her away and all her multitudes. ²¹ The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of Sheol with those who help him: they are gone down, they lie still, even the uncircumcised, slain by the sword. ²² Asshur is there and all her company; her graves are all around her; all of them slain, fallen by the sword; ²³ whose graves are set in the uttermost parts of the pit, and her company is around her 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 around her grave; all of them slain, fallen by the sword, who are gone down uncircumcised into the lower parts of the earth, who caused their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit. ²⁵ They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude; her graves are around her; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for their terror was caused in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with those who go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of those who are slain. ²⁶ There is Meshech, Tubal, and all their multitude; their graves are around them; all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword; for they caused their terror in the land of the living. ²⁷ They shall not lie with the mighty who are fallen of the uncircumcised, who are gone down to Sheol with their weapons of war, and have laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities are on their bones; for they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living. ²⁸ But you shall be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shall lie with those who are slain by the sword. ²⁹ There is Edom, her kings and all her princes, who in their might are laid with those who are slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with those who go down to the pit. ³⁰ There are the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Sidonians, who are gone down with the slain; in the terror which they caused by their might they are put to shame; and they lie uncircumcised with those who are slain by the sword, and bear their shame with those who go down to the pit. ³¹ Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army, slain by the sword, says the Lord Yahweh. ³² For I have put his terror in the land of the living; and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised, with those who are slain by the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, says the Lord Yahweh.

Good Stewards of God's Grace

4¹ Forasmuch then as Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind; for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin; ² that you no longer should live the rest of your time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. ³ For we have spent enough of our past time doing the desire of the Gentiles, and having walked in lewdness, lusts, drunken binges, orgies, carousings, and abominable idolatries.

⁴ They think it is strange that you don’t run with them into the same excess of riot, blaspheming: ⁵ who will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. ⁶ For to this end the Good News was preached even to the dead, that they might be judged indeed as men in the flesh, but live as to God in the spirit.

⁷ But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer. ⁸ And above all things be earnest in your love among yourselves, for love covers a multitude of sins. ⁹ Be hospitable to one another without grumbling. ¹⁰ As each has received a gift, employ it in serving one another, as good managers of the grace of God in its various forms. ¹¹ If anyone speaks, let it be as it were the very words of God. If anyone serves, let it be as of the strength which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

Suffering as a Christian

¹² Beloved, don’t be astonished at the fiery trial which has come upon you, to test you, as though a strange thing happened to you. ¹³ But because you are partakers of Christ’s sufferings, rejoice; that at the revelation of his glory you also may rejoice with exceeding joy. ¹⁴ If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed; because the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. ¹⁵ For let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evil doer, or a meddler in other men’s matters. ¹⁶ But if one of you suffers for being a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God in this matter. ¹⁷ For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God. If it begins first with us, what will happen to those who don’t obey the Good News of God? ¹⁸ “If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?” [1] ¹⁹ Therefore let them also who suffer according to the will of God in doing good entrust their souls to him, as to a faithful Creator.