Ezekiel 4:1-17

(1)  "And you, son of man, take a brick and lay it before you, and engrave on it a city, even Jerusalem.

(2)  And put siegeworks against it, and build a siege wall against it, and cast up a mound against it. Set camps also against it, and plant battering rams against it all around.

(3)  And you, take an iron griddle, and place it as an iron wall between you and the city; and set your face toward it, and let it be in a state of siege, and press the siege against it. This is a sign for the house of Israel.

(4)  "Then lie on your left side, and place the punishment of the house of Israel upon it. For the number of the days that you lie on it, you shall bear their punishment.

(5)  For I assign to you a number of days, 390 days, equal to the number of the years of their punishment. So long shall you bear the punishment of the house of Israel.

(6)  And when you have completed these, you shall lie down a second time, but on your right side, and bear the punishment of the house of Judah. Forty days I assign you, a day for each year.

(7)  And you shall set your face toward the siege of Jerusalem, with your arm bared, and you shall prophesy against the city.

(8)  And behold, I will place cords upon you, so that you cannot turn from one side to the other, till you have completed the days of your siege.

(9)  "And you, take wheat and barley, beans and lentils, millet and emmer, and put them into a single vessel and make your bread from them. During the number of days that you lie on your side, 390 days, you shall eat it.

(10)  And your food that you eat shall be by weight, twenty shekels a day; from day to day you shall eat it.

(11)  And water you shall drink by measure, the sixth part of a hin; from day to day you shall drink.

(12)  And you shall eat it as a barley cake, baking it in their sight on human dung."

(13)  And the LORD said, "Thus shall the people of Israel eat their bread unclean, among the nations where I will drive them."

(14)  Then I said, "Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I have never defiled myself. From my youth up till now I have never eaten what died of itself or was torn by beasts, nor has tainted meat come into my mouth."

(15)  Then he said to me, "See, I assign to you cow's dung instead of human dung, on which you may prepare your bread."

(16)  Moreover, he said to me, "Son of man, behold, I will break the supply of bread in Jerusalem. They shall eat bread by weight and with anxiety, and they shall drink water by measure and in dismay.

(17)  I will do this that they may lack bread and water, and look at one another in dismay, and rot away because of their punishment.

Revelation 13:1-18

(1)  And I saw a beast rising out of the sea, with ten horns and seven heads, with ten diadems on its horns and blasphemous names on its heads.

(2)  And the beast that I saw was like a leopard; its feet were like a bear's, and its mouth was like a lion's mouth. And to it the dragon gave his power and his throne and great authority.

(3)  One of its heads seemed to have a mortal wound, but its mortal wound was healed, and the whole earth marveled as they followed the beast.

(4)  And they worshiped the dragon, for he had given his authority to the beast, and they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast, and who can fight against it?"

(5)  And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months.

(6)  It opened its mouth to utter blasphemies against God, blaspheming his name and his dwelling, that is, those who dwell in heaven.

(7)  Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation,

(8)  and all who dwell on earth will worship it, everyone whose name has not been written before the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb that was slain.

(9)  If anyone has an ear, let him hear:

(10)  If anyone is to be taken captive, to captivity he goes; if anyone is to be slain with the sword, with the sword must he be slain. Here is a call for the endurance and faith of the saints.

(11)  Then I saw another beast rising out of the earth. It had two horns like a lamb and it spoke like a dragon.

(12)  It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed.

(13)  It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people,

(14)  and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived.

(15)  And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain.

(16)  Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead,

(17)  so that no one can buy or sell unless he has the mark, that is, the name of the beast or the number of its name.

(18)  This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666.

• Send to a Friend!