Ezekiel 21:7

Watch! Stand firm in the faith! Be courageous! Be strong!

In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God.

Therefore prepare your minds for action. Be sober, and set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ—

But Moses’ hands were heavy; so they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat on it. Aaron and Hur held up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side. His hands were steady until sunset.

There they were in great fear, where no fear was, for God has scattered the bones of him who encamps against you. You have put them to shame, because God has rejected them.

In that day, it will be said to Jerusalem, “Don’t be afraid, Zion. Don’t let your hands be weak.”

For consider him who has endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, that you don’t grow weary, fainting in your souls.

Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Amalek dwells in the land of the South. The Hittite, the Jebusite, and the Amorite dwell in the hill country. The Canaanite dwells by the sea, and along the side of the Jordan.”

Moab was very afraid of the people, because they were many. Moab was distressed because of the children of Israel.

Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul.

Now therefore proclaim in the ears of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and trembling, let him return and depart from Mount Gilead.’ ” So twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.

Where are the gods of Hamath, and of Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, of Hena, and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria out of my hand?

Why should you be beaten more, that you revolt more and more? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.

Isn’t Calno like Carchemish? Isn’t Hamath like Arpad? Isn’t Samaria like Damascus?”

Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand?

Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment.

Say, ‘Hear Yahweh’s word, kings of Judah, and inhabitants of Jerusalem: Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel says, “Behold, I will bring evil on this place, which whoever hears, his ears will tingle.

Ask now, and see whether a man travails with child. Why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned pale?

Can your heart endure, or can your hands be strong, in the days that I will deal with you? I, Yahweh, have spoken it, and will do it.

Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh, “that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing Yahweh’s words.

and Hamath, also, which borders on it; Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise.

“So be careful, or your hearts will be loaded down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and that day will come on you suddenly.

and said to them, “Why do you sleep? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

For I say through the grace that was given me, to every man who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.

Do this, knowing the time, that it is already time for you to awaken out of sleep, for salvation is now nearer to us than when we first believed.

But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

instructing us to the intent that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we would live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present age;

not forsaking our own assembling together, as the custom of some is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

He divided himself against them by night, he and his servants, and struck them, and pursued them to Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus.

She said to the men, “I know that Yahweh has given you the land, and that the fear of you has fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land melt away before you.

As soon as we had heard it, our hearts melted, and there wasn’t any more spirit in any man, because of you: for Yahweh your God, he is God in heaven above, and on earth beneath.

Yahweh said to Samuel, “Behold, I will do a thing in Israel at which both the ears of everyone who hears it will tingle.

When all our enemies heard of it, all the nations that were around us were afraid, and they lost their confidence; for they perceived that this work was done by our God.

Behold, you have instructed many, you have strengthened the weak hands.

A sound of terrors is in his ears. In prosperity the destroyer will come on him.

I am poured out like water. All my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax. It is melted within me.

We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long.

My knees are weak through fasting. My body is thin and lacks fat.

The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting; for that is the end of all men, and the living should take this to heart.

He said, “Listen now, house of David. Is it not enough for you to try the patience of men, that you will try the patience of my God also?

“Don’t say, ‘A conspiracy!’ concerning all about which this people say, ‘A conspiracy!’ neither fear their threats, nor be terrorized.

They will be dismayed. Pangs and sorrows will seize them. They will be in pain like a woman in labor. They will look in amazement one at another. Their faces will be faces of flame.

One thousand will flee at the threat of one. At the threat of five, you will flee until you are left like a beacon on the top of a mountain, and like a banner on a hill.

But the wicked are like the troubled sea; for it can’t rest and its waters cast up mire and mud.

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule by their own authority; and my people love to have it so. What will you do in the end of it?

Her gates have sunk into the ground. He has destroyed and broken her bars. Her king and her princes are among the nations where the law is not. Yes, her prophets find no vision from Yahweh.

My eyes fail with tears. My heart is troubled. My liver is poured on the earth, because of the destruction of the daughter of my people, because the young children and the infants swoon in the streets of the city.

An end has come. The end has come! It awakes against you. Behold, it comes.

All hands will be feeble, and all knees will be weak as water.

“Son of man, hasn’t the house of Israel, the rebellious house, said to you, ‘What are you doing?’

Then some of the elders of Israel came to me, and sat before me.

“Say now to the rebellious house, ‘Don’t you know what these things mean?’ Tell them, ‘Behold, the king of Babylon came to Jerusalem, and took its king, and its princes, and brought them to him to Babylon.

“When the children of your people speak to you, saying, ‘Won’t you show us what you mean by these?’

Then the king’s face was changed in him, and his thoughts troubled him; and the joints of his thighs were loosened, and his knees struck one against another.

At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have grown pale.

“Therefore night is over you, with no vision, and it is dark to you, that you may not divine; and the sun will go down on the prophets, and the day will be black over them.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know in what hour your Lord comes.

Watch therefore, for you don’t know the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Therefore be watchful all the time, praying that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will happen, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’”

who comforts us in all our affliction, that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, through the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

with all prayer and requests, praying at all times in the Spirit, and being watchful to this end in all perseverance and requests for all the saints:

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Continue steadfastly in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving,

We exhort you, brothers: Admonish the disorderly; encourage the faint-hearted; support the weak; be patient toward all.

Pray without ceasing.

that older men should be temperate, sensible, sober minded, sound in faith, in love, and in perseverance:

Command the people, saying, ‘You are to pass through the border of your brothers, the children of Esau, who dwell in Seir; and they will be afraid of you. Therefore be careful.

My eye also is dim by reason of sorrow. All my members are as a shadow.

My eye wastes away because of grief. It grows old because of all my adversaries.

Therefore all hands will be feeble, and everyone’s heart will melt.

We have heard its report. Our hands become feeble. Anguish has taken hold of us, and pains as of a woman in labor.

The king of Babylon has heard the news of them, and his hands become feeble: anguish has taken hold of him, pains as of a woman in labor.

Mischief will come on mischief, and rumor will be on rumor. They will seek a vision of the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.

I have set the threatening sword against all their gates, that their heart may melt, and their stumblings be multiplied. Ah! It is made as lightning. It is pointed for slaughter.

She is empty, void, and waste. The heart melts, the knees knock together, their bodies and faces have grown pale.

Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed. Trembling takes hold of the mighty men of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.

I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation. I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.

“ ‘As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies. The sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword. They will fall when no one pursues.

Where are we going up? Our brothers have made our heart melt, saying, ‘The people are greater and taller than we. The cities are great and fortified up to the sky. Moreover we have seen the sons of the Anakim there!’ ”

The officers shall speak further to the people, and they shall say, “What man is there who is fearful and faint-hearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest his brother’s heart melt as his heart.”

When all the kings of the Amorites, who were beyond the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, who were by the sea, heard how Yahweh had dried up the waters of the Jordan from before the children of Israel until we had crossed over, their heart melted, and there was no more spirit in them, because of the children of Israel.

The men of Ai struck about thirty-six men of them. They chased them from before the gate even to Shebarim, and struck them at the descent. The hearts of the people melted, and became like water.

Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.

therefore Yahweh the God of Israel says, ‘Behold, I bring such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle.

David’s house was told, “Syria is allied with Ephraim.” His heart trembled, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the forest tremble with the wind.

The spirit of Egypt will fail within it. I will destroy its counsel. They will seek the idols, the charmers, those who have familiar spirits, and the wizards.

As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message.”

Strengthen the weak hands, and make the feeble knees firm.

Oh that I could comfort myself against sorrow! My heart is faint within me.

Of Damascus: “Hamath is confounded, and Arpad; for they have heard evil news. They have melted away. There is sorrow on the sea. It can’t be quiet.

For this our heart is faint. For these things our eyes are dim.

Then I said, “Ah Lord Yahweh! They say of me, ‘Isn’t he a speaker of parables?’ ”

The people asked me, “Won’t you tell us what these things are to us, that you do so?”

men fainting for fear, and for expectation of the things which are coming on the world: for the powers of the heavens will be shaken.

Therefore lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees,

But the end of all things is near. Therefore be of sound mind, self-controlled, and sober in prayer.