Day 266 of 730

¹Woe to you who destroy, but you weren't destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed.

²Lord, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble.

³At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered.

⁴Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap.

⁵The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness.

⁶There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of the Lord is your treasure.

⁷Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly.

⁸The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn't regard man.

⁹The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare.

¹⁰"Now I will arise," says the Lord; "Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted.

¹¹You will conceive chaff. You will bring forth stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you.

¹²The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire.

¹³Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might."

¹⁴The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning?

¹⁵He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil-

¹⁶he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure.

¹⁷Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land.

¹⁸Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers?

¹⁹You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can't comprehend, with a strange language that you can't understand.

²⁰Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won't be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken.

²¹But there the Lord will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there.

²²For the Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our king. He will save us.

²³Your rigging is untied. They couldn't strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn't spread the sail. Then the prey of a great spoil was divided. The lame took the prey.

²⁴The inhabitant won't say, "I am sick." The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

¹Come near, you nations, to hear! Listen, you peoples. Let the earth and all it contains hear; the world, and everything that comes from it.

²For the Lord is enraged against all the nations, and angry with all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them. He has given them over for slaughter.

³Their slain will also be cast out, and the stench of their dead bodies will come up; and the mountains will melt in their blood.

⁴All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.

⁵For my sword has drunk its fill in the sky. Behold, it will come down on Edom, and on the people of my curse, for judgment.

⁶The Lord's sword is filled with blood. It is covered with fat, with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams; for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, And a great slaughter in the land of Edom.

⁷The wild oxen will come down with them, and the young bulls with the mighty bulls; and their land will be drunken with blood, and their dust made greasy with fat.

⁸For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.

⁹Its streams will be turned into pitch, its dust into sulfur, And its land will become burning pitch.

¹⁰It won't be quenched night nor day. Its smoke will go up forever. From generation to generation, it will lie waste. No one will pass through it forever and ever.

¹¹But the pelican and the porcupine will possess it. The owl and the raven will dwell in it. He will stretch the line of confusion over it, and the plumb line of emptiness.

¹²They shall call its nobles to the kingdom, but none shall be there; and all its princes shall be nothing.

¹³Thorns will come up in its palaces, nettles and thistles in its fortresses; and it will be a habitation of jackals, a court for ostriches.

¹⁴The wild animals of the desert will meet with the wolves, and the wild goat will cry to his fellow. Yes, the night creature shall settle there, and shall find herself a place of rest.

¹⁵The arrow snake will make her nest there, and lay, hatch, and gather under her shade. Yes, the kites will be gathered there, every one with her mate.

¹⁶Search in the book of the Lord, and read: not one of these will be missing. None will lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded, and his Spirit has gathered them.

¹⁷He has cast the lot for them, and his hand has divided it to them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever. From generation to generation they will dwell in it.

¹I love the Lord, because he listens to my voice, and my cries for mercy.

²Because he has turned his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.

³The cords of death surrounded me, the pains of Sheol got a hold of me. I found trouble and sorrow.

⁴Then I called on the name of the Lord: "Lord, I beg you, deliver my soul."

⁵The Lord is Gracious and righteous. Yes, our God is merciful.

⁶The Lord preserves the simple. I was brought low, and he saved me.

⁷Return to your rest, my soul, for the Lord has dealt bountifully with you.

⁸For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, and my feet from falling.

⁹I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁰I believed, therefore I said, "I am greatly afflicted."

¹¹I said in my haste, "All men are liars."

¹²What will I give to the Lord for all his benefits toward me?

¹³I will take the cup of salvation, and call on the name of the Lord.

¹⁴I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all his people.

¹⁵Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones.

¹⁶Lord, truly I am your servant. I am your servant, the son of your handmaid. You have freed me from my chains.

¹⁷I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call on the name of the Lord.

¹⁸I will pay my vows to the Lord, yes, in the presence of all his people,

¹⁹in the courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of you, Jerusalem. Praise Yah!

¹An unfriendly man pursues selfishness, and defies all sound judgment.

²A fool has no delight in understanding, but only in revealing his own opinion.

³When wickedness comes, contempt also comes, and with shame comes disgrace.

⁴The words of a man's mouth are like deep waters. The fountain of wisdom is like a flowing brook.

⁵To be partial to the faces of the wicked is not good, nor to deprive the innocent of justice.

⁶A fool's lips come into strife, and his mouth invites beatings.

⁷A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are a snare to his soul.

⁸The words of a gossip are like dainty morsels: they go down into a person's innermost parts.

⁹One who is slack in his work is brother to him who is a master of destruction.

¹⁰The name of the Lord is a strong tower: the righteous run to him, and are safe.

¹¹The rich man's wealth is his strong city, like an unscalable wall in his own imagination.

¹²Before destruction the heart of man is proud, but before honor is humility.

¹³He who gives answer before he hears, that is folly and shame to him.

¹⁴A man's spirit will sustain him in sickness, but a crushed spirit, who can bear?

¹⁵The heart of the discerning gets knowledge. The ear of the wise seeks knowledge.

¹⁶A man's gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

¹⁷He who pleads his cause first seems right; until another comes and questions him.

¹⁸The lot settles disputes, and keeps strong ones apart.

¹⁹A brother offended is more difficult than a fortified city; and disputes are like the bars of a castle.

²⁰A man's stomach is filled with the fruit of his mouth. With the harvest of his lips he is satisfied.

²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue; those who love it will eat its fruit.

²²Whoever finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor of the Lord.

²³The poor plead for mercy, but the rich answer harshly.

²⁴A man of many companions may be ruined, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.