Day 327 of 730

¹It happened in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord 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 broke out with your rivers, and troubled the waters with your feet, and fouled their rivers.'

³"Thus says the Lord God: 'I will spread out my net on you with a company of many peoples; and they shall bring you up in my net.

⁴I 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.

⁵I will lay your flesh on the mountains, and fill the valleys with your height.

⁶I will also water with your blood the land in which you swim, even to the mountains; and the watercourses shall be full of you.

⁷When 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.

⁸All the bright lights of the sky will I make dark over you, and set darkness on your land, says the Lord God.

⁹I 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.

¹⁰Yes, 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 God: 'The sword of the king of Babylon shall come on you.

¹²By 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.

¹³I 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.

¹⁴Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil,' says the Lord God.

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 the Lord.

¹⁶This 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 God."

¹⁷It happened also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the Lord 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.'

²⁰They 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.

²¹The 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;

²³whose 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.

²⁵They 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.

²⁷They 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 God.

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 God.

¹The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²"Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and tell them, 'When I bring the sword on a land, and the people of the land take a man from among them, and set him for their watchman;

³if, when he sees the sword come on the land, he blow the trumpet, and warn the people;

⁴then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, and doesn't take warning, if the sword come, and take him away, his blood shall be on his own head.

⁵He heard the sound of the trumpet, and didn't take warning; his blood shall be on him; whereas if he had taken warning, he would have delivered his soul.

⁶But if the watchman sees the sword come, and doesn't blow the trumpet, and the people aren't warned, and the sword comes, and take any person from among them; he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand.'

⁷"So you, son of man, I have set you a watchman to the house of Israel; therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.

⁸When I tell the wicked, 'O wicked man, you shall surely die,' and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.

⁹Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn't turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.

¹⁰"You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: 'Thus you speak, saying, "Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?"'

¹¹Tell them, 'As I live,' says the Lord God, 'I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, house of Israel?'

¹²"You, son of man, tell the children of your people, 'The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his disobedience; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turns from his wickedness; neither shall he who is righteous be able to live thereby in the day that he sins.'

¹³When I tell the righteous, that he shall surely live; if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he has committed, therein shall he die.

¹⁴Again, when I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die'; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right;

¹⁵if the wicked restore the pledge, give again that which he had taken by robbery, walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity; he shall surely live, he shall not die.

¹⁶None of his sins that he has committed shall be remembered against him: he has done that which is lawful and right; he shall surely live.

¹⁷"Yet the children of your people say, 'The way of the Lord is not equal': but as for them, their way is not equal.

¹⁸When the righteous turns from his righteousness, and commits iniquity, he shall even die therein.

¹⁹When the wicked turns from his wickedness, and does that which is lawful and right, he shall live thereby.

²⁰Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not equal.' House of Israel, I will judge every one of you after his ways."

²¹It happened in the twelfth year of our captivity, in the tenth month, in the fifth day of the month, that one who had escaped out of Jerusalem came to me, saying, "The city has been struck."

²²Now the hand of the Lord had been on me in the evening, before he who was escaped came; and he had opened my mouth, until he came to me in the morning; and my mouth was opened, and I was no more mute.

²³The word of the Lord came to me, saying,

²⁴"Son of man, they who inhabit those waste places in the land of Israel speak, saying, 'Abraham was one, and he inherited the land: but we are many; the land is given us for inheritance.'

²⁵Therefore tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "You eat with the blood, and lift up your eyes to your idols, and shed blood: and shall you possess the land?

²⁶You stand on your sword, you work abomination, and every one of you defiles his neighbor's wife: and shall you possess the land?"'

²⁷"You shall tell them, 'Thus says the Lord God: "As I live, surely those who are in the waste places shall fall by the sword; and him who is in the open field will I give to the animals to be devoured; and those who are in the strongholds and in the caves shall die of the pestilence.

²⁸I will make the land a desolation and an astonishment; and the pride of her power shall cease; and the mountains of Israel shall be desolate, so that none shall pass through.

²⁹Then shall they know that I am the Lord, when I have made the land a desolation and an astonishment, because of all their abominations which they have committed."'

³⁰"As for you, son of man, the children of your people talk of you by the walls and in the doors of the houses, and speak one to another, everyone to his brother, saying, 'Please come and hear what is the word that comes forth from the Lord.'

³¹They come to you as the people come, and they sit before you as my people, and they hear your words, but do not do them; for with their mouth they show much love, but their heart goes after their gain.

³²Behold, you are to them as a very lovely song of one who has a pleasant voice, and can play well on an instrument; for they hear your words, but they do not do them.

³³When this comes to pass, (behold, it comes), then shall they know that a prophet has been among them."

¹The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?

²When evildoers came at me to eat up my flesh, even my adversaries and my foes, they stumbled and fell.

³Though an army should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise against me, even then I will be confident.

⁴One thing I have asked of the Lord, that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to see the Lord's beauty, and to inquire in his temple.

⁵For in the day of trouble he will keep me secretly in his pavilion. In the covert of his tabernacle he will hide me. He will lift me up on a rock.

⁶Now my head will be lifted up above my enemies around me. I will offer sacrifices of joy in his tent. I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the Lord.

⁷Hear, Lord, when I cry with my voice. Have mercy also on me, and answer me.

⁸When you said, "Seek my face," my heart said to you, "I will seek your face, Lord."

⁹Do not hide your face from me. Do not put your servant away in anger. You have been my help. Do not abandon me, neither forsake me, God of my salvation.

¹⁰When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up.

¹¹Teach me your way, Lord. Lead me in a straight path, because of my enemies.

¹²Do not deliver me over to the desire of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen up against me, such as breathe out cruelty.

¹³I am still confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.

¹⁴Wait for the Lord. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for the Lord.

¹Better is a dry morsel with quietness, than a house full of feasting with strife.

²A servant who deals wisely will rule over a son who causes shame, and shall have a part in the inheritance among the brothers.

³The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but the Lord tests the hearts.

⁴An evildoer heeds wicked lips. A liar gives ear to a mischievous tongue.

⁵Whoever mocks the poor reproaches his Maker. He who is glad at calamity shall not be unpunished.

⁶Children's children are the crown of old men; the glory of children are their parents.

⁷Arrogant speech isn't fitting for a fool, much less do lying lips fit a prince.

⁸A bribe is a precious stone in the eyes of him who gives it; wherever he turns, he prospers.

⁹He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends.

¹⁰A rebuke enters deeper into one who has understanding than a hundred lashes into a fool.

¹¹An evil man seeks only rebellion; therefore a cruel messenger shall be sent against him.

¹²Let a bear robbed of her cubs meet a man, rather than a fool in his folly.

¹³Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.

¹⁴The beginning of strife is like breaching a dam, therefore stop contention before quarreling breaks out.

¹⁵He who justifies the wicked, and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord.

¹⁶Why is there money in the hand of a fool to buy wisdom, seeing he has no understanding?

¹⁷A friend loves at all times; and a brother is born for adversity.

¹⁸A man void of understanding strikes hands, and becomes collateral in the presence of his neighbor.

¹⁹He who loves disobedience loves strife. One who builds a high gate seeks destruction.

²⁰One who has a perverse heart doesn't find prosperity, and one who has a deceitful tongue falls into trouble.

²¹He who becomes the father of a fool grieves. The father of a fool has no joy.

²²A cheerful heart makes good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.

²³A wicked man receives a bribe in secret, to pervert the ways of justice.

²⁴Wisdom is before the face of one who has understanding, but the eyes of a fool wander to the ends of the earth.

²⁵A foolish son brings grief to his father, and bitterness to her who bore him.

²⁶Also to punish the righteous is not good, nor to flog officials for their integrity.

²⁷He who spares his words has knowledge. He who is even tempered is a man of understanding.

²⁸Even a fool, when he keeps silent, is counted wise. When he shuts his lips, he is thought to be discerning.