Day 378 of 730

¹"In that day there will be a spring opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness.

²It will come to pass in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land.

³It will happen that, when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, 'You must die, because you speak lies in the name of the Lord;' and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies.

⁴It will happen in that day, that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision, when he prophesies; neither will they wear a hairy mantle to deceive:

⁵but he will say, 'I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.'

⁶One will say to him, 'What are these wounds between your hands?' Then he will answer, 'Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.'

⁷"Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me," says the Lord of hosts. "Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones.

⁸It shall happen that in all the land," says the Lord, "two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it.

⁹I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, 'It is my people;' and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'"

¹Hear my teaching, my people. Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.

²I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old,

³which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

⁴We will not hide them from their children, telling to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, his strength, and his wondrous works that he has done.

⁵For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a teaching in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;

⁶that the generation to come might know, even the children who should be born; who should arise and tell their children,

⁷that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments,

⁸and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not make their hearts loyal, whose spirit was not steadfast with God.

⁹The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.

¹⁰They did not keep God's covenant, and refused to walk by his Law.

¹¹They forgot his doings, his wondrous works that he had shown them.

¹²He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.

¹³He split the sea, and caused them to pass through. He made the waters stand as a heap.

¹⁴In the daytime he also led them with a cloud, and all night with a light of fire.

¹⁵He split rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink abundantly as out of the depths.

¹⁶He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.

¹⁷Yet they still went on to sin against him, to rebel against the Most High in the desert.

¹⁸They tempted God in their heart by asking food according to their desire.

¹⁹Yes, they spoke against God. They said, "Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?

²⁰Behold, he struck the rock, so that waters gushed out, and streams overflowed. Can he give bread also? Will he provide flesh for his people?"

²¹Therefore the Lord heard, and was angry. A fire was kindled against Jacob, anger also went up against Israel,

²²because they did not believe in God, and did not trust in his salvation.

²³Yet he commanded the skies above, and opened the doors of heaven.

²⁴He rained down manna on them to eat, and gave them bread from heaven.

²⁵Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food to the full.

²⁶He caused the east wind to blow in the sky. By his power he guided the south wind.

²⁷He rained also flesh on them as the dust; winged birds as the sand of the seas.

²⁸He let them fall in the midst of their camp, around their habitations.

²⁹So they ate, and were well filled. He gave them their own desire.

³⁰They did not turn from their cravings. Their food was yet in their mouths,

³¹when the anger of God went up against them, killed some of the fattest of them, and struck down the young men of Israel.

³²For all this they still sinned, and did not believe in his wondrous works.

³³Therefore he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.

³⁴When he killed them, then they inquired after him. They returned and sought God earnestly.

³⁵They remembered that God was their rock, the Most High God, their redeemer.

³⁶But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied to him with their tongue.

³⁷For their heart was not right with him, neither were they faithful in his covenant.

³⁸But he, being merciful, forgave iniquity, and did not destroy them. Yes, many times he turned his anger away, and did not stir up all his wrath.

³⁹He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passes away, and doesn't come again.

⁴⁰How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!

⁴¹They turned again and tempted God, and provoked the Holy One of Israel.

⁴²They did not remember his hand, nor the day when he redeemed them from the adversary;

⁴³how he set his signs in Egypt, his wonders in the field of Zoan,

⁴⁴he turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, so that they could not drink.

⁴⁵He sent among them swarms of flies, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

⁴⁶He gave also their increase to the caterpillar, and their labor to the locust.

⁴⁷He destroyed their vines with hail, their sycamore fig trees with frost.

⁴⁸He gave over their livestock also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.

⁴⁹He threw on them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, and a band of destroying angels.

⁵⁰He made a path for his anger. He did not spare their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,

⁵¹and struck all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tents of Ham.

⁵²But he led forth his own people like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.

⁵³He led them safely, so that they weren't afraid, but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.

⁵⁴He brought them to the border of his sanctuary, to this mountain, which his right hand had taken.

⁵⁵He also drove out the nations before them, allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.

⁵⁶Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and did not keep his testimonies;

⁵⁷but turned back, and dealt treacherously like their fathers. They were turned aside like a deceitful bow.

⁵⁸For they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their engraved images.

⁵⁹When God heard this, he was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;

⁶⁰So that he forsook the tent of Shiloh, the tent which he placed among men;

⁶¹and delivered his strength into captivity, his glory into the adversary's hand.

⁶²He also gave his people over to the sword, and was angry with his inheritance.

⁶³Fire devoured their young men. Their virgins had no wedding song.

⁶⁴Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows couldn't weep.

⁶⁵Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man who shouts by reason of wine.

⁶⁶He struck his adversaries backward. He put them to a perpetual reproach.

⁶⁷Moreover he rejected the tent of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,

⁶⁸But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which he loved.

⁶⁹He built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he has established forever.

⁷⁰He also chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;

⁷¹from following the ewes that have their young, he brought him to be the shepherd of Jacob, his people, and Israel, his inheritance.

⁷²So he was their shepherd according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.

¹My son, if you have become collateral for your neighbor, if you have struck your hands in pledge for a stranger;

²You are trapped by the words of your mouth. You are ensnared with the words of your mouth.

³Do this now, my son, and deliver yourself, seeing you have come into the hand of your neighbor. Go, humble yourself. Press your plea with your neighbor.

⁴Give no sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids.

⁵Free yourself, like a gazelle from the hand of the hunter, like a bird from the snare of the fowler.

⁶Go to the ant, you sluggard. Consider her ways, and be wise;

⁷which having no chief, overseer, or ruler,

⁸provides her bread in the summer, and gathers her food in the harvest.

⁹How long will you sleep, sluggard? When will you arise out of your sleep?

¹⁰A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep:

¹¹so your poverty will come as a robber, and your scarcity as an armed man.

¹²A worthless person, a man of iniquity, is he who walks with a perverse mouth;

¹³who winks with his eyes, who signals with his feet, who motions with his fingers;

¹⁴in whose heart is perverseness, who devises evil continually, who always sows discord.

¹⁵Therefore his calamity will come suddenly. He will be broken suddenly, and that without remedy.

¹⁶There are six things which the Lord hates; yes, seven which are an abomination to him:

¹⁷haughty eyes, a lying tongue, hands that shed innocent blood;

¹⁸a heart that devises wicked schemes, feet that are swift in running to mischief,

¹⁹a false witness who utters lies, and he who sows discord among brothers.

²⁰My son, keep your father's commandment, and do not forsake your mother's teaching.

²¹Bind them continually on your heart. Tie them around your neck.

²²When you walk, it will lead you. When you sleep, it will watch over you. When you awake, it will talk with you.

²³For the commandment is a lamp, and the Law is light. Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,

²⁴to keep you from the immoral woman, from the flattery of the wayward wife's tongue.

²⁵Do not lust after her beauty in your heart, neither let her captivate you with her eyelids.

²⁶For a prostitute reduces you to a piece of bread. The adulteress hunts for your precious life.

²⁷Can a man scoop fire into his lap, and his clothes not be burned?

²⁸Or can one walk on hot coals, and his feet not be scorched?

²⁹So is he who goes in to his neighbor's wife. Whoever touches her will not be unpunished.

³⁰Men do not despise a thief, if he steals to satisfy himself when he is hungry:

³¹but if he is found, he shall restore seven times. He shall give all the wealth of his house.

³²He who commits adultery with a woman is void of understanding. He who does it destroys his own soul.

³³He will get wounds and dishonor. His reproach will not be wiped away.

³⁴For jealousy arouses the fury of the husband. He won't spare in the day of vengeance.

³⁵He won't regard any ransom, neither will he rest content, though you give many gifts.