Day 262 of 365

¹In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah: "We have a strong city. He appoints salvation for walls and ramparts.

²Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter: the one which keeps faith.

³You will keep whoever's mind is steadfast in perfect peace, because he trusts in you.

⁴Trust in the Lord forever; for in Yah, the Lord, is an everlasting Rock.

⁵For he has brought down those who dwell on high, the lofty city. He lays it low. He lays it low even to the ground. He brings it even to the dust.

⁶The foot shall tread it down; Even the feet of the poor, and the steps of the needy."

⁷The way of the just is uprightness. You who are upright make the path of the righteous level.

⁸Yes, in the way of your judgments, the Lord, have we waited for you. Your name and your renown are the desire of our soul.

⁹With my soul have I desired you in the night. Yes, with my spirit within me will I seek you earnestly; for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

¹⁰Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness. In the land of uprightness he will deal wrongfully, and will not see the Lord's majesty.

¹¹The Lord, your hand is lifted up, yet they do not see; but they will see your zeal for the people, and be disappointed. Yes, fire will consume your adversaries.

¹²The Lord, you will ordain peace for us, for you have also worked all our works for us.

¹³The Lord our God, other lords besides you have had dominion over us, but by you only will we make mention of your name.

¹⁴The dead shall not live. The deceased shall not rise. Therefore have you visited and destroyed them, and caused all memory of them to perish.

¹⁵You have increased the nation, O Lord. You have increased the nation! You are glorified! You have enlarged all the borders of the land.

¹⁶Lord, in trouble they have visited you. They poured out a prayer when your chastening was on them.

¹⁷Like as a woman with child, who draws near the time of her delivery, is in pain and cries out in her pangs; so we have been before you, Lord.

¹⁸We have been with child. We have been in pain. We gave birth, it seems, only to wind. We have not worked any deliverance in the earth; neither have the inhabitants of the world fallen.

¹⁹Your dead shall live. My dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust; for your dew is like the dew of herbs, and the earth will cast forth the dead.

²⁰Come, my people, enter into your chambers, and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself for a little moment, until the indignation is past.

²¹For, behold, the Lord comes forth out of his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. The earth also will disclose her blood, and will no longer cover her slain.

¹In that day, the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and leviathan the twisted serpent; and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

²In that day, sing to her, "A pleasant vineyard!

³I, the Lord, am its keeper. I will water it every moment. Lest anyone damage it, I will keep it night and day.

⁴Wrath is not in me, but if I should find briers and thorns, I would do battle! I would march on them and I would burn them together.

⁵Or else let him take hold of my strength, that he may make peace with me. Let him make peace with me."

⁶In days to come, Jacob will take root. Israel will blossom and bud. They will fill the surface of the world with fruit.

⁷Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or are they killed like those who killed them were killed?

⁸In measure, when you send them away, you contend with them. He has removed them with his rough blast in the day of the east wind.

⁹Therefore, by this the iniquity of Jacob will be forgiven, and this is all the fruit of taking away his sin: that he makes all the stones of the altar as chalk stones that are beaten in pieces, so that the Asherim and the incense altars shall rise no more.

¹⁰For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness. The calf will feed there, and there he will lie down, and consume its branches.

¹¹When its boughs are withered, they will be broken off. The women will come and set them on fire, for they are a people of no understanding. Therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them, and he who formed them will show them no favor.

¹²It will happen in that day, that the Lord will thresh from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt; and you will be gathered one by one, children of Israel.

¹³It will happen in that day that a great trumpet will be blown; and those who were ready to perish in the land of Assyria, and those who were outcasts in the land of Egypt, shall come; and they will worship the Lord in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

¹Woe to the crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim, and to the fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!

²Behold, the Lord has a mighty and strong one. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand.

³The crown of pride of the drunkards of Ephraim will be trodden under foot.

⁴The fading flower of his glorious beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer; which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it.

⁵In that day, the Lord of hosts will become a crown of glory, and a diadem of beauty, to the residue of his people;

⁶and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.

⁷They also reel with wine, and stagger with strong drink. The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink. They are swallowed up by wine. They stagger with strong drink. They err in vision. They stumble in judgment.

⁸For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness.

⁹Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts?

¹⁰For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little.

¹¹But he will speak to this nation with stammering lips and a strange language;

¹²to whom he said, "This is the resting place. Give rest to weary;" and "This is the refreshing;" yet they would not hear.

¹³Therefore the word of the Lord will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken.

¹⁴Therefore hear the word of the Lord, you scoffers, that rule this people in Jerusalem:

¹⁵"Because you have said, 'We have made a covenant with death, and with Sheol are we in agreement. When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'"

¹⁶Therefore thus says the Lord God, "Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not be in fear.

¹⁷I will make justice the measuring line, and righteousness the plumb line. The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place.

¹⁸Your covenant with death shall be annulled, and your agreement with Sheol shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it.

¹⁹As 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."

²⁰For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in.

²¹For the Lord will rise up as on Mount Perazim. He will be angry as in the valley of Gibeon; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act.

²²Now therefore do not be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a decree of destruction from the Lord, the Lord of hosts, on the whole earth.

²³Give ear, and hear my voice! Listen, and hear my speech!

²⁴Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods?

²⁵When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin seed, and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place?

²⁶For his God instructs him in right judgment, and teaches him.

²⁷For the dill are not threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a rod.

²⁸Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be threshing it. Although he drives the wheel of his threshing cart over it, his horses do not grind it.

²⁹This also comes forth from the Lord of hosts, who is wonderful in counsel, and excellent in wisdom.

¹Praise Yah! Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in his commandments.

²His seed will be mighty in the land. The generation of the upright will be blessed.

³Wealth and riches are in his house. His righteousness endures forever.

⁴Light dawns in the darkness for the upright, gracious, merciful, and righteous.

⁵It is well with the man who deals graciously and lends. He will maintain his cause in judgment.

⁶For he will never be shaken. The righteous will be remembered forever.

⁷He will not be afraid of evil news. His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.

⁸His heart is established, he will not be afraid until he gaze upon his adversaries.

⁹He has dispersed, he has given to the poor. His righteousness endures forever. His horn will be exalted with honor.

¹⁰The wicked will see it, and be grieved. He shall gnash with his teeth, and melt away. The desire of the wicked will perish.

¹Every wise woman builds her house, but the foolish one tears it down with her own hands.

²He who walks in his uprightness fears the Lord, but he who is perverse in his ways despises him.

³The fool's talk brings a rod to his back, but the lips of the wise protect them.

⁴Where no oxen are, the crib is clean, but much increase is by the strength of the ox.

⁵A truthful witness will not lie, but a false witness pours out lies.

⁶A scoffer seeks wisdom, and doesn't find it, but knowledge comes easily to a discerning person.

⁷Stay away from a foolish man, for you won't find knowledge on his lips.

⁸The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.

⁹Fools mock at making atonement for sins, but among the upright there is good will.

¹⁰The heart knows its own bitterness and joy; he will not share these with a stranger.

¹¹The house of the wicked will be overthrown, but the tent of the upright will flourish.

¹²There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

¹³Even in laughter the heart may be sorrowful, and mirth may end in heaviness.

¹⁴The unfaithful will be repaid for his own ways; likewise a good man will be rewarded for his ways.

¹⁵A simple man believes everything, but the prudent man carefully considers his ways.

¹⁶A wise man fears, and shuns evil, but the fool is hotheaded and reckless.

¹⁷He who is quick to become angry will commit folly, and a crafty man is hated.

¹⁸The simple inherit folly, but the prudent are crowned with knowledge.

¹⁹The evil bow down before the good, and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

²⁰The poor person is shunned even by his own neighbor, but the rich person has many friends.

²¹He who despises his neighbor sins, but blessed is he who has pity on the poor.

²²Do they not go astray who plot evil? But love and faithfulness belong to those who plan good.

²³In all hard work there is profit, but the talk of the lips leads only to poverty.

²⁴The crown of the wise is their riches, but the folly of fools crowns them with folly.

²⁵A truthful witness saves souls, but a false witness is deceitful.

²⁶In the fear of the Lord is a secure fortress, and he will be a refuge for his children.

²⁷The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning people from the snares of death.

²⁸In the multitude of people is the king's glory, but in the lack of people is the destruction of the prince.

²⁹He who is slow to anger has great understanding, but he who has a quick temper displays folly.

³⁰The life of the body is a heart at peace, but envy rots the bones.

³¹He who oppresses the poor shows contempt for his Maker, but he who is kind to the needy honors him.

³²The wicked is brought down in his calamity, but in death, the righteous has a refuge.

³³Wisdom rests in the heart of one who has understanding, and is even made known in the inward part of fools.

³⁴Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people.

³⁵The king's favor is toward a servant who deals wisely, but his wrath is toward one who causes shame.