Day 264 of 365

¹Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in justice.

²A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind, and a shelter from the storm, as streams of water in a dry place, as the shade of a large rock in a weary land.

³The eyes of those who see will not be dim, and the ears of those who hear will listen.

⁴The heart of the rash will understand knowledge, and the tongue of the stammerers will be ready to speak plainly.

⁵The fool will no longer be called noble, nor the scoundrel be highly respected.

⁶For the fool will speak folly, and his heart will work iniquity, to practice profanity, and to utter error against the Lord, To make empty the soul of the hungry, and to cause the drink of the thirsty to fail.

⁷The ways of the scoundrel are evil. He devises wicked devices to destroy the humble with lying words, even when the needy speaks right.

⁸But the noble devises noble things; and he will continue in noble things.

⁹Rise up, you women who are at ease! Hear my voice! You careless daughters, give ear to my speech!

¹⁰For days beyond a year you will be troubled, you careless women; for the vintage shall fail. The harvest won't come.

¹¹Tremble, you women who are at ease! Be troubled, you careless ones! Strip yourselves, make yourselves naked, and put sackcloth on your waist.

¹²Beat your breasts for the pleasant fields, for the fruitful vine.

¹³Thorns and briars will come up on my people's land; yes, on all the houses of joy in the joyous city.

¹⁴For the palace will be forsaken. The populous city will be deserted. The hill and the watchtower will be for dens forever, a delight for wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks;

¹⁵Until the Spirit is poured on us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is considered a forest.

¹⁶Then justice will dwell in the wilderness; and righteousness will remain in the fruitful field.

¹⁷The work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and confidence forever.

¹⁸My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in safe dwellings, and in quiet resting places.

¹⁹Though hail flattens the forest, and the city is leveled completely.

²⁰Blessed are you who sow beside all waters, who send out the feet of the ox and the donkey.

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.

¹When Israel went forth out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;

²Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

³The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.

⁴The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.

⁵What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?

⁶You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs?

⁷Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

⁸who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.

¹The plans of the heart belong to man, but the answer of the tongue is from the Lord.

²All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes; but the Lord weighs the motives.

³Commit your deeds to the Lord, and your plans shall succeed.

⁴The Lord has made everything for its own end- yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.

⁵Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the Lord: they shall certainly not be unpunished.

⁶By mercy and truth iniquity is atoned for. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil.

⁷When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

⁸Better is a little with righteousness, than great revenues with injustice.

⁹A man's heart plans his course, but the Lord directs his steps.

¹⁰Inspired judgments are on the lips of the king. He shall not betray his mouth.

¹¹Honest balances and scales are the Lord's; all the weights in the bag are his work.

¹²It is an abomination for kings to do wrong, for the throne is established by righteousness.

¹³Righteous lips are the delight of kings. They value one who speaks the truth.

¹⁴The king's wrath is a messenger of death, but a wise man will pacify it.

¹⁵In the light of the king's face is life. His favor is like a cloud of the spring rain.

¹⁶How much better it is to get wisdom than gold! Yes, to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver.

¹⁷The highway of the upright is to depart from evil. He who keeps his way preserves his soul.

¹⁸Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.

¹⁹It is better to be of a lowly spirit with the poor, than to divide the plunder with the proud.

²⁰He who heeds the Word finds prosperity. Whoever trusts in the Lord is blessed.

²¹The wise in heart shall be called prudent. Pleasantness of the lips promotes instruction.

²²Understanding is a fountain of life to one who has it, but the punishment of fools is their folly.

²³The heart of the wise instructs his mouth, and adds learning to his lips.

²⁴Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul, and health to the bones.

²⁵There is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.

²⁶The appetite of the laboring man labors for him; for his mouth urges him on.

²⁷A worthless man devises mischief. His speech is like a scorching fire.

²⁸A perverse man stirs up strife. A whisperer separates close friends.

²⁹A man of violence entices his neighbor, and leads him in a way that is not good.

³⁰One who winks his eyes to plot perversities, one who compresses his lips, is bent on evil.

³¹Gray hair is a crown of glory. It is attained by a life of righteousness.

³²One who is slow to anger is better than the mighty; one who rules his spirit, than he who takes a city.

³³The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the Lord.