Bible in a Year.

On day 234, Jeremiah 12 presents his complaints about the prosperity of the wicked and God's justice. Ezekiel 41-42 continues the description of the restored temple, emphasizing the order and sanctity of sacred spaces. Proverbs 15:9-12 reinforces that God rejects the way of the wicked and that wisdom guides the righteous in their daily decisions and actions.

Chapter 12

1. Thou indeed, O Lord, art just, if I plead with thee, but yet I will speak what is just to thee: Why doth the way of the wicked prosper: why is it well with all them that transgress, and do wickedly?

2. Thou hast planted them, and they have taken root: they prosper and bring forth fruit: thou art near in their mouth, and far from their reins.

3. And thou, O Lord, hast known me, thou hast seen me, and proved my heart with thee: gather them together as sheep for a sacrifice, and prepare them for the day of slaughter.

4. How long shall the land mourn, and the herb of every field wither for the wickedness of them that dwell therein? The beasts and the birds are consumed: because they have said: He shall not see our last end.

5. If thou hast wearied with running with footmen, how canst thou contend with horses? and if thou hast been secure in a land of peace, what wilt thou do in the swelling of the Jordan?

6. For even thy brethren, and the house of thy father, even they have fought against thee, and have cried after thee with full voice: believe them not when they speak good things to thee.

7. I have forsaken my house, I have left my inheritance: I have given my dear soul into the land of her enemies.

8. My inheritance is become to me as a lion in the wood: is hath cried out against me, therefore have I hated it.

9. Is my inheritance to me as a speckled bird? Is it as a bird died throughout? come ye, assemble yourselves, all the beasts of the earth, make haste to devour.

10. Many pastors have destroyed my vineyard, they have trodden my portion under foot: they have changed my delightful portion into a desolate wilderness.

11. They have laid it waste, and it hath mourned for me. With desolation is all the land made desolate; because there is none that considereth in the heart.

12. The spoilers are come upon all the ways of the wilderness, for the sword of the Lord shall devour from one end of the land to the other end thereof: there is no peace for all flesh.

13. They have sown wheat, and reaped thorns: they have received an inheritance, and it shall not profit them: you shall be ashamed of your fruits, because of the fierce wrath of the Lord.

14. Thus saith the Lord against all my wicked neighbors, that touch the inheritance that I have shared out to my people Israel: Behold I will pluck them out of their land, and I will pluck the house of Juda out of the midst of them.

15. And when I shall have plucked them out, I will return, and have mercy on them: and I will bring them back, every man to his inheritance, and every man to his land.

16. And it shall come to pass, if they will be taught, and will learn the ways of my people, to swear by my name: The Lord liveth, as they have taught my people to swear by baal: that they shall be built up in the midst of my people.

17. But if they will not hear, I will utterly pluck out and destroy that nation, saith the Lord.

Chapter 13

1. Thus saith the Lord to me: Go, and get thee a linen girdle, and thou shalt put it about thy loins, and shalt not put it into water.

2. And I got a girdle accoding to the word of the Lord, and put it about my loins.

3. And the word of the Lord came to me the second time, saying:

4. Take the girdle which thou hast got, which is about thy loins, and arise, and go to the Euphrates, and hide it there in a hole of the rock.

5. And I went, and hid it by the Euphrates, as the Lord had commanded me.

6. And it came to pass after many days, that the Lord said to me: Arise, go to the Euphrates, and take from thence the girdle, which I commanded thee to hide there.

7. And I went to the Euphrates, and digged, and took the girdle out of the place where I had hid it: and behold the girdle was rotten, so that it was fit for no use.

8. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

9. Thus saith the Lord: after this manner will I make the pride of Juda, and the great pride of Jerusalem to rot.

10. This wicked people, that will not hear my words, and that walk in the perverseness of their heart, and have gone after strange gods to serve them, and to adore them: and they shall be as this girdle which is fit for no use.

11. For as the girdle sticketh close to the loins of a man, so have I brought close to me all of the house of Israel, and all the house of Juda, saith the Lord: that they might be my people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear.

12. Thou shalt speak therefore to them this word: Thus saith the Lord God of Israel: Every bottle shall be filled with wine, and they shall say to thee: Do we not know that every bottle shall be filled with wine?

13. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will fill all the inhabitants of this land, and the kings of the race of David that sit upon his throne, and the priests, and the prophets, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem. with drunkenness.

14. And I will scatter them every man from his brother, and fathers and sons in like manner, saith the Lord: I will not spare, and I will not pardon: nor will I have mercy, but to destroy them.

15. Hear ye, and give ear: Be not proud, for the Lord hath spoken.

16. Give ye glory to the Lord your God, before it be dark, and before your feet stumble upon the dark mountains: you shall look for light, and he will turn it into the shadow of death, and into darkness.

17. But if you will not hear this, my soul shall weep in secret for your pride: weeping it shall weep, and my eyes shall run down the tears, because the flock of the Lord is carried away captive.

18. Say to the king, and to the queen: Humble yourselves, sit down: for the crown of your glory is come down from your head.

19. The cities of the south are shut up, and there is none to open them: all Juda is carried away captive with an entire captivity.

20. Lift up your eyes, and see, you that come from the north: where is the flock that is given thee, thy beautiful cattle?

21. What wilt thou say when he shall visit thee? for thou hast taught them against thee, and instructed them against thy own head: shall not sorrows lay hold on thee, as a woman in labour?

22. And if thou shalt say in thy heart: Why are these things come upon me? For the greatness of thy iniquity, thy nakedness is discovered, the soles of thy feet are defiled.

23. If the Ethiopian can change his skin, or the leopard his spots: you may also do well, when you have learned evil.

24. And I will scatter them as stubble, which is carried away by the wind in the desert.

25. This is thy lot, and the portion of thy measure from me, saith the Lord, because thou hast forgotten me, and hast trusted in falsehood.

26. Wherefore I have also bared my thighs against thy face, and thy shame hath appeared.

27. I have seen thy adulteries, and thy neighing, the wickedness of thy fornication: and thy abominations, upon the hills in the field. Woe to thee, Jerusalem, wilt thou not be made clean after me: how long yet?

Chapter 41

1. And he brought me into the temple, and he measured the fronts six cubits broad on this side, and six cubits on that side, the breadth of the tabernacle.

2. And the breadth of the gate was ten cubits: and the sides of the gate five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and he measured the length thereof forty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits.

3. Then going inward he measured the front of the gate two cubits: and the gate six cubits, and the breadth of the gate seven cubits.

4. And he measured the length thereof twenty cubits, and the breadth twenty cubits, before the face of the temple: and he said to me: This is the holy of holies.

5. And he measured the wall of the house six cubits: and the breadth of every side chamber four cubits round about the house on every side.

6. And the side chambers one by another, were twice thirty-three: and they bore outwards, that they might enter in through the wall of the house in the sides round about, to hold in, and not to touch the wall of the temple.

7. And there was a broad passage round about, going up by winding stairs, and it led into the upper loft of the temple all round: therefore was the temple broader in the higher parts: and so from the lower parts they went to the higher by the midst.

8. And I saw in the house the height round about, the foundations of the side chambers which were the measure of a reed the space of six cubits:

9. And the thickness of the wall for the side chamber without, which was five cubits: and the inner house was within the side chambers of the house.

10. And between the chambers was the breadth of twenty cubits round about the house on every side.

11. And the door of the side chambers was turned towards the place of prayer: one door was toward the north, and another door was toward the south: and the breadth of the place for prayer, was five cubits round about.

12. And the building that was separate, and turned to the way that looked toward the sea, was seventy cubits broad: and the wall of the building, five cubits thick round about: and ninety cubits long.

13. And he measured the length of the house, a hundred cubits: and the separate building, and the walls thereof, a hundred cubits in length.

14. And the breadth before the face of the house, and of the separate place toward the east, a hundred cubits.

15. And he measured the length of the building over against it, which was separated at the back of it: and the galleries on both sides a hundred cubits: and the inner temple, and the porches of the court.

16. The thresholds, and the oblique windows, and the galleries round about on three sides, over against the threshold of every one, and floored with wood all round about: and the ground was up to the windows, and the windows were shut over the doors.

17. And even to the inner house, and without all the wall round about within and without, by measure.

18. And there were cherubims and palm trees wrought, so that a palm tree was between a cherub and a cherub, and every cherub had two faces.

19. The face of a man was toward the palm tree on one side, and the face of a lion was toward the palm tree on the other side: set forth through all the house round about.

20. From the ground even to the upper parts of the gate, were cherubims and palm trees wrought in the wall of the temple.

21. The threshold was foursquare, and the face of the sanctuary, sight to sight.

22. The altar of wood was three cubits high: and the length thereof was two cubits: and the corners thereof, and the length thereof, and the walls thereof were of wood. And he said to me: This is the table before the Lord.

23. And there were two doors in the temple, and in the sanctuary.

24. And in the two doors on both sides were two little doors, which were folded within each other: for there were two wickets on both sides of the doors.

25. And there were cherubims also wrought in the doors of the temple, and the figures of palm trees, like as were made on the walls: for which cause also the planks were thicker in the front of the porch without.

26. Upon which were the oblique windows, and the representation of palm trees on this side, and on that side in the sides of the porch, according to the sides of the house, and the breadth of the walls.

Chapter 42

1. And he brought me forth into the outward court by the way that leadeth to the north, and he brought me into the chamber that was over against the separate building, and over against the house toward the north.

2. In the face of the north door was the length of a hundred cubits, and the breadth of fifty cubits.

3. Over against the twenty cubits of the inner court, and over against the pavement of the outward court that was paved with stone, where there was a gallery joined to a triple gallery.

4. And before the chambers was a walk ten cubits broad, looking to the inner parts of a way of one cubit. And their doors were toward the north.

5. Where were the store chambers lower above: because they bore up the galleries, which appeared above out of them from the lower parts, and from the midst of the building.

6. For they were of three stories, and had not pillars, as the pillars of the courts: therefore did they appear above out of the lower places, and out of the middle places, fifty cubits from the ground.

7. And the outward wall that went about by the chambers, which were towards the outward court on the forepart of the chambers, was fifty cubits long.

8. For the length of the chambers of the outward court was fifty cubits: and the length before the face of the temple, a hundred cubits.

9. And there was under these chambers, an entrance from the east, for them that went into them out of the outward court.

10. In the breadth of the outward wall of the court that was toward the east, over against the separate building, and there were chambers before the building.

11. And the way before them was like the chambers which were toward the north: they wore as long as they, and as broad as they: and all the going is to them, and their fashions, and their doors were alike.

12. According to the doors of the chambers that were towards the south : there was a door in the head of the way, which way was before the porch, separated towards the east as one entereth in.

13. And he said to me: The chambers of the north, and the chambers of the south, which are before the separate building: they are holy chambers, in which the priests shall eat, that approach to the Lord into the holy of holies: there they shall lay the most holy things, and the offering for sin, and for trespass: for it is a holy place.

14. And when the priests shall have entered in, they shall not go out of the holy places into the outward court: but there they shall lay their vestments, wherein they minister, for they are holy: and they shall put on other garments, and so they shall go forth to the people.

15. Now when he had made an end of measuring the inner house, he brought me out by the way of the gate that looked toward the east: and he measured it on every side round about.

16. And he measured toward the east with the measuring reed, five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

17. And he measured toward the north five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

18. And towards the south he measured five hundred reeds with the measuring reed round about.

19. And toward the west he measured five hundred reeds, with the measuring reed.

20. By the four winds he measured the wall thereof on every side round about, five hundred cubits long and five hundred cubits broad, making a separation between the sanctuary and the place of the people.

9. The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord: he that followeth justice is beloved by him.

10. Instruction is grievous to him that forsaketh the way of life: he that hateth reproof shall die.

11. Hell and destruction are before the Lord: how much more the hearts of the children of men?

12. A corrupt man loveth not one that reproveth him: nor will he go to the wise.