Bible in a Year.

On day 212, we contemplate God's sovereignty and human responsibility. Isaiah 45-46 emphasizes that the Lord directs history and fulfills His promises. Ezekiel 6-7 warns of divine judgment and the need for repentance. Proverbs 12:9-12 offers guidance on leadership, diligence, and character, teaching how to live righteously even in difficult times.

Chapter 45

1. Thus saith the Lord to my anointed Cyrus, whose right hand I have taken hold of, to subdue nations before his face, and to turn the backs of kings, and to open the doors before him, and the gates shall not be shut.

2. I will go before thee, and will humble the great ones of the earth: I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and will burst the bars of iron.

3. And I will give thee hidden treasures, and the concealed riches of secret places: that thou mayest know that I am the Lord who call thee by thy name, the God of Israel.

4. For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have made a likeness of thee, and thou hast not known me.

5. I am the Lord, and there is none else: there is no God, besides me: I girded thee, and thou hast not known me:

6. That they may know who are from the rising of the sun, and they who are from the west, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is none else:

7. I form the light, and create darkness, I make peace, and create evil: I the Lord that do all these things.

8. Drop down dew, ye heavens, from above, and let the clouds rain the just: let the earth be opened, and bud forth a saviour: and let justice spring up together: I the Lord have created him.

9. Woe to him that gainsayeth his maker, a sherd of the earthen pots: shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it: What art thou making, and thy work is without hands?

10. Woe to him that saith to his father: Why begettest thou? and to the woman: Why dost thou bring forth?

11. Thus saith the Lord the Holy One of Israel, his maker: Ask me of things to come, concerning my children, and concerning the work of my hands give ye charge to me.

12. I made the earth: and I created man upon it: my hand stretched forth the heavens, and I have commanded all their host.

13. I have raised him up to justice, and I will direct all his ways: he shall build my city, and let go my captives, not for ransom, nor for presents, saith the Lord the God of hosts.

14. Thus saith the Lord: The labour of Egypt, and the merchandise of Ethiopia, and of Sabaim, men of stature shall come over to thee, and shall be thins: they shall walk after thee, they shall go bound with manacles: and they shall worship thee, and shall make supplication to thee: only in thee is God, and there is no God besides thee.

15. Verily thou art a hidden God, the God of Israel the saviour.

16. They are all confounded and ashamed: the forgers of errors are gone together into confusion.

17. Israel is saved in the Lord with as eternal salvation: you shall not be con- founded, and you shall not be ashamed for ever and ever.

18. For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth, and made it, the very maker thereof: he did not create it in vain: he formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord, and there is no other.

19. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I have not said to the seed of Jacob: Seek me in vain. I am the Lord that speak justice, that declare right things.

20. Assemble yourselves, and come, and draw near together, ye that are saved of the Gentiles: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven work, and pray to a god that cannot save.

21. Tell ye, and come, and consult together: who hath declared this from the beginning, who hath foretold this from that time? Have not I the Lord, and there is no God else besides me? A just God and a saviour, there is none besides me.

22. Be converted to me, and you shall be saved, all ye ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.

23. I have sworn by myself, the word of justice shall go out of my mouth, and shall not return:

24. For every knee shall be bowed to me, and every tongue shall swear.

25. Therefore shall he say: In the Lord are my justices and empire: they shall come to him, and all that resist him shall be confounded.

26. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and praised.

Chapter 46

1. Bel is broken, Nebo is destroyed: their idols are put upon beasts and cattle, your burdens of heavy weight even unto weariness.

2. They are consumed, and are broken together: they could not save him that carried them, and they themselves shall go into captivity.

3. Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who are carried by my bowels, are borne up by my womb.

4. Even to your old age I am the same, and to your grey hairs I will carry you: I have made you, and I will bear: I will carry and will save.

5. To whom have you likened me, and made me equal, and compared me, and made me like?

6. You that contribute gold out of the bag, and weigh out silver in the scales: and hire a goldsmith to make a god: and they fall down and worship.

7. They bear him on their shoulders and carry him, and set him in his piece, and he shall stand, and shall not stir out of his place. Yea, when they shall cry also unto him, he shall not hear: he shall not save them from tribulation.

8. Remember this, and be ashamed: return, ye transgressors, to the heart.

9. Remember the former age, for I am God, and there is no God beside, neither is there the like to me:

10. Who shew from the beginning the things that shall be at last, and from ancient times the things that as yet are not done, saying: My counsel shall stand, and all my will shall be done:

11. Who call a bird from the east, and from a far country the man of my own will, and I have spoken, and will bring it to pass: I have created, and I will do it. Hear me, O ye hardhearted, who are far from justice.

12. I have brought my justice near, it shall not be afar off: and my salvation shall not tarry. I will give salvation in Sion, and my glory in Israel.

Chapter 6

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

2. Son of man, set thy face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them.

3. And say: Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God: Thus Faith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, and to the rocks, and the valleys: Behold, I will bring upon you the sword, and I will destroy your high places.

4. And I will throw down your altars, and your idols shall be broken in pieces: and I will cast down your slain before your idols.

5. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before your idols: and I will scatter Sour bones round about your altars,

6. In all your dwelling places. The cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be thrown down, and destroyed, and your altars shall be abolished, and shall be broken in pieces: and your idols shall be no more, and your temples shall be destroyed, and your works shall be defaced.

7. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

8. And I will leave in you some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when I shall have scattered you, through the countries.

9. And they that are saved of you shall remember me amongst the nations to which they are carried captives: because I have broken their heart that was faithless, and revolted from me: and their eyes that went a fornicating after their idols: and they shall be displeased with themselves because of the evils which they have committed in all their abominations.

10. And they shall know that I the Lord have not spoken in vain that I would do this evil to them.

11. Thus saith the Lord God: Strike with thy hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say: Alas, for all the abominations of the evils of the house of Israel: for they shall fall by the sword, by the famine and by the pestilence.

12. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence: and he that is near, shall fall by the sword: and he that remaineth, and is besieged, shall die by the famine: and I will accomplish my indignation upon them.

13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when your slain shall be amongst your idols, round about your altars, in every high hill, and on all the tops of mountains, and under every woody tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they burnt sweet smelling frankincense to all their idols.

14. And I will stretch forth my hand upon them: and I will make the land desolate, and abandoned from the desert of Deblatha in all their dwelling places: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

Chapter 7

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

2. And thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God to the land of Israel: The end is come, the end is come upon the four quarters of the land.

3. Now is an end come upon thee, and I will send my wrath upon thee, and I will judge thee according to thy ways: and I will set all thy abominations against thee.

4. And my eye shall not spare thee, and I will shew thee no pity: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

5. Thus saith the Lord God: One affliction, behold an affliction is come.

6. An end is come, the end is come, it hath awaked against thee: behold it is come.

7. Destruction is come upon thee that dwellest in the land: the time is come, the day of slaughter is near, and not of the joy of mountains.

8. Now very shortly I will pour out my wrath upon thee, and I will accomplish my anger in thee: and I will judge thee according to thy ways, and I will lay upon thee all thy crimes.

9. And my eye shall not spare, neither will I shew mercy: but I will lay thy ways upon thee, and thy abominations shall be in the midst of thee: and you shall know that I am the Lord that strike.

10. Behold the day, behold it is come: destruction is gone forth, the rod hath blossomed, pride hath budded.

11. Iniquity is risen up into a rod of impiety: nothing of them shall remain, nor of their people, nor of the noise of them: and there shall be no rest among them.

12. The time is come, the day is at hand: let not the buyer rejoice: nor the seller mourn: for wrath is upon all the people thereof.

13. For the seller shall not return to that which he hath sold, although their life be yet among the living. For the vision which regardeth all the multitude thereof, shall not go back: neither shall man be strengthened in the iniquity of his life.

14. Blow the trumpet, let all be made ready, yet there is none to go to the battle: for my wrath shall be upon all the people thereof.

15. The sword without: and the pestilence, and the famine within: he that is in the field shall die by the sword: and they that are in the city, shall be devoured by the pestilence, and the famine.

16. And such of them as shall flee shall escape: and they shall be in the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them trembling, every one for his iniquity.

17. All hands shall be made feeble, and all knees shall run with water.

18. And they shall gird themselves with haircloth, and fear shall cover them, and shame shall be upon every face, and baldness upon all their heads.

19. Their silver shall be cast forth, and their gold shall become a dunghill. Their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their soul, and their bellies shall not be filled: because it hath been the stumblingblock of their iniquity.

20. And they have turned the ornament of their jewels into pride, and have made of it the images of their abominations, and idols: therefore I have made it an uncleanness to them.

21. And I will give it into the hands of strangers for spoil, and to the wicked of the earth for a prey, and they shall defile it.

22. And I will turn away my face from them, and they shall violate my secret place: and robbers shall enter into it, and defile it.

23. Make a shutting up: for the land is full of the judgment of blood, and the city is full of iniquity.

24. And I will bring the worse of the nations, and they shall possess their houses: and I will make the pride of the mighty to cease, and they shall possess their sanctuary.

25. When distress cometh upon them, they will seek for peace and there shall be none.

26. Trouble shall come upon trouble, and rumour upon rumour, and they shall seek a vision of the prophet, and the law shall perish from the priest, and counsel from the ancients.

27. The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with sorrow, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled. I will do to them according to their way, and will judge them according to their judgments: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

9. Better is the poor man that provideth for himself, than he that is glorious and wanteth bread.

10. The just regardeth the lives of his beasts: but the bowels of the wicked are cruel.

11. He that tilleth his land shall be satisfied with bread: but he that pursueth idleness is very foolish. He that is delighted in passing his time over wine, leaveth a reproach in his strong holds.

12. The desire of the wicked is the fortification of evil men: but the root of the just shall prosper.