Bible in a Year.

On day 213, we meditate on justice and faithfulness. Isaiah 47-48 reveals God's judgment on oppressive nations and reaffirms His care for Israel. Ezekiel 8-9 presents visions that show the gravity of sin and the need for holiness. Proverbs 12:13-16 teaches principles of prudence, self-control, and honesty, guiding us to live righteously even in the face of adversity.

Chapter 47

1. Come down, sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called delicate and tender.

2. Take a millstone and grind meal: uncover thy shame, strip thy shoulder, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers.

3. Thy nakedness shall be discovered, and thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and no man shall resist me.

4. Our redeemer, the Lord of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.

5. Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called the lady of kingdoms.

6. I was angry with my people, I have polluted my inheritance, and have given them into thy bend: thou hast shewn no mercy to them: upon the ancient thou hast laid thy yoke exceeding heavy.

7. And thou hast said: I shall be a lady for ever: thou hast not laid these things to thy heart, neither hast thou remembered thy latter end.

8. And now hear these things, thou that art delicate, and dwellest confidently, that sayest in thy heart: I am, and there is none else besides me: I shall not sit as a widow, and I shall not know barrenness.

9. These two things shall come upon thee suddenly in one day, barrenness and widowhood. All things are come upon thee, because of the multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great hardness of thy enchanters.

10. And thou best trusted in thy wickedness, and hast said: There is none that seeth me. Thy wisdom, and thy knowledge, this hath deceived thee. And thou best said in thy heart: I am, and besides me there is no other.

11. Evil shall come upon thee, and then shalt not know the rising thereof: and calamity shall fall violently upon thee, which thou canst not keep off: misery shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.

12. Stand now with thy enchanters, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, in which thou hast laboured from thy youth, if so be it may profit thee any thing, or if thou mayst become stronger.

13. Thou hast failed in the multitude or thy counsels: let now the astrologers stand and save thee, they that gazed at the stars, and counted the months, that from them they might tell the things that shall come to thee.

14. Behold they are as stubble, fire hath burnt them, they shall not deliver them- selves from the power of the dames: there are no coals wherewith they may be warmed, nor fire, that they may sit thereat.

15. Such are all the things become to thee, in which thou best laboured: thy merchants from thy youth, every one hath erred in his own way, there is none that can save thee.

Chapter 48

1. Hear ye these things, O house of Jacob, you that are called by the name of Israel, and are come forth out of the waters of Juda, you who swear by the name of the Lord, and make mention of the God of Israel, but not in truth, nor in justice.

2. For they are called of the holy city, and are established upon the God of Israel: the Lord of hosts is his name.

3. The former things of old I have declared, and they went forth out of my mouth, and I have made them to be heard: I did them suddenly and they came to pass.

4. For I knew that thou art stubborn, and thy neck is as an iron sinew, and thy forehead as brass.

5. I foretold thee of old, before they came to pass I told thee, lest thou shouldst say: My idols have done these things, and my graven and molten things have commanded them.

6. See now all the things which thou hast heard: but have you declared them? I have shewn thee new things from that time, and things are kept which thou knowest not:

7. They are created now, and not of old: and before the day, when thou heardest them not, lest thou shouldst say: Behold I knew them.

8. Thou hast neither heard, nor known, neither was thy ear opened of old. For I know that transgressing thou wilt transgress, and I have called thee a transgressor from the womb.

9. For my name's sake I will remove my wrath far off: and for my praise I will bridle thee, lest thou shouldst perish.

10. Behold I have refined thee, but not as silver, I have chosen thee in the furnace of poverty.

11. For my own sake, for my own sake will I do it, that I may not be blasphemed: and I will not give my glory to another.

12. Hearken to me, O Jacob, and thou Israel whom I call: I am he, I am the first, and I am the last.

13. My hand also hath founded the earth, and my right hand hath measured the heavens: I shall call them, and they shall stand together.

14. Assemble yourselves together, all you, and hear: who among them hath declared these things? the Lord hath loved him, he will do his pleasure in Babylon, and his arm shall be on the Chaldeans.

15. I, even I have spoken and called him: I have brought him, and his way is made prosperous.

16. Come ye near unto me, and hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning: from the time before it was done, I was there, and now the Lord God hath sent me, and his spirit.

17. Thus saith the Lord thy redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: I am the Lord thy God that teach thee profitable things, that govern thee in the way that thou walkest.

18. O that thou hadst hearkened to my commandments: thy peace had been as a river, and thy justice as the waves of the sea,

19. And thy seed had been as the sand, and the offspring of thy bowels like the gravel thereof: his name should not have perished, nor have been destroyed from before my face.

20. Come forth out of Babylon, flee ye from the Chaldeans, declare it with the voice of joy: make this to be heard, and speak it out even to the ends of the earth. Say: The Lord hath redeemed his servant Jacob.

21. They thirsted not in the desert, when he led them out: he brought forth water out of the rock for them, and he clove the rock, and the waters gushed out.

22. There is no peace to the wicked, saith the Lord.

Chapter 8

1. And it came to pass in the sixth year, in the sixth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I sat in my house, and the ancients of Juda sat before me, that the hand of the Lord God fell there upon me.

2. And I saw, and behold a likeness as the appearance of fire: from the appearance of his loins, and downward, fire: and from his loins, and upward, as the appearance of brightness, as the appearance of amber.

3. And the likeness of a hand was put forth and took me by a lock of my head: and the spirit lifted me up between the earth and the heaven, and brought me in the vision of God into Jerusalem, near the inner gate, that looked toward the north, where was set the idol of jealousy to provoke to jealousy.

4. And behold the glory of the God of Israel was there, according to the vision which I had seen in the plain.

5. And he said to me: Son of man, lift up thy eyes towards the way of the north. And I lifted up my eyes towards the way of the north: and behold on the north side of the gate of the altar the idol of jealousy in the very entry.

6. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou see, thinkest thou, what these are doing, the great abominations that the house of Israel committeth here, that I should depart far off from my sanctuary? and turn thee yet again and thou shalt see greater abominations.

7. And he brought me in to the door of the court: and I saw, and behold a hole in the wall.

8. And he said to me: Son of man, dig in the wall. And when I had digged in the wall, behold a door.

9. And he said to me: Go in, and see the wicked abominations which they commit here.

10. And I went in and saw, and behold every form of creeping things, and of living creatures, the abomination, and all the idols of the house of Israel, were painted on the wall all round about.

11. And seventy men of the ancients of the house of Israel, and Jezonias the son of Saaphan stood in the midst of them, that stood before the pictures: and every one had a censer in his hand: and a cloud of smoke went up from the incense.

12. And he add to me: Surely thou seest. O son of man, what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every one in private in his chamber: for they say: The Lord seeth us not, the Lord hath forsaken the earth.

13. And he said to me: If thou turn thee again, thou shalt see greater abominations which these commit.

14. And he brought me in by the door of the gate of the Lord's house, which looked to the north: and behold women sat there mourning for Adonis.

15. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: but turn thee again: and thou shalt see greater abominations than these.

16. And he brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord: and behold at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar, were about five and twenty men having their backs towards the temple of the Lord, and their faces to the east: and they adored towards the rising of the sun.

17. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man: is this a light thing to the house of Juda, that they should commit these abominations which they have committed here: because they have filled the land with iniquity, and have turned to provoke me to anger? and behold they put a branch to their nose.

18. Therefore I also will deal with them in my wrath: my eye shall not spare them, neither will I shew mercy: and when they shall cry to my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them.

Chapter 9

1. And he cried in my ears with a loud voice, saying: The visitations of the city are at hand, and every one hath a destroying weapon in his hand.

2. And behold six men came from the way of the upper gate, which looketh to the north: and each one had his weapon of destruction in his hand: and there was one man in the midst of them clothed with linen, with a writer's inkhorn at his reins: and they went in, and stood by the brazen altar.

3. And the glory of the Lord of Israel went up from the cherub, upon which he was, to the threshold of the house: and he called to the man that was clothed with linen, and had a writer's inkhorn at his loins.

4. And the Lord said to him: Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem: and mark Thau upon the foreheads of the men that sigh, and mourn for all the abominations that are committed in the midst thereof.

5. And to the others he said in my hearing: Go ye after him through the city, and strike: let not your eyes spare, nor be ye moved with pity.

6. Utterly destroy old and young, maidens, children and women: but upon whomsoever you shall see Thau, kill him not, and begin ye at my sanctuary. So they began at the ancient men who mere before the house.

7. And he said to them: Defile the house, and ill the courts with the slain: go ye forth. And they went forth, and slew them that were in the city.

8. And the slaughter being ended I was left: and I fell upon my face, and crying, I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, wilt thou then destroy all the remnant of Israel, by pouring out thy fury upon Jerusalem?

9. And he said to me: The iniquity of the house of Israel, and of Juda, is exceeding great, and the land is filled with blood, and the city is filled with perverseness: for they have said: The Lord hath forsaken the earth, and the Lord seeth not.

10. Therefore neither shall my eye spare, nor will I have pity: I will requite their way upon their head.

11. And behold the man that was clothed with linen, that had the inkhorn at his back, returned the word, saying: I have done as thou hast commanded me.

13. For the sins of the lips ruin draweth nigh to the evil mall: but the just shall escape out of distress.

14. By the fruit of his own mouth shall a man be filled with good things, and according to the works of his hands it shall be repaid him.

15. The way of a fool is right in his own eyes: but he that is wise hearkeneth unto counsels.

16. A fool immediately sheweth his anger: but he that dissembleth injuries is wise.