Bible in a Year.

On day 237, Jeremiah 18-19 presents the concept of God as a potter and the signs of judgment upon the disobedient people. Ezekiel 47-48 concludes the vision of restoration, including the division of the land and Israel's future prosperity. Proverbs 15:21-24 offers practical guidance on justice, wise words, and the way of goodness, guiding the reader in everyday life.

Chapter 18

1. The word that came from Jeremias to the Lord, saying:

2. Arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there thou shalt hear my words.

3. And I went down into the potter's house, and behold he was doing a work on the wheel.

4. And the vessel was broken which he was making with clay with his hands: and turning he made another vessel, as it seemed good in his eyes to make it.

5. Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

6. Cannot I do with you as this potter, saith the Lord? behold as clay is in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.

7. I will suddenly speak against a nation, and against a kingdom, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy it.

8. If that nation against which I have spoken, shall repent of their evil, I also will repent of the evil that I have thought to do to them.

9. And I will suddenly speak of a nation and of a kingdom, to build up and plant it.

10. If it shall do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice: I will repent of the good that I have spoken to do unto it.

11. Now therefore tell the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: let every man of you return from his evil way, and make ye your ways and your doings good.

12. And they said: We have no hopes: for we will go after our own thoughts, and we will do every one according to the perverseness of his evil heart.

13. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Ask among the nations: Who hath heard such horrible things, as the virgin of Israel hath done to excess?

14. Shall now the snow of Libanus fail from the rock of the field? or can the cold waters that gush out and run down, be taken away?

15. Because my people have forgotten me, sacrificing in vain, and stumbling in their ways, in ancient paths, to walk by them in a way not trodden:

16. That their land might be given up to desolation, and to a perpetual hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and wag his head.

17. As a burning will I scatter them before the enemy: I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their destruction.

18. And they said: Come, and let us invent devices against Jeremias: for the law shall not perish from the priest, nor counsel from the wise, nor the word from the prophet: come, and let us strike him with the tongue, and let us give no heed to all his words.

19. Give heed to me, O Lord, and hear the voice of my adversaries.

20. Shall evil be rendered for good, because they have digged a pit for my soul? Remember that I have stood in thy sight, so speak good for them, and turn away thy indignation from them.

21. Therefore deliver up their children to famine, and bring them into the hands of the sword: let their wives be bereaved of children and widows: and let their husbands be slain by death: let their young men be stabbed with the sword in battle.

22. Let a cry be heard out of their houses: for thou shalt bring the robber upon them suddenly: because they have digged a pit to take me, and have hid snares for my feet.

23. But thou, O Lord, knowest all their counsel against me unto death: forgive not their iniquity, and let not their sin be blotted out from thy sight: let them be overthrown before thy eyes, in the time of thy wrath do thou destroy them.

Chapter 19

1. Thus saith the Lord: Go, and take a potter's earthen bottle, and take of the ancients of the people, and of the ancients of the priests:

2. And go forth into the valley of the son of Ennom, which is by the entry of the earthen gate: and there thou shalt proclaim the words that I shall tell thee.

3. And thou shalt say: Hear the word of the Lord, O ye kings of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring an affliction upon this place: so that whoever shall hear it, his ears shall tingle:

4. Because they have forsaken me, and have profaned this place: and have sacrificed therein to strange gods, whom neither they nor their fathers knew, nor the kings of Juda: and they have filled this place with the blood of innocents.

5. And they have built the high places of Baalim, to burn their children with fire for a holocaust to Baalim: which I did not command, nor speak of, neither did it once come into my mind.

6. Therefore behold the days come, saith the Lord, that this place shall no more be called Topheth, nor the valley of the son of Ennom, but the valley of slaughter.

7. And I will defeat the counsel of Juda and of Jerusalem in this place: and I will destroy them with the sword in the sight of their enemies, and by the hands of them that seek their lives: and I will give their carcasses to be meat for the fowls of the air, and for the beasts of the earth.

8. And I will make this city an astonishent, and a hissing: every one that shall pass by it, shall be astonished, and shall hiss because of all the plagues thereof.

9. And I will feed them with the flesh of their sons, and with the flesh of their daughters: and they shall eat every one the flesh of his friend in the siege, and in the distress wherewith their enemies, and they that seek their lives shall straiten them.

10. And thou shalt break the bottle in the sight of the men that shall go with thee.

11. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord of hosts: even so will I break this people, and this city, as the potter's vessel is broken, which cannot be made whole again: and they shall be buried in Topheth, because there is no other place to bury in.

12. Thus will I do to this place, saith the Lord, and to the inhabitants thereof: and I will make this city as Topheth.

13. And the houses of Jerusalem, and the houses of Juda shall be unclean as the place of Topheth: all the houses upon whose roots they have sacrificed to all the host of heaven, and have poured out drink offerings to strange gods.

14. Then Jeremias came from Topheth, whither the Lord had sent him to prophecy, and he stood in the court of the house of the Lord, and said to all people:

15. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will bring in upon this city, and upon all the cities thereof all the evils that I have spoken against it: because they have hardened their necks, and they might not hear my words.

Chapter 47

1. And he brought me again to the gate of the house, and behold waters issued out from under the threshold of the house toward the east: for the forefront, of the house looked toward the east: but the waters came down to the right side of the temple to the south part of the altar.

2. And he led me out by the way of the north gate, and he caused me to turn to the way without the outward gate to the way that looked toward the east: and behold there ran out waters on the right side.

3. And when the man that had the line in his hand went out towards the east, he measured a thousand cubits: and he brought me through the water up to the ankles.

4. And again he measured a thousand, and he brought me through the water up to the knees.

5. And he measured a thousand. and he brought me through the water up to the loins. And he measured a thousand, and it was a torrent, which I could not pass over: for the waters were risen so as to make a deep torrent, which could not be passed over.

6. And he said to me: Surely thou hast seen, O son of man. And he brought me out, and he caused me to turn to the bank of the torrent.

7. And when I had turned myself, behold on the bank of the torrent were very many trees on both sides.

8. And he said to me: These waters that issue forth toward the hillocks of sand to the east, and go down to the plains of the desert, shall go into the sea, and shall go out, and the waters shall be healed.

9. And every living creature that creepeth whithersoever the torrent shall come, shall live: and there shall be fishes in abundance after these waters shall come thither, and they shall be healed, and all things shall live to which the torrent shall come.

10. And the fishers shall stand over these waters, from Engaddi even to Engallim there shall be drying of nets: there shall be many sorts of the fishes thereof, as the fishes of the great sea, a very great multitude :

11. But on the shore thereof, and in the fenny places they shall not be healed, because they shall be turned into saltpits.

12. And by the torrent on the banks thereof on both sides shall grow all trees that bear fruit: their leaf shall not fall off, and their fruit shall not fail: every month shall they bring forth firstfruits, because the waters thereof shall issue out of the sanctuary: and the fruits thereof shall be for food, and the leaves thereof for medicine.

13. Thus saith the Lord God: This is the border, by which you shall possess the land according to the twelve tribes of Israel: for Joseph hath a double portion.

14. And you shall possess it, every man in like manner as his brother: concerning which I lifted up my hand to give it to your fathers: and this land shall fall unto you for a possession.

15. And this is the border of the land: toward the north side, from the great sea by the way of Hethalon, as men go to Sedada,

16. Emath, Berotha, Sabarim, which is between the border of Damascus and the border of Emath, the house of Tichon, which is by the border of Auran.

17. And the border from the sea even to the court of Enan, shall be the border of Damascus, and from the north to the north: the border of Emath, this is the north side.

18. And the east side is from the midst of Auran, and from the midst of Damascus, and from the midst of Galaad, and from the midst of the land of Israel, Jordan making the bound to the east sea, and thus you shall measure the east side.

19. And the south side southward is from Thamar even to the waters of contradiction of Cades: and the torrent even to the great sea: and this is the south side southward.

20. And the side toward the sea, is the great sea from the borders straight on, till thou come to Emath: this is the side of the sea.

21. And you shall divide this land unto you by the tribes of Israel:

22. And you shall divide it by lot for an inheritance to you, and to the strangers that shall come over to you, that shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as men of the same country born among the children of Israel: they shall divide the possession with you in the midst of the tribes of Israel.

23. And in what tribe soever the stranger shall be, there shall you give him possession, saith the Lord God.

Chapter 48

1. And these are the names of the tribes from the borders of the north, by the way of Hethalon, as they go to Emath, the court of Enan the border of Damascus northward, by the way of Emath. And from the east side thereof to the sea, shall be one portion for Dan.

2. And by the border of Dan, from the east side even to the side of the sea, one portion for Aser:

3. And by the border of Aser, from the east side even to the side of the sea, one portion for Nephthali.

4. And by the border of Nephthali, from the east side even to the side of the sea, one portion for Manasses.

5. And by the border of Manasses, from the east side even to the side of the sea, one portion for Ephraim.

6. And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even to the side of the sea, one portion for Ruben.

7. And by the border of Ruben, from the east side even to the side of the sea, one portion for Juda.

8. And by the border of Juda, from the east side even to the side of the sea, shall be the firstfruits which you shall set apart, five and twenty thousand in breadth, and in length, as every one of the portions from the east side to the side of the sea: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst thereof.

9. The firstfruits which you shall set apart for the Lord : shall be the length of five and twenty thousand, and the breadth of ten thousand.

10. And these shall be the firstfruits of the sanctuary for the priests: toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the sea ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east also ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the Lord shall be in the midst thereof.

11. The sanctuary shall be for the priests of the sons of Sadoc, who kept my ceremonies, and went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites also went astray.

12. And for them shall be the firstfruits of the firstfruits of the land holy of holies, by the border of the Levites.

13. And the Levites in like manner shall have by the borders of the priests five and twenty thousand in length, and ten thousand in breadth. All the length shall be five and twenty thousand, and the breadth ten thousand.

14. And they shall not sell thereof, nor exchange, neither shall the firstfruits of the land be alienated, because they are sanctified to the Lord.

15. But the five thousand that remain in the breadth over against the five and twenty thousand, shall be a profane place for the city for dwelling, and for suburbs: and the city shall be in the midst thereof.

16. And these are the measures thereof: on the north side four thousand and five hundred: and on the south side four thousand and five hundred: and on the east side four thousand and five hundred: and on the west side four thousand and five hundred.

17. And the suburbs of the city shall be to the north two hundred and fifty, and to the south two hundred and fifty, and to the east two hundred and fifty, and to the sea two hundred and fifty.

18. And the residue in length by the firstfruits of the sanctuary, ten thousand toward the east, and ten thousand toward the west, shall be as the firstfruits of the sanctuary: and the fruits thereof shall be for bread to them that serve the city.

19. And they that serve the city, shall serve it out of all the tribes of Israel.

20. All the firstfruits, of five and twenty thousand, by five and twenty thousand foursquare, shall be set apart for the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and for the possession of the city.

21. And the residue shall be for the prince on every side of the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and of the possession of the city over against the five and twenty thousand of the firstfruits unto the east border: toward the sea also over against the five and twenty thousand, unto the border of the sea, shall likewise be the portion of the prince: and the firstfruits of the sanctuary, and the sanctuary of the temple shall be in the midst thereof.

22. And from the possession of the Levites, and from the possession of the city which ale in the midst of the prince's portions: what shall be to the border of Juda, and to the border of Benjamin, shall also belong to the prince.

23. And for the rest of the tribes: from the east side to the west side, one portion for Benjamin.

24. And over against the border of Benjamin, from the east side to the west side, one portion for Simeon.

25. And by the border of Simeon, from the east side to the west side, one portion for Issachar.

26. And by the border of Issachar, from the east side to the west side, one portion for Zabulon.

27. And by the border of Zabulon, from the east side to the side of the sea, one portion for Gad.

28. And by the border of Gad, the south side southward: and the border shah be from Thamar, even to the waters of contradiction of Cades, the inheritance over against the great sea.

29. This is the land which you shall divide by lot to the tribes of Israel: and these are the portions of them, saith the Lord God.

30. And these are the goings out of the city: on the north side thou shalt measure four thousand and five hundred.

31. And the gates of the city according to the names of the tribes of Israel, three gates on the north side, the gate of Ruben one, the gate of Juda one, the gate of Levi one.

32. And at the east side, four thousand and five hundred: and three gates, the gate of Joseph one, the gate of Benjamin one, the gate of Dan one.

33. And at the south side, thou shalt measure four thousand and five hundred: and three gates, the gate of Simeon one, the gate of Issachar one, the gate of Zabulon one.

34. And at the west side, four thousand and five hundred, and their three gates, the gate of Gad one, the gate of Aser one, the gate of Nephthali one.

35. Its circumference was eighteen thousand: and the name of the city from that day, The Lord is there.

21. Folly is joy to the fool: and the wise man maketh straight his steps.

22. Designs are brought to nothing where there is no counsel: but where there are many counsellors, they are established.

23. A man rejoiceth in the sentence of his mouth: and a word in due time is best.

24. The path of life is above for the wise, that he may decline from the lowest hell.