Bible in a Year.

On day 227, Jeremiah 4 warns of the imminent destruction of Jerusalem due to the people's disobedience. Ezekiel 31-32 depicts the fall of powerful nations, showing that all are under God's judgment. Proverbs 14:17-20 offers lessons on patience, self-control, and discernment, encouraging the reader to live with prudence and wisdom.

1. If thou wilt return, O Israel, saith the Lord, return to me: if thou wilt take away thy stumblingblocks out of my sight, thou shalt not be moved.

2. And thou shalt swear: As the Lord liveth, in truth, and in judgement, and in justice: and the Gentiles shall bless him, and shall praise him.

3. For thus saith the Lord to the men of Juda and Jerusalem: Break up anew your fallow ground, and sow not upon thorns:

4. Be circumcised to the Lord, and take away the foreskins of your hearts, ye men of Juda, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem: lest my indignation come forth like fire, and burn, and there be none that can quench it: because of the wickedness of your thoughts.

5. Declare ye in Juda, and make it heard in Jerusalem: speak, and sound with the trumpet in the land: cry aloud, and say: Assemble yourselves, and let us go into strong cities.

6. Set up the standard in Sion. Strengthen yourselves, stay not: for I bring evil from the north, and great destruction.

7. The lion is come up out of his den, and the robber of nations hath roused himself: he is come forth out of his place, to make thy land desolate: thy cities shall be laid waste, remaining without an inhabitant.

8. For this gird yourselves with haircloth, lament and howl: for the fierce anger of the Lord is not turned away from us.

9. And it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord: That the heart of the king shall perish, and the heart of the princes: and the priests shall be astonished, and the prophets shall be amazed

10. And I said: Alas, alas, alas, O Lord God, hast thou then deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying: You shall have peace: and behold the sword reacheth even to the soul?

11. At that time it shall be said to this people, and to Jerusalem: A burning wind is in the ways that are in the desert of the way of the daughter of my people, not to fan, nor to cleanse.

12. A full wind from these places shall come to me: and now I will speak my judgments with them.

13. Behold he shall come up as a cloud, and his chariots as a tempest: his horses are swifter than eagles: woe unto us, for we are laid waste.

14. Wash thy heart from wickedness, O Jerusalem, that thou mayst be saved: how long shall hurtful thoughts abide in thee?

15. For a voice of one declaring from Dan, and giving notice of the idol from mount Ephraim.

16. Say ye to the nations: Behold it is heard in Jerusalem, that guards are coming from a far country, and give out their voice against the cities of Juda.

17. They are set round about her, as keepers of fields: because she hath provoked me to wrath, saith the Lord.

18. They ways, and thy devices have brought these things upon thee: this is thy wickedness, because it is bitter, because it hath touched thy heart.

19. My bowels, my bowels are in pain, the senses of my heart are troubled within me, I will not hold my peace, for my soul hath heard the sound of the trumpet, the cry of battle.

20. Destruction upon destruction is called for, and all the earth is laid waste: my tents are destroyed on a sudden, and my pavilions in a moment.

21. How long shall I see men fleeing away, how long shall I hear the sound of the trumpet?

22. For my foolish people have not known me: they are foolish and senseless children: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

23. I beheld the earth, and lo it was void, and nothing: and the heavens, and there was no light in them.

24. I looked upon the mountains, and behold they trembled: and all the hills were troubled.

25. I beheld, and lo there was no man: and all the birds of the air were gone.

26. I looked, and behold Carmel was a wilderness: and all its cities were destroyed at the presence of the Lord, and at the presence of the wrath of his indignation.

27. For thus saith the Lord: All the land shall be desolate, but yet I will not utterly destroy.

28. The earth shall mourn, and the heavens shall lament from above: because I have spoken, I have purposed, and I have not repented, neither am I turned away from it.

29. At the voice of the horsemen, and the archers, all the city is fled away; they have entered into thickets and have climbed up the rocks: all the cities are forsaken, and there dwelleth not a man in them.

30. But when thou art spoiled what wilt thou do? though thou deckest thee with ornaments of gold, and paintest thy eyes with stibic stone, thou shalt dress thyself out in vain: thy lovers have despised thee, they will seek thy life.

31. For I have heard the voice as of a woman in travail, anguishes as of a woman in labor of a child. The voice of the daughter of Sion, dying away, spreading her hands: Woe is me, for my soul hath fainted because of them that are slain.

Chapter 31

1. And it came to pass in the eleventh year, the third month, the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2. Son of man, speak to Pharao king of Egypt, and to his people: To whom art thou like in thy greatness?

3. Behold, the Assyrian was like a cedar in Libanus, with fair branches, and full of leaves, of a high stature, and his top was elevated among the thick boughs.

4. The waters nourished him, the deep set him up on high, the streams thereof ran round about his roots, and it sent forth its rivulets to all the trees of the country.

5. Therefore was his height exalted above all the trees of the country: and his branches were multiplied, and his boughs were elevated because of many waters.

6. And when he had spread forth his shadow, all the fowls of the air made their nests in his boughs, and all the beasts of the forest brought forth their young under his branches, and the assembly of many nations dwelt under his shadow.

7. And he was most beautiful for his greatness, and for the spreading of his branches: for his root was near great waters.

8. The cedars in the paradise of God wars not higher than he, the fir trees did not equal his top, neither were the plane trees to be compared with him for branches: no tree in the paradise of God was like him in his beauty.

9. For I made him beautiful and thick set with many branches: and all the trees of pleasure, that were in the paradise of God, envied him.

10. Therefore thus saith the Lord God Because he was exalted in height, and shot up his top green and thick, and his heart was lifted up in his height:

11. I have delivered him into the hands of the mighty one of the nations, he shall deal with him: I have cast him out according to his wickedness.

12. And strangers, and the most cruel of the nations shall cut him down, and cast him away upon the mountains, and his boughs shall fall in every valley, and his branches shall be broken on every rock of the country: and all the people of the earth shall depart from his shadow, and leave him.

13. All the fowls of the air dwelt upon his ruins, and all the beasts of the field were among his branches.

14. For which cause none of the trees by the waters shall exalt themselves for their height: nor shoot up their tops among the thick branches and leaves, neither shall any of them that are watered stand up in their height: for they are all delivered unto death to the lowest parts of the earth, in the midst of the children of men, with them that go down into the pit.

15. Thus saith the Lord God: In the day when he went down to hell, I brought in mourning, I covered him with the deep: and I withheld its rivers, and restrained the many waters: Libanus grieved for him, and all the trees of the field trembled.

16. I shook the nations with the sound of his fall, when I brought him down to hell with them that descend into the pit: and all the trees of pleasure, the choice and best in Libanus, all that were moistened with waters, were comforted in the lowest parts of the earth.

17. For they also shall go down with him to hell to them that are slain by the sword: and the arm of every one shall sit down under his shadow in the midst of the nations.

18. To whom art thou like, O thou that art famous and lofty among the trees of pleasure? Behold, thou art brought down with the trees of pleasure to the lowest parts of the earth: thou shalt sleep in the midst of the uncircumcised, with them that are slain by the sword: this is Pharao, and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

Chapter 32

1. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2. Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharao the king of Egypt, and say to him: Thou art like the lion of the nations, and the dragon that is in the sea: and thou didst push with the horn in thy rivers, and didst trouble the waters with thy feet, and didst trample upon their streams.

3. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: I will spread out my net over thee with the multitude of many people, and I will draw thee up in my net.

4. And I will throw thee out on the land, I will cast thee away into the open field: and I will cause all the fowls of the air to dwell upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of all the earth with thee.

5. And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and will fill thy hills with thy corruption,

6. And I will water the earth with thy stinking blood upon the mountains, and the valleys shall be filled with thee.

7. And I will cover the heavens, when thou shalt be put out, and I will make the stars thereof dark: I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.

8. I will make all the lights of heaven to mourn over thee: and I will cause darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord God, when thy wounded shall fall in the midst of the land, saith the Lord God.

9. And I shall provoke to anger the heart of many people, when I shall have brought in thy destruction among the nations upon the lands, which thou knowest not.

10. And I will make many people to be amazed at thee, and their kings shell be horribly afraid for thee, when my sword shall begin to fly upon their faces: and they shall be astonished on a sudden, every one for his own life, in the day of their ruin.

11. For thus saith the Lord God: The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee,

12. By the swords of the mighty I will overthrow thy multitude: all these nations are invincible: and they shall waste the pride of Egypt, and the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.

13. I will destroy also all the beasts thereof that were beside the great waters: and the foot of man shall trouble them no more, neither shall the hoof of beasts trouble them.

14. Then will I make their waters clear, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord God:

15. When I shall have made the land of Egypt desolate: and the land shall be destitute of her fulness, when I shall have struck all the inhabitants thereof: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

16. This is the lamentation, and they shall lament therewith: the daughters of the nations shall lament therewith: for Egypt, and for the multitude thereof they shall lament therewith, saith the Lord God.

17. And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month that the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

18. Son of man, sing a mournful song for the multitude of Egypt: and cast her down, both her, and the daughters of the mighty nations to the lowest part of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.

19. Whom dost thou excel in beauty? go down and sleep with the uncircumcised.

20. They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain with the sword : the sword is given, they have drawn her down, and all her people.

21. The most mighty among the strong ones shall speak to him from the midst of hell, they that went down with his helpers, and slept uncircumcised, slain by the sword.

22. Assur is there, and all his multitude: their graves are round about him, all of them slain, and that fell by the sword.

23. Whose graves are set in the lowest parts of the pit: and his multitude lay round about his grave: all of them slain, and fallen by the sword, they that heretofore spread terror in the land of the living.

24. There is Elam and all his multitude round about his grave, all of them slain, and fallen by the sword; that went down uncircumcised to the lowest parts of the earth: that caused their terror in the land of the living, and they have borne their shame with them that go down into the pit.

25. In the midst of the slain they have set him a bed among all his people: their graves are round about him: all these are uncircumcised, and slain by the sword: for they spread their terror in the land of the living, and have borne their shame with them that descend into the pit: they are laid in the midst of the slain.

26. There is Mosoch, and Thubal, and all their multitude: their graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised and slain, and fallen by the sword: though they spread their terror in the land of the living.

27. And they shall not sleep with the brave, and with them that fell uncircumcised, that went down to hell with their weapons, and laid their swords under their heads, and their iniquities were in their bones, because they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.

28. So thou also shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt sleep with them that are slain by the sword.

29. There is Edom, and her kings, and all her princes, who with their army are joined with them that are slain by the sword: and have slept with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down into the pit.

30. There are all the princes of the north, and all the hunters: who were brought down with the slain, fearing, and con- founded in their strength: who slept uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword, and have borne their shame with them that go down into the pit.

31. Pharao saw them, and he was comforted concerning all his multitude, which was slain by the sword: Pharao, and all his army, saith the Lord God:

32. Because I have spread my terror in the land of the living, and he hath slept in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain by the sword: Pharao and all his multitude, saith the Lord God.

17. The impatient man shall work folly: and the crafty man is hateful.

18. The childish shall possess folly, and the prudent, shall look for knowledge.

19. The evil shall fall down before the good: and the wicked before the gates of the just.

20. The poor man shall be hateful even to his own neighbour: but the friends of the rich are many.