Bible in a Year.

On day 235, Jeremiah 14-15 describes the people's sorrow in the face of punishment and their sincere prayer amidst their affliction. Ezekiel 43-44 depicts the entrance of God's glory into the restored temple, symbolizing presence and redemption. Proverbs 15:13-16 teaches about joy, contentment, and the value of wisdom, showing that true happiness comes from obedience and trust in God.

Chapter 14

1. The Word of the Lord that came to Jeremias concerning the words of the drought.

2. Judea hath mourned, and the gates thereof are fallen, and are become obscure on the ground, and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up.

3. The great ones sent their inferiors to the water: they came to draw, they found no water, they carried back their vessels empty: they were confounded and afflicted, and covered their heads.

4. For the destruction of the land, because there came no rain upon the earth, the husbandmen were confounded, they covered their heads.

5. Yea, the hind also brought forth in the field, and left it, because there was no grass.

6. And the wild asses stood upon the rocks, they snuffed up the wind like dragons, their eyes failed, because there was no grass.

7. If our iniquities have testified against us, O Lord, do thou it for thy name's sake, for our rebellions are many, we have sinned against thee.

8. O expectation of Israel, the Saviour thereof in time of trouble: why wilt thou be a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man turning in to lodge?

9. Why wilt thou be as a wandering man, as a mighty man that cannot save? but thou, O Lord, art among us, and thy name is called upon by us, forsake us not.

10. Thus saith the Lord to his people, that have loved to move their feet, and have not rested, and have not pleased the Lord: He will now remember their iniquities, and visit their sins.

11. And the Lord said to me: Pray not for this people for their good.

12. When they fast I will not hear their prayers: and if they offer holocausts and victims, I will not receive them: for I will consume them by the sword, and by famine, and by the pestilence.

13. And I said: Ah, ah, ah, O Lord God, the prophets say to them: You shall not see the sword, and there shall be no famine among you, but he will give you true peace in this place.

14. And the Lord said to me: The prophets prophesy falsely in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, nor have I spoken to them: they prophesy unto you a lying vision, and divination and deceit, and the seduction of their own heart.

15. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophecy in my name, whom I did not send, that say: Sword and famine shall not be in this land: By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed.

16. And the people to whom they prophecy, shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the fanmine and the sword, and there shall be none to bury them: they and their wives, their sons and their daughters, and I will pour out their wickedness upon them.

17. And thou shalt speak this word to them: Let my eyes shed down tears night and day, and let them not cease, because the virgin daughter of my people is afflicted with a great affliction, with an exceeding grievous evil.

18. If I go forth into the fields, behold the slain with the sword: and if I enter into the city, behold them that are consumed with famine. The prophet also and the priest are gone into a land which they knew not.

19. Hast thou utterly cast away Juda, or hath thy soul abhorred Sion? why then hast thou struck us, so that there is no healing for us? we have looked for peace, and there is no good: and for the time of healing, and behold trouble.

20. We acknowledge, O Lord, our wickedness, the iniquities of our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

21. Give us not to be a reproach, for thy name's sake, and do not disgrace in us the throne of thy glory: remember, break not thy covenant with us.

22. Are there any among the graven things of the Gentiles that can send rain? or can the heavens give showers? art not thou the Lord our God, whom we have looked for? for thou hast made all these things.

Chapter 15

1. And the Lord said to me: If Moses and Samuel shall stand before me, my soul is not towards this people: cast them out from my sight, and let them go forth.

2. And if they shall say unto thee: Whither shall we go forth? thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord: Such as are for death, to death: and such as are to the sword, to the sword: and such as are for famine, to famine: and such as are to captivity, to captivity.

3. And I will visit them with four kinds, saith the Lord: The sword to kill, and the dogs to tear, and the fowls of the air, and the beasts of the earth, to devour and destroy.

4. And I will give them up to the rage of all the kingdoms of the earth: because of Manasses the son of Ezechias the king of Juda, for all that he did in Jerusalem.

5. For who shall have pity on thee, O Jerusalem? or who shall bemoan thee? or who shall go to pray for thy peace?

6. Thou hast forsaken me, saith the Lord, thou art gone backward: and I will stretch out my hand against thee, and I will destroy thee: I am weary of entreating thee.

7. And I will scatter them with a fan in the gates of the land: I have killed and destroyed my people, and yet they are not returned form their ways.

8. Their widows are multiplied unto me above the sand of the sea: I have brought upon them against the mother of the young man a spoiler at noonday: I have cast a terror on a sudden upon the cities.

9. She that hath borne seven is become weak, her soul hath fainted away: her sun is gone down, while it was yet day: she is confounded, and ashamed: and the residue of them I will give up to the sword in the sight of their enemies, saith the Lord.

10. Woe is me, my mother: why hast thou borne me a man of strife, a man of contention to all the earth? I have not lent on usury, neither hath any man lent to me on usury: yet all curse me.

11. The Lord saith to me: Assuredly it shall be well with thy remnant, assuredly I shall help thee in the time of affliction, and in the time of tribulation against the enemy.

12. Shall iron be allied with the iron from the north, and the brass?

13. Thy riches and thy treasures I will give unto spoil for nothing, because of all thy sins, even in all thy borders.

14. And I will bring thy enemies out of a land, which thou knowest not: for a fire is kindled in my rage, it shall burn upon you.

15. O Lord, thou knowest, remember me, and visit me, and defend me from them that persecute me, do not defend me in thy patience: know that for thy sake I have sufferred reproach.

16. Thy words were found, and I did eat them, and thy word was to me a joy and gladness of my heart: for thy name is called upon me, O Lord God of hosts.

17. I sat not in the assembly of jesters, nor did I make a boast of the presence of thy hand: I sat alone, because thou hast filled me with threats.

18. Why is my sorrow become perpetual, and my wound desperate so as to refuse to be healed? it is become to me as the falsehood of deceitful waters that cannot be trusted.

19. Therefore thus saith the Lord: If thou wilt be converted, I will convert thee, and thou shalt stand before my face; and if thou wilt separate the precious from the vile, thou shalt be as my mouth: they shall be turned to thee, and thou shalt not be turned to them.

20. And I will make thee to this people as a strong wall of brass: and they shall fight against thee, and shall not prevail: for I am with thee to save thee, and to deliver thee, saith the Lord.

21. And I will deliver thee out of the hand of the wicked, and I will redeem thee out of the hand of the mighty.

Chapter 43

1. And he brought me to the gate that looked towards the east.

2. And behold the glory of the God of Israel came in by the way of the east: and his voice was like the noise of many waters, and the earth shone with his majesty.

3. And I saw the vision according to the appearance which I had seen when he came to destroy the city: and the appearance was according to the vision which I had seen by the river Chobar: and I fell upon my face.

4. And the majesty of the Lord went into the temple by the way of the gate that looked to the east.

5. And the spirit lifted me up and brought me into the inner court: and behold the house was filled with the glory of the Lord.

6. And I heard one speaking to me out of the house, and the man that stood by me,

7. Said to me: Son of man, the place of my throne, and the place of the soles of my feet, where I dwell in the midst of the children of Israel for ever: and the house of Israel shall no more profane my holy name, they and their kings by their fornications, and by the carcasses of their kings, and by the high places.

8. They who have set their threshold by my threshold, and their posts by my posts: and there was but a wall between me and them: and they profaned my holy name by the abominations which they committed: for which reason I consumed them in my wrath.

8. 8bout: and thou shalt cleanse, and expiate it.

9. Now therefore let them put away their fornications, and the carcasses of their kings far from me: and I will dwell in the midst of them for ever.

10. But thou, son of man, shew to the house of Israel the temple, and let them be ashamed of their iniquities, and let them measure the building:

11. And be ashamed of all that they have done. Shew them the form of the house, and of the fashion thereof, the goings out and the comings in, and the whole plan thereof, and all its ordinances, and all its order, and all its laws, and thou shalt write it in their sight: that they may keep the whole form thereof, and its ordinances, and do them.

12. This is the law of the house upon the top of the mountain: All its border round about is most holy: this then is the law of the house.

13. And these are the measures of the altar by the truest cubit, which is a cubit and a handbreadth: the bottom thereof was a cubit, and the breadth a cubit: and the border thereof unto its edge, and round about, one handbreadth: and this was the trench of the altar.

14. And from the bottom of the ground to the lowest brim two cubits, and the breadth of one cubit: and from the lesser brim to the greater brim four cubits, and the breadth of one cubit.

15. And the Ariel itself was four cubits: and from the Ariel upward were four horns.

16. And the Ariel was twelve cubits long, and twelve cubits broad, foursquare, with equal sides.

17. And the brim was fourteen cubits long, and fourteen cubits broad in the four corners thereof: and the crown round about it was half a cubit, and the bottom of it one cubit round about: and its steps turned toward the east.

18. And he said to me: Son of man, thus saith the Lord God: These are the ceremonies of the altar, in what day soever it shall be made: that holocausts may be offered upon it, and blood poured out.

19. And thou shalt give to the priests, and the Levites, that are of the race of Sadoc, who approach to me, saith the Lord God, to offer to me a calf of the herd for sin.

20. And thou shalt take of his blood, and shalt put it upon the four horns thereof, and upon the four corners of the brim, and upon the crown round

21. And thou shalt take the calf, that is offered for sin: and thou shalt burn him in a separate place of the house without the sanctuary.

22. And in the second day thou shalt offer a he goat without blemish for sin: and they shall expiate the altar, as they expiated it with the calf.

23. And when thou shalt have made an end of the expiation thereof, thou shalt offer a calf of the herd without blemish, and a ram of the flock without blemish.

24. And thou shalt offer them in the sight of the Lord: and the priests shall put salt upon them, and shall offer them a holocaust to the Lord.

25. Seven days shalt thou offer a he goat for sill daily: they shall offer also a calf of the herd, and a ram of the flock without blemish.

26. Seven days shall they expiate the altar, and shall cleanse it: and they shall consecrate it.

27. And the days being, expired, on the eighth day and thenceforward, the priests shall offer your holocausts upon the altar, and the peace offerings: and I will be pacified towards you, saith the Lord God.

Chapter 44

1. And he brought me back to the way of the gate of the outward sanctuary, which looked towards the east: and it was shut.

2. And the Lord said to me: This gate shall be shut, it shall not be opened, and no man shall pass through it: because the Lord the God of Israel hath entered in by it, and it shall be shut

3. For the prince. The prince himself shall sit in it, to eat bread before the Lord: he shall enter in by the way of the porch of the gate, and shall go out by the same way.

4. And he brought me by the way of the north gate, in the sight of the house: and I saw, and behold the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord: and I fell on my face.

5. And the Lord said to me: Son of man, attend with thy heart, and behold with thy eyes, and hear with thy ears, all that I say to thee concerning all the ceremonies of the house of the Lord, and concerning all the laws thereof: and mark well the ways of the temple, with all the goings out of the sanctuary.

6. And thou shalt say to the house of Israel that provoketh me: Thus saith the Lord God: Let all your wicked doings suffice you, 0 house of Israel:

7. In that you have brought in strangers uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, and to defile my house: and you offer my bread, the fat, and the blood: and you have broken my covenant by all your wicked doings.

8. And you have not kept the ordinances of my sanctuary: but you have set keepers of my charge in my sanctuary for yourselves.

9. Thus saith the Lord God: No stranger uncircumcised in heart, and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, no stranger that is in the midst of the children of Israel.

10. Moreover the Levites that went away far from me, when the children of Israel went astray, and have wandered from me after their idols, and have borne their iniquity:

11. They shall be officers in my sanctuary, and doorkeepers of the gates of the house, and ministers to the house: they shall slay the holocausts, and the victims of the people: and they shall stand in their sight, to minister to them.

12. Because they ministered to them before their idols, and were a stumblingblock of iniquity to the house of Israel: therefore have I lifted up my hand against them, saith the Lord God, and they shall bear their iniquity:

13. And they shall not come near to me to do the office of priest to me, neither shall they come near to any of my holy things that are by the holy of holies: but they shall bear their shame, and their wickednesses which they have committed.

14. And I will make them doorkeepers of the house, for all the service thereof, and for all that shall be done therein.

15. But the priests, and Levites, the sons of Sadoc, who kept the ceremonies or my sanctuary, when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me, to minister to me: and they shall stand before me, to offer me the fat, and the blood, saith the Lord God.

16. They shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and to keep my ceremonies.

17. And when they shall enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments: neither shall any woollen come upon them, when they minister in the gates of the inner court and within.

18. They shall have linen mitres on their heads, and linen breeches on their loins, and they shall not be girded with any thing that causeth sweat.

19. And when they shall go forth to the outward court to the people, they shall put off their garments wherein they ministered, and lay them up in the store chamber of the sanctuary, and they shall clothe themselves with other garments: and they shall not sanctify the people with their vestments.

20. Neither shall they shave their heads, nor wear long heir: but they shall only poll their heads.

21. And no priest shall drink wine when he is to go into the inner court.

22. Neither shall they take to wife a widow, nor one that is divorced, but they shall take virgins of the seed of the house of Israel: but they may take a widow also, that is, the widow of a priest.

23. And they shall teach my people the difference between holy and profane, and shew them how to discern between clean and unclean.

24. And when there shall be a controversy, they shall stand in my judgments, and shall judge: they shall keep my laws, and my ordinances in all my solemnities, and sanctify my sabbaths.

25. And they shall come near no dead person, lest they be defiled, only their father and mother, and son and daughter, and brother and sister, that hath not had another husband: for whom they may become unclean.

26. And after one is cleansed, they shall reckon unto him seven days.

27. And in the day that he goeth into the sanctuary, to the inner court, to minister unto me in the sanctuary, he shall offer for his sin, saith the Lord God.

28. And they shall have no inheritance, I am their inheritance: neither shall you give them any possession in Israel, for I am their possession.

29. They shall eat the victim both for sin and for trespass: and every vowed thing in Israel shall be theirs.

30. And the firstfruits of all the firstborn, and all the libations of all things that are offered, shall be the priest's: and you shall give the firstfruits of your meats to the priest, that he may return a blessing upon thy house.

31. The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself or caught by a beast, whether it be fowl or cattle.

13. A glad heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by grief of mind the spirit is cast down.

14. The heart of the wise seeketh instruction: and the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness.

15. All the days of the poor are evil: a secure mind is like a continual feast.

16. Better is a little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasures without content,