Bible in a Year.

On day 202, Isaiah 23-24 announces judgments on cities and the entire earth, calling for reflection on pride and transgression. Habakkuk 1-2 challenges us to trust God even in the face of injustice and oppression, reminding us that He is in control. Proverbs 11:1-4 teaches about honesty, justice, and the importance of leading a life with integrity before the Lord.

Chapter 23

1. The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of the sea, for the house is destroyed, from whence they were wont to come: from the land of Cethim it is revealed to them.

2. Be silent, you that dwell in the island: the merchants of Sidon passing over the sea, have filled thee.

3. The seed of the Nile in many waters, the harvest of the river is her revenue: and she is become the mart of the nations.

4. Be thou ashamed, O Sidon: for the sea speaketh, even the strength of the sea, saying: I have not been in labour, nor have I brought forth, nor have I nourished up young men, nor brought up virgins.

5. When it shall be heard in Egypt, they will be sorry when they shall hear of Tyre:

6. Pass over the seas, howl, ye inhabitants of the island.

7. Is not this your city, which gloried from of old in her antiquity? her feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

8. Who hath taken this counsel against Tyre, that was formerly crowned, whose merchants were princes, and her traders the nobles of the earth?

9. The Lord of hosts hath designed it, to pull down the pride of all glory, and bring to disgrace all the glorious ones of the earth.

10. Pass thy land as a river, O daughter of the sea, thou hast a girdle no more.

11. He stretched out his hand over the sea, he troubled kingdoms: the Lord hath given a charge against Chanaan, to destroy the strong ones thereof.

12. And he said: Thou shalt glory no more, O virgin daughter of Sidon, who art oppressed: arise and sail over to Cethim, there also thou shalt have no, rest.

13. Behold the land of the Chaldeans, there was not such a people, the Assyrian founded it: they have led away the strong ones thereof into captivity, they have destroyed the houses thereof, they have brought it to ruin.

14. Howl, O ye ships of the sea, for your strength is laid waste.

15. And it shall come to pass in that day that thou, O Tyre, shalt be forgotten, seventy years, according to the days of one king: but after seventy years, there shall be unto Tyre as the song of a harlot.

16. Take a harp, go about the city, thou harlot that hast been forgotten: sing well, sing many a song, that thou mayst be remembered.

17. And it shall come to pass after seventy years, that the Lord will visit Tyre, and will bring her back again to her traffic: and she shall commit fornication again with all the kingdoms of the world upon the face of the earth.

18. And her merchandise and her hire shall be sanctified to the Lord: they shall not be kept in store, nor laid up: for her merchandise shall be for them that shall dwell before the Lord, that they may eat unto fulness, and be clothed for a continuance.

Chapter 24

1. Behold the Lord shall lay waste the earth, and shall strip it, and shall afflict the face thereof, and scatter abroad the inhabitants thereof.

2. And it shall be as with the people, so with the priest: and as with the servant, so with his master: as with the handmaid, so with her mistress: as with the buyer, so with the seller: as with the lender, so with the borrower: as with him that calleth for his money, so with him that oweth.

3. With desolation shall the earth be laid waste, and it shall be utterly spoiled: for the Lord hath spoken this word.

4. The earth mourned, and faded away, and is weakened: the world faded away, the height of the people of the earth is weakened.

5. And the earth is infected by the in- habitants thereof: because they have transgressed the laws, they have changed the ordinance, they have broken the everlasting covenant.

6. Therefore shall a curse devour the earth, and the inhabitants thereof shall sin: and therefore they that dwell therein shall be mad, and few men shall be left.

7. The vintage hath mourned, the vine hath languished away, all the merryhearted have sighed.

8. The mirth of timbrels hath ceased, the noise of them that rejoice is ended, the melody of the harp is silent.

9. They shall not drink wine with a song: the drink shall be bitter to them that drink it.

10. The city of vanity is broken down, every house is shut up, no man cometh in.

11. There shall be a crying for wine in the streets: all mirth is forsaken: the joy of the earth is gone away.

12. Desolation is left in the city, and calamity shall oppress the gates.

13. For it shall be thus in the midst of the earth, in the midst of the people, as if a few olives, that remain, should be shaken out of the olive tree: or grapes, when the vintage is ended.

14. These shall lift up their voice, and shall give praise: when the Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a joyful noise from the sea.

15. Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea.

16. From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to myself, my secret to myself, woe is me: the prevaricators have prevaricated, and with the prevarication of transgressors they have prevaricated.

17. Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O thou inhabitant of the earth.

18. And it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he that shall rid himself out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the flood-gates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken.

19. With breaking shall the earth be broken, with crushing shall the earth be crushed, with trembling shall the earth be moved.

20. With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man, and shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fell, and not rise again.

21. And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth, on the earth.

22. And they shall be gathered together as in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison: and after many days they shall be visited.

23. fend the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of his ancients.

Chapter 1

1. The burden that Habacuc the prophet saw.

2. How long, O Lord, shall I cry, and thou wilt not hear? shall I cry out to thee suffering violence, and thou wilt not save?

3. Why hast thou shewn me iniquity and grievance, to see rapine and injustice before me? and there is a judgment, but opposition is more powerful.

4. Therefore the law is torn in pieces, and judgment cometh not to the end: because the wicked prevaileth against the just, therefore wrong judgment goeth forth.

5. Behold ye among the nations, and see: wonder, and be astonished: for a work is done in your days, which no man will believe when it shall be told.

6. For behold, I will raise up the Chaldeans, a bitter and swift nation, marching upon the breadth of the earth, to possess the dwelling places that are not their own.

7. They are dreadful, and terrible: from themselves shall their judgment, and their burden proceed.

8. Their horses are lighter than leopards, and swifter than evening wolves; and their horsemen shall be spread abroad: for their horsemen shall come from afar, they shall fly as an eagle that maketh haste to eat.

9. They shall all come to the prey, their face is like a burning wind: and they shall gather together captives as the sand.

10. And their prince shall triumph over kings, and princes shall be his laughingstock: and he shall laugh at every strong hold, and shall cast up a mount, and shall take it.

11. Then shall his spirit be changed, and he shall pass, and fall: this is his strength of his god.

12. Wast thou not from the beginning, O Lord my God, my holy one, and we shall not die? Lord, thou hast appointed him for judgment: and made him strong for correction.

13. Thy eyes are too pure to behold evil, and thou canst not look on iniquity. Why lookest thou upon them that do unjust things, and holdest thy peace when the wicked devoureth the man that is more just than himself?

14. And thou wilt make men as the fishes of the sea, and as the creeping things that have no ruler.

15. He lifted up all them with his hook, he drew them in his drag, and gathered them into his net: for this he will be glad and rejoice.

16. Therefore will he offer victims to his drag, and he will sacrifice to his net: because through them his portion is made fat, and his meat dainty.

17. For this cause therefore he spreadeth his net, and will not spare continually to slay the nations.

Chapter 2

1. I will stand upon my watch, and fix my foot upon the tower: and I will watch, to see what will be said to me, and what I may answer to him that reproveth me.

2. And the Lord answered me, and said: Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables: that he that readeth it may run over it.

3. For as yet the vision is far off, and it shall appear at the end, and shall not lie: if it make any delay, wait for it: for it shall surely come, and it shall not be slack.

4. Behold, he that is unbelieving, his soul shall not be right in himself: but the just shall live in his faith.

5. And as wine deceiveth him that drinketh it: so shall the proud man be, and he shall not be honoured: who hath enlarged his desire like hell: and is himself like death, and he is never satisfied: but will gather together unto him all nations, and heap together unto him all people.

6. Shall not all these take up a parable against him, and a dark speech concerning him: and it shall be said: Woe to him that heapeth together that which is not his own? how long also doth he load himself with thick clay?

7. Shall they not rise up suddenly that shall bite thee: and they be stirred up that shall tear thee, and thou shalt be a spoil to them?

8. Because thou hast spoiled many nations, all that shall be left of the people shall spoil thee: because of men's blood, and for the iniquity of the land, of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

9. Woe to him that gathereth together an evil covetousness to his house, that his nest may be on high, and thinketh he may be delivered out of the hand of evil.

10. Thou hast devised confusion to thy house, thou hast cut off many people, and thy soul hath sinned.

11. For the stone shall cry out of the wall: and the timber that is between the joints of the building, shall answer.

12. Woe to him that buildeth a town with blood, and prepareth a city by iniquity.

13. Are not these things from the Lord of hosts? for the people shall labour in a great fire: and the nations in vain, and they shall faint.

14. For the earth shall be filled, that men may know the glory of the Lord, as waters covering the sea.

15. Woe to him that giveth drink to his friend, and presenteth his gall, and maketh him drunk, that he may behold his nakedness.

16. Thou art filled with shame instead of glory: drink thou also, and fall fast asleep: the cup of the right hand of the Lord shall compass thee, and shameful vomiting shall be on thy glory.

17. For the iniquity of Libanus shall cover thee, and the ravaging of beasts shall terrify them because of the blood of men, and the iniquity of the land, and of the city, and of all that dwell therein.

18. What doth the graven thing avail, because the maker thereof hath graven it, a molten, and a false image? because the forger thereof hath trusted in a thing of his own forging, to make dumb idols.

19. Woe to him that saith to wood: Awake: to the dumb stone: Arise: can it teach? Behold, it is laid over with gold, and silver, and there is no spirit in the bowels thereof.

20. But the Lord is in his holy temple: let all the earth keep silence before him.

1. A deceitful balance is an abomination before the Lord: and a just weight is his will.

2. Where pride is, there also shall be reproach: but where humility is, there also is wisdom.

3. The simplicity of the just shall guide them: and the deceitfulness of the wicked shall destroy them.

4. Riches shall not profit in the day of revenge: but justice shall deliver from death.