Bible in a Year.

On day 246, Jeremiah 32 reinforces trust in God even in times of uncertainty, while Judith 1-2 shows Judith's courage and wisdom in protecting her people. Proverbs 16:25-28 teaches us that wrong choices lead to evil, but that prudence and integrity bring blessings and security.

1. The word that came to Jeremias from the Lord in the tenth year of Sedecias king of Juda: the same is eighteenth year of Nabuchodonosor.

2. At that time the army of the king o Babylon besieged Jerusalem: and Jeremias the prophet was shut up in the court of the prison, which was in the house of the king of Juda.

3. For Sedecias king of Juda had shut him up, saying: Why dost thou prophesy, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Behold I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall take it?

4. And Sedecias king of Juda shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans: but he shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon: and he shall speak to him mouth to mouth, and his eyes shall see his eyes.

5. And he shall lead Sedecias to Babylon: and he shall be there till I visit him, saith the Lord. But if you will fight against the Chaldeans, you shall have no success.

6. And Jeremias said: The word of the Lord came to me, saying:

7. Behold, Hanameel the son of Sellum thy cousin shall come to thee, saying: Buy thee my field, which is in Anathoth, for it is thy right to buy it, being akin.

8. And Hanameel my uncle's son cam to me, according to the word of the to the entry of the prison, and said me: Buy my held, which is in in the land of Benjamin: for the right of inheritance is thins, and thou art next of kin to possess it. And I understood this was the word of the Lord.

9. And I bought the held of my uncle's son, that is in Anathoth: and I weighed him the money, seven staters, and ten pieces of silver.

10. And I wrote it in a book and sealed it, and took witnesses: and I weighed him the money in the balances.

11. And I took the deed of the purchase that was sealed, and the stipulations, and the ratifications with the seals that were on the outside.

12. And I gave the deed of the purchase to Baruch the son of Neri the son of Maasias in the sight of Hanameel my uncle's son, in the presence of the witnesses that subscribed the book of the purchase, and before all the Jews that sat in the court of the prison.

13. And I charged Baruch before them, saying:

14. Thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Take these writings, this deed of the purchase that is sealed up, and this deed that is open: and put them in an earthen vessel, that they may continue many days.

15. For thus saith the Lord of hosts the God of Israel: Houses, and fields, and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.

16. And after I had delivered the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neri, I prayed to the Lord, saying:

17. Alas, alas, alas, 0 Lord God, behold thou hast made heaven and earth by thy great power, and thy stretched out arm: no word shall be hard to thee:

18. Thou shewest mercy unto thousands, and returnest the iniquity of the fathers into the bosom of their children after them: O most mighty, great, and powerful, the Lord of hosts is thy name.

19. Great in counsel and incomprehensible in thought: whose eyes are open upon all the ways of the children of Adam, to render unto every one according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his devices.

20. Who hast set signs and wonders in the land of Egypt even until this day, and in Israel, and amongst men, and hast made thee a name as at this day.

21. And hast brought forth thy people Israel, out of the land of Egypt with signs, and with wonders, and with a strong hand, and a stretched out arm, and with great terror.

22. And best given them this land which thou didst swear to their fathers, to give them a land flowing with milk and honey.

23. And they came in, and possessed it: but they obeyed not thy voice, and they walked not in thy law: and they did not any of those things that thou didst command them to do, and all these evils are come upon them.

24. Behold works are built up against the city to take it: and the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, who fight against it, by the sword, and the famine, and the pestilence: and what thou hast spoken, is all come to pass, as thou thyself seest.

25. And sayest thou to me, O Lord God: Buy a field for money, and take witnesses, whereas the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans?

26. And the word of the Lord came to Jeremias, saying:

27. Behold I am the Lord the God of all flesh: shall any thing be hard for me?

28. Therefore thus saith the Lord: Behold I will deliver this city into the hands of the Chaldeans, and into the hands of the king of Babylon, and they shall take it.

29. And the Chaldeans that fight against this city, shall come and set it on fire, and burn it, with the houses upon whose roofs they offered sacrifice to Baal, and poured out drink offerings to strange gods, to provoke me to wrath.

30. For the children of Israel, and the children of Juda, have continually done evil in my eyes from their youth: the children of Israel who even till now provoke me with the work of their hands, saith the Lord.

31. For this city hath been to me a provocation and indignation from the day that they built it, until this day, in which it shall be taken out of my sight.

32. Because of all the evil of the children of Israel, and of the children of Juda, which they have done, provoking me to wrath, they and their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, the men of Juda, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

33. And they have turned their backs to me, and not their faces: when I taught them early in the morning, and instructed them, and they would not hearken to receive instruction.

34. And they have set their idols in the house, in which my name is called upon, to defile it.

35. And they have built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Ennom, to consecrate their sons and their daughters to Moloch: which I commanded them not, neither entered it into my heart, that they should do this abomination, and cause Juda to sin.

36. And now, therefore, thus saith the Lord the God of Israel to this city, whereof you say that it shall be delivered into the hands of the king of Babylon by the sword, and by famine, and by pestilence :

37. Behold I will gather them together out of all the lands to which I have cast them out in my anger, and in my wrath, and in my great indignation: and I will bring them again into this place, and will cause them to dwell securely.

38. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

39. And I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me all days : and that it may be well with them, and with their children after them.

40. And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, and will not cease to do them good: and I will give my fear in their heart, that they may not revolt from me.

41. And I will rejoice over them, when I shall do them good: and I will plant them in this land in truth, with my whole heart, and with all my soul.

42. For thus saith the Lord: As I have brought upon this people all this great evil: so will I bring upon them all the good that I now speak to them.

43. And fields shall be purchased in this land: whereof you say that it is desolate, because there remaineth neither man nor beast, and it is given into the hands of the Chaldeans.

44. Fields shall be bought for money, and deeds shall be written, and sealed, and witnesses shall be taken, in the land of Benjamin, and round about Jerusalem, in the cities of Juda, and in the cities on the mountains, and in the cities of the plains, and in the cities that are towards the south: for I will bring their captivity, saith the Lord.

Chapter 1

1. Now Arphaxad king of the Medes had brought many nations under his dominions, and he built a very strong city, which he called Ecbatana,

2. Of stones squared and hewed: he made the walls thereof seventy cubits broad, and thirty cubits high, and the towers thereof he made a hundred cubits high. But on the square of them, each side was extended the space of twenty feet.

3. And he made the gates thereof according to the height of the towers:

4. And he gloried as a mighty one in the force of his army and in the glory of his chariots.

5. Now in the twelfth year of his reign, Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, who reigned in Ninive the great city, fought against Arphaxad and overcame him,

6. In the great plain which is called Ragua, about the Euphrates, and the Tigris, and the Jadason, in the plain of Erioch the king of the Elicians.

7. Then was the kingdom of Nabuchodonosor exalted, and his heart was elevated: and he sent to all that dwelt in Cilicia and Damascus, and Libanus,

8. And to the nations that are in Carmelus, and Cedar, and to the inhabitants of Galilee in the great plain of Asdrelon,

9. And to all that were in Samaria, and beyond the river Jordan even to Jerusalem, and all the land of Jesse till you come to the borders of Ethiopia.

10. To all these Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, sent messengers:

11. But they all with one mind refused, and sent them back empty, and rejected them without honour.

12. Then king Nabuchodonosor being angry against all that land, swore by his throne and kingdom that he would revenge himself of all those countries.

Chapter 2

1. In the thirteenth year of the reign of Nabuchodonosor, the two and twentieth day of the first month, the word was given out in the house of Nabuchodonosor king of the Assyrians, that he would revenge himself.

2. And he called all the ancients, and all the governors, and his officers of war, and communicated to them the secret of his counsel:

3. And he said that his thoughts were to bring all the earth under his empire.

4. And when this saying pleased them all, Nabuchodonosor, the king, called Holofernes the general of his armies,

5. And said to him: Go out against all the kingdoms of the west, and against them especially that despised my commandment.

6. Thy eye shall not spare any kingdom, and all the strong cities thou shalt bring under my yoke.

7. Then Holofernes called the captains and officers of the power of the Assyrians: and he mustered men for the expedition, as the king commanded him, a hundred and twenty thousand fighting men on foot, and twelve thousand archers, horsemen.

8. And he made all his warlike preparations to go before with a multitude of innumerable camels, with all provisions sufficient for the armies in abundance, and herds of oxen, and flocks of sheep, without number.

9. He appointed corn to be prepared out of all Syria in his passage.

10. But gold and silver he took out of the king's house in great abundance.

11. And he went forth he and all the army, with the chariots, and horsemen, and archers, who covered the face of the earth, like locusts.

12. And when he had passed through the borders of the Assyrians, he came to the great mountains of Ange, which are on the left of Cilicia: and he went up to all their castles, and took all the strong places.

13. And he took by assault the renowned city of Melothus, and pillaged all the children of Tharsis, and the children of Ismahel, who were over against the face of the desert, and on the south of the land of Cellon.

14. And he passed over the Euphrates and came into Mesopotamia: and he forced all the stately cities that were there, from the torrent of Mambre, till one comes to the sea:

15. And he took the borders thereof from Cilicia to the coasts of Japheth, which are towards the south.

16. And he carried away all the children of Madian, and stripped them of all their riches, and all that resisted him he slew with the edge of the sword.

17. And after these things he went down into the plains of Damascus in the days of the harvest, and he set all the corn on fire, and he caused all the trees and vineyards to be cut down

18. And the fear of them fell upon alit the inhabitants of the land.

25. There is a way that seemeth to a man right: and the ends thereof lead to death.

26. The soul of him that laboureth, laboureth for himself, because his mouth hath obliged him to it.

27. The wicked man diggeth evil, and in his lips is a burning fire.

28. A perverse man stirreth up quarrels: and one full of words separateth princes.