Day 272 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 2:16–22

¹⁶It will rescue you from the forbidden woman, from the stranger with seductive words ¹⁷who abandons the partner of her youth and forgets the covenant of her God. ¹⁸For her house sinks down to death, and her tracks to the departed spirits. ¹⁹None who go to her return or negotiate the paths of life. ²⁰So you will follow in the ways of the good, and keep to the paths of the righteous. ²¹For the upright will inhabit the land, and the blameless will remain in it; ²²but the wicked will be cut off from the land, and the unfaithful will be uprooted.

New Testament·Galatians 1

¹Paul, an apostle—sent not from men nor by man, but by Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead— ²and all the brothers with me, To the churches of Galatia: ³Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, ⁴who gave Himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, ⁵to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. ⁶I am amazed how quickly you are deserting the One who called you by the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— ⁷which is not even a gospel. Evidently some people are troubling you and trying to distort the gospel of Christ. ⁸But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be under a curse! ⁹As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be under a curse! ¹⁰Am I now seeking the approval of men, or of God? Or am I striving to please men? If I were still trying to please men, I would not be a servant of Christ. ¹¹For I certify to you, brothers, that the gospel I preached was not devised by man. ¹²I did not receive it from any man, nor was I taught it; rather, I received it by revelation from Jesus Christ. ¹³For you have heard of my former way of life in Judaism, how severely I persecuted the church of God and tried to destroy it. ¹⁴I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my contemporaries and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers. ¹⁵But when God, who set me apart from my mother’s womb and called me by His grace, was pleased ¹⁶to reveal His Son in me so that I might preach Him among the Gentiles, I did not rush to consult with flesh and blood, ¹⁷nor did I go up to Jerusalem to the apostles who came before me, but I went into Arabia and later returned to Damascus. ¹⁸Only after three years did I go up to Jerusalem to confer with Cephas, and I stayed with him fifteen days. ¹⁹But I saw none of the other apostles except James, the Lord’s brother. ²⁰I assure you before God that what I am writing to you is no lie. ²¹Later I went to the regions of Syria and Cilicia. ²²I was personally unknown, however, to the churches of Judea that are in Christ. ²³They only heard the account: “The man who formerly persecuted us is now preaching the faith he once tried to destroy.” ²⁴And they glorified God because of me.

Old Testament·Isaiah 22–24

¹This is the burden against the Valley of Vision: What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the rooftops, ²O city of commotion, O town of revelry? Your slain did not die by the sword, nor were they killed in battle. ³All your rulers have fled together, captured without a bow. All your fugitives were captured together, having fled to a distant place. ⁴Therefore I said, “Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly! Do not try to console me over the destruction of the daughter of my people.” ⁵For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision— of breaking down the walls and crying to the mountains. ⁶Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen, and Kir uncovers the shield. ⁷Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the gates. ⁸He has uncovered the defenses of Judah. On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest. ⁹You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool. ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall. ¹¹You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago. ¹²On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts called for weeping and wailing, for shaven heads and the wearing of sackcloth. ¹³But look, there is joy and gladness, butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!” ¹⁴The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing: “Until your dying day, this sin of yours will never be atoned for,” says the Lord GOD of Hosts. ¹⁵This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace: ¹⁶What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here—to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock? ¹⁷Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, ¹⁸roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain—a disgrace to the house of your master. ¹⁹I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position. ²⁰On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. ²¹I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ²³I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father. ²⁴So they will hang on him the whole burden of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots—all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar. ²⁵In that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

23This is the burden against Tyre: Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for Tyre is laid waste, without house or harbor. Word has reached them from the land of Cyprus. ²Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland, you merchants of Sidon, whose traders have crossed the sea. ³On the great waters came the grain of Shihor; the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre; she was the merchant of the nations. ⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea, for the sea has spoken: “I have not been in labor or given birth. I have not raised young men or brought up young women.” ⁵When the report reaches Egypt, they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre. ⁶Cross over to Tarshish; wail, O inhabitants of the coastland! ⁷Is this your jubilant city, whose origin is from antiquity, whose feet have taken her to settle far away? ⁸Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose traders are princes, whose merchants are renowned on the earth? ⁹The LORD of Hosts planned it, to defile all its glorious beauty, to disgrace all the renowned of the earth. ¹⁰Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish; there is no longer a harbor. ¹¹The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea; He has made kingdoms tremble. He has given a command that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed. ¹²He said, “You shall rejoice no more, O oppressed Virgin Daughter of Sidon. Get up and cross over to Cyprus— even there you will find no rest.” ¹³Look at the land of the Chaldeans — a people now of no account. The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures; they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces. They brought it to ruin. ¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish, for your harbor has been destroyed! ¹⁵At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years—the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot: ¹⁶“Take up your harp, stroll through the city, O forgotten harlot. Make sweet melody, sing many a song, so you will be remembered.” ¹⁷And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. ¹⁸Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.

24Behold, the LORD lays waste the earth and leaves it in ruins. He will twist its surface and scatter its inhabitants— ²people and priest alike, servant and master, maid and mistress, buyer and seller, lender and borrower, creditor and debtor. ³The earth will be utterly laid waste and thoroughly plundered. For the LORD has spoken this word. ⁴The earth mourns and withers; the world languishes and fades; the exalted of the earth waste away. ⁵The earth is defiled by its people; they have transgressed the laws; they have overstepped the decrees and broken the everlasting covenant. ⁶Therefore a curse has consumed the earth, and its inhabitants must bear the guilt; the earth’s dwellers have been burned, and only a few survive. ⁷The new wine dries up, the vine withers. All the merrymakers now groan. ⁸The joyful tambourines have ceased; the noise of revelers has stopped; the joyful harp is silent. ⁹They no longer sing and drink wine; strong drink is bitter to those who consume it. ¹⁰The city of chaos is shattered; every house is closed to entry. ¹¹In the streets they cry out for wine. All joy turns to gloom; rejoicing is exiled from the land. ¹²The city is left in ruins; its gate is reduced to rubble. ¹³So will it be on the earth and among the nations, like a harvested olive tree, like a gleaning after a grape harvest. ¹⁴They raise their voices, they shout for joy; from the west they proclaim the majesty of the LORD. ¹⁵Therefore glorify the LORD in the east. Extol the name of the LORD, the God of Israel in the islands of the sea. ¹⁶From the ends of the earth we hear singing: “Glory to the Righteous One.” But I said, “I am wasting away! I am wasting away! Woe is me.” The treacherous betray; the treacherous deal in treachery. ¹⁷Terror and pit and snare await you, O dweller of the earth. ¹⁸Whoever flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit, and whoever climbs from the pit will be caught in the snare. For the windows of heaven are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken. ¹⁹The earth is utterly broken apart, the earth is split open, the earth is shaken violently. ²⁰The earth staggers like a drunkard and sways like a shack. Earth’s rebellion weighs it down, and it falls, never to rise again. ²¹In that day the LORD will punish the host of heaven above and the kings of the earth below. ²²They will be gathered together like prisoners in a pit. They will be confined to a dungeon and punished after many days. ²³The moon will be confounded and the sun will be ashamed; for the LORD of Hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and before His elders with great glory.