Day 354 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 28:9–17

⁹Whoever turns his ear away from hearing the law, even his prayer is detestable. ¹⁰He who leads the upright along the path of evil will fall into his own pit, but the blameless will inherit what is good. ¹¹A rich man is wise in his own eyes, but a poor man with discernment sees through him. ¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves. ¹³He who conceals his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them will find mercy. ¹⁴Blessed is the man who is always reverent, but he who hardens his heart falls into trouble. ¹⁵Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a helpless people. ¹⁶A leader who lacks judgment is also a great oppressor, but he who hates dishonest profit will prolong his days. ¹⁷A man burdened by bloodguilt will flee into the Pit; let no one support him.

New Testament·Revelation 9

¹Then the fifth angel sounded his trumpet, and I saw a star that had fallen from heaven to earth, and it was given the key to the pit of the Abyss. ²The star opened the pit of the Abyss, and smoke rose out of it like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened by the smoke from the pit. ³And out of the smoke, locusts descended on the earth, and they were given power like that of the scorpions of the earth. ⁴They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any plant or tree, but only those who did not have the seal of God on their foreheads. ⁵The locusts were not given power to kill them, but only to torment them for five months, and their torment was like the stinging of a scorpion. ⁶In those days men will seek death and will not find it; they will long to die, but death will escape them. ⁷And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads, and faces like the faces of men. ⁸They had hair like that of women, and teeth like those of lions. ⁹They also had thoraxes like breastplates of iron, and the sound of their wings was like the roar of many horses and chariots rushing into battle. ¹⁰They had tails with stingers like scorpions, which had the power to injure people for five months. ¹¹They were ruled by a king, the angel of the Abyss. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek it is Apollyon. ¹²The first woe has passed. Behold, two woes are still to follow. ¹³Then the sixth angel sounded his trumpet, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar before God ¹⁴saying to the sixth angel with the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” ¹⁵So the four angels who had been prepared for this hour and day and month and year were released to kill a third of mankind. ¹⁶And the number of mounted troops was two hundred million; I heard their number. ¹⁷Now the horses and riders in my vision looked like this: The riders had breastplates the colors of fire, sapphire, and sulfur. The heads of the horses were like the heads of lions, and out of their mouths proceeded fire, smoke, and sulfur. ¹⁸A third of mankind was killed by the three plagues of fire, smoke, and sulfur that proceeded from their mouths. ¹⁹For the power of the horses was in their mouths and in their tails; indeed, their tails were like snakes, having heads with which to inflict harm. ²⁰Now the rest of mankind who were not killed by these plagues still did not repent of the works of their hands. They did not stop worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk. ²¹Furthermore, they did not repent of their murder, sorcery, sexual immorality, and theft.

Old Testament·Amos 9; Obadiah 1; Jonah 1

¹I saw the Lord standing beside the altar, and He said: “Strike the tops of the pillars so that the thresholds shake. Topple them on the heads of all the people, and I will kill the rest with the sword. None of those who flee will get away; none of the fugitives will escape. ²Though they dig down to Sheol, from there My hand will take them; and though they climb up to heaven, from there I will pull them down. ³Though they hide themselves atop Carmel, there I will track them and seize them; and though they hide from Me at the bottom of the sea, there I will command the serpent to bite them. ⁴Though they are driven by their enemies into captivity, there I will command the sword to slay them. I will fix My eyes upon them for harm and not for good.” ⁵The Lord GOD of Hosts, He who touches the earth and it melts, and all its dwellers mourn— all the land rises like the Nile, then sinks like the river of Egypt— ⁶He builds His upper rooms in the heavens and founds His vault upon the earth. He summons the waters of the sea and pours them over the face of the earth. The LORD is His name. ⁷“Are you not like the Cushites to Me, O children of Israel?” declares the LORD. “Did I not bring Israel up from the land of Egypt, the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Arameans from Kir? ⁸Surely the eyes of the Lord GOD are on the sinful kingdom, and I will destroy it from the face of the earth. Yet I will not utterly destroy the house of Jacob,” declares the LORD. ⁹“For surely I will give the command, and I will shake the house of Israel among all the nations as grain is sifted in a sieve; but not a pebble will reach the ground. ¹⁰All the sinners among My people will die by the sword— all those who say, ‘Disaster will never draw near or confront us.’” ¹¹“In that day I will restore the fallen tent of David. I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, ¹²that they may possess the remnant of Edom and all the nations that bear My name,” declares the LORD, who will do this. ¹³“Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when the plowman will overtake the reaper and the treader of grapes, the sower of seed. The mountains will drip with sweet wine, with which all the hills will flow. ¹⁴I will restore My people Israel from captivity; they will rebuild and inhabit the ruined cities. They will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. ¹⁵I will firmly plant them in their own land, never again to be uprooted from the land that I have given them,” says the LORD your God.

1This is the vision of Obadiah: This is what the Lord GOD says about Edom— We have heard a message from the LORD; an envoy has been sent among the nations to say, “Rise up, and let us go to battle against her!”— ²“Behold, I will make you small among the nations; you will be deeply despised. ³The pride of your heart has deceived you, O dwellers in the clefts of the rocks whose habitation is the heights, who say in your heart, ‘Who can bring me down to the ground?’ ⁴Though you soar like the eagle and make your nest among the stars, even from there I will bring you down,” declares the LORD. ⁵“If thieves came to you, if robbers by night— oh, how you will be ruined— would they not steal only what they wanted? If grape gatherers came to you, would they not leave some gleanings? ⁶But how Esau will be pillaged, his hidden treasures sought out! ⁷All the men allied with you will drive you to the border; the men at peace with you will deceive and overpower you. Those who eat your bread will set a trap for you without your awareness of it. ⁸In that day, declares the LORD, will I not destroy the wise men of Edom and the men of understanding in the mountains of Esau? ⁹Then your mighty men, O Teman, will be terrified, so that everyone in the mountains of Esau will be cut down in the slaughter. ¹⁰Because of the violence against your brother Jacob, you will be covered with shame and cut off forever. ¹¹On the day you stood aloof while strangers carried off his wealth and foreigners entered his gate and cast lots for Jerusalem, you were just like one of them. ¹²But you should not gloat in that day, your brother’s day of misfortune, nor rejoice over the people of Judah in the day of their destruction, nor boast proudly in the day of their distress. ¹³You should not enter the gate of My people in the day of their disaster, nor gloat over their affliction in the day of their disaster, nor loot their wealth in the day of their disaster. ¹⁴Nor should you stand at the crossroads to cut off their fugitives, nor deliver up their survivors in the day of their distress. ¹⁵For the Day of the LORD is near for all the nations. As you have done, it will be done to you; your recompense will return upon your own head. ¹⁶For as you drank on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and gulp it down; they will be as if they had never existed. ¹⁷But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance, and it will be holy, and the house of Jacob will reclaim their possession. ¹⁸Then the house of Jacob will be a blazing fire, and the house of Joseph a burning flame; but the house of Esau will be stubble— Jacob will set it ablaze and consume it. Therefore no survivor will remain from the house of Esau.” For the LORD has spoken. ¹⁹Those from the Negev will possess the mountains of Esau; those from the foothills will possess the land of the Philistines. They will occupy the fields of Ephraim and Samaria, and Benjamin will possess Gilead. ²⁰And the exiles of this host of the Israelites will possess the land of the Canaanites as far as Zarephath; and the exiles from Jerusalem who are in Sepharad will possess the cities of the Negev. ²¹The deliverers will ascend Mount Zion to rule over the mountains of Esau. And the kingdom will belong to the LORD.

1Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah son of Amittai, saying, ²“Get up! Go to the great city of Nineveh and preach against it, because its wickedness has come up before Me.” ³Jonah, however, got up to flee to Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. He went down to Joppa and found a ship bound for Tarshish. So he paid the fare and went aboard to sail for Tarshish, away from the presence of the LORD. ⁴Then the LORD hurled a great wind upon the sea, and such a violent storm arose that the ship was in danger of breaking apart. ⁵The sailors were afraid, and each cried out to his own god. And they threw the ship’s cargo into the sea to lighten the load. But Jonah had gone down to the lowest part of the vessel, where he lay down and fell into a deep sleep. ⁶The captain approached him and said, “How can you sleep? Get up and call upon your God. Perhaps this God will consider us, so that we may not perish.” ⁷“Come!” said the sailors to one another. “Let us cast lots to find out who is responsible for this calamity that is upon us.” So they cast lots, and the lot fell on Jonah. ⁸“Tell us now,” they demanded, “who is to blame for this calamity that is upon us? What is your occupation, and where have you come from? What is your country, and who are your people?” ⁹“I am a Hebrew,” replied Jonah. “I worship the LORD, the God of the heavens, who made the sea and the dry land.” ¹⁰Then the men were even more afraid and said to him, “What have you done?” The men knew that he was fleeing from the presence of the LORD, because he had told them. ¹¹Now the sea was growing worse and worse, so they said to Jonah, “What must we do to you to calm this sea for us?” ¹²“Pick me up,” he answered, “and cast me into the sea, so it may quiet down for you. For I know that I am to blame for this violent storm that has come upon you.” ¹³Nevertheless, the men rowed hard to get back to dry land, but they could not, for the sea was raging against them more and more. ¹⁴So they cried out to the LORD: “Please, O LORD, do not let us perish on account of this man’s life! Do not charge us with innocent blood! For You, O LORD, have done as You pleased.” ¹⁵At this, they picked up Jonah and cast him into the sea, and the raging sea grew calm. ¹⁶Then the men feared the LORD greatly, and they offered a sacrifice to the LORD and made vows to Him. ¹⁷Now the LORD had appointed a great fish to swallow Jonah, and Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish.