Day 364 reading

Wisdom·Proverbs 31:14–22

¹⁴She is like the merchant ships, bringing her food from afar. ¹⁵She rises while it is still night to provide food for her household and portions for her maidservants. ¹⁶She appraises a field and buys it; from her earnings she plants a vineyard. ¹⁷She girds herself with strength and shows that her arms are strong. ¹⁸She sees that her gain is good, and her lamp is not extinguished at night. ¹⁹She stretches out her hands to the distaff and grasps the spindle with her fingers. ²⁰She opens her arms to the poor and reaches out her hands to the needy. ²¹When it snows, she has no fear for her household, for they are all clothed in scarlet. ²²She makes coverings for her bed; her clothing is fine linen and purple.

New Testament·Revelation 21

¹Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. ²I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. ³And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them as their God. ⁴‘He will wipe away every tear from their eyes,’ and there will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the former things have passed away.” ⁵And the One seated on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.” Then He said, “Write this down, for these words are faithful and true.” ⁶And He told me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give freely from the spring of the water of life. ⁷The one who overcomes will inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he will be My son. ⁸But to the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and sexually immoral and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their place will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur. This is the second death.” ⁹Then one of the seven angels with the seven bowls full of the seven final plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” ¹⁰And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God, ¹¹shining with the glory of God. Its radiance was like a most precious jewel, like a jasper, as clear as crystal. ¹²The city had a great and high wall with twelve gates inscribed with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at the gates. ¹³There were three gates on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west. ¹⁴The wall of the city had twelve foundations bearing the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb. ¹⁵The angel who spoke with me had a golden measuring rod to measure the city and its gates and walls. ¹⁶The city lies foursquare, with its width the same as its length. And he measured the city with the rod, and all its dimensions were equal—12,000 stadia in length and width and height. ¹⁷And he measured its wall to be 144 cubits, by the human measure the angel was using. ¹⁸The wall was made of jasper, and the city itself of pure gold, as pure as glass. ¹⁹The foundations of the city walls were adorned with every kind of precious stone: The first foundation was jasper, the second sapphire, the third chalcedony, the fourth emerald, ²⁰the fifth sardonyx, the sixth carnelian, the seventh chrysolite, the eighth beryl, the ninth topaz, the tenth chrysoprase, the eleventh jacinth, and the twelfth amethyst. ²¹And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, with each gate consisting of a single pearl. The main street of the city was pure gold, as clear as glass. ²²But I saw no temple in the city, because the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. ²³And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, because the glory of God illuminates the city, and the Lamb is its lamp. ²⁴By its light the nations will walk, and into it the kings of the earth will bring their glory. ²⁵Its gates will never be shut at the end of the day, because there will be no night there. ²⁶And into the city will be brought the glory and honor of the nations. ²⁷But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

Old Testament·Zechariah 11–14

¹Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may consume your cedars! ²Wail, O cypress, for the cedar has fallen; the majestic trees are ruined! Wail, O oaks of Bashan, for the dense forest has been cut down! ³Listen to the wailing of the shepherds, for their glory is in ruins. Listen to the roaring of the young lions, for the thickets of the Jordan are destroyed. ⁴This is what the LORD my God says: “Pasture the flock marked for slaughter, ⁵whose buyers slaughter them without remorse. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich!’ Even their own shepherds have no compassion on them. ⁶For I will no longer have compassion on the people of the land, declares the LORD, but behold, I will cause each man to fall into the hands of his neighbor and his king, who will devastate the land, and I will not deliver it from their hands.” ⁷So I pastured the flock marked for slaughter, especially the afflicted of the flock. Then I took for myself two staffs, calling one Favor and the other Union, and I pastured the flock. ⁸And in one month I dismissed three shepherds. My soul grew impatient with the flock, and their souls also detested me. ⁹Then I said, “I will no longer shepherd you. Let the dying die, and the perishing perish; and let those who remain devour one another’s flesh.” ¹⁰Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations. ¹¹It was revoked on that day, and so the afflicted of the flock who were watching me knew that it was the word of the LORD. ¹²Then I told them, “If it seems right to you, give me my wages; but if not, keep them.” So they weighed out my wages, thirty pieces of silver. ¹³And the LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter”—this magnificent price at which they valued me. So I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the house of the LORD. ¹⁴Then I cut in two my second staff called Union, breaking the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. ¹⁵And the LORD said to me: “Take up once more the equipment of a foolish shepherd. ¹⁶For behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will neither care for the lost, nor seek the young, nor heal the broken, nor sustain the healthy, but he will devour the flesh of the choice sheep and tear off their hooves. ¹⁷Woe to the worthless shepherd, who deserts the flock! May a sword strike his arm and his right eye! May his arm be completely withered and his right eye utterly blinded!”

12This is the burden of the word of the LORD concerning Israel. Thus declares the LORD, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, who forms the spirit of man within him: ²“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples. Judah will be besieged, as well as Jerusalem. ³On that day, when all the nations of the earth gather against her, I will make Jerusalem a heavy stone for all the peoples; all who would heave it away will be severely injured. ⁴On that day, declares the LORD, I will strike every horse with panic, and every rider with madness. I will keep a watchful eye on the house of Judah, but I will strike with blindness all the horses of the nations. ⁵Then the leaders of Judah will say in their hearts: ‘The people of Jerusalem are my strength, for the LORD of Hosts is their God.’ ⁶On that day I will make the clans of Judah like a firepot in a woodpile, like a flaming torch among the sheaves; they will consume all the peoples around them on the right and on the left, while the people of Jerusalem remain secure there. ⁷The LORD will save the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and of the people of Jerusalem may not be greater than that of Judah. ⁸On that day the LORD will defend the people of Jerusalem, so that the weakest among them will be like David, and the house of David will be like God, like the angel of the LORD going before them. ⁹So on that day I will set out to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. ¹⁰Then I will pour out on the house of David and on the people of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and prayer, and they will look on Me, the One they have pierced. They will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for Him as one grieves for a firstborn son. ¹¹On that day the wailing in Jerusalem will be as great as the wailing of Hadad-rimmon in the plain of Megiddo. ¹²The land will mourn, each clan on its own: the clan of the house of David and their wives, the clan of the house of Nathan and their wives, ¹³the clan of the house of Levi and their wives, the clan of Shimei and their wives, ¹⁴and all the remaining clans and their wives.

13“On that day a fountain will be opened to the house of David and the people of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and impurity. ²And on that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, I will erase the names of the idols from the land, and they will no longer be remembered. I will also remove the prophets and the spirit of impurity from the land. ³And if anyone still prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will say to him, ‘You shall not remain alive, because you have spoken falsely in the name of the LORD.’ When he prophesies, his father and mother who bore him will pierce him through. ⁴And on that day every prophet who prophesies will be ashamed of his vision, and he will not put on a hairy cloak in order to deceive. ⁵He will say, ‘I am not a prophet; I work the land, for I was purchased as a servant in my youth.’ ⁶If someone asks him, ‘What are these wounds on your chest?’ he will answer, ‘These are the wounds I received in the house of my friends.’ ⁷Awake, O sword, against My Shepherd, against the man who is My Companion, declares the LORD of Hosts. Strike the Shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered, and I will turn My hand against the little ones. ⁸And in all the land, declares the LORD, two-thirds will be cut off and perish, but a third will be left in it. ⁹This third I will bring through the fire; I will refine them like silver and test them like gold. They will call on My name, and I will answer them. I will say, ‘They are My people,’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is our God.’”

14Behold, a day of the LORD is coming when your plunder will be divided in your presence. ²For I will gather all the nations for battle against Jerusalem, and the city will be captured, the houses looted, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go into exile, but the rest of the people will not be removed from the city. ³Then the LORD will go out to fight against those nations, as He fights in the day of battle. ⁴On that day His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives, east of Jerusalem, and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, forming a great valley, with half the mountain moving to the north and half to the south. ⁵You will flee by My mountain valley, for it will extend to Azal. You will flee as you fled from the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with Him. ⁶On that day there will be no light, no cold or frost. ⁷It will be a day known only to the LORD, without day or night; but when evening comes, there will be light. ⁸And on that day living water will flow out from Jerusalem, half of it toward the Eastern Sea and the other half toward the Western Sea, in summer and winter alike. ⁹On that day the LORD will become King over all the earth—the LORD alone, and His name alone. ¹⁰All the land from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem will be turned into a plain, but Jerusalem will be raised up and will remain in her place, from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses. ¹¹People will live there, and never again will there be an utter destruction. So Jerusalem will dwell securely. ¹²And this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes all the peoples who have warred against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. ¹³On that day a great panic from the LORD will come upon them, so that each will seize the hand of another, and the hand of one will rise against the other. ¹⁴Judah will also fight at Jerusalem, and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—gold, silver, and apparel in great abundance. ¹⁵And a similar plague will strike the horses and mules, camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps. ¹⁶Then all the survivors from the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁷And should any of the families of the earth not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Hosts, then the rain will not fall on them. ¹⁸And if the people of Egypt will not go up and enter in, then the rain will not fall on them; this will be the plague with which the LORD strikes the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. ¹⁹This will be the punishment of Egypt and of all the nations that do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles. ²⁰On that day, HOLY TO THE LORD will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, and the cooking pots in the house of the LORD will be like the sprinkling bowls before the altar. ²¹Indeed, every pot in Jerusalem and Judah will be holy to the LORD of Hosts, and all who sacrifice will come and take some pots and cook in them. And on that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of Hosts.