Day 270 of 364

^10:1Ask of the LORD rain in the spring time, the LORD who makes storm clouds, and he gives rain showers to everyone for the plants in the field. ^10:2For the teraphim have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie; and they have told false dreams. They comfort in vain. Therefore they go their way like sheep. They are oppressed, because there is no shepherd. ^10:3My anger is kindled against the shepherds, and I will punish the male goats, for the LORD of Armies has visited his flock, the house of Judah, and will make them as his majestic horse in the battle. ^10:4From him will come the cornerstone, from him the tent peg, from him the battle bow, from him every ruler together. ^10:5They will be as mighty men, treading down muddy streets in the battle. They will fight, because the LORD is with them. The riders on horses will be confounded. ^10:6“I will strengthen the house of Judah, and I will save the house of Joseph. I will bring them back, for I have mercy on them. They will be as though I had not cast them off, for I am the LORD their God, and I will hear them. ^10:7Ephraim will be like a mighty man, and their heart will rejoice as through wine. Yes, their children will see it and rejoice. Their heart will be glad in the LORD. ^10:8I will signal for them and gather them, for I have redeemed them. They will increase as they were before. ^10:9I will sow them among the peoples. They will remember me in far countries. They will live with their children and will return. ^10:10I will bring them again also out of the land of Egypt, and gather them out of Assyria. I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon; and there won’t be room enough for them. ^10:11He will pass through the sea of affliction, and will strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile will dry up; and the pride of Assyria will be brought down, and the scepter of Egypt will depart. ^10:12I will strengthen them in the LORD. They will walk up and down in his name,” says the LORD. ^11:1Open your doors, Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars. ^11:2Wail, cypress tree, for the cedar has fallen, because the stately ones are destroyed. Wail, you oaks of Bashan, for the strong forest has come down. ^11:3A voice of the wailing of the shepherds! For their glory is destroyed—a voice of the roaring of young lions! For the pride of the Jordan is ruined. ^11:4The LORD my God says: “Feed the flock of slaughter. ^11:5Their buyers slaughter them and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be the LORD, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them. ^11:6For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says the LORD; “but, behold, I will deliver every one of the men into his neighbor’s hand and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.” ^11:7So I fed the flock to be slaughtered, especially the oppressed of the flock. I took for myself two staffs. The one I called “Favor” and the other I called “Union”, and I fed the flock. ^11:8I cut off the three shepherds in one month; for my soul was weary of them, and their soul also loathed me. ^11:9Then I said, “I will not feed you. That which dies, let it die; and that which is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let those who are left eat each other’s flesh.” ^11:10I took my staff Favor and cut it apart, that I might break my covenant that I had made with all the peoples. ^11:11It was broken in that day; and thus the poor of the flock that listened to me knew that it was the LORD’s word. ^11:12I said to them, “If you think it best, give me my wages; and if not, keep them.” So they weighed for my wages thirty pieces of silver. ^11:13The LORD said to me, “Throw it to the potter—the handsome price that I was valued at by them!” I took the thirty pieces of silver and threw them to the potter in the LORD’s house. ^11:14Then I cut apart my other staff, Union, that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel. ^11:15The LORD said to me, “Take for yourself yet again the equipment of a foolish shepherd. ^11:16For, behold, I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not visit those who are cut off, neither will seek those who are scattered, nor heal that which is broken, nor feed that which is sound; but he will eat the meat of the fat sheep, and will tear their hoofs in pieces. ^11:17Woe to the worthless shepherd who leaves the flock! The sword will strike his arm and his right eye. His arm will be completely withered, and his right eye will be totally blinded!” ^12:1A revelation of the LORD’s word concerning Israel: The LORD, who stretches out the heavens and lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him says: ^12:2“Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of reeling to all the surrounding peoples, and it will also be on Judah in the siege against Jerusalem. ^12:3It will happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all the peoples. All who burden themselves with it will be severely wounded, and all the nations of the earth will be gathered together against it. ^12:4In that day,” says the LORD, “I will strike every horse with terror and his rider with madness. I will open my eyes on the house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness. ^12:5The chieftains of Judah will say in their heart, ‘The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength in the LORD of Armies their God.’ ^12:6In that day I will make the chieftains of Judah like a pan of fire among wood, and like a flaming torch among sheaves. They will devour all the surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left; and Jerusalem will yet again dwell in their own place, even in Jerusalem. ^12:7The LORD also will save the tents of Judah first, that the glory of David’s house and the glory of the inhabitants of Jerusalem not be magnified above Judah. ^12:8In that day the LORD will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He who is feeble among them at that day will be like David, and David’s house will be like God, like the LORD’s angel before them. ^12:9It will happen in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. ^12:10I will pour on David’s house and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. They will look to me whom they have pierced; and they shall mourn for him as one mourns for his only son, and will grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for his firstborn. ^12:11In that day there will be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the valley of Megiddo. ^12:12The land will mourn, every family apart; the family of David’s house apart, and their wives apart; the family of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart; ^12:13the family of the house of Levi apart, and their wives apart; the family of the Shimeites apart, and their wives apart; ^12:14all the families who remain, every family apart, and their wives apart. ^13:1“In that day there will be a fountain opened to David’s house and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. ^13:2It will come to pass in that day, says the LORD of Armies, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they will be remembered no more. I will also cause the prophets and the spirit of impurity to pass out of the land. ^13:3It will happen that when anyone still prophesies, then his father and his mother who bore him will tell him, ‘You must die, because you speak lies in the LORD’s name;’ and his father and his mother who bore him will stab him when he prophesies. ^13:4It will happen in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies; they won’t wear a hairy mantle to deceive, ^13:5but he will say, ‘I am no prophet, I am a tiller of the ground; for I have been made a bondservant from my youth.’ ^13:6One will say to him, ‘What are these wounds between your arms?’ Then he will answer, ‘Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends.’ ^13:7“Awake, sword, against my shepherd, and against the man who is close to me,” says the LORD of Armies. “Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered; and I will turn my hand against the little ones. ^13:8It shall happen that in all the land,” says the LORD, “two parts in it will be cut off and die; but the third will be left in it. ^13:9I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘The LORD is my God.’” ^14:1Behold, a day of the LORD comes, when your plunder will be divided within you. ^14:2For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city will be taken, the houses rifled, and the women ravished. Half of the city will go out into captivity, and the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. ^14:3Then the LORD will go out and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. ^14:4His feet will stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east; and the Mount of Olives will be split in two from east to west, making a very great valley. Half of the mountain will move toward the north, and half of it toward the south. ^14:5You shall flee by the valley of my mountains, for the valley of the mountains shall reach to Azel. Yes, you shall flee, just like you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. The LORD my God will come, and all the holy ones with you. ^14:6It will happen in that day that there will not be light, cold, or frost. ^14:7It will be a unique day which is known to the LORD—not day, and not night; but it will come to pass that at evening time there will be light. ^14:8It will happen in that day that living waters will go out from Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea, and half of them toward the western sea. It will be so in summer and in winter. ^14:9The LORD will be King over all the earth. In that day the LORD will be one, and his name one. ^14:10All the land will be made like the Arabah, from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; and she will be lifted up and will dwell in her place, from Benjamin’s gate to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananel to the king’s wine presses. ^14:11Men will dwell therein, and there will be no more curse; but Jerusalem will dwell safely. ^14:12This will be the plague with which the LORD will strike all the peoples who have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh will consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will consume away in their sockets, and their tongue will consume away in their mouth. ^14:13It will happen in that day that a great panic from the LORD will be among them; and they will each seize the hand of his neighbor, and his hand will rise up against the hand of his neighbor. ^14:14Judah also will fight at Jerusalem; and the wealth of all the surrounding nations will be gathered together: gold, silver, and clothing, in great abundance. ^14:15A plague like this will fall on the horse, on the mule, on the camel, on the donkey, and on all the animals that will be in those camps. ^14:16It will happen that everyone who is left of all the nations that came against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of Armies, and to keep the feast of booths. ^14:17It will be that whoever of all the families of the earth doesn’t go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of Armies, on them there will be no rain. ^14:18If the family of Egypt doesn’t go up and doesn’t come, neither will it rain on them. This will be the plague with which the LORD will strike the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths. ^14:19This will be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that don’t go up to keep the feast of booths. ^14:20In that day there will be inscribed on the bells of the horses, “HOLY TO THE LORD”; and the pots in the LORD’s house will be like the bowls before the altar. ^14:21Yes, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah will be holy to the LORD of Armies; and all those who sacrifice will come and take of them, and cook in them. In that day there will no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the LORD of Armies.

¹A revelation, the LORD’s word to Israel by Malachi. ²“I have loved you,” says the LORD. Yet you say, “How have you loved us?” “Wasn’t Esau Jacob’s brother?” says the LORD, “Yet I loved Jacob; ³but Esau I hated, and made his mountains a desolation, and gave his heritage to the jackals of the wilderness.” ⁴Whereas Edom says, “We are beaten down, but we will return and build the waste places,” the LORD of Armies says, “They shall build, but I will throw down; and men will call them ‘The Wicked Land,’ even the people against whom the LORD shows wrath forever.” ⁵Your eyes will see, and you will say, “The LORD is great—even beyond the border of Israel!” ⁶“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, then where is my honor? And if I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the LORD of Armies to you priests who despise my name. “You say, ‘How have we despised your name?’ ⁷You offer polluted bread on my altar. You say, ‘How have we polluted you?’ In that you say, ‘The LORD’s table is contemptible.’ ⁸When you offer the blind for sacrifice, isn’t that evil? And when you offer the lame and sick, isn’t that evil? Present it now to your governor! Will he be pleased with you? Or will he accept your person?” says the LORD of Armies. ⁹“Now, please entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With this, will he accept any of you?” says the LORD of Armies. ¹⁰“Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain! I have no pleasure in you,” says the LORD of Armies, “neither will I accept an offering at your hand. ¹¹For from the rising of the sun even to its going down, my name is great among the nations, and in every place incense will be offered to my name, and a pure offering; for my name is great among the nations,” says the LORD of Armies. ¹²“But you profane it when you say, ‘The LORD’s table is polluted, and its fruit, even its food, is contemptible.’ ¹³You say also, ‘Behold, what a weariness it is!’ And you have sniffed at it”, says the LORD of Armies; “and you have brought that which was taken by violence, the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering. Should I accept this at your hand?” says the LORD. ¹⁴“But the deceiver is cursed who has in his flock a male, and vows and sacrifices to the Lord a defective thing; for I am a great King,” says the LORD of Armies, “and my name is awesome among the nations.”