Bible in a Year · Day 255 of 365
Today’s reading: Lamentations 5 – Ezekiel 2 (3 chapters)
Read the passage below, or open your own Bible and follow along. The text here is the World English Bible, a public-domain translation, printed in full so the day’s reading is all on one page.
About Lamentations
Lamentations is five poems written from the rubble of Jerusalem. Each chapter is an acrostic, working through the Hebrew alphabet, which suggests the grief was meant to be learned and prayed rather than only read. The poems describe siege, starvation, and the loss of worship, and they do not tidy any of it. Right in the middle, in chapter 3, comes the line about mercies new every morning and a faithfulness that is great. It is not a denial of the horror around it. It is a hard-won act of hope in the same voice that has been crying out.
What to watch for. Watch how the poet speaks about God and to God in the same chapter, and notice that the hope in chapter 3 is grounded in God's character rather than in improved circumstances.
Lamentations 5
1Remember, Yahweh, what has come on us: Look, and see our reproach. 2Our inheritance is turned to strangers, Our houses to aliens. 3We are orphans and fatherless; Our mothers are as widows. 4We have drunken our water for money; Our wood is sold to us. 5Our pursuers are on our necks: We are weary, and have no rest.
6We have given the hand to the Egyptians, To the Assyrians, to be satisfied with bread. 7Our fathers sinned, and are no more; We have borne their iniquities. 8Servants rule over us: There is no one to deliver us out of their hand. 9We get our bread at the peril of our lives, Because of the sword of the wilderness. 10Our skin is black like an oven, Because of the burning heat of famine.
11They ravished the women in Zion, The virgins in the cities of Judah. 12Princes were hanged up by their hand: The faces of elders were not honored. 13The young men bare the mill; The children stumbled under the wood. 14The elders have ceased from the gate, The young men from their music. 15The joy of our heart is ceased; Our dance is turned into mourning.
16The crown is fallen from our head: Woe to us! for we have sinned. 17For this our heart is faint; For these things our eyes are dim; 18For the mountain of Zion, which is desolate: The foxes walk on it. 19You, Yahweh, remain forever; Your throne is from generation to generation. 20Why do you forget us forever, And forsake us so long time?
21Turn us to yourself, Yahweh, and we shall be turned. Renew our days as of old. 22But you have utterly rejected us; You are very angry against us.
Ezekiel 1
1Now in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth of the month, as I was among the captives by the river Chebar, the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. 2In the fifth of the month, which was the fifth year of king Jehoiachin’s captivity, 3Yahweh’s word came expressly to Ezekiel the priest, the son of Buzi, in the land of the Chaldeans by the river Chebar; and Yahweh’s hand was there on him. 4I looked, and behold, a stormy wind came out of the north, a great cloud, with flashing lightning, and a brightness around it, and out of the middle of it as it were glowing metal, out of the middle of the fire. 5Out of its center came the likeness of four living creatures. This was their appearance: they had the likeness of a man.
6Everyone had four faces, and each one of them had four wings. 7Their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf’s foot; and they sparkled like burnished brass. 8They had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and the four of them had their faces and their wings thus: 9their wings were joined to one another; they didn’t turn when they went; each one went straight forward. 10As for the likeness of their faces, they had the face of a man; and the four of them had the face of a lion on the right side; and the four of them had the face of an ox on the left side; the four of them also had the face of an eagle.
11Such were their faces. Their wings were spread out above. Two wings of each one touched another, and two covered their bodies. 12Each one went straight forward: where the spirit was to go, they went; they didn’t turn when they went. 13As for the likeness of the living creatures, their appearance was like burning coals of fire, like the appearance of torches: the fire went up and down among the living creatures; and the fire was bright, and lightning went out of the fire. 14The living creatures ran and returned as the appearance of a flash of lightning. 15Now as I saw the living creatures, behold, one wheel on the earth beside the living creatures, for each of the four faces of it.
16The appearance of the wheels and their work was like a beryl: and the four of them had one likeness; and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel within a wheel. 17When they went, they went in their four directions: they didn’t turn when they went. 18As for their rims, they were high and dreadful; and the four of them had their rims full of eyes all around. 19When the living creatures went, the wheels went beside them; and when the living creatures were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up. 20Wherever the spirit was to go, they went; there was the spirit to go: and the wheels were lifted up beside them; for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels.
21When those went, these went; and when those stood, these stood; and when those were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted up beside them: for the spirit of the living creature was in the wheels. 22Over the head of the living creature there was the likeness of an expanse, like the awesome crystal to look on, stretched out over their heads above. 23Under the expanse were their wings straight, the one toward the other: each one had two which covered on this side, and every one had two which covered on that side, their bodies. 24When they went, I heard the noise of their wings like the noise of great waters, like the voice of the Almighty, a noise of tumult like the noise of an army: when they stood, they let down their wings. 25There was a voice above the expanse that was over their heads: when they stood, they let down their wings.
26Above the expanse that was over their heads was the likeness of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone; and on the likeness of the throne was a likeness as the appearance of a man on it above. 27I saw as it were glowing metal, as the appearance of fire within it all around, from the appearance of his waist and upward; and from the appearance of his waist and downward I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and there was brightness around him. 28As the appearance of the rainbow that is in the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of the brightness all around. This was the appearance of the likeness of Yahweh’s glory. When I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one that spoke.
Ezekiel 2
1He said to me, “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.” 2The Spirit entered into me when he spoke to me, and set me on my feet; and I heard him who spoke to me. 3He said to me, “Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have rebelled against me. They and their fathers have transgressed against me even to this very day. 4The children are impudent and stiff-hearted. I am sending you to them, and you shall tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord Yahweh.’ 5They, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear, (for they are a rebellious house), yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.
6You, son of man, don’t be afraid of them, neither be afraid of their words, though briers and thorns are with you, and you do dwell among scorpions. Don’t be afraid of their words, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious house. 7You shall speak my words to them, whether they will hear, or whether they will forbear; for they are most rebellious. 8But you, son of man, hear what I tell you. Don’t be rebellious like that rebellious house. Open your mouth, and eat that which I give you.” 9When I looked, behold, a hand was stretched out to me; and, behold, a scroll of a book was therein; 10He spread it before me: and it was written within and without; and there were written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.
Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB), a public-domain translation. Day numbering follows the calendar year; you can start at Day 1 on any date.
