December 16  

Daily Bible in a Year

Daily Old and New Testaments, Psalms, and Proverbs

  •   Micah 5-7
    Micah 5-7

    The Ruler to Be Born in Bethlehem

    [a] Now muster your troops, O daughter[b] of troops;
        siege is laid against us;
    with a rod they strike the judge of Israel
        on the cheek.


    [c] But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah,
        who are too little to be among the clans of Judah,
    from you shall come forth for me
        one who is to be ruler in Israel,
    whose coming forth is from of old,
        from ancient days.


    Therefore he shall give them up until the time
        when she who is in labor has given birth;
    then the rest of his brothers shall return
        to the people of Israel.


    And he shall stand and shepherd his flock in the strength of the Lord,
        in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God.
    And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great
        to the ends of the earth.


    And he shall be their peace.

    When the Assyrian comes into our land
        and treads in our palaces,
    then we will raise against him seven shepherds
        and eight princes of men;


    they shall shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword,
        and the land of Nimrod at its entrances;
    and he shall deliver us from the Assyrian
        when he comes into our land
        and treads within our border.

    A Remnant Shall Be Delivered

    Then the remnant of Jacob shall be
        in the midst of many peoples
    like dew from the Lord,
        like showers on the grass,
    which delay not for a man
        nor wait for the children of man.


    And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the nations,
        in the midst of many peoples,
    like a lion among the beasts of the forest,
        like a young lion among the flocks of sheep,
    which, when it goes through, treads down
        and tears in pieces, and there is none to deliver.


    Your hand shall be lifted up over your adversaries,
        and all your enemies shall be cut off.

    10 
    And in that day, declares the Lord,
        I will cut off your horses from among you
        and will destroy your chariots;

    11 
    and I will cut off the cities of your land
        and throw down all your strongholds;

    12 
    and I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
        and you shall have no more tellers of fortunes;

    13 
    and I will cut off your carved images
        and your pillars from among you,
    and you shall bow down no more
        to the work of your hands;

    14 
    and I will root out your Asherah images from among you
        and destroy your cities.

    15 
    And in anger and wrath I will execute vengeance
        on the nations that did not obey.

    The Indictment of the Lord

    Hear what the Lord says:
    Arise, plead your case before the mountains,
        and let the hills hear your voice.


    Hear, you mountains, the indictment of the Lord,
        and you enduring foundations of the earth,
    for the Lord has an indictment against his people,
        and he will contend with Israel.


    “O my people, what have I done to you?
        How have I wearied you? Answer me!


    For I brought you up from the land of Egypt
        and redeemed you from the house of slavery,
    and I sent before you Moses,
        Aaron, and Miriam.


    O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised,
        and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him,
    and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal,
        that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

    What Does the Lord Require?

    “With what shall I come before the Lord,
        and bow myself before God on high?
    Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,
        with calves a year old?


    Will the Lord be pleased with[d] thousands of rams,
        with ten thousands of rivers of oil?
    Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,
        the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?”


    He has told you, O man, what is good;
        and what does the Lord require of you
    but to do justice, and to love kindness,[e]
        and to walk humbly with your God?

    Destruction of the Wicked

    The voice of the Lord cries to the city—
        and it is sound wisdom to fear your name:
    “Hear of the rod and of him who appointed it![f]

    10 
        Can I forget any longer the treasures[g] of wickedness in the house of the wicked,
        and the scant measure that is accursed?

    11 
    Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales
        and with a bag of deceitful weights?

    12 
    Your[h] rich men are full of violence;
        your inhabitants speak lies,
        and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth.

    13 
    Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow,
        making you desolate because of your sins.

    14 
    You shall eat, but not be satisfied,
        and there shall be hunger within you;
    you shall put away, but not preserve,
        and what you preserve I will give to the sword.

    15 
    You shall sow, but not reap;
        you shall tread olives, but not anoint yourselves with oil;
        you shall tread grapes, but not drink wine.

    16 
    For you have kept the statutes of Omri,[i]
        and all the works of the house of Ahab;
        and you have walked in their counsels,
    that I may make you a desolation, and your[j] inhabitants a hissing;
        so you shall bear the scorn of my people.”

    Wait for the God of Salvation

    Woe is me! For I have become
        as when the summer fruit has been gathered,
        as when the grapes have been gleaned:
    there is no cluster to eat,
        no first-ripe fig that my soul desires.


    The godly has perished from the earth,
        and there is no one upright among mankind;
    they all lie in wait for blood,
        and each hunts the other with a net.


    Their hands are on what is evil, to do it well;
        the prince and the judge ask for a bribe,
    and the great man utters the evil desire of his soul;
        thus they weave it together.


    The best of them is like a brier,
        the most upright of them a thorn hedge.
    The day of your watchmen, of your punishment, has come;
        now their confusion is at hand.


    Put no trust in a neighbor;
        have no confidence in a friend;
    guard the doors of your mouth
        from her who lies in your arms;[k]


    for the son treats the father with contempt,
        the daughter rises up against her mother,
    the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
        a man's enemies are the men of his own house.


    But as for me, I will look to the Lord;
        I will wait for the God of my salvation;
        my God will hear me.


    Rejoice not over me, O my enemy;
        when I fall, I shall rise;
    when I sit in darkness,
        the Lord will be a light to me.


    I will bear the indignation of the Lord
        because I have sinned against him,
    until he pleads my cause
        and executes judgment for me.
    He will bring me out to the light;
        I shall look upon his vindication.

    10 
    Then my enemy will see,
        and shame will cover her who said to me,
        “Where is the Lord your God?”
    My eyes will look upon her;
        now she will be trampled down
        like the mire of the streets.

    11 
    A day for the building of your walls!
        In that day the boundary shall be far extended.

    12 
    In that day they[l] will come to you,
        from Assyria and the cities of Egypt,
    and from Egypt to the River,[m]
        from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.

    13 
    But the earth will be desolate
        because of its inhabitants,
        for the fruit of their deeds.

    14 
    Shepherd your people with your staff,
        the flock of your inheritance,
    who dwell alone in a forest
        in the midst of a garden land;[n]
    let them graze in Bashan and Gilead
        as in the days of old.

    15 
    As in the days when you came out of the land of Egypt,
        I will show them[o] marvelous things.

    16 
    The nations shall see and be ashamed of all their might;
    they shall lay their hands on their mouths;
        their ears shall be deaf;

    17 
    they shall lick the dust like a serpent,
        like the crawling things of the earth;
    they shall come trembling out of their strongholds;
        they shall turn in dread to the Lord our God,
        and they shall be in fear of you.

    God's Steadfast Love and Compassion
    18 
    Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity
        and passing over transgression
        for the remnant of his inheritance?
    He does not retain his anger forever,
        because he delights in steadfast love.

    19 
    He will again have compassion on us;
        he will tread our iniquities underfoot.
    You will cast all our[p] sins
        into the depths of the sea.

    20 
    You will show faithfulness to Jacob
        and steadfast love to Abraham,
    as you have sworn to our fathers
        from the days of old.

    Footnotes:
    1. Micah 5:1 Ch 4:14 in Hebrew
    2. Micah 5:1 That is, city
    3. Micah 5:2 Ch 5:1 in Hebrew
    4. Micah 6:7 Or Will the Lord accept
    5. Micah 6:8 Or steadfast love
    6. Micah 6:9 The meaning of the Hebrew is uncertain
    7. Micah 6:10 Or Are there still treasures
    8. Micah 6:12 Hebrew whose
    9. Micah 6:16 Hebrew For the statutes of Omri are kept
    10. Micah 6:16 Hebrew its
    11. Micah 7:5 Hebrew bosom
    12. Micah 7:12 Hebrew he
    13. Micah 7:12 That is, the Euphrates
    14. Micah 7:14 Hebrew of Carmel
    15. Micah 7:15 Hebrew him
    16. Micah 7:19 Hebrew their
  •   Revelation 7
    Revelation 7

    The 144,000 of Israel Sealed
    After this I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding back the four winds of the earth, that no wind might blow on earth or sea or against any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the rising of the sun, with the seal of the living God, and he called with a loud voice to the four angels who had been given power to harm earth and sea, saying, “Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.” And I heard the number of the sealed, 144,000, sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel:

    12,000 from the tribe of Judah were sealed,
    12,000 from the tribe of Reuben,
    12,000 from the tribe of Gad,


    12,000 from the tribe of Asher,
    12,000 from the tribe of Naphtali,
    12,000 from the tribe of Manasseh,


    12,000 from the tribe of Simeon,
    12,000 from the tribe of Levi,

    12,000 from the tribe of Issachar,


    12,000 from the tribe of Zebulun,
    12,000 from the tribe of Joseph,
    12,000 from the tribe of Benjamin were sealed.

    A Great Multitude from Every Nation
    After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.”
    13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
    15 
    “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
        and serve him day and night in his temple;
        and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.

    16 
    They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
        the sun shall not strike them,
        nor any scorching heat.

    17 
    For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
        and he will guide them to springs of living water,
    and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”
  •   Psalm 135
    Psalm 135

    Your Name, O Lord, Endures Forever
    135 
    Praise the Lord!
    Praise the name of the Lord,
        give praise, O servants of the Lord,

    who stand in the house of the Lord,
        in the courts of the house of our God!


    Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good;
        sing to his name, for it is pleasant![a]


    For the Lord has chosen Jacob for himself,
        Israel as his own possession.


    For I know that the Lord is great,
        and that our Lord is above all gods.


    Whatever the Lord pleases, he does,
        in heaven and on earth,
        in the seas and all deeps.


    He it is who makes the clouds rise at the end of the earth,
        who makes lightnings for the rain
        and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.


    He it was who struck down the firstborn of Egypt,
        both of man and of beast;


    who in your midst, O Egypt,
        sent signs and wonders
        against Pharaoh and all his servants;

    10 
    who struck down many nations
        and killed mighty kings,

    11 
    Sihon, king of the Amorites,
        and Og, king of Bashan,
        and all the kingdoms of Canaan,

    12 
    and gave their land as a heritage,
        a heritage to his people Israel.

    13 
    Your name, O Lord, endures forever,
        your renown,[b] O Lord, throughout all ages.

    14 
    For the Lord will vindicate his people
        and have compassion on his servants.

    15 
    The idols of the nations are silver and gold,
        the work of human hands.

    16 
    They have mouths, but do not speak;
        they have eyes, but do not see;

    17 
    they have ears, but do not hear,
        nor is there any breath in their mouths.

    18 
    Those who make them become like them,
        so do all who trust in them.

    19 
    O house of Israel, bless the Lord!
        O house of Aaron, bless the Lord!

    20 
    O house of Levi, bless the Lord!
        You who fear the Lord, bless the Lord!

    21 
    Blessed be the Lord from Zion,
        he who dwells in Jerusalem!
    Praise the Lord!

    Footnotes:
    1. Psalm 135:3 Or for he is beautiful
    2. Psalm 135:13 Or remembrance
  •   Proverbs 30:5-6

    Proverbs 30:5-6


    Every word of God proves true;

        he is a shield to those who take refuge in him.


    Do not add to his words,

        lest he rebuke you and you be found a liar.

    English Standard Version (ESV)
    The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV® Permanent Text Edition® (2016). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.


Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.