Wednesday, October 2

Ask the Lord for rain in the springtime;

    it is the Lord who sends the thunderstorms.

He gives showers of rain to all people,

    and plants of the field to everyone.

2 

The idols speak deceitfully,

    diviners see visions that lie;

they tell dreams that are false,

    they give comfort in vain.

Therefore the people wander like sheep

    oppressed for lack of a shepherd.

3 

“My anger burns against the shepherds,

    and I will punish the leaders;

for the Lord Almighty will care

    for his flock, the people of Judah,

    and make them like a proud horse in battle.

4 

From Judah will come the cornerstone,

    from him the tent peg,

from him the battle bow,

    from him every ruler.

5 

Together they[a] will be like warriors in battle

    trampling their enemy into the mud of the streets.

They will fight because the Lord is with them,

    and they will put the enemy horsemen to shame.

6 

“I will strengthen Judah

    and save the tribes of Joseph.

I will restore them

    because I have compassion on them.

They will be as though

    I had not rejected them,

for I am the Lord their God

    and I will answer them.

7 

The Ephraimites will become like warriors,

    and their hearts will be glad as with wine.

Their children will see it and be joyful;

    their hearts will rejoice in the Lord.

8 

I will signal for them

    and gather them in.

Surely I will redeem them;

    they will be as numerous as before.

9 

Though I scatter them among the peoples,

    yet in distant lands they will remember me.

They and their children will survive,

    and they will return.

10 

I will bring them back from Egypt

    and gather them from Assyria.

I will bring them to Gilead and Lebanon,

    and there will not be room enough for them.

11 

They will pass through the sea of trouble;

    the surging sea will be subdued

    and all the depths of the Nile will dry up.

Assyria’s pride will be brought down

    and Egypt’s scepter will pass away.

12 

I will strengthen them in the Lord

    and in his name they will live securely,”

declares the Lord.