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Daily Readings for June 12
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Judges 10
1.After Abimelech there arose to save Israel Tola the son of Puah, the son of Dodo, a man of Issachar; and he lived in Shamir in the hill country of Ephraim. 2.He judged Israel twenty-three years, and died, and was buried in Shamir. 3.After him arose Jair, the Gileadite; and he judged Israel twenty-two years. 4.He had thirty sons who rode on thirty donkey colts, and they had thirty cities, which are called Havvoth Jair to this day, which are in the land of Gilead. 5.Jair died, and was buried in Kamon. 6.The children of Israel again did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals, and the Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Sidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; and they forsook Yahweh, and didn't serve him. 7.The anger of Yahweh was kindled against Israel, and he sold them into the hand of the Philistines, and into the hand of the children of Ammon. 8.They troubled and oppressed the children of Israel that year. For eighteen years, they oppressed all the children of Israel that were beyond the Jordan in the land of the Amorites, which is in Gilead. 9.The children of Ammon passed over the Jordan to fight also against Judah, and against Benjamin, and against the house of Ephraim; so that Israel was very distressed. 10.The children of Israel cried to Yahweh, saying, "We have sinned against you, even because we have forsaken our God, and have served the Baals."
11.Yahweh said to the children of Israel, "Didn't I save you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? 12.The Sidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, oppressed you; and you cried to me, and I saved you out of their hand. 13.Yet you have forsaken me, and served other gods: therefore I will save you no more. 14.Go and cry to the gods which you have chosen. Let them save you in the time of your distress!"
15.The children of Israel said to Yahweh, "We have sinned: do you to us whatever seems good to you; only deliver us, please, this day."
16.They put away the foreign gods from among them, and served Yahweh; and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel.
17.Then the children of Ammon were gathered together, and encamped in Gilead. The children of Israel assembled themselves together, and encamped in Mizpah. 18.The people, the princes of Gilead, said one to another, "What man is he who will begin to fight against the children of Ammon? He shall be head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."
Judges 11
1.Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, and he was the son of a prostitute: and Gilead became the father of Jephthah. 2.Gilead's wife bore him sons; and when his wife's sons grew up, they drove out Jephthah, and said to him, "You shall not inherit in our father's house; for you are the son of another woman." 3.Then Jephthah fled from his brothers, and lived in the land of Tob: and there were gathered vain fellows to Jephthah, and they went out with him. 4.It happened after a while, that the children of Ammon made war against Israel. 5.It was so, that when the children of Ammon made war against Israel, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah out of the land of Tob; 6.and they said to Jephthah, "Come and be our chief, that we may fight with the children of Ammon."
7.Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "Didn't you hate me, and drive me out of my father's house? Why have you come to me now when you are in distress?"
8.The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Therefore we have turned again to you now, that you may go with us, and fight with the children of Ammon; and you shall be our head over all the inhabitants of Gilead."
9.Jephthah said to the elders of Gilead, "If you bring me home again to fight with the children of Ammon, and Yahweh deliver them before me, shall I be your head?"
10.The elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, "Yahweh shall be witness between us; surely according to your word so will we do."
11.Then Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him head and chief over them: and Jephthah spoke all his words before Yahweh in Mizpah.
12.Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, "What have you to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?"
13.The king of the children of Ammon answered to the messengers of Jephthah, "Because Israel took away my land, when he came up out of Egypt, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and to the Jordan: now therefore restore that territory again peaceably."
14.Jephthah sent messengers again to the king of the children of Ammon; 15.and he said to him, "Thus says Jephthah: Israel didn't take away the land of Moab, nor the land of the children of Ammon, 16.but when they came up from Egypt, and Israel went through the wilderness to the Red Sea7, and came to Kadesh; 17.then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, 'Please let me pass through your land;' but the king of Edom didn't listen. In the same way, he sent to the king of Moab; but he would not: and Israel stayed in Kadesh. 18.Then they went through the wilderness, and went around the land of Edom, and the land of Moab, and came by the east side of the land of Moab, and they encamped on the other side of the Arnon; but they didn't come within the border of Moab, for the Arnon was the border of Moab. 19.Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, the king of Heshbon; and Israel said to him, 'Please let us pass through your land to my place.' 20.But Sihon didn't trust Israel to pass through his border; but Sihon gathered all his people together, and encamped in Jahaz, and fought against Israel. 21.Yahweh, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, and they struck them: so Israel possessed all the land of the Amorites, the inhabitants of that country. 22.They possessed all the border of the Amorites, from the Arnon even to the Jabbok, and from the wilderness even to the Jordan. 23.So now Yahweh, the God of Israel, has dispossessed the Amorites from before his people Israel, and should you possess them? 24.Won't you possess that which Chemosh your god gives you to possess? So whoever Yahweh our God has dispossessed from before us, them will we possess. 25.Now are you anything better than Balak the son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever strive against Israel, or did he ever fight against them? 26.While Israel lived in Heshbon and its towns, and in Aroer and its towns, and in all the cities that are along by the side of the Arnon, three hundred years; why didn't you recover them within that time? 27.I therefore have not sinned against you, but you do me wrong to war against me. Yahweh, the Judge, be judge this day between the children of Israel and the children of Ammon."
28.However the king of the children of Ammon didn't listen to the words of Jephthah which he sent him. 29.Then the Spirit of Yahweh came on Jephthah, and he passed over Gilead and Manasseh, and passed over Mizpeh of Gilead, and from Mizpeh of Gilead he passed over to the children of Ammon.
30.Jephthah vowed a vow to Yahweh, and said, "If you will indeed deliver the children of Ammon into my hand, 31.then it shall be, that whatever comes forth from the doors of my house to meet me, when I return in peace from the children of Ammon, it shall be Yahweh's, and I will offer it up for a burnt offering."
32.So Jephthah passed over to the children of Ammon to fight against them; and Yahweh delivered them into his hand. 33.He struck them from Aroer until you come to Minnith, even twenty cities, and to Abelcheramim, with a very great slaughter. So the children of Ammon were subdued before the children of Israel.
34.Jephthah came to Mizpah to his house; and behold, his daughter came out to meet him with tambourines and with dances: and she was his only child; besides her he had neither son nor daughter. 35.It happened, when he saw her, that he tore his clothes, and said, "Alas, my daughter! You have brought me very low, and you are one of those who trouble me; for I have opened my mouth to Yahweh, and I can't go back."
36.She said to him, "My father, you have opened your mouth to Yahweh; do to me according to that which has proceeded out of your mouth, because Yahweh has taken vengeance for you on your enemies, even on the children of Ammon." 37.She said to her father, "Let this thing be done for me: let me alone two months, that I may depart and go down on the mountains, and bewail my virginity, I and my companions."
38.He said, "Go." He sent her away for two months: and she departed, she and her companions, and mourned her virginity on the mountains. 39.It happened at the end of two months, that she returned to her father, who did with her according to his vow which he had vowed: and she was a virgin. It was a custom in Israel, 40.that the daughters of Israel went yearly to celebrate the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite four days in a year.
Isaiah 36
1.Now it happened in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah, that Sennacherib king of Assyria attacked all of the fortified cities of Judah, and captured them. 2.The king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem to king Hezekiah with a large army. He stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool in the fuller's field highway. 3.Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder came out to him. 4.Rabshakeh said to them, "Now tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria, "What confidence is this in which you trust? 5.I say that your counsel and strength for the war are only vain words. Now in whom do you trust, that you have rebelled against me? 6.Behold, you trust in the staff of this bruised reed, even in Egypt, which if a man leans on it, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 7.But if you tell me, 'We trust in Yahweh our God,' isn't that he whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and has said to Judah and to Jerusalem, 'You shall worship before this altar?'" 8.Now therefore, please make a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses, if you are able on your part to set riders on them. 9.How then can you turn away the face of one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust on Egypt for chariots and for horsemen? 10.Have I come up now without Yahweh against this land to destroy it? Yahweh said to me, "Go up against this land, and destroy it."'"
11.Then Eliakim, Shebna and Joah said to Rabshakeh, "Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and don't speak to us in the Jews' language in the hearing of the people who are on the wall."
12.But Rabshakeh said, "Has my master sent me only to your master and to you, to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat their own dung and drink their own urine with you?" 13.Then Rabshakeh stood, and called out with a loud voice in the Jews' language, and said, "Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! 14.Thus says the king, 'Don't let Hezekiah deceive you; for he will not be able to deliver you. 15.Don't let Hezekiah make you trust in Yahweh, saying, "Yahweh will surely deliver us. This city won't be given into the hand of the king of Assyria."' 16.Don't listen to Hezekiah, for thus says the king of Assyria, 'Make your peace with me, and come out to me; and each of you eat from his vine, and each one from his fig tree, and each one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 17.until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards. 18.Beware lest Hezekiah persuade you, saying, "Yahweh will deliver us." Have any of the gods of the nations delivered their lands from the hand of the king of Assyria? 19.Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 20.Who are they among all the gods of these countries that have delivered their country out of my hand, that Yahweh should deliver Jerusalem out of my hand?'"
21.But they remained silent, and said nothing in reply, for the king's commandment was, "Don't answer him."
22.Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and Joah, the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
1Peter 2
1.Putting away therefore all wickedness, all deceit, hypocrisies, envies, and all evil speaking, 2.as newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby, 3.if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious: 4.coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God, precious. 5.You also, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 6.Because it is contained in Scripture, "Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed."4
7.For you who believe therefore is the honor, but for those who are disobedient, "The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone,"5
8.and, "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense."6
For they stumble at the word, being disobedient, to which also they were appointed. 9.But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light: 10.who in time past were no people, but now are God's people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. 11.Beloved, I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims, to abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12.having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they see, glorify God in the day of visitation. 13.Therefore subject yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether to the king, as supreme; 14.or to governors, as sent by him for vengeance on evildoers and for praise to those who do well. 15.For this is the will of God, that by well-doing you should put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16.as free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness, but as bondservants of God.
17.Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king. 18.Servants, be in subjection to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the wicked. 19.For it is commendable if someone endures pain, suffering unjustly, because of conscience toward God. 20.For what glory is it if, when you sin, you patiently endure beating? But if, when you do well, you patiently endure suffering, this is commendable with God. 21.For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving you7 an example, that you should follow his steps, 22.who did not sin, "neither was deceit found in his mouth."8 23.Who, when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously; 24.who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness; by whose stripes you were healed. 25.For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer9 of your souls.