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Daily Readings for July 13
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1Samuel 26
1.The Ziphites came to Saul to Gibeah, saying, "Doesn't David hide himself in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert?" 2.Then Saul arose, and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having three thousand chosen men of Israel with him, to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. 3.Saul encamped in the hill of Hachilah, which is before the desert, by the way. But David stayed in the wilderness, and he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness. 4.David therefore sent out spies, and understood that Saul had certainly come. 5.David arose, and came to the place where Saul had encamped; and David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner the son of Ner, the captain of his army: and Saul lay within the place of the wagons, and the people were encamped around him. 6.Then answered David and said to Ahimelech the Hittite, and to Abishai the son of Zeruiah, brother to Joab, saying, "Who will go down with me to Saul to the camp?"
Abishai said, "I will go down with you." 7.So David and Abishai came to the people by night: and, behold, Saul lay sleeping within the place of the wagons, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head; and Abner and the people lay around him. 8.Then Abishai said to David, "God has delivered up your enemy into your hand this day. Now therefore please let me strike him with the spear to the earth at one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time."
9.David said to Abishai, "Don't destroy him; for who can put forth his hand against Yahweh's anointed, and be guiltless?" 10.David said, "As Yahweh lives, Yahweh will strike him; or his day shall come to die; or he shall go down into battle and perish. 11.Yahweh forbid that I should put forth my hand against Yahweh's anointed; but now please take the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go."
12.So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head; and they went away: and no man saw it, nor knew it, neither did any awake; for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from Yahweh was fallen on them. 13.Then David went over to the other side, and stood on the top of the mountain afar off; a great space being between them; 14.and David cried to the people, and to Abner the son of Ner, saying, "Don't you answer, Abner?"
Then Abner answered, "Who are you who cries to the king?"
15.David said to Abner, "Aren't you a man? Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king your lord. 16.This thing isn't good that you have done. As Yahweh lives, you are worthy to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, Yahweh's anointed. Now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head."
17.Saul knew David's voice, and said, "Is this your voice, my son David?"
David said, "It is my voice, my lord, O king." 18.He said, "Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? Or what evil is in my hand? 19.Now therefore, please let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is so that Yahweh has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. But if it is the children of men, they are cursed before Yahweh; for they have driven me out this day that I shouldn't cling to Yahweh's inheritance, saying, 'Go, serve other gods!' 20.Now therefore, don't let my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of Yahweh; for the king of Israel has come out to seek a flea, as when one hunts a partridge in the mountains."
21.Then Saul said, "I have sinned. Return, my son David; for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have played the fool, and have erred exceedingly."
22.David answered, "Behold the spear, O king! Then let one of the young men come over and get it. 23.Yahweh will render to every man his righteousness and his faithfulness; because Yahweh delivered you into my hand today, and I wouldn't put forth my hand against Yahweh's anointed. 24.Behold, as your life was respected this day in my eyes, so let my life be respected in the eyes of Yahweh, and let him deliver me out of all oppression."
25.Then Saul said to David, "You are blessed, my son David. You shall both do mightily, and shall surely prevail." So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.
1Samuel 27
1.David said in his heart, "I shall now perish one day by the hand of Saul. There is nothing better for me than that I should escape into the land of the Philistines; and Saul will despair of me, to seek me any more in all the borders of Israel. So shall I escape out of his hand." 2.David arose, and passed over, he and the six hundred men who were with him, to Achish the son of Maoch, king of Gath. 3.David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, every man with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the Carmelitess, Nabal's wife. 4.It was told Saul that David was fled to Gath: and he sought no more again for him. 5.David said to Achish, "If now I have found favor in your eyes, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country, that I may dwell there. For why should your servant dwell in the royal city with you?" 6.Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: why Ziklag pertains to the kings of Judah to this day. 7.The number of the days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was a full year and four months. 8.David and his men went up, and made a raid on the Geshurites, and the Girzites, and the Amalekites; for those were the inhabitants of the land, who were of old, as you go to Shur, even to the land of Egypt. 9.David struck the land, and saved neither man nor woman alive, and took away the sheep, and the cattle, and the donkeys, and the camels, and the clothing; and he returned, and came to Achish. 10.Achish said, "Against whom have you made a raid today?"
David said, "Against the South of Judah, against the South of the Jerahmeelites, and against the South of the Kenites." 11.David saved neither man nor woman alive, to bring them to Gath, saying, "Lest they should tell of us, saying, 'David this, and this has been his way all the time he has lived in the country of the Philistines.'"
12.Achish believed David, saying, "He has made his people Israel utterly to abhor him. Therefore he shall be my servant forever."
Jeremiah 3
1."They say, 'If a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him, and become another man's, will he return to her again?' Wouldn't that land be greatly polluted? But you have played the prostitute with many lovers; yet return again to me," says Yahweh.
2."Lift up your eyes to the bare heights, and see! Where have you not been lain with? You have sat for them by the ways, as an Arabian in the wilderness. You have polluted the land with your prostitution and with your wickedness. 3.Therefore the showers have been withheld, and there has been no latter rain; yet you have a prostitute's forehead, you refused to be ashamed. 4.Will you not from this time cry to me, 'My Father, you are the guide of my youth?'
5."'Will he retain his anger forever? Will he keep it to the end?' Behold, you have spoken and have done evil things, and have had your way."
6.Moreover, Yahweh said to me in the days of Josiah the king, "Have you seen that which backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain and under every green tree, and there has played the prostitute. 7.I said after she had done all these things, 'She will return to me;' but she didn't return; and her treacherous sister Judah saw it. 8.I saw, when, for this very cause that backsliding Israel had committed adultery, I had put her away and given her a bill of divorce, yet treacherous Judah, her sister, didn't fear; but she also went and played the prostitute. 9.It happened through the lightness of her prostitution, that the land was polluted, and she committed adultery with stones and with stocks. 10.Yet for all this her treacherous sister, Judah, has not returned to me with her whole heart, but only in pretense," says Yahweh.
11.Yahweh said to me, "Backsliding Israel has shown herself more righteous than treacherous Judah. 12.Go, and proclaim these words toward the north, and say, 'Return, you backsliding Israel,' says Yahweh; 'I will not look in anger on you; for I am merciful,' says Yahweh. 'I will not keep anger forever. 13.Only acknowledge your iniquity, that you have transgressed against Yahweh your God, and have scattered your ways to the strangers under every green tree, and you have not obeyed my voice,' says Yahweh." 14."Return, backsliding children," says Yahweh; "for I am a husband to you. I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion. 15.I will give you shepherds according to my heart, who shall feed you with knowledge and understanding. 16.It shall come to pass, when you are multiplied and increased in the land, in those days," says Yahweh, "they shall say no more, 'The ark of the covenant of Yahweh!' neither shall it come to mind; neither shall they remember it; neither shall they miss it; neither shall it be made any more. 17.At that time they shall call Jerusalem 'The throne of Yahweh;' and all the nations shall be gathered to it, to the name of Yahweh, to Jerusalem. Neither shall they walk any more after the stubbornness of their evil heart. 18.In those days the house of Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance to your fathers.
19."But I said, 'How I would put you among the children, and give you a pleasant land, a goodly heritage of the armies of the nations!' and I said, 'You shall call me "My Father," and shall not turn away from following me.'
20."Surely as a wife treacherously departs from her husband, so you have dealt treacherously with me, house of Israel," says Yahweh. 21.A voice is heard on the bare heights, the weeping and the petitions of the children of Israel; because they have perverted their way, they have forgotten Yahweh their God. 22.Return, you backsliding children, I will heal your backsliding.
"Behold, we have come to you; for you are Yahweh our God. 23.Truly in vain is help from the hills, the tumult on the mountains. Truly the salvation of Israel is in Yahweh our God. 24.But the shameful thing has devoured the labor of our fathers from our youth, their flocks and their herds, their sons and their daughters. 25.Let us lie down in our shame, and let our confusion cover us; for we have sinned against Yahweh our God, we and our fathers, from our youth even to this day. We have not obeyed the voice of Yahweh our God."
Matthew 14
1.At that time, Herod the tetrarch heard the report concerning Jesus, 2.and said to his servants, "This is John the Baptizer. He is risen from the dead. That is why these powers work in him." 3.For Herod had laid hold of John, and bound him, and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife. 4.For John said to him, "It is not lawful for you to have her." 5.When he would have put him to death, he feared the multitude, because they counted him as a prophet. 6.But when Herod's birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced among them and pleased Herod. 7.Whereupon he promised with an oath to give her whatever she should ask. 8.She, being prompted by her mother, said, "Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptizer."
9.The king was grieved, but for the sake of his oaths, and of those who sat at the table with him, he commanded it to be given, 10.and he sent and beheaded John in the prison. 11.His head was brought on a platter, and given to the young lady: and she brought it to her mother. 12.His disciples came, and took the body, and buried it; and they went and told Jesus. 13.Now when Jesus heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat, to a deserted place apart. When the multitudes heard it, they followed him on foot from the cities.
14.Jesus went out, and he saw a great multitude. He had compassion on them, and healed their sick. 15.When evening had come, his disciples came to him, saying, "This place is deserted, and the hour is already late. Send the multitudes away, that they may go into the villages, and buy themselves food."
16.But Jesus said to them, "They don't need to go away. You give them something to eat."
17.They told him, "We only have here five loaves and two fish."
18.He said, "Bring them here to me." 19.He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitudes. 20.They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces. 21.Those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.
22.Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat, and to go ahead of him to the other side, while he sent the multitudes away. 23.After he had sent the multitudes away, he went up into the mountain by himself to pray. When evening had come, he was there alone. 24.But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, distressed by the waves, for the wind was contrary. 25.In the fourth watch of the night,69 Jesus came to them, walking on the sea.[70] 26.When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, "It's a ghost!" and they cried out for fear. 27.But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying "Cheer up! It is I!71 Don't be afraid."
28.Peter answered him and said, "Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the waters."
29.He said, "Come!"
Peter stepped down from the boat, and walked on the waters to come to Jesus. 30.But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, "Lord, save me!"
31.Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" 32.When they got up into the boat, the wind ceased. 33.Those who were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, "You are truly the Son of God!"
34.When they had crossed over, they came to the land of Gennesaret. 35.When the people of that place recognized him, they sent into all that surrounding region, and brought to him all who were sick, 36.and they begged him that they might just touch the fringe72 of his garment. As many as touched it were made whole.