Daily Readings for August 13

Daily Readings for August 13
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1Kings 8

1.Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the princes of the fathers' households of the children of Israel, to king Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of Yahweh out of the city of David, which is Zion. 2.All the men of Israel assembled themselves to king Solomon at the feast, in the month Ethanim, which is the seventh month. 3.All the elders of Israel came, and the priests took up the ark. 4.They brought up the ark of Yahweh, and the Tent of Meeting, and all the holy vessels that were in the Tent; even these the priests and the Levites brought up. 5.King Solomon and all the congregation of Israel, who were assembled to him, were with him before the ark, sacrificing sheep and cattle, that could not be counted nor numbered for multitude. 6.The priests brought in the ark of the covenant of Yahweh to its place, into the oracle of the house, to the most holy place, even under the wings of the cherubim. 7.For the cherubim spread forth their wings over the place of the ark, and the cherubim covered the ark and its poles above. 8.The poles were so long that the ends of the poles were seen from the holy place before the oracle; but they were not seen outside: and there they are to this day. 9.There was nothing in the ark except the two tables of stone which Moses put there at Horeb, when Yahweh made a covenant with the children of Israel, when they came out of the land of Egypt. 10.It came to pass, when the priests had come out of the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of Yahweh, 11.so that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud; for the glory of Yahweh filled the house of Yahweh. 12.Then Solomon said, "Yahweh has said that he would dwell in the thick darkness. 13.I have surely built you a house of habitation, a place for you to dwell in forever."

14.The king turned his face about, and blessed all the assembly of Israel: and all the assembly of Israel stood. 15.He said, "Blessed is Yahweh, the God of Israel, who spoke with his mouth to David your father, and has with his hand fulfilled it, saying, 16.'Since the day that I brought my people Israel out of Egypt, I chose no city out of all the tribes of Israel to build a house, that my name might be there; but I chose David to be over my people Israel.'

17."Now it was in the heart of David my father to build a house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 18.But Yahweh said to David my father, 'Whereas it was in your heart to build a house for my name, you did well that it was in your heart. 19.Nevertheless, you shall not build the house; but your son who shall come forth out of your body, he shall build the house for my name.' 20.Yahweh has established his word that he spoke; for I have risen up in the place of David my father, and I sit on the throne of Israel, as Yahweh promised, and have built the house for the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel. 21.There I have set a place for the ark, in which is the covenant of Yahweh, which he made with our fathers, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt."

22.Solomon stood before the altar of Yahweh in the presence of all the assembly of Israel, and spread forth his hands toward heaven; 23.and he said, "Yahweh, the God of Israel, there is no God like you, in heaven above, or on earth beneath; who keep covenant and loving kindness with your servants, who walk before you with all their heart; 24.who have kept with your servant David my father that which you promised him. Yes, you spoke with your mouth, and have fulfilled it with your hand, as it is this day. 25.Now therefore, may Yahweh, the God of Israel, keep with your servant David my father that which you have promised him, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man in my sight to sit on the throne of Israel, if only your children take heed to their way, to walk before me as you have walked before me.'

26."Now therefore, God of Israel, please let your word be verified, which you spoke to your servant David my father. 27.But will God in very deed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens can't contain you; how much less this house that I have built! 28.Yet have respect for the prayer of your servant, and for his supplication, Yahweh my God, to listen to the cry and to the prayer which your servant prays before you this day; 29.that your eyes may be open toward this house night and day, even toward the place of which you have said, 'My name shall be there;' to listen to the prayer which your servant shall pray toward this place. 30.Listen to the supplication of your servant, and of your people Israel, when they shall pray toward this place. Yes, hear in heaven, your dwelling place; and when you hear, forgive.

31."If a man sins against his neighbor, and an oath is laid on him to cause him to swear, and he comes and swear before your altar in this house; 32.then hear in heaven, and do, and judge your servants, condemning the wicked, to bring his way on his own head, and justifying the righteous, to give him according to his righteousness.

33."When your people Israel are struck down before the enemy, because they have sinned against you; if they turn again to you, and confess your name, and pray and make supplication to you in this house: 34.then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your people Israel, and bring them again to the land which you gave to their fathers.

35."When the sky is shut up, and there is no rain, because they have sinned against you; if they pray toward this place, and confess your name, and turn from their sin, when you afflict them: 36.then hear in heaven, and forgive the sin of your servants, and of your people Israel, when you teach them the good way in which they should walk; and send rain on your land, which you have given to your people for an inheritance.

37."If there is famine in the land, if there is pestilence, if there is blight, mildew, locust or caterpillar; if their enemy besieges them in the land of their cities; whatever plague, whatever sickness there is; 38.whatever prayer and supplication is made by any man, or by all your people Israel, who shall each know the plague of his own heart, and spread forth his hands toward this house: 39.then hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and forgive, and do, and render to every man according to all his ways, whose heart you know; (for you, even you only, know the hearts of all the children of men;) 40.that they may fear you all the days that they live in the land which you gave to our fathers.

41."Moreover concerning the foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, when he shall come out of a far country for your name's sake 42.(for they shall hear of your great name, and of your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm); when he shall come and pray toward this house; 43.hear in heaven, your dwelling place, and do according to all that the foreigner calls to you for; that all the peoples of the earth may know your name, to fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house which I have built is called by your name.

44."If your people go out to battle against their enemy, by whatever way you shall send them, and they pray to Yahweh toward the city which you have chosen, and toward the house which I have built for your name; 45.then hear in heaven their prayer and their supplication, and maintain their cause. 46.If they sin against you (for there is no man who doesn't sin), and you are angry with them, and deliver them to the enemy, so that they carry them away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; 47.yet if they shall repent in the land where they are carried captive, and turn again, and make supplication to you in the land of those who carried them captive, saying, 'We have sinned, and have done perversely; we have dealt wickedly;' 48.if they return to you with all their heart and with all their soul in the land of their enemies, who carried them captive, and pray to you toward their land, which you gave to their fathers, the city which you have chosen, and the house which I have built for your name: 49.then hear their prayer and their supplication in heaven, your dwelling place, and maintain their cause; 50.and forgive your people who have sinned against you, and all their transgressions in which they have transgressed against you; and give them compassion before those who carried them captive, that they may have compassion on them 51.(for they are your people, and your inheritance, which you brought out of Egypt, from the midst of the furnace of iron); 52.that your eyes may be open to the supplication of your servant, and to the supplication of your people Israel, to listen to them whenever they cry to you. 53.For you separated them from among all the peoples of the earth, to be your inheritance, as you spoke by Moses your servant, when you brought our fathers out of Egypt, Lord Yahweh."

54.It was so, that when Solomon had made an end of praying all this prayer and supplication to Yahweh, he arose from before the altar of Yahweh, from kneeling on his knees with his hands spread forth toward heaven. 55.He stood, and blessed all the assembly of Israel with a loud voice, saying, 56."Blessed be Yahweh, who has given rest to his people Israel, according to all that he promised. There has not failed one word of all his good promise, which he promised by Moses his servant. 57.May Yahweh our God be with us, as he was with our fathers. Let him not leave us, nor forsake us; 58.that he may incline our hearts to him, to walk in all his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his ordinances, which he commanded our fathers. 59.Let these my words, with which I have made supplication before Yahweh, be near to Yahweh our God day and night, that he may maintain the cause of his servant, and the cause of his people Israel, as every day shall require; 60.that all the peoples of the earth may know that Yahweh, he is God. There is none else.

61."Let your heart therefore be perfect with Yahweh our God, to walk in his statutes, and to keep his commandments, as at this day."

62.The king, and all Israel with him, offered sacrifice before Yahweh. 63.Solomon offered for the sacrifice of peace offerings, which he offered to Yahweh, two and twenty thousand head of cattle, and one hundred twenty thousand sheep. So the king and all the children of Israel dedicated the house of Yahweh. 64.The same day the king made the middle of the court holy that was before the house of Yahweh; for there he offered the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings, because the bronze altar that was before Yahweh was too little to receive the burnt offering, and the meal offering, and the fat of the peace offerings. 65.So Solomon held the feast at that time, and all Israel with him, a great assembly, from the entrance of Hamath to the brook of Egypt, before Yahweh our God, seven days and seven days, even fourteen days. 66.On the eighth day he sent the people away; and they blessed the king, and went to their tents joyful and glad of heart for all the goodness that Yahweh had shown to David his servant, and to Israel his people.

Jeremiah 34

1.The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and all his army, and all the kingdoms of the earth that were under his dominion, and all the peoples, were fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of it, saying: 2.Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, Go, and speak to Zedekiah king of Judah, and tell him, Thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will give this city into the hand of the king of Babylon, and he shall burn it with fire: 3.and you shall not escape out of his hand, but shall surely be taken, and delivered into his hand; and your eyes shall see the eyes of the king of Babylon, and he shall speak with you mouth to mouth, and you shall go to Babylon. 4.Yet hear the word of Yahweh, O Zedekiah king of Judah: thus says Yahweh concerning you, You shall not die by the sword; 5.you shall die in peace; and with the burnings of your fathers, the former kings who were before you, so shall they make a burning for you; and they shall lament you, [saying], Ah Lord! for I have spoken the word, says Yahweh. 6.Then Jeremiah the prophet spoke all these words to Zedekiah king of Judah in Jerusalem, 7.when the king of Babylon's army was fighting against Jerusalem, and against all the cities of Judah that were left, against Lachish and against Azekah; for these [alone] remained of the cities of Judah [as] fortified cities. 8.The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, after that the king Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people who were at Jerusalem, to proclaim liberty to them; 9.that every man should let his male servant, and every man his female servant, who is a Hebrew or a Hebrewess, go free; that none should make bondservants of them, [to wit], of a Jew his brother. 10.All the princes and all the people obeyed, who had entered into the covenant, that everyone should let his male servant, and everyone his female servant, go free, that none should make bondservants of them any more; they obeyed, and let them go: 11.but afterwards they turned, and caused the servants and the handmaids, whom they had let go free, to return, and brought them into subjection for servants and for handmaids. 12.Therefore the word of Yahweh came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 13.Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: I made a covenant with your fathers in the day that I brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage, saying, 14.At the end of seven years you shall let go every man his brother who is a Hebrew, who has been sold to you, and has served you six years, you shall let him go free from you: but your fathers didn't listen to me, neither inclined their ear. 15.You had now turned, and had done that which is right in my eyes, in proclaiming liberty every man to his neighbor; and you had made a covenant before me in the house which is called by my name: 16.but you turned and profaned my name, and caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid, whom you had let go free at their pleasure, to return; and you brought them into subjection, to be to you for servants and for handmaids. 17.Therefore thus says Yahweh: you have not listened to me, to proclaim liberty, every man to his brother, and every man to his neighbor: behold, I proclaim to you a liberty, says Yahweh, to the sword, to the pestilence, and to the famine; and I will make you to be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. 18.I will give the men who have transgressed my covenant, who have not performed the words of the covenant which they made before me, when they cut the calf in two and passed between its parts; 19.the princes of Judah, and the princes of Jerusalem, the eunuchs, and the priests, and all the people of the land, who passed between the parts of the calf; 20.I will even give them into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life; and their dead bodies shall be for food to the birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth. 21.Zedekiah king of Judah and his princes will I give into the hand of their enemies, and into the hand of those who seek their life, and into the hand of the king of Babylon's army, who have gone away from you. 22.Behold, I will command, says Yahweh, and cause them to return to this city; and they shall fight against it, and take it, and burn it with fire: and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.

Mark 8

1.In those days, when there was a very great multitude, and they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to himself, and said to them, 2."I have compassion on the multitude, because they have stayed with me now three days, and have nothing to eat. 3.If I send them away fasting to their home, they will faint on the way, for some of them have come a long way."

4.His disciples answered him, "From where could one satisfy these people with bread here in a deserted place?"

5.He asked them, "How many loaves do you have?"

They said, "Seven."

6.He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground, and he took the seven loaves. Having given thanks, he broke them, and gave them to his disciples to serve, and they served the multitude. 7.They had a few small fish. Having blessed them, he said to serve these also. 8.They ate, and were filled. They took up seven baskets of broken pieces that were left over. 9.Those who had eaten were about four thousand. Then he sent them away.

10.Immediately he entered into the boat with his disciples, and came into the region of Dalmanutha. 11.The Pharisees came out and began to question him, seeking from him a sign from heaven, and testing him. 12.He sighed deeply in his spirit, and said, "Why does this generation²⁰ seek a sign? Most certainly I tell you, no sign will be given to this generation."

13.He left them, and again entering into the boat, departed to the other side. 14.They forgot to take bread; and they didn't have more than one loaf in the boat with them. 15.He warned them, saying, "Take heed: beware of the yeast of the Pharisees and the yeast of Herod."

16.They reasoned with one another, saying, "It's because we have no bread."

17.Jesus, perceiving it, said to them, "Why do you reason that it's because you have no bread? Don't you perceive yet, neither understand? Is your heart still hardened? 18.Having eyes, don't you see? Having ears, don't you hear? Don't you remember? 19.When I broke the five loaves among the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?"

They told him, "Twelve."

20."When the seven loaves fed the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?"

They told him, "Seven."

21.He asked them, "Don't you understand, yet?"

22.He came to Bethsaida. They brought a blind man to him, and begged him to touch him. 23.He took hold of the blind man by the hand, and brought him out of the village. When he had spit on his eyes, and laid his hands on him, he asked him if he saw anything.

24.He looked up, and said, "I see men; for I see them like trees walking."

25.Then again he laid his hands on his eyes. He looked intently, and was restored, and saw everyone clearly. 26.He sent him away to his house, saying, "Don't enter into the village, nor tell anyone in the village."

27.Jesus went out, with his disciples, into the villages of Caesarea Philippi. On the way he asked his disciples, "Who do men say that I am?"

28.They told him, "John the Baptizer, and others say Elijah, but others: one of the prophets."

29.He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?"

Peter answered, "You are the Christ."

30.He commanded them that they should tell no one about him. 31.He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. 32.He spoke to them openly. Peter took him, and began to rebuke him. 33.But he, turning around, and seeing his disciples, rebuked Peter, and said, "Get behind me, Satan! For you have in mind not the things of God, but the things of men."

34.He called the multitude to himself with his disciples, and said to them, "Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. 35.For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it. 36.For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life? 37.For what will a man give in exchange for his life? 38.For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels."