Daily Readings for June 14
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Judges 14

 

1.Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. 2.He came up, and told his father and his mother, and said, "I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines: now therefore get her for me as wife."

3.Then his father and his mother said to him, "Is there never a woman among the daughters of your brothers, or among all my people, that you go to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?"

Samson said to his father, "Get her for me; for she pleases me well."

4.But his father and his mother didn't know that it was of Yahweh; for he sought an occasion against the Philistines. Now at that time the Philistines had rule over Israel. 5.Then went Samson down, and his father and his mother, to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah: and behold, a young lion roared against him. 6.The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he tore him as he would have torn a young goat; and he had nothing in his hand: but he didn't tell his father or his mother what he had done. 7.He went down, and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well. 8.After a while he returned to take her; and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion: and behold, there was a swarm of bees in the body of the lion, and honey. 9.He took it into his hands, and went on, eating as he went; and he came to his father and mother, and gave to them, and they ate: but he didn't tell them that he had taken the honey out of the body of the lion. 10.His father went down to the woman: and Samson made there a feast; for so used the young men to do. 11.It happened, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.

12.Samson said to them, "Let me tell you a riddle now. If you can declare it to me within the seven days of the feast, and find it out, then I will give you thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing; 13.but if you can't declare it to me, then you shall give me thirty linen garments and thirty changes of clothing."

They said to him, "Put forth your riddle, that we may hear it." 14.He said to them, "Out of the eater came forth food. Out of the strong came forth sweetness."

They couldn't in three days declare the riddle. 15.It happened on the seventh day, that they said to Samson's wife, "Entice your husband, that he may declare to us the riddle, lest we burn you and your father's house with fire. Have you called us to impoverish us? Is it not so?"

16.Samson's wife wept before him, and said, "You just hate me, and don't love me. You have put forth a riddle to the children of my people, and haven't told it me."

He said to her, "Behold, I haven't told it my father nor my mother, and shall I tell you?"

17.She wept before him the seven days, while their feast lasted: and it happened on the seventh day, that he told her, because she pressed him severely; and she told the riddle to the children of her people. 18.The men of the city said to him on the seventh day before the sun went down, "What is sweeter than honey? What is stronger than a lion?"

He said to them, "If you hadn't plowed with my heifer, you wouldn't have found out my riddle."

19.The Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and he went down to Ashkelon, and struck thirty men of them, and took their spoil, and gave the changes of clothing to those who declared the riddle. His anger was kindled, and he went up to his father's house. 20.But Samson's wife was given to his companion, whom he had used as his friend.

 

Judges 15

 

1.But it happened after a while, in the time of wheat harvest, that Samson visited his wife with a young goat; and he said, "I will go in to my wife into the room."

But her father wouldn't allow him to go in. 2.Her father said, "I most certainly thought that you had utterly hated her; therefore I gave her to your companion. Isn't her younger sister more beautiful than she? Please take her, instead."

3.Samson said to them, "This time I will be blameless in regard of the Philistines, when I harm them." 4.Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turned tail to tail, and put a torch in the midst between every two tails. 5.When he had set the brands on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burnt up both the shocks and the standing grain, and also the olive groves.

6.Then the Philistines said, "Who has done this?"

They said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken his wife, and given her to his companion." The Philistines came up, and burnt her and her father with fire.

7.Samson said to them, "If you behave like this, surely I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease." 8.He struck them hip and thigh with a great slaughter: and he went down and lived in the cleft of the rock of Etam. 9.Then the Philistines went up, and encamped in Judah, and spread themselves in Lehi.

10.The men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?"

They said, "We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us."

11.Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and said to Samson, "Don't you know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then is this that you have done to us?"

He said to them, "As they did to me, so have I done to them."

12.They said to him, "We have come down to bind you, that we may deliver you into the hand of the Philistines."

Samson said to them, "Swear to me that you will not fall on me yourselves."

13.They spoke to him, saying, "No; but we will bind you fast, and deliver you into their hand; but surely we will not kill you." They bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock.

14.When he came to Lehi, the Philistines shouted as they met him: and the Spirit of Yahweh came mightily on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands dropped from off his hands. 15.He found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, and put forth his hand, and took it, and struck a thousand men therewith. 16.Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps on heaps; with the jawbone of a donkey I have struck a thousand men." 17.It happened, when he had made an end of speaking, that he cast away the jawbone out of his hand; and that place was called Ramath Lehi. 18.He was very thirsty, and called on Yahweh, and said, "You have given this great deliverance by the hand of your servant; and now shall I die for thirst, and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?"

19.But God split the hollow place that is in Lehi, and water came out of it. When he had drunk, his spirit came again, and he revived: therefore its name was called En Hakkore, which is in Lehi, to this day. 20.He judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.

 

Isaiah 38

 

1.In those days was Hezekiah sick and near death. Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, came to him, and said to him, "Thus says Yahweh, 'Set your house in order, for you will die, and not live.'"

2.Then Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to Yahweh, 3.and said, "Remember now, Yahweh, I beg you, how I have walked before you in truth and with a perfect heart, and have done that which is good in your sight." Hezekiah wept bitterly.

4.Then the word of Yahweh came to Isaiah, saying, 5."Go, and tell Hezekiah, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of David your father, "I have heard your prayer. I have seen your tears. Behold, I will add fifteen years to your life. 6.I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city. 7.This shall be the sign to you from Yahweh, that Yahweh will do this thing that he has spoken. 8.Behold, I will cause the shadow on the sundial, which has gone down on the sundial of Ahaz with the sun, to return backward ten steps. So the sun returned ten steps on the sundial on which it had gone down."'"

9.The writing of Hezekiah king of Judah, when he had been sick, and had recovered of his sickness.

10.I said, "In the middle of my life I go into the gates of Sheol¹⁸. I am deprived of the residue of my years." 11.I said, "I won't see Yah, Yah in the land of the living. I will see man no more with the inhabitants of the world. 12.My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd's tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me. 13.I waited patiently until morning. He breaks all my bones like a lion. From day even to night you will make an end of me. 14.I chattered like a swallow or a crane. I moaned like a dove. My eyes weaken looking upward. Lord, I am oppressed. Be my security." 15.What will I say? He has both spoken to me, and himself has done it. I will walk carefully all my years because of the anguish of my soul. 16.Lord, men live by these things; and my spirit finds life in all of them: you restore me, and cause me to live. 17.Behold, for peace I had great anguish, but you have in love for my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption; for you have cast all my sins behind your back. 18.For Sheol¹⁹ can't praise you. Death can't celebrate you. Those who go down into the pit can't hope for your truth. 19.The living, the living, he shall praise you, as I do this day. The father shall make known your truth to the children. 20.Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of Yahweh.

21.Now Isaiah had said, "Let them take a cake of figs, and lay it for a poultice on the boil, and he shall recover." 22.Hezekiah also had said, "What is the sign that I will go up to the house of Yahweh?"

 

2Peter 1

 

1.Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ: 2.Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, 3.seeing that his divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and virtue; 4.by which he has granted to us his precious and exceedingly great promises; that through these you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world by lust. 5.Yes, and for this very cause adding on your part all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge; 6.and in knowledge, self-control; and in self-control patience; and in patience godliness; 7.and in godliness brotherly affection; and in brotherly affection, love. 8.For if these things are yours and abound, they make you to be not idle nor unfruitful to the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9.For he who lacks these things is blind, seeing only what is near, having forgotten the cleansing from his old sins. 10.Therefore, brothers,¹ be more diligent to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. 11.For thus you will be richly supplied with the entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

12.Therefore I will not be negligent to remind you of these things, though you know them, and are established in the present truth. 13.I think it right, as long as I am in this tent, to stir you up by reminding you; 14.knowing that the putting off of my tent comes swiftly, even as our Lord Jesus Christ made clear to me. 15.Yes, I will make every effort that you may always be able to remember these things even after my departure. 16.For we did not follow cunningly devised fables, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty. 17.For he received from God the Father honor and glory, when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."² 18.We heard this voice come out of heaven when we were with him on the holy mountain.

19.We have the more sure word of prophecy; and you do well that you heed it, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns, and the morning star arises in your hearts: 20.knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of private interpretation. 21.For no prophecy ever came by the will of man: but holy men of God spoke, being moved by the Holy Spirit.

 

2Peter 2

 

1.But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. 2.Many will follow their immoral³ ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. 3.In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn't linger, and their destruction will not slumber. 4.For if God didn't spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus⁴, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5.and didn't spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; 6.and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly; 7.and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked 8.(for that righteous man dwelling among them, was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): 9.the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment; 10.but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries; 11.whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don't bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord. 12.But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, 13.receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and blemishes, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you; 14.having eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing; 15.forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing; 16.but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped the madness of the prophet. 17.These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. 18.For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; 19.promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.

20.For if, after they have escaped the defilement of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in it and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21.For it would be better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after knowing it, to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22.But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, "The dog turns to his own vomit again,"⁵ and "the sow that has washed to wallowing in the mire."

 

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