Get the Flash Player to see this player.
Daily Readings for August 14
Click the arrow above to the left of the audio strip to start audio for today
1Kings 9
1.It happened, when Solomon had finished the building of the house of Yahweh, and the king's house, and all Solomon's desire which he was pleased to do, 2.that Yahweh appeared to Solomon the second time, as he had appeared to him at Gibeon. 3.Yahweh said to him, "I have heard your prayer and your supplication, that you have made before me. I have made this house holy, which you have built, to put my name there forever; and my eyes and my heart shall be there perpetually. 4.As for you, if you will walk before me, as David your father walked, in integrity of heart, and in uprightness, to do according to all that I have commanded you, and will keep my statutes and my ordinances; 5.then I will establish the throne of your kingdom over Israel forever, according as I promised to David your father, saying, 'There shall not fail you a man on the throne of Israel.' 6.But if you turn away from following me, you or your children, and not keep my commandments and my statutes which I have set before you, but shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; 7.then will I cut off Israel out of the land which I have given them; and this house, which I have made holy for my name, will I cast out of my sight; and Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all peoples. 8.Though this house is so high, yet shall everyone who passes by it be astonished, and shall hiss; and they shall say, 'Why has Yahweh done thus to this land, and to this house?' 9.and they shall answer, 'Because they forsook Yahweh their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and laid hold of other gods, and worshiped them, and served them. Therefore Yahweh has brought all this evil on them.'"
10.It happened at the end of twenty years, in which Solomon had built the two houses, the house of Yahweh and the king's house 11.(now Hiram the king of Tyre had furnished Solomon with cedar trees and fir trees, and with gold, according to all his desire), that then king Solomon gave Hiram twenty cities in the land of Galilee. 12.Hiram came out from Tyre to see the cities which Solomon had given him; and they didn't please him. 13.He said, "What cities are these which you have given me, my brother?" He called them the land of Cabul to this day. 14.Hiram sent to the king one hundred twenty talents of gold.
15.This is the reason of the levy which king Solomon raised, to build the house of Yahweh, and his own house, and Millo, and the wall of Jerusalem, and Hazor, and Megiddo, and Gezer. 16.Pharaoh king of Egypt had gone up, and taken Gezer, and burnt it with fire, and slain the Canaanites who lived in the city, and given it for a portion to his daughter, Solomon's wife. 17.Solomon built Gezer, and Beth Horon the lower, 18.and Baalath, and Tamar in the wilderness, in the land, 19.and all the storage cities that Solomon had, and the cities for his chariots, and the cities for his horsemen, and that which Solomon desired to build for his pleasure in Jerusalem, and in Lebanon, and in all the land of his dominion. 20.As for all the people who were left of the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, who were not of the children of Israel; 21.their children who were left after them in the land, whom the children of Israel were not able utterly to destroy, of them Solomon raised a levy of bondservants to this day. 22.But of the children of Israel Solomon made no bondservants; but they were the men of war, and his servants, and his princes, and his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen. 23.These were the chief officers who were over Solomon's work, five hundred fifty, who bore rule over the people who labored in the work. 24.But Pharaoh's daughter came up out of the city of David to her house which Solomon had built for her: then he built Millo. 25.Solomon offered burnt offerings and peace offerings on the altar which he built to Yahweh three times a year, burning incense with them, on the altar that was before Yahweh. So he finished the house. 26.King Solomon made a navy of ships in Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea6, in the land of Edom. 27.Hiram sent in the navy his servants, sailors who had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon. 28.They came to Ophir, and fetched from there gold, four hundred and twenty talents, and brought it to king Solomon.
Jeremiah 35
1.The word which came to Jeremiah from Yahweh in the days of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah, king of Judah, saying, 2.Go to the house of the Rechabites, and speak to them, and bring them into the house of Yahweh, into one of the rooms, and give them wine to drink. 3.Then I took Jaazaniah the son of Jeremiah, the son of Habazziniah, and his brothers, and all his sons, and the whole house of the Rechabites; 4.and I brought them into the house of Yahweh, into the room of the sons of Hanan the son of Igdaliah, the man of God, which was by the room of the princes, which was above the room of Maaseiah the son of Shallum, the keeper of the threshold. 5.I set before the sons of the house of the Rechabites bowls full of wine, and cups; and I said to them, Drink wine! 6.But they said, We will drink no wine; for Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, commanded us, saying, You shall drink no wine, neither you, nor your sons, forever: 7.neither shall you build house, nor sow seed, nor plant vineyard, nor have any; but all your days you shall dwell in tents; that you may live many days in the land in which you live. 8.We have obeyed the voice of Jonadab the son of Rechab, our father, in all that he commanded us, to drink no wine all our days, we, our wives, our sons, or our daughters; 9.nor to build houses for us to dwell in; neither have we vineyard, nor field, nor seed: 10.but we have lived in tents, and have obeyed, and done according to all that Jonadab our father commanded us. 11.But it happened, when Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came up into the land, that we said, Come, and let us go to Jerusalem for fear of the army of the Chaldeans, and for fear of the army of the Syrians; so we dwell at Jerusalem. 12.Then came the word of Yahweh to Jeremiah, saying, 13.Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Go, and tell the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction to listen to my words? says Yahweh. 14.The words of Jonadab the son of Rechab, that he commanded his sons, not to drink wine, are performed; and to this day they drink none, for they obey their father's commandment: but I have spoken to you, rising up early and speaking; and you have not listened to me. 15.I have sent also to you all my servants the prophets, rising up early and sending them, saying, Return now every man from his evil way, and amend your doings, and don't go after other gods to serve them, and you shall dwell in the land which I have given to you and to your fathers: but you have not inclined your ear, nor listened to me. 16.Because the sons of Jonadab the son of Rechab have performed the commandment of their father which he commanded them, but this people has not listened to me; 17.therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Armies, the God of Israel: Behold, I will bring on Judah and on all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them, but they have not heard; and I have called to them, but they have not answered. 18.Jeremiah said to the house of the Rechabites, Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the commandment of Jonadab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done according to all that he commanded you; 19.therefore thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Jonadab the son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me forever.
Mark 9
1.He said to them, "Most certainly I tell you, there are some standing here who will in no way taste death until they see the Kingdom of God come with power."
2.After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James, and John, and brought them up onto a high mountain privately by themselves, and he was changed into another form in front of them. 3.His clothing became glistening, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. 4.Elijah and Moses appeared to them, and they were talking with Jesus.
5.Peter answered Jesus, "Rabbi, it is good for us to be here. Let's make three tents: one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah." 6.For he didn't know what to say, for they were very afraid.
7.A cloud came, overshadowing them, and a voice came out of the cloud, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him."
8.Suddenly looking around, they saw no one with them any more, except Jesus only.
9.As they were coming down from the mountain, he commanded them that they should tell no one what things they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 10.They kept this saying to themselves, questioning what the "rising from the dead" meant.
11.They asked him, saying, "Why do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?"
12.He said to them, "Elijah indeed comes first, and restores all things. How is it written about the Son of Man, that he should suffer many things and be despised? 13.But I tell you that Elijah has come, and they have also done to him whatever they wanted to, even as it is written about him."
14.Coming to the disciples, he saw a great multitude around them, and scribes questioning them. 15.Immediately all the multitude, when they saw him, were greatly amazed, and running to him greeted him. 16.He asked the scribes, "What are you asking them?"
17.One of the multitude answered, "Teacher, I brought to you my son, who has a mute spirit; 18.and wherever it seizes him, it throws him down, and he foams at the mouth, and grinds his teeth, and wastes away. I asked your disciples to cast it out, and they weren't able."
19.He answered him, "Unbelieving generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to me."
20.They brought him to him, and when he saw him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground, wallowing and foaming at the mouth.
21.He asked his father, "How long has it been since this has come to him?"
He said, "From childhood. 22.Often it has cast him both into the fire and into the water, to destroy him. But if you can do anything, have compassion on us, and help us."
23.Jesus said to him, "If you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes."
24.Immediately the father of the child cried out with tears, "I believe. Help my unbelief!"
25.When Jesus saw that a multitude came running together, he rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to him, "You mute and deaf spirit, I command you, come out of him, and never enter him again!"
26.Having cried out, and convulsed greatly, it came out of him. The boy became like one dead; so much that most of them said, "He is dead." 27.But Jesus took him by the hand, and raised him up; and he arose.
28.When he had come into the house, his disciples asked him privately, "Why couldn't we cast it out?" 29.He said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing, except by prayer and fasting."
30.They went out from there, and passed through Galilee. He didn't want anyone to know it. 31.For he was teaching his disciples, and said to them, "The Son of Man is being handed over to the hands of men, and they will kill him; and when he is killed, on the third day he will rise again."
32.But they didn't understand the saying, and were afraid to ask him.
33.He came to Capernaum, and when he was in the house he asked them, "What were you arguing among yourselves on the way?"
34.But they were silent, for they had disputed one with another on the way about who was the greatest.
35.He sat down, and called the twelve; and he said to them, "If any man wants to be first, he shall be last of all, and servant of all." 36.He took a little child, and set him in their midst. Taking him in his arms, he said to them, 37."Whoever receives one such little child in my name, receives me, and whoever receives me, doesn't receive me, but him who sent me."
38.John said to him, "Teacher, we saw someone who doesn't follow us casting out demons in your name; and we forbade him, because he doesn't follow us."
39.But Jesus said, "Don't forbid him, for there is no one who will do a mighty work in my name, and be able quickly to speak evil of me. 40.For whoever is not against us is on our side. 41.For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you are Christ's, most certainly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward. 42.Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he were thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck. 43.If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into Gehenna,21 into the unquenchable fire, 44.'where their worm doesn't die, and the fire is not quenched.' 45.If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into Gehenna,22 into the fire that will never be quenched-- 46.'where their worm doesn't die, and the fire is not quenched.' 47.If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna23 of fire, 48.'where their worm doesn't die, and the fire is not quenched.'24 49.For everyone will be salted with fire, and every sacrifice will be seasoned with salt. 50.Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."