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Daily Readings for July 17
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2Samuel 1
1.It happened after the death of Saul, when David was returned from the slaughter of the Amalekites, and David had stayed two days in Ziklag; 2.it happened on the third day, that behold, a man came out of the camp from Saul, with his clothes torn, and earth on his head: and so it was, when he came to David, that he fell to the earth, and showed respect. 3.David said to him, "Where do you come from?"
He said to him, "I have escaped out of the camp of Israel." 4.David said to him, "How did it go? Please tell me."
He answered, "The people have fled from the battle, and many of the people also have fallen and are dead; and Saul and Jonathan his son are dead also."
5.David said to the young man who told him, "How do you know that Saul and Jonathan his son are dead?"
6.The young man who told him said, "As I happened by chance on Mount Gilboa, behold, Saul was leaning on his spear; and behold, the chariots and the horsemen followed hard after him. 7.When he looked behind him, he saw me, and called to me. I answered, 'Here I am.' 8.He said to me, 'Who are you?' I answered him, 'I am an Amalekite.' 9.He said to me, 'Please stand beside me, and kill me; for anguish has taken hold of me, because my life is yet whole in me.' 10.So I stood beside him, and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after that he had fallen. I took the crown that was on his head, and the bracelet that was on his arm, and have brought them here to my lord."
11.Then David took hold on his clothes, and tore them; and likewise all the men who were with him. 12.They mourned, and wept, and fasted until evening, for Saul, and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of Yahweh,1 and for the house of Israel; because they were fallen by the sword. 13.David said to the young man who told him, "Where are you from?"
He answered, "I am the son of a foreigner, an Amalekite."
14.David said to him, "How were you not afraid to put forth your hand to destroy Yahweh's anointed?" 15.David called one of the young men, and said, "Go near, and fall on him." He struck him, so that he died. 16.David said to him, "Your blood be on your head; for your mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have slain Yahweh's anointed.'"
17.David lamented with this lamentation over Saul and over Jonathan his son 18.(and he commanded them to teach the children of Judah the song of the bow: behold, it is written in the book of Jashar): 19."Your glory, Israel, is slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen! 20.Don't tell it in Gath. Don't publish it in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised triumph. 21.You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew nor rain on you, neither fields of offerings; For there the shield of the mighty was vilely cast away, The shield of Saul was not anointed with oil. 22.From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, Jonathan's bow didn't turn back. Saul's sword didn't return empty. 23.Saul and Jonathan were lovely and pleasant in their lives. In their death, they were not divided. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions. 24.You daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you in scarlet delicately, who put ornaments of gold on your clothing. 25.How are the mighty fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan is slain on your high places. 26.I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. You have been very pleasant to me. Your love to me was wonderful, passing the love of women. 27.How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished!"
Jeremiah 7
1.The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 2."Stand in the gate of Yahweh's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of Yahweh, all you of Judah, who enter in at these gates to worship Yahweh. 3.Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place. 4.Don't trust in lying words, saying, The temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, the temple of Yahweh, are these. 5.For if you thoroughly amend your ways and your doings; if you thoroughly execute justice between a man and his neighbor; 6.if you don't oppress the foreigner, the fatherless, and the widow, and don't shed innocent blood in this place, neither walk after other gods to your own hurt: 7.then will I cause you to dwell in this place, in the land that I gave to your fathers, from of old even forevermore. 8.Behold, you trust in lying words, that can't profit. 9.Will you steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, 10.and come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, We are delivered; that you may do all these abominations? 11.Is this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I, even I, have seen it, says Yahweh. 12.But go now to my place which was in Shiloh, where I caused my name to dwell at the first, and see what I did to it for the wickedness of my people Israel. 13.Now, because you have done all these works, says Yahweh, and I spoke to you, rising up early and speaking, but you didn't hear; and I called you, but you didn't answer: 14.therefore will I do to the house which is called by my name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave to you and to your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. 15.I will cast you out of my sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, even the whole seed of Ephraim. 16.Therefore don't pray for this people, neither lift up a cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me; for I will not hear you. 17.Don't you see what they do in the cities of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18.The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead the dough, to make cakes to the queen of the sky, and to pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke me to anger. 19.Do they provoke me to anger? says Yahweh. Don't they provoke themselves, to the confusion of their own faces? 20.Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, my anger and my wrath shall be poured out on this place, on man, and on animal, and on the trees of the field, and on the fruit of the ground; and it shall burn, and shall not be quenched. 21.Thus says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel: Add your burnt offerings to your sacrifices, and eat meat. 22.For I didn't speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: 23.but this thing I commanded them, saying, Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you. 24.But they didn't listen nor turn their ear, but walked in their own counsels and in the stubbornness of their evil heart, and went backward, and not forward. 25.Since the day that your fathers came forth out of the land of Egypt to this day, I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them: 26.yet they didn't listen to me, nor inclined their ear, but made their neck stiff: they did worse than their fathers. 27.You shall speak all these words to them; but they will not listen to you: you shall also call to them; but they will not answer you. 28.You shall tell them, This is the nation that has not listened to the voice of Yahweh their God, nor received instruction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth. 29.Cut off your hair, and throw it away, and take up a lamentation on the bare heights; for Yahweh has rejected and forsaken the generation of his wrath. 30.For the children of Judah have done that which is evil in my sight, says Yahweh: they have set their abominations in the house which is called by my name, to defile it. 31.They have built the high places of Topheth, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire; which I didn't command, nor did it come into my mind. 32.Therefore, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that it shall no more be called Topheth, nor The valley of the son of Hinnom, but The valley of Slaughter: for they shall bury in Topheth, until there is no place to bury. 33.The dead bodies of this people shall be food for the birds of the sky, and for the animals of the earth; and none shall frighten them away. 34.Then will I cause to cease from the cities of Judah, and from the streets of Jerusalem, the voice of mirth and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride; for the land shall become a waste.
Matthew 18
1.In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, "Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?"
2.Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in their midst, 3.and said, "Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4.Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. 5.Whoever receives one such little child in my name receives me, 6.but whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him that a huge millstone should be hung around his neck, and that he should be sunk in the depths of the sea.
7."Woe to the world because of occasions of stumbling! For it must be that the occasions come, but woe to that person through whom the occasion comes! 8.If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life maimed or crippled, rather than having two hands or two feet to be cast into the eternal fire. 9.If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out, and cast it from you. It is better for you to enter into life with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into the Gehenna81 of fire. 10.See that you don't despise one of these little ones, for I tell you that in heaven their angels always see the face of my Father who is in heaven. 11.For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost.
12."What do you think? If a man has one hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, doesn't he leave the ninety-nine, go to the mountains, and seek that which has gone astray? 13.If he finds it, most certainly I tell you, he rejoices over it more than over the ninety-nine which have not gone astray. 14.Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish.
15."If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother. 16.But if he doesn't listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.[82] 17.If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. 18.Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven. 19.Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. 20.For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in their midst."
21.Then Peter came and said to him, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?"
22.Jesus said to him, "I don't tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven. 23.Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants. 24.When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.83 25.But because he couldn't pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, with his wife, his children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 26.The servant therefore fell down and kneeled before him, saying, 'Lord, have patience with me, and I will repay you all!' 27.The lord of that servant, being moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.
28."But that servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, who owed him one hundred denarii,84 and he grabbed him, and took him by the throat, saying, 'Pay me what you owe!'
29."So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, 'Have patience with me, and I will repay you!' 30.He would not, but went and cast him into prison, until he should pay back that which was due. 31.So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were exceedingly sorry, and came and told to their lord all that was done. 32.Then his lord called him in, and said to him, 'You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt, because you begged me. 33.Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?' 34.His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all that was due to him. 35.So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don't each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds."