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Daily Readings for August 9
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1Kings 3
1.Solomon made affinity with Pharaoh king of Egypt, and took Pharaoh's daughter, and brought her into the city of David, until he had made an end of building his own house, and the house of Yahweh, and the wall of Jerusalem all around. 2.Only the people sacrificed in the high places, because there was no house built for the name of Yahweh until those days. 3.Solomon loved Yahweh, walking in the statutes of David his father: only he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places. 4.The king went to Gibeon to sacrifice there; for that was the great high place. Solomon offered a thousand burnt offerings on that altar. 5.In Gibeon Yahweh appeared to Solomon in a dream by night; and God said, "Ask what I shall give you."
6.Solomon said, "You have shown to your servant David my father great loving kindness, according as he walked before you in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with you. You have kept for him this great loving kindness, that you have given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day. 7.Now, Yahweh my God, you have made your servant king instead of David my father. I am but a little child. I don't know how to go out or come in. 8.Your servant is in the midst of your people which you have chosen, a great people, that can't be numbered nor counted for multitude. 9.Give your servant therefore an understanding heart to judge your people, that I may discern between good and evil; for who is able to judge this your great people?"
10.The speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing. 11.God said to him, "Because you have asked this thing, and have not asked for yourself long life, neither have asked riches for yourself, nor have asked the life of your enemies, but have asked for yourself understanding to discern justice; 12.behold, I have done according to your word. Behold, I have given you a wise and an understanding heart; so that there has been none like you before you, neither after you shall any arise like you. 13.I have also given you that which you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that there shall not be any among the kings like you, all your days. 14.If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days."
15.Solomon awoke; and behold, it was a dream. Then he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of Yahweh, and offered up burnt offerings, offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.
16.Then two women who were prostitutes came to the king, and stood before him. 17.The one woman said, "Oh, my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house. I delivered a child with her in the house. 18.It happened the third day after I delivered, that this woman delivered also. We were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, just us two in the house. 19.This woman's child died in the night, because she lay on it. 20.She arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while your handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. 21.When I rose in the morning to nurse my child, behold, it was dead; but when I had looked at it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, whom I bore."
22.The other woman said, "No; but the living is my son, and the dead is your son."
This said, "No; but the dead is your son, and the living is my son." Thus they spoke before the king.
23.Then the king said, "The one says, 'This is my son who lives, and your son is the dead;' and the other says, 'No; but your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.'" 24.The king said, "Get me a sword." They brought a sword before the king. 25.The king said, "Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other."
26.Then the woman whose the living child was spoke to the king, for her heart yearned over her son, and she said, "Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and in no way kill it!"
But the other said, "It shall be neither mine nor yours. Divide it."
27.Then the king answered, "Give her the living child, and in no way kill it. She is its mother."
28.All Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do justice.
Jeremiah 30
1.The word that came to Jeremiah from Yahweh, saying, 2.Thus speaks Yahweh, the God of Israel, saying, Write all the words that I have spoken to you in a book. 3.For, behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will turn again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, says Yahweh; and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, and they shall possess it. 4.These are the words that Yahweh spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah. 5.For thus says Yahweh: We have heard a voice of trembling, of fear, and not of peace. 6.Ask now, and see whether a man does travail with child: why do I see every man with his hands on his waist, as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness? 7.Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it. 8.It shall come to pass in that day, says Yahweh of Armies, that I will break his yoke from off your neck, and will burst your bonds; and strangers shall no more make him their bondservant; 9.but they shall serve Yahweh their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up to them. 10.Therefore don't you be afraid, O Jacob my servant, says Yahweh; neither be dismayed, Israel: for, behold, I will save you from afar, and your seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be quiet and at ease, and none shall make him afraid. 11.For I am with you, says Yahweh, to save you: for I will make a full end of all the nations where I have scattered you, but I will not make a full end of you; but I will correct you in measure, and will in no way leave you unpunished. 12.For thus says Yahweh, Your hurt is incurable, and your wound grievous. 13.There is none to plead your cause, that you may be bound up: you have no healing medicines. 14.All your lovers have forgotten you; they don't seek you: for I have wounded you with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased. 15.Why do you cry for your hurt? Your pain is incurable: for the greatness of your iniquity, because your sins were increased, I have done these things to you. 16.Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; and all your adversaries, everyone of them, shall go into captivity; and those who despoil you shall be a spoil, and all who prey on you will I give for a prey. 17.For I will restore health to you, and I will heal you of your wounds, says Yahweh; because they have called you an outcast, [saying], It is Zion, whom no man seeks after. 18.Thus says Yahweh: Behold, I will turn again the captivity of Jacob's tents, and have compassion on his dwelling places; and the city shall be built on its own hill, and the palace shall be inhabited in its own way. 19.Out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of those who make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small. 20.Their children also shall be as before, and their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all who oppress them. 21.Their prince shall be of themselves, and their ruler shall proceed from their midst; and I will cause him to draw near, and he shall approach to me: for who is he who has had boldness to approach to me? says Yahweh. 22.You shall be my people, and I will be your God. 23.Behold, the storm of Yahweh, [even his] wrath, is gone forth, a sweeping storm: it shall burst on the head of the wicked. 24.The fierce anger of Yahweh will not return, until he has executed, and until he has performed the intentions of his heart. In the latter days you will understand it.
Mark 4
1.Again he began to teach by the seaside. A great multitude was gathered to him, so that he entered into a boat in the sea, and sat down. All the multitude were on the land by the sea. 2.He taught them many things in parables, and told them in his teaching, 3."Listen! Behold, the farmer went out to sow, 4.and it happened, as he sowed, some seed fell by the road, and the birds6 came and devoured it. 5.Others fell on the rocky ground, where it had little soil, and immediately it sprang up, because it had no depth of soil. 6.When the sun had risen, it was scorched; and because it had no root, it withered away. 7.Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. 8.Others fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing. Some brought forth thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times as much." 9.He said, "Whoever has ears to hear, let him hear."
10.When he was alone, those who were around him with the twelve asked him about the parables. 11.He said to them, "To you is given the mystery of the Kingdom of God, but to those who are outside, all things are done in parables, 12.that 'seeing they may see, and not perceive; and hearing they may hear, and not understand; lest perhaps they should turn again, and their sins should be forgiven them.'"7
13.He said to them, "Don't you understand this parable? How will you understand all of the parables? 14.The farmer sows the word. 15.The ones by the road are the ones where the word is sown; and when they have heard, immediately Satan comes, and takes away the word which has been sown in them. 16.These in the same way are those who are sown on the rocky places, who, when they have heard the word, immediately receive it with joy. 17.They have no root in themselves, but are short-lived. When oppression or persecution arises because of the word, immediately they stumble. 18.Others are those who are sown among the thorns. These are those who have heard the word, 19.and the cares of this age, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. 20.Those which were sown on the good ground are those who hear the word, and accept it, and bear fruit, some thirty times, some sixty times, and some one hundred times."
21.He said to them, "Is the lamp brought to be put under a basket8 or under a bed? Isn't it put on a stand? 22.For there is nothing hidden, except that it should be made known; neither was anything made secret, but that it should come to light. 23.If any man has ears to hear, let him hear."
24.He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With whatever measure you measure, it will be measured to you, and more will be given to you who hear. 25.For whoever has, to him will more be given, and he who doesn't have, even that which he has will be taken away from him."
26.He said, "The Kingdom of God is as if a man should cast seed on the earth, 27.and should sleep and rise night and day, and the seed should spring up and grow, he doesn't know how. 28.For the earth bears fruit: first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. 29.But when the fruit is ripe, immediately he puts forth the sickle, because the harvest has come."
30.He said, "How will we liken the Kingdom of God? Or with what parable will we illustrate it? 31.It's like a grain of mustard seed, which, when it is sown in the earth, though it is less than all the seeds that are on the earth, 32.yet when it is sown, grows up, and becomes greater than all the herbs, and puts out great branches, so that the birds of the sky can lodge under its shadow."
33.With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it. 34.Without a parable he didn't speak to them; but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
35.On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, "Let's go over to the other side." 36.Leaving the multitude, they took him with them, even as he was, in the boat. Other small boats were also with him. 37.A big wind storm arose, and the waves beat into the boat, so much that the boat was already filled. 38.He himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion, and they woke him up, and told him, "Teacher, don't you care that we are dying?"
39.He awoke, and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, "Peace! Be still!" The wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40.He said to them, "Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith?"
41.They were greatly afraid, and said to one another, "Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?"