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Daily Readings for February 11
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Exodus 21
1."Now these are the ordinances which you shall set before them.
2."If you buy a Hebrew servant, he shall serve six years and in the seventh he shall go out free without paying anything. 3.If he comes in by himself, he shall go out by himself. If he is married, then his wife shall go out with him. 4.If his master gives him a wife and she bears him sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. 5.But if the servant shall plainly say, 'I love my master, my wife, and my children. I will not go out free;' 6.then his master shall bring him to God, and shall bring him to the door or to the doorpost, and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl, and he shall serve him for ever.
7."If a man sells his daughter to be a female servant, she shall not go out as the male servants do. 8.If she doesn't please her master, who has married her to himself, then he shall let her be redeemed. He shall have no right to sell her to a foreign people, since he has dealt deceitfully with her. 9.If he marries her to his son, he shall deal with her as a daughter. 10.If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marital rights. 11.If he doesn't do these three things for her, she may go free without paying any money.
12."One who strikes a man so that he dies shall surely be put to death, 13.but not if it is unintentional, but God allows it to happen: then I will appoint you a place where he shall flee. 14.If a man schemes and comes presumptuously on his neighbor to kill him, you shall take him from my altar, that he may die.
15."Anyone who attacks his father or his mother shall be surely put to death.
16."Anyone who kidnaps someone and sells him, or if he is found in his hand, he shall surely be put to death.
17."Anyone who curses his father or his mother shall surely be put to death.
18."If men quarrel and one strikes the other with a stone, or with his fist, and he doesn't die, but is confined to bed; 19.if he rises again and walks around with his staff, then he who struck him shall be cleared: only he shall pay for the loss of his time, and shall provide for his healing until he is thoroughly healed.
20."If a man strikes his servant or his maid with a rod, and he dies under his hand, he shall surely be punished. 21.Notwithstanding, if he gets up after a day or two, he shall not be punished, for he is his property.
22."If men fight and hurt a pregnant woman so that she gives birth prematurely, and yet no harm follows, he shall be surely fined as much as the woman's husband demands and the judges allow. 23.But if any harm follows, then you must take life for life, 24.eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, 25.burning for burning, wound for wound, and bruise for bruise.
26."If a man strikes his servant's eye, or his maid's eye, and destroys it, he shall let him go free for his eye's sake. 27.If he strikes out his male servant's tooth, or his female servant's tooth, he shall let him go free for his tooth's sake.
28."If a bull gores a man or a woman to death, the bull shall surely be stoned, and its flesh shall not be eaten; but the owner of the bull shall not be held responsible. 29.But if the bull had a habit of goring in the past, and it has been testified to its owner, and he has not kept it in, but it has killed a man or a woman, the bull shall be stoned, and its owner shall also be put to death. 30.If a ransom is laid on him, then he shall give for the redemption of his life whatever is laid on him. 31.Whether it has gored a son or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him. 32.If the bull gores a male servant or a female servant, thirty shekels of silver shall be given to their master, and the ox shall be stoned.
33."If a man opens a pit, or if a man digs a pit and doesn't cover it, and a bull or a donkey falls into it, 34.the owner of the pit shall make it good. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead animal shall be his.
35."If one man's bull injures another's, so that it dies, then they shall sell the live bull, and divide its price; and they shall also divide the dead animal. 36.Or if it is known that the bull was in the habit of goring in the past, and its owner has not kept it in, he shall surely pay bull for bull, and the dead animal shall be his own.
Psalm 74
1.God, why have you rejected us forever? Why does your anger smolder against the sheep of your pasture? 2.Remember your congregation, which you purchased of old, which you have redeemed to be the tribe of your inheritance; Mount Zion, in which you have lived. 3.Lift up your feet to the perpetual ruins, all the evil that the enemy has done in the sanctuary. 4.Your adversaries have roared in the midst of your assembly. They have set up their standards as signs. 5.They behaved like men wielding axes, cutting through a thicket of trees. 6.Now they break all its carved work down with hatchet and hammers. 7.They have burned your sanctuary to the ground. They have profaned the dwelling place of your Name. 8.They said in their heart, "We will crush them completely." They have burned up all the places in the land where God was worshiped. 9.We see no miraculous signs. There is no longer any prophet, neither is there among us anyone who knows how long. 10.How long, God, shall the adversary reproach? Shall the enemy blaspheme your name forever? 11.Why do you draw back your hand, even your right hand? Take it out of your pocket and consume them! 12.Yet God is my King of old, working salvation in the midst of the earth. 13.You divided the sea by your strength. You broke the heads of the sea monsters in the waters. 14.You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces. You gave him as food to people and desert creatures. 15.You opened up spring and stream. You dried up mighty rivers. 16.The day is yours, the night is also yours. You have prepared the light and the sun. 17.You have set all the boundaries of the earth. You have made summer and winter.
18.Remember this, that the enemy has mocked you, Yahweh. Foolish people have blasphemed your name. 19.Don't deliver the soul of your dove to wild beasts. Don't forget the life of your poor forever. 20.Honor your covenant, for haunts of violence fill the dark places of the earth. 21.Don't let the oppressed return ashamed. Let the poor and needy praise your name. 22.Arise, God! Plead your own cause. Remember how the foolish man mocks you all day. 23.Don't forget the voice of your adversaries. The tumult of those who rise up against you ascends continually.
Mark 7
1.Then the Pharisees, and some of the scribes gathered together to him, having come from Jerusalem. 2.Now when they saw some of his disciples eating bread with defiled, that is, unwashed, hands, they found fault. 3.(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, don't eat unless they wash their hands and forearms, holding to the tradition of the elders. 4.They don't eat when they come from the marketplace, unless they bathe themselves, and there are many other things, which they have received to hold to: washings of cups, pitchers, bronze vessels, and couches.) 5.The Pharisees and the scribes asked him, "Why don't your disciples walk according to the tradition of the elders, but eat their bread with unwashed hands?"
6.He answered them, "Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, 'This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. 7.But in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.'15
8."For you set aside the commandment of God, and hold tightly to the tradition of men--the washing of pitchers and cups, and you do many other such things." 9.He said to them, "Full well do you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your tradition. 10.For Moses said, 'Honor your father and your mother;'16 and, 'He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him be put to death.'17 11.But you say, 'If a man tells his father or his mother, "Whatever profit you might have received from me is Corban18, that is to say, given to God;"' 12.then you no longer allow him to do anything for his father or his mother, 13.making void the word of God by your tradition, which you have handed down. You do many things like this."
14.He called all the multitude to himself, and said to them, "Hear me, all of you, and understand. 15.There is nothing from outside of the man, that going into him can defile him; but the things which proceed out of the man are those that defile the man. 16.If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear!"
17.When he had entered into a house away from the multitude, his disciples asked him about the parable. 18.He said to them, "Are you thus without understanding also? Don't you perceive that whatever goes into the man from outside can't defile him, 19.because it doesn't go into his heart, but into his stomach, then into the latrine, thus purifying all foods19?" 20.He said, "That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. 21.For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, 22.covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. 23.All these evil things come from within, and defile the man."
24.From there he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. He entered into a house, and didn't want anyone to know it, but he couldn't escape notice. 25.For a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. 26.Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race. She begged him that he would cast the demon out of her daughter. 27.But Jesus said to her, "Let the children be filled first, for it is not appropriate to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs."
28.But she answered him, "Yes, Lord. Yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs."
29.He said to her, "For this saying, go your way. The demon has gone out of your daughter."
30.She went away to her house, and found the child having been laid on the bed, with the demon gone out.
31.Again he departed from the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and came to the sea of Galilee, through the midst of the region of Decapolis. 32.They brought to him one who was deaf and had an impediment in his speech. They begged him to lay his hand on him. 33.He took him aside from the multitude, privately, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat, and touched his tongue. 34.Looking up to heaven, he sighed, and said to him, "Ephphatha!" that is, "Be opened!" 35.Immediately his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was released, and he spoke clearly. 36.He commanded them that they should tell no one, but the more he commanded them, so much the more widely they proclaimed it. 37.They were astonished beyond measure, saying, "He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf hear, and the mute speak!"