Daily Readings for May 7
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Deuteronomy 24

 

1.When a man takes a wife, and marries her, then it shall be, if she find no favor in his eyes, because he has found some unseemly thing in her, that he shall write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house. 2.When she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man's wife. 3.If the latter husband hate her, and write her a bill of divorce, and give it in her hand, and send her out of his house; or if the latter husband die, who took her to be his wife; 4.her former husband, who sent her away, may not take her again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before Yahweh: and you shall not cause the land to sin, which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance. 5.When a man takes a new wife, he shall not go out in the army, neither shall he be assigned any business: he shall be free at home one year, and shall cheer his wife whom he has taken. 6.No man shall take the mill or the upper millstone to pledge; for he takes a life in pledge. 7.If a man be found stealing any of his brothers of the children of Israel, and he deal with him as a slave, or sell him; then that thief shall die: so you shall put away the evil from the midst of you. 8.Take heed in the plague of leprosy, that you observe diligently, and do according to all that the priests the Levites shall teach you: as I commanded them, so you shall observe to do. 9.Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam, by the way as you came forth out of Egypt. 10.When you do lend your neighbor any kind of loan, you shall not go into his house to get his pledge. 11.You shall stand outside, and the man to whom you do lend shall bring forth the pledge outside to you. 12.If he be a poor man, you shall not sleep with his pledge; 13.you shall surely restore to him the pledge when the sun goes down, that he may sleep in his garment, and bless you: and it shall be righteousness to you before Yahweh your God. 14.You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he be of your brothers, or of your foreigners who are in your land within your gates: 15.in his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it: lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you. 16.The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin. 17.You shall not deprive the foreigner, or the fatherless of justice, nor take a widow's clothing in pledge; 18.but you shall remember that you were a bondservant in Egypt, and Yahweh your God redeemed you there: therefore I command you to do this thing. 19.When you reap your harvest in your field, and have forgot a sheaf in the field, you shall not go again to get it: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow; that Yahweh your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20.When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 21.When you harvest your vineyard, you shall not glean it after yourselves: it shall be for the foreigner, for the fatherless, and for the widow. 22.You shall remember that you were a bondservant in the land of Egypt: therefore I command you to do this thing.

 

Song of Solomon 4

 

Lover 1.Behold, you are beautiful, my love. Behold, you are beautiful. Your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is as a flock of goats, that descend from Mount Gilead. 2.Your teeth are like a newly shorn flock, which have come up from the washing, where every one of them has twins. None is bereaved among them. 3.Your lips are like scarlet thread. Your mouth is lovely. Your temples are like a piece of a pomegranate behind your veil. 4.Your neck is like David's tower built for an armory, whereon a thousand shields hang, all the shields of the mighty men. 5.Your two breasts are like two fawns that are twins of a roe, which feed among the lilies.

6.Until the day is cool, and the shadows flee away, I will go to the mountain of myrrh, to the hill of frankincense.

7.You are all beautiful, my love. There is no spot in you. 8.Come with me from Lebanon, my bride, with me from Lebanon. Look from the top of Amana, from the top of Senir and Hermon, from the lions' dens, from the mountains of the leopards. 9.You have ravished my heart, my sister, my bride. You have ravished my heart with one of your eyes, with one chain of your neck. 10.How beautiful is your love, my sister, my bride! How much better is your love than wine! The fragrance of your perfumes than all kinds of spices! 11.Your lips, my bride, drip like the honeycomb. Honey and milk are under your tongue. The smell of your garments is like the smell of Lebanon. 12.A locked up garden is my sister, my bride; a locked up spring, a sealed fountain. 13.Your shoots are an orchard of pomegranates, with precious fruits: henna with spikenard plants, 14.spikenard and saffron, calamus and cinnamon, with every kind of incense tree; myrrh and aloes, with all the best spices, 15.a fountain of gardens, a well of living waters, flowing streams from Lebanon.

Beloved 16.Awake, north wind; and come, you south! Blow on my garden, that its spices may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and taste his precious fruits.

 

Acts 18

 

1.After these things Paul departed from Athens, and came to Corinth. 2.He found a certain Jew named Aquila, a man of Pontus by race, who had recently come from Italy, with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to depart from Rome. He came to them, 3.and because he practiced the same trade, he lived with them and worked, for by trade they were tent makers. 4.He reasoned in the synagogue every Sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks. 5.But when Silas and Timothy came down from Macedonia, Paul was compelled by the Spirit, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ. 6.When they opposed him and blasphemed, he shook out his clothing and said to them, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on, I will go to the Gentiles!"

7.He departed there, and went into the house of a certain man named Justus, one who worshiped God, whose house was next door to the synagogue. 8.Crispus, the ruler of the synagogue, believed in the Lord with all his house. Many of the Corinthians, when they heard, believed and were baptized. 9.The Lord said to Paul in the night by a vision, "Don't be afraid, but speak and don't be silent; 10.for I am with you, and no one will attack you to harm you, for I have many people in this city."

11.He lived there a year and six months, teaching the word of God among them. 12.But when Gallio was proconsul of Achaia, the Jews with one accord rose up against Paul and brought him before the judgment seat, 13.saying, "This man persuades men to worship God contrary to the law."

14.But when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said to the Jews, "If indeed it were a matter of wrong or of wicked crime, you Jews, it would be reasonable that I should bear with you; 15.but if they are questions about words and names and your own law, look to it yourselves. For I don't want to be a judge of these matters." 16.He drove them from the judgment seat.

17.Then all the Greeks laid hold on Sosthenes, the ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. Gallio didn't care about any of these things.

18.Paul, having stayed after this many more days, took his leave of the brothers,⁶⁷ and sailed from there for Syria, together with Priscilla and Aquila. He shaved his head in Cenchreae, for he had a vow. 19.He came to Ephesus, and he left them there; but he himself entered into the synagogue, and reasoned with the Jews. 20.When they asked him to stay with them a longer time, he declined; 21.but taking his leave of them, and saying, "I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you if God wills," he set sail from Ephesus.

22.When he had landed at Caesarea, he went up and greeted the assembly, and went down to Antioch. 23.Having spent some time there, he departed, and went through the region of Galatia, and Phrygia, in order, establishing all the disciples. 24.Now a certain Jew named Apollos, an Alexandrian by race, an eloquent man, came to Ephesus. He was mighty in the Scriptures. 25.This man had been instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in spirit, he spoke and taught accurately the things concerning Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John. 26.He began to speak boldly in the synagogue. But when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside, and explained to him the way of God more accurately.

27.When he had determined to pass over into Achaia, the brothers encouraged him, and wrote to the disciples to receive him. When he had come, he greatly helped those who had believed through grace; 28.for he powerfully refuted the Jews, publicly showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.

 

Acts 19

 

1.It happened that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul, having passed through the upper country, came to Ephesus, and found certain disciples. 2.He said to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?"

They said to him, "No, we haven't even heard that there is a Holy Spirit."

3.He said, "Into what then were you baptized?"

They said, "Into John's baptism."

4.Paul said, "John indeed baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying to the people that they should believe in the one who would come after him, that is, in Jesus."

5.When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6.When Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke with other languages and prophesied. 7.They were about twelve men in all. 8.He entered into the synagogue, and spoke boldly for a period of three months, reasoning and persuading about the things concerning the Kingdom of God.

9.But when some were hardened and disobedient, speaking evil of the Way before the multitude, he departed from them, and separated the disciples, reasoning daily in the school of Tyrannus. 10.This continued for two years, so that all those who lived in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks.

11.God worked special miracles by the hands of Paul, 12.so that even handkerchiefs or aprons were carried away from his body to the sick, and the evil spirits went out. 13.But some of the itinerant Jews, exorcists, took on themselves to invoke over those who had the evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, "We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches." 14.There were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, who did this.

15.The evil spirit answered, "Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?" 16.The man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overpowered them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded. 17.This became known to all, both Jews and Greeks, who lived at Ephesus. Fear fell on them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was magnified. 18.Many also of those who had believed came, confessing, and declaring their deeds. 19.Many of those who practiced magical arts brought their books together and burned them in the sight of all. They counted their price, and found it to be fifty thousand pieces of silver.⁶⁸ 20.So the word of the Lord was growing and becoming mighty.

21.Now after these things had ended, Paul determined in the spirit, when he had passed through Macedonia and Achaia, to go to Jerusalem, saying, "After I have been there, I must also see Rome."

22.Having sent into Macedonia two of those who served him, Timothy and Erastus, he himself stayed in Asia for a while. 23.About that time there arose no small stir concerning the Way. 24.For a certain man named Demetrius, a silversmith, who made silver shrines of Artemis, brought no little business to the craftsmen, 25.whom he gathered together, with the workmen of like occupation, and said, "Sirs, you know that by this business we have our wealth. 26.You see and hear, that not at Ephesus alone, but almost throughout all Asia, this Paul has persuaded and turned away many people, saying that they are no gods, that are made with hands. 27.Not only is there danger that this our trade come into disrepute, but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be counted as nothing, and her majesty destroyed, whom all Asia and the world worships."

28.When they heard this they were filled with anger, and cried out, saying, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" 29.The whole city was filled with confusion, and they rushed with one accord into the theater, having seized Gaius and Aristarchus, men of Macedonia, Paul's companions in travel. 30.When Paul wanted to enter in to the people, the disciples didn't allow him. 31.Certain also of the Asiarchs, being his friends, sent to him and begged him not to venture into the theater. 32.Some therefore cried one thing, and some another, for the assembly was in confusion. Most of them didn't know why they had come together. 33.They brought Alexander out of the multitude, the Jews putting him forward. Alexander beckoned with his hand, and would have made a defense to the people. 34.But when they perceived that he was a Jew, all with one voice for a time of about two hours cried out, "Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!"

35.When the town clerk had quieted the multitude, he said, "You men of Ephesus, what man is there who doesn't know that the city of the Ephesians is temple keeper of the great goddess Artemis, and of the image which fell down from Zeus? 36.Seeing then that these things can't be denied, you ought to be quiet, and to do nothing rash. 37.For you have brought these men here, who are neither robbers of temples nor blasphemers of your goddess. 38.If therefore Demetrius and the craftsmen who are with him have a matter against anyone, the courts are open, and there are proconsuls. Let them press charges against one another. 39.But if you seek anything about other matters, it will be settled in the regular assembly. 40.For indeed we are in danger of being accused concerning this day's riot, there being no cause. Concerning it, we wouldn't be able to give an account of this commotion." 41.When he had thus spoken, he dismissed the assembly.

 

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