Daily Readings for July 20
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2Samuel 4

 

1.When Saul's son heard that Abner was dead in Hebron, his hands became feeble, and all the Israelites were troubled. 2.Saul's son had two men who were captains of bands: the name of the one was Baanah, and the name of the other Rechab, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, of the children of Benjamin (for Beeroth also is reckoned to Benjamin: 3.and the Beerothites fled to Gittaim, and have lived as foreigners there until this day). 4.Now Jonathan, Saul's son, had a son who was lame of his feet. He was five years old when the news came of Saul and Jonathan out of Jezreel; and his nurse took him up, and fled: and it happened, as she made haste to flee, that he fell, and became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. 5.The sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, Rechab and Baanah, went, and came about the heat of the day to the house of Ishbosheth, as he took his rest at noon. 6.They came there into the midst of the house, as though they would have fetched wheat; and they struck him in the body: and Rechab and Baanah his brother escaped. 7.Now when they came into the house, as he lay on his bed in his bedroom, they struck him, and killed him, and beheaded him, and took his head, and went by the way of the Arabah all night. 8.They brought the head of Ishbosheth to David to Hebron, and said to the king, "Behold, the head of Ishbosheth, the son of Saul, your enemy, who sought your life! Yahweh has avenged my lord the king this day of Saul, and of his seed."

9.David answered Rechab and Baanah his brother, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, and said to them, "As Yahweh lives, who has redeemed my soul out of all adversity, 10.when someone told me, 'Behold, Saul is dead,' thinking to have brought good news, I took hold of him, and killed him in Ziklag, which was the reward I gave him for his news. 11.How much more, when wicked men have slain a righteous person in his own house on his bed, shall I not now require his blood of your hand, and take you away from the earth?" 12.David commanded his young men, and they killed them, and cut off their hands and their feet, and hanged them up beside the pool in Hebron. But they took the head of Ishbosheth, and buried it in the grave of Abner in Hebron.

 

2Samuel 5

 

1.Then came all the tribes of Israel to David to Hebron, and spoke, saying, "Behold, we are your bone and your flesh. 2.In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. Yahweh said to you, 'You shall be shepherd of my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel.'" 3.So all the elders of Israel came to the king to Hebron; and king David made a covenant with them in Hebron before Yahweh; and they anointed David king over Israel. 4.David was thirty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned forty years. 5.In Hebron he reigned over Judah seven years and six months; and in Jerusalem he reigned thirty-three years over all Israel and Judah. 6.The king and his men went to Jerusalem against the Jebusites, the inhabitants of the land, who spoke to David, saying, "Unless you take away the blind and the lame, you shall not come in here;" thinking, "David can't come in here." 7.Nevertheless David took the stronghold of Zion; the same is the city of David. 8.David said on that day, "Whoever strikes the Jebusites, let him get up to the watercourse, and strike the lame and the blind, who are hated by David's soul." Therefore they say, "The blind and the lame can't come into the house." 9.David lived in the stronghold, and called it the city of David. David built around from Millo and inward. 10.David grew greater and greater; for Yahweh, the God of Armies, was with him. 11.Hiram king of Tyre sent messengers to David, and cedar trees, and carpenters, and masons; and they built David a house. 12.David perceived that Yahweh had established him king over Israel, and that he had exalted his kingdom for his people Israel's sake. 13.David took him more concubines and wives out of Jerusalem, after he had come from Hebron; and there were yet sons and daughters born to David. 14.These are the names of those who were born to him in Jerusalem: Shammua, and Shobab, and Nathan, and Solomon, 15.and Ibhar, and Elishua, and Nepheg, and Japhia, 16.and Elishama, and Eliada, and Eliphelet. 17.When the Philistines heard that they had anointed David king over Israel, all the Philistines went up to seek David; and David heard of it, and went down to the stronghold. 18.Now the Philistines had come and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. 19.David inquired of Yahweh, saying, "Shall I go up against the Philistines? Will you deliver them into my hand?"

Yahweh said to David, "Go up; for I will certainly deliver the Philistines into your hand."

20.David came to Baal Perazim, and David struck them there; and he said, "Yahweh has broken my enemies before me, like the breach of waters." Therefore he called the name of that place Baal Perazim. 21.They left their images there; and David and his men took them away. 22.The Philistines came up yet again, and spread themselves in the valley of Rephaim. 23.When David inquired of Yahweh, he said, "You shall not go up. Circle around behind them, and attack them over against the mulberry trees. 24.It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then you shall stir yourself up; for then Yahweh has gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines."

25.David did so, as Yahweh commanded him, and struck the Philistines from Geba until you come to Gezer.

 

Jeremiah 10

 

1.Hear the word which Yahweh speaks to you, house of Israel! 2.Thus says Yahweh, "Don't learn the way of the nations, and don't be dismayed at the signs of the sky; for the nations are dismayed at them. 3.For the customs of the peoples are vanity; for one cuts a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman with the axe. 4.They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it not move. 5.They are like a palm tree, of turned work, and don't speak: they must be carried, because they can't go. Don't be afraid of them; for they can't do evil, neither is it in them to do good." 6.There is none like you, Yahweh; you are great, and your name is great in might. 7.Who should not fear you, King of the nations? For it appertains to you; because among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their royal estate, there is none like you. 8.But they are together brutish and foolish: the instruction of idols! it is but a stock. 9.There is silver beaten into plates, which is brought from Tarshish, and gold from Uphaz, the work of the artificer and of the hands of the goldsmith; blue and purple for their clothing; they are all the work of skillful men. 10.But Yahweh is the true God; he is the living God, and an everlasting King: at his wrath the earth trembles, and the nations are not able to withstand his indignation. 11.You shall say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, these shall perish from the earth, and from under the heavens. 12.He has made the earth by his power, he has established the world by his wisdom, and by his understanding has he stretched out the heavens: 13.when he utters his voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his treasuries. 14.Every man has become brutish and without knowledge; every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them. 15.They are vanity, a work of delusion: in the time of their visitation they shall perish. 16.The portion of Jacob is not like these; for he is the former of all things; and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance: Yahweh of Armies is his name. 17.Gather up your wares out of the land, you who live under siege. 18.For thus says Yahweh, Behold, I will sling out the inhabitants of the land at this time, and will distress them, that they may feel it. 19.Woe is me because of my hurt! my wound is grievous: but I said, Truly this is my grief, and I must bear it. 20.My tent is destroyed, and all my cords are broken: my children are gone forth from me, and they are no more: there is none to spread my tent any more, and to set up my curtains. 21.For the shepherds are become brutish, and have not inquired of Yahweh: therefore they have not prospered, and all their flocks are scattered. 22.The voice of news, behold, it comes, and a great commotion out of the north country, to make the cities of Judah a desolation, a dwelling place of jackals. 23.Yahweh, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man who walks to direct his steps. 24.Yahweh, correct me, but in measure: not in your anger, lest you bring me to nothing. 25.Pour out your wrath on the nations that don't know you, and on the families that don't call on your name: for they have devoured Jacob, yes, they have devoured him and consumed him, and have laid waste his habitation.

 

Matthew 21

 

1.When they drew near to Jerusalem, and came to Bethsphage,⁹⁵ to the Mount of Olives, then Jesus sent two disciples, 2.saying to them, "Go into the village that is opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Untie them, and bring them to me. 3.If anyone says anything to you, you shall say, 'The Lord needs them,' and immediately he will send them."

4.All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophet, saying, 5."Tell the daughter of Zion, behold, your King comes to you, humble, and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey."[96]

6.The disciples went, and did just as Jesus commanded them, 7.and brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their clothes on them; and he sat on them. 8.A very great multitude spread their clothes on the road. Others cut branches from the trees, and spread them on the road. 9.The multitudes who went before him, and who followed kept shouting, "Hosanna⁹⁷ to the son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!"[98]

10.When he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was stirred up, saying, "Who is this?" 11.The multitudes said, "This is the prophet, Jesus, from Nazareth of Galilee."

12.Jesus entered into the temple of God, and drove out all of those who sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers' tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. 13.He said to them, "It is written, 'My house shall be called a house of prayer,'[99] but you have made it a den of robbers!"[100]

14.The blind and the lame came to him in the temple, and he healed them. 15.But when the chief priests and the scribes saw the wonderful things that he did, and the children who were crying in the temple and saying, "Hosanna to the son of David!" they were indignant, 16.and said to him, "Do you hear what these are saying?"

Jesus said to them, "Yes. Did you never read, 'Out of the mouth of babes and nursing babies you have perfected praise?'"[101]

17.He left them, and went out of the city to Bethany, and lodged there. 18.Now in the morning, as he returned to the city, he was hungry. 19.Seeing a fig tree by the road, he came to it, and found nothing on it but leaves. He said to it, "Let there be no fruit from you forever!"

Immediately the fig tree withered away. 20.When the disciples saw it, they marveled, saying, "How did the fig tree immediately wither away?"

21.Jesus answered them, "Most certainly I tell you, if you have faith, and don't doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you told this mountain, 'Be taken up and cast into the sea,' it would be done. 22.All things, whatever you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive."

23.When he had come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to him as he was teaching, and said, "By what authority do you do these things? Who gave you this authority?"

24.Jesus answered them, "I also will ask you one question, which if you tell me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things. 25.The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?"

They reasoned with themselves, saying, "If we say, 'From heaven,' he will ask us, 'Why then did you not believe him?' 26.But if we say, 'From men,' we fear the multitude, for all hold John as a prophet." 27.They answered Jesus, and said, "We don't know."

He also said to them, "Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. 28.But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first, and said, 'Son, go work today in my vineyard.' 29.He answered, 'I will not,' but afterward he changed his mind, and went. 30.He came to the second, and said the same thing. He answered, 'I go, sir,' but he didn't go. 31.Which of the two did the will of his father?"

They said to him, "The first."

Jesus said to them, "Most certainly I tell you that the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering into the Kingdom of God before you. 32.For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you didn't believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. When you saw it, you didn't even repent afterward, that you might believe him.

33."Hear another parable. There was a man who was a master of a household, who planted a vineyard, set a hedge about it, dug a winepress in it, built a tower, leased it out to farmers, and went into another country. 34.When the season for the fruit drew near, he sent his servants to the farmers, to receive his fruit. 35.The farmers took his servants, beat one, killed another, and stoned another. 36.Again, he sent other servants more than the first: and they treated them the same way. 37.But afterward he sent to them his son, saying, 'They will respect my son.' 38.But the farmers, when they saw the son, said among themselves, 'This is the heir. Come, let's kill him, and seize his inheritance.' 39.So they took him, and threw him out of the vineyard, and killed him. 40.When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those farmers?"

41.They told him, "He will miserably destroy those miserable men, and will lease out the vineyard to other farmers, who will give him the fruit in its season."

42.Jesus said to them, "Did you never read in the Scriptures, 'The stone which the builders rejected, the same was made the head of the corner. This was from the Lord. It is marvelous in our eyes?'[102]

43."Therefore I tell you, the Kingdom of God will be taken away from you, and will be given to a nation bringing forth its fruit. 44.He who falls on this stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it will fall, it will scatter him as dust."

45.When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke about them. 46.When they sought to seize him, they feared the multitudes, because they considered him to be a prophet.

 

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