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Daily Readings for April 23
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Deuteronomy 6
1.Now this is the commandment, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you go over to possess it; 2.that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, you, and your son, and your son's son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 3.Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. 4.Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one: 5.and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. 6.These words, which I command you this day, shall be on your heart; 7.and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8.You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for symbols between your eyes. 9.You shall write them on the door posts of your house, and on your gates. 10.It shall be, when Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities, which you didn't build, 11.and houses full of all good things, which you didn't fill, and cisterns dug out, which you didn't dig, vineyards and olive trees, which you didn't plant, and you shall eat and be full; 12.then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13.You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. 14.You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you; 15.for Yahweh your God in the midst of you is a jealous God; lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16.You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. 17.You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18.You shall do that which is right and good in the sight of Yahweh; that it may be well with you, and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, 19.to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.
20.When your son asks you in time to come, saying, "What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?" 21.then you shall tell your son, "We were Pharaoh's bondservants in Egypt: and Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22.and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; 23.and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. 24.Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as at this day. 25.It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all this commandment before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us."
Deuteronomy 7
1.When Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you go to possess it, and shall cast out many nations before you, the Hittite, and the Girgashite, and the Amorite, and the Canaanite, and the Perizzite, and the Hivite, and the Jebusite, seven nations greater and mightier than you; 2.and when Yahweh your God shall deliver them up before you, and you shall strike them; then you shall utterly destroy them: you shall make no covenant with them, nor show mercy to them; 3.neither shall you make marriages with them; your daughter you shall not give to his son, nor shall you take his daughter for your son. 4.For he will turn away your son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so the anger of Yahweh would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. 5.But you shall deal with them like this: you shall break down their altars, and dash their pillars in pieces, and cut down their Asherim, and burn their engraved images with fire. 6.For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God: Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth. 7.Yahweh didn't set his love on you, nor choose you, because you were more in number than any people; for you were the fewest of all peoples: 8.but because Yahweh loves you, and because he would keep the oath which he swore to your fathers, has Yahweh brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. 9.Know therefore that Yahweh your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations, 10.and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face. 11.You shall therefore keep the commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which I command you this day, to do them. 12.It shall happen, because you listen to these ordinances, and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you the covenant and the loving kindness which he swore to your fathers: 13.and he will love you, and bless you, and multiply you; he will also bless the fruit of your body and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your livestock and the young of your flock, in the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. 14.You shall be blessed above all peoples: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your livestock. 15.Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which you know, he will put on you, but will lay them on all those who hate you. 16.You shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God shall deliver to you; your eye shall not pity them: neither shall you serve their gods; for that will be a snare to you. 17.If you shall say in your heart, "These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them?" 18.you shall not be afraid of them: you shall well remember what Yahweh your God did to Pharaoh, and to all Egypt; 19.the great trials which your eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the outstretched arm, by which Yahweh your God brought you out: so shall Yahweh your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. 20.Moreover Yahweh your God will send the hornet among them, until those who are left, and hide themselves, perish from before you. 21.You shall not be scared of them; for Yahweh your God is in the midst of you, a great and awesome God. 22.Yahweh your God will cast out those nations before you by little and little: you may not consume them at once, lest the animals of the field increase on you. 23.But Yahweh your God will deliver them up before you, and will confuse them with a great confusion, until they be destroyed. 24.He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you shall make their name to perish from under the sky: no man shall be able to stand before you, until you have destroyed them. 25.You shall burn the engraved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it for yourself, lest you be snared in it; for it is an abomination to Yahweh your God. 26.You shall not bring an abomination into your house, and become a devoted thing like it. You shall utterly detest it, and you shall utterly abhor it; for it is a devoted thing.
Ecclesiastes 2
1.I said in my heart, "Come now, I will test you with mirth: therefore enjoy pleasure;" and behold, this also was vanity. 2.I said of laughter, "It is foolishness;" and of mirth, "What does it accomplish?"
3.I searched in my heart how to cheer my flesh with wine, my heart yet guiding me with wisdom, and how to lay hold of folly, until I might see what it was good for the sons of men that they should do under heaven all the days of their lives. 4.I made myself great works. I built myself houses. I planted myself vineyards. 5.I made myself gardens and parks, and I planted trees in them of all kinds of fruit. 6.I made myself pools of water, to water from it the forest where trees were reared. 7.I bought male servants and female servants, and had servants born in my house. I also had great possessions of herds and flocks, above all who were before me in Jerusalem; 8.I also gathered silver and gold for myself, and the treasure of kings and of the provinces. I got myself male and female singers, and the delights of the sons of men--musical instruments, and that of all sorts. 9.So I was great, and increased more than all who were before me in Jerusalem. My wisdom also remained with me. 10.Whatever my eyes desired, I didn't keep from them. I didn't withhold my heart from any joy, for my heart rejoiced because of all my labor, and this was my portion from all my labor. 11.Then I looked at all the works that my hands had worked, and at the labor that I had labored to do; and behold, all was vanity and a chasing after wind, and there was no profit under the sun.
12.I turned myself to consider wisdom, madness, and folly: for what can the king's successor do? Just that which has been done long ago. 13.Then I saw that wisdom excels folly, as far as light excels darkness. 14.The wise man's eyes are in his head, and the fool walks in darkness--and yet I perceived that one event happens to them all. 15.Then I said in my heart, "As it happens to the fool, so will it happen even to me; and why was I then more wise?" Then I said in my heart that this also is vanity. 16.For of the wise man, even as of the fool, there is no memory for ever, since in the days to come all will have been long forgotten. Indeed, the wise man must die just like the fool!
17.So I hated life, because the work that is worked under the sun was grievous to me; for all is vanity and a chasing after wind. 18.I hated all my labor in which I labored under the sun, because I must leave it to the man who comes after me. 19.Who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool? Yet he will have rule over all of my labor in which I have labored, and in which I have shown myself wise under the sun. This also is vanity.
20.Therefore I began to cause my heart to despair concerning all the labor in which I had labored under the sun. 21.For there is a man whose labor is with wisdom, with knowledge, and with skillfulness; yet he shall leave it for his portion to a man who has not labored for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. 22.For what has a man of all his labor, and of the striving of his heart, in which he labors under the sun? 23.For all his days are sorrows, and his travail is grief; yes, even in the night his heart takes no rest. This also is vanity. 24.There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul enjoy good in his labor. This also I saw, that it is from the hand of God. 25.For who can eat, or who can have enjoyment, more than I? 26.For to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and joy; but to the sinner he gives travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him who pleases God. This also is vanity and a chasing after wind.
John 19
1.So Pilate then took Jesus, and flogged him. 2.The soldiers twisted thorns into a crown, and put it on his head, and dressed him in a purple garment. 3.They kept saying, "Hail, King of the Jews!" and they kept slapping him.
4.Then Pilate went out again, and said to them, "Behold, I bring him out to you, that you may know that I find no basis for a charge against him."
5.Jesus therefore came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple garment. Pilate said to them, "Behold, the man!"
6.When therefore the chief priests and the officers saw him, they shouted, saying, "Crucify! Crucify!"
Pilate said to them, "Take him yourselves, and crucify him, for I find no basis for a charge against him."
7.The Jews answered him, "We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God."
8.When therefore Pilate heard this saying, he was more afraid. 9.He entered into the Praetorium again, and said to Jesus, "Where are you from?" But Jesus gave him no answer. 10.Pilate therefore said to him, "Aren't you speaking to me? Don't you know that I have power to release you, and have power to crucify you?"
11.Jesus answered, "You would have no power at all against me, unless it were given to you from above. Therefore he who delivered me to you has greater sin."
12.At this, Pilate was seeking to release him, but the Jews cried out, saying, "If you release this man, you aren't Caesar's friend! Everyone who makes himself a king speaks against Caesar!"
13.When Pilate therefore heard these words, he brought Jesus out, and sat down on the judgment seat at a place called "The Pavement," but in Hebrew, "Gabbatha." 14.Now it was the Preparation Day of the Passover, at about the sixth hour.56 He said to the Jews, "Behold, your King!"
The chief priests answered, "We have no king but Caesar!"
Pilate said to them, "Shall I crucify your King?"
15.They cried out, "Away with him! Away with him! Crucify him!"
16.So then he delivered him to them to be crucified. So they took Jesus and led him away. 17.He went out, bearing his cross, to the place called "The Place of a Skull," which is called in Hebrew, "Golgotha," 18.where they crucified him, and with him two others, on either side one, and Jesus in the middle. 19.Pilate wrote a title also, and put it on the cross. There was written, "JESUS OF NAZARETH, THE KING OF THE JEWS." 20.Therefore many of the Jews read this title, for the place where Jesus was crucified was near the city; and it was written in Hebrew, in Latin, and in Greek. 21.The chief priests of the Jews therefore said to Pilate, "Don't write, 'The King of the Jews,' but, 'he said, I am King of the Jews.'"
22.Pilate answered, "What I have written, I have written."
23.Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also the coat. Now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. 24.Then they said to one another, "Let's not tear it, but cast lots for it to decide whose it will be," that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which says, "They parted my garments among them. For my cloak they cast lots."[57]
Therefore the soldiers did these things. 25.But there were standing by the cross of Jesus his mother, and his mother's sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26.Therefore when Jesus saw his mother, and the disciple whom he loved standing there, he said to his mother, "Woman, behold your son!" 27.Then he said to the disciple, "Behold, your mother!" From that hour, the disciple took her to his own home.
28.After this, Jesus, seeing58 that all things were now finished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, "I am thirsty." 29.Now a vessel full of vinegar was set there; so they put a sponge full of the vinegar on hyssop, and held it at his mouth. 30.When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, "It is finished." He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit.
31.Therefore the Jews, because it was the Preparation Day, so that the bodies wouldn't remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a special one), asked of Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away. 32.Therefore the soldiers came, and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who was crucified with him; 33.but when they came to Jesus, and saw that he was already dead, they didn't break his legs. 34.However one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and immediately blood and water came out. 35.He who has seen has testified, and his testimony is true. He knows that he tells the truth, that you may believe. 36.For these things happened, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, "A bone of him will not be broken."[59] 37.Again another Scripture says, "They will look on him whom they pierced."[60]
38.After these things, Joseph of Arimathaea, being a disciple of Jesus, but secretly for fear of the Jews, asked of Pilate that he might take away Jesus' body. Pilate gave him permission. He came therefore and took away his body. 39.Nicodemus, who at first came to Jesus by night, also came bringing a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about a hundred Roman pounds.61 40.So they took Jesus' body, and bound it in linen cloths with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. 41.Now in the place where he was crucified there was a garden. In the garden was a new tomb in which no man had ever yet been laid. 42.Then because of the Jews' Preparation Day (for the tomb was near at hand) they laid Jesus there.