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Daily Readings for November 6
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2Chronicles 35
1.Josiah kept a Passover to Yahweh in Jerusalem: and they killed the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month. 2.He set the priests in their offices, and encouraged them to the service of the house of Yahweh. 3.He said to the Levites who taught all Israel, who were holy to Yahweh, "Put the holy ark in the house which Solomon the son of David king of Israel built. There shall no more be a burden on your shoulders. Now serve Yahweh your God, and his people Israel. 4.Prepare yourselves after your fathers' houses by your divisions, according to the writing of David king of Israel, and according to the writing of Solomon his son. 5.Stand in the holy place according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of your brothers the children of the people, and let there be for each a portion of a fathers' house of the Levites. 6.Kill the Passover, and sanctify yourselves, and prepare for your brothers, to do according to the word of Yahweh by Moses."
7.Josiah gave to the children of the people, of the flock, lambs and young goats, all of them for the Passover offerings, to all who were present, to the number of thirty thousand, and three thousand bulls: these were of the king's substance. 8.His princes gave for a freewill offering to the people, to the priests, and to the Levites. Hilkiah and Zechariah and Jehiel, the rulers of the house of God, gave to the priests for the Passover offerings two thousand and six hundred small livestock, and three hundred head of cattle. 9.Conaniah also, and Shemaiah and Nethanel, his brothers, and Hashabiah and Jeiel and Jozabad, the chiefs of the Levites, gave to the Levites for the Passover offerings five thousand small livestock, and five hundred head of cattle. 10.So the service was prepared, and the priests stood in their place, and the Levites by their divisions, according to the king's commandment. 11.They killed the Passover, and the priests sprinkled the blood which they received of their hand, and the Levites flayed them. 12.They removed the burnt offerings, that they might give them according to the divisions of the fathers' houses of the children of the people, to offer to Yahweh, as it is written in the book of Moses. So they did with the cattle. 13.They roasted the Passover with fire according to the ordinance: and the holy offerings boiled they in pots, and in caldrons, and in pans, and carried them quickly to all the children of the people. 14.Afterward they prepared for themselves, and for the priests, because the priests the sons of Aaron were busy with offering the burnt offerings and the fat until night: therefore the Levites prepared for themselves, and for the priests the sons of Aaron. 15.The singers the sons of Asaph were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduthun the king's seer; and the porters were at every gate: they didn't need to depart from their service; for their brothers the Levites prepared for them. 16.So all the service of Yahweh was prepared the same day, to keep the Passover, and to offer burnt offerings on the altar of Yahweh, according to the commandment of king Josiah. 17.The children of Israel who were present kept the Passover at that time, and the feast of unleavened bread seven days. 18.There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 19.In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept. 20.After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him. 21.But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, "What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house with which I have war. God has commanded me to make haste. Beware that it is God who is with me, that he not destroy you."
22.Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn't listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo. 23.The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, "Take me away, because I am seriously wounded!"
24.So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25.Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and singing women spoke of Josiah in their lamentations to this day; and they made them an ordinance in Israel: and behold, they are written in the lamentations. 26.Now the rest of the acts of Josiah, and his good deeds, according to that which is written in the law of Yahweh, 27.and his acts, first and last, behold, they are written in the book of the kings of Israel and Judah.
Hosea 3
1.Yahweh said to me, "Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as Yahweh loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins."
2.So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer7 and a half of barley. 3.I said to her, "You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you."
4.For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, and without prince, and without sacrifice, and without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols. 5.Afterward the children of Israel shall return, and seek Yahweh their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to Yahweh and to his blessings in the last days.
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.