Daily Readings for November 14

Daily Readings for November 14
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Ezra 10

1.Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before the house of God, there was gathered together to him out of Israel a very great assembly of men and women and children; for the people wept very bitterly. 2.Shecaniah the son of Jehiel, one of the sons of Elam, answered Ezra, "We have trespassed against our God, and have married foreign women of the peoples of the land. Yet now there is hope for Israel concerning this thing. 3.Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those who tremble at the commandment of our God. Let it be done according to the law. 4.Arise; for the matter belongs to you, and we are with you. Be courageous, and do it."

5.Then Ezra arose, and made the chiefs of the priests, the Levites, and all Israel, to swear that they would do according to this word. So they swore. 6.Then Ezra rose up from before the house of God, and went into the room of Jehohanan the son of Eliashib: and when he came there, he ate no bread, nor drank water; for he mourned because of their trespass of the captivity. 7.They made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem to all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together to Jerusalem; 8.and that whoever didn't come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the assembly of the captivity. 9.Then all the men of Judah and Benjamin gathered themselves together to Jerusalem within the three days; it was the ninth month, on the twentieth day of the month: and all the people sat in the broad place before the house of God, trembling because of this matter, and for the great rain.

10.Ezra the priest stood up, and said to them, "You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel. 11.Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women."

12.Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, "As you have said concerning us, so must we do. 13.But the people are many, and it is a time of much rain, and we are not able to stand outside; neither is this a work of one day or two; for we have greatly transgressed in this matter. 14.Let now our princes be appointed for all the assembly, and let all those who are in our cities who have married foreign women come at appointed times, and with them the elders of every city, and its judges, until the fierce wrath of our God be turned from us, until this matter is resolved."

15.Only Jonathan the son of Asahel and Jahzeiah the son of Tikvah stood up against this; and Meshullam and Shabbethai the Levite helped them. 16.The children of the captivity did so. Ezra the priest, with certain heads of fathers' households, after their fathers' houses, and all of them by their names, were set apart; and they sat down in the first day of the tenth month to examine the matter. 17.They made an end with all the men who had married foreign women by the first day of the first month. 18.Among the sons of the priests there were found who had married foreign women: of the sons of Jeshua, the son of Jozadak, and his brothers, Maaseiah, and Eliezer, and Jarib, and Gedaliah. 19.They gave their hand that they would put away their wives; and being guilty, they offered a ram of the flock for their guilt. 20.Of the sons of Immer: Hanani and Zebadiah. 21.Of the sons of Harim: Maaseiah, and Elijah, and Shemaiah, and Jehiel, and Uzziah. 22.Of the sons of Pashhur: Elioenai, Maaseiah, Ishmael, Nethanel, Jozabad, and Elasah. 23.Of the Levites: Jozabad, and Shimei, and Kelaiah (the same is Kelita), Pethahiah, Judah, and Eliezer. 24.Of the singers: Eliashib. Of the porters: Shallum, and Telem, and Uri. 25.Of Israel: Of the sons of Parosh: Ramiah, and Izziah, and Malchijah, and Mijamin, and Eleazar, and Malchijah, and Benaiah. 26.Of the sons of Elam: Mattaniah, Zechariah, and Jehiel, and Abdi, and Jeremoth, and Elijah. 27.Of the sons of Zattu: Elioenai, Eliashib, Mattaniah, and Jeremoth, and Zabad, and Aziza. 28.Of the sons of Bebai: Jehohanan, Hananiah, Zabbai, Athlai. 29.Of the sons of Bani: Meshullam, Malluch, and Adaiah, Jashub, and Sheal, Jeremoth. 30.Of the sons of Pahathmoab: Adna, and Chelal, Benaiah, Maaseiah, Mattaniah, Bezalel, and Binnui, and Manasseh. 31.Of the sons of Harim: Eliezer, Isshijah, Malchijah, Shemaiah, Shimeon, 32.Benjamin, Malluch, Shemariah. 33.Of the sons of Hashum: Mattenai, Mattattah, Zabad, Eliphelet, Jeremai, Manasseh, Shimei. 34.Of the sons of Bani: Maadai, Amram, and Uel, 35.Benaiah, Bedeiah, Cheluhi, 36.Vaniah, Meremoth, Eliashib, 37.Mattaniah, Mattenai, and Jaasu, 38.and Bani, and Binnui, Shimei, 39.and Shelemiah, and Nathan, and Adaiah, 40.Machnadebai, Shashai, Sharai, 41.Azarel, and Shelemiah, Shemariah, 42.Shallum, Amariah, Joseph. 43.Of the sons of Nebo: Jeiel, Mattithiah, Zabad, Zebina, Iddo, and Joel, Benaiah. 44.All these had taken foreign wives; and some of them had wives by whom they had children.

Hosea 11

1."When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. 2.They called to them, so they went from them. They sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to engraved images. 3.Yet I taught Ephraim to walk. I took them by his arms; but they didn't know that I healed them. 4.I drew them with cords of a man, with ties of love; and I was to them like those who lift up the yoke on their necks; and I bent down to him and I fed him.

5."They won't return into the land of Egypt; but the Assyrian will be their king, because they refused to repent. 6.The sword will fall on their cities, and will destroy the bars of their gates, and will put an end to their plans. 7.My people are determined to turn from me. Though they call to the Most High, he certainly won't exalt them.

8."How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart is turned within me, my compassion is aroused. 9.I will not execute the fierceness of my anger. I will not return to destroy Ephraim: for I am God, and not man; the Holy One in the midst of you; and I will not come in wrath. 10.They will walk after Yahweh, who will roar like a lion; for he will roar, and the children will come trembling from the west. 11.They will come trembling like a bird out of Egypt, and like a dove out of the land of Assyria; and I will settle them in their houses," says Yahweh.

12.Ephraim surrounds me with falsehood, and the house of Israel with deceit. Judah still strays from God, and is unfaithful to the Holy One.

Colossians 2

1.For I desire to have you know how greatly I struggle for you, and for those at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh; 2.that their hearts may be comforted, they being knit together in love, and gaining all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that they may know the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, 3.in whom are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden. 4.Now this I say that no one may delude you with persuasiveness of speech. 5.For though I am absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit, rejoicing and seeing your order, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. 6.As therefore you received Christ Jesus, the Lord, walk in him, 7.rooted and built up in him, and established in the faith, even as you were taught, abounding in it in thanksgiving. 8.Be careful that you don't let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ. 9.For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, 10.and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power; 11.in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; 12.having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13.You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14.wiping out the handwriting in ordinances which was against us; and he has taken it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; 15.having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

16.Let no one therefore judge you in eating, or in drinking, or with respect to a feast day or a new moon or a Sabbath day, 17.which are a shadow of the things to come; but the body is Christ's. 18.Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, 19.and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God's growth. 20.If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances, 21."Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch" 22.(all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men? 23.Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren't of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.