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Daily Readings for March 24
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Numbers 5
1.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 2."Command the children of Israel that they put out of the camp every leper, and everyone who has an issue, and whoever is unclean by the dead. 3.Both you shall put male and female outside of the camp; that they not defile their camp, in the midst of which I dwell."
4.The children of Israel did so, and put them out outside of the camp; as Yahweh spoke to Moses, so did the children of Israel.
5.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 6."Speak to the children of Israel: 'When a man or woman commits any sin that men commit, so as to trespass against Yahweh, and that soul is guilty; 7.then he shall confess his sin which he has done, and he shall make restitution for his guilt in full, and add to it the fifth part of it, and give it to him in respect of whom he has been guilty. 8.But if the man has no kinsman to whom restitution may be made for the guilt, the restitution for guilt which is made to Yahweh shall be the priest's; besides the ram of the atonement, by which atonement shall be made for him. 9.Every heave offering of all the holy things of the children of Israel, which they present to the priest, shall be his. 10.Every man's holy things shall be his: whatever any man gives the priest, it shall be his.'"
11.Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, 12."Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them: 'If any man's wife goes astray, and is unfaithful to him, 13.and a man lies with her carnally, and it is hidden from the eyes of her husband, and is kept close, and she is defiled, and there is no witness against her, and she isn't taken in the act; 14.and the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she is defiled: or if the spirit of jealousy comes on him, and he is jealous of his wife, and she isn't defiled: 15.then the man shall bring his wife to the priest, and shall bring her offering for her: the tenth part of an ephah2 of barley meal. He shall pour no oil on it, nor put frankincense on it, for it is a meal offering of jealousy, a meal offering of memorial, bringing iniquity to memory. 16.The priest shall bring her near, and set her before Yahweh; 17.and the priest shall take holy water in an earthen vessel; and of the dust that is on the floor of the tabernacle the priest shall take, and put it into the water. 18.The priest shall set the woman before Yahweh, and let the hair of the woman's head go loose, and put the meal offering of memorial in her hands, which is the meal offering of jealousy. The priest shall have in his hand the water of bitterness that brings a curse. 19.The priest shall cause her to swear, and shall tell the woman, "If no man has lain with you, and if you haven't gone aside to uncleanness, being under your husband, be free from this water of bitterness that brings a curse. 20.But if you have gone astray, being under your husband, and if you are defiled, and some man has lain with you besides your husband:" 21.then the priest shall cause the woman to swear with the oath of cursing, and the priest shall tell the woman, "Yahweh make you a curse and an oath among your people, when Yahweh allows your thigh to fall away, and your body to swell; 22.and this water that brings a curse will go into your bowels, and make your body swell, and your thigh fall away." The woman shall say, "Amen, Amen."
23."'The priest shall write these curses in a book, and he shall blot them out into the water of bitterness. 24.He shall make the woman drink the water of bitterness that causes the curse; and the water that causes the curse shall enter into her and become bitter. 25.The priest shall take the meal offering of jealousy out of the woman's hand, and shall wave the meal offering before Yahweh, and bring it to the altar. 26.The priest shall take a handful of the meal offering, as its memorial, and burn it on the altar, and afterward shall make the woman drink the water. 27.When he has made her drink the water, then it shall happen, if she is defiled, and has committed a trespass against her husband, that the water that causes the curse will enter into her and become bitter, and her body will swell, and her thigh will fall away: and the woman will be a curse among her people. 28.If the woman isn't defiled, but is clean; then she shall be free, and shall conceive seed.
29."'This is the law of jealousy, when a wife, being under her husband, goes astray, and is defiled; 30.or when the spirit of jealousy comes on a man, and he is jealous of his wife; then he shall set the woman before Yahweh, and the priest shall execute on her all this law. 31.The man shall be free from iniquity, and that woman shall bear her iniquity.'"
Proverbs 2
1.My son, if you will receive my words, and store up my commandments within you; 2.So as to turn your ear to wisdom, and apply your heart to understanding; 3.Yes, if you call out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding; 4.If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures: 5.then you will understand the fear of Yahweh, and find the knowledge of God3. 6.For Yahweh gives wisdom. Out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. 7.He lays up sound wisdom for the upright. He is a shield to those who walk in integrity; 8.that he may guard the paths of justice, and preserve the way of his saints. 9.Then you will understand righteousness and justice, equity and every good path. 10.For wisdom will enter into your heart. Knowledge will be pleasant to your soul. 11.Discretion will watch over you. Understanding will keep you, 12.to deliver you from the way of evil, from the men who speak perverse things; 13.who forsake the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 14.who rejoice to do evil, and delight in the perverseness of evil; 15.who are crooked in their ways, and wayward in their paths: 16.To deliver you from the strange woman, even from the foreigner who flatters with her words; 17.who forsakes the friend of her youth, and forgets the covenant of her God: 18.for her house leads down to death, her paths to the dead. 19.None who go to her return again, neither do they attain to the paths of life: 20.that you may walk in the way of good men, and keep the paths of the righteous. 21.For the upright will dwell in the land. The perfect will remain in it. 22.But the wicked will be cut off from the land. The treacherous will be rooted out of it.
Luke 16
1.He also said to his disciples, "There was a certain rich man who had a manager. An accusation was made to him that this man was wasting his possessions. 2.He called him, and said to him, 'What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.'
3."The manager said within himself, 'What will I do, seeing that my lord is taking away the management position from me? I don't have strength to dig. I am ashamed to beg. 4.I know what I will do, so that when I am removed from management, they may receive me into their houses.' 5.Calling each one of his lord's debtors to him, he said to the first, 'How much do you owe to my lord?' 6.He said, 'A hundred batos38 of oil.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and sit down quickly and write fifty.' 7.Then he said to another, 'How much do you owe?' He said, 'A hundred cors39 of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.'
8."His lord commended the dishonest manager because he had done wisely, for the children of this world are, in their own generation, wiser than the children of the light. 9.I tell you, make for yourselves friends by means of unrighteous mammon, so that when you fail, they may receive you into the eternal tents. 10.He who is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much. He who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much. 11.If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches? 12.If you have not been faithful in that which is another's, who will give you that which is your own? 13.No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to one, and despise the other. You aren't able to serve God and mammon40."
14.The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they scoffed at him. 15.He said to them, "You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts. For that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. 16.The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. 17.But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away, than for one tiny stroke of a pen in the law to fall. 18.Everyone who divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery. He who marries one who is divorced from a husband commits adultery.
19."Now there was a certain rich man, and he was clothed in purple and fine linen, living in luxury every day. 20.A certain beggar, named Lazarus, was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21.and desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Yes, even the dogs came and licked his sores. 22.It happened that the beggar died, and that he was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. 23.In Hades41, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his bosom. 24.He cried and said, 'Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue! For I am in anguish in this flame.'
25."But Abraham said, 'Son, remember that you, in your lifetime, received your good things, and Lazarus, in the same way, bad things. But now here he is comforted and you are in anguish. 26.Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, that those who want to pass from here to you are not able, and that none may cross over from there to us.'
27."He said, 'I ask you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house; 28.for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, so they won't also come into this place of torment.'
29."But Abraham said to him, 'They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.'
30."He said, 'No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.'
31."He said to him, 'If they don't listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded if one rises from the dead.'"