Daily Readings for June 9

Daily Readings for June 9
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Judges 6

1.The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh: and Yahweh delivered them into the hand of Midian seven years. 2.The hand of Midian prevailed against Israel; and because of Midian the children of Israel made them the dens which are in the mountains, and the caves, and the strongholds. 3.So it was, when Israel had sown, that the Midianites came up, and the Amalekites, and the children of the east; they came up against them; 4.and they encamped against them, and destroyed the increase of the earth, until you come to Gaza, and left no sustenance in Israel, neither sheep, nor ox, nor donkey. 5.For they came up with their livestock and their tents; they came in as locusts for multitude; both they and their camels were without number: and they came into the land to destroy it. 6.Israel was brought very low because of Midian; and the children of Israel cried to Yahweh.

7.It happened, when the children of Israel cried to Yahweh because of Midian, 8.that Yahweh sent a prophet to the children of Israel: and he said to them, "Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, 'I brought you up from Egypt, and brought you forth out of the house of bondage; 9.and I delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians, and out of the hand of all who oppressed you, and drove them out from before you, and gave you their land; 10.and I said to you, "I am Yahweh your God; you shall not fear the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell." But you have not listened to my voice.'"

11.The angel of Yahweh came, and sat under the oak which was in Ophrah, that pertained to Joash the Abiezrite: and his son Gideon was beating out wheat in the winepress, to hide it from the Midianites. 12.The angel of Yahweh appeared to him, and said to him, "Yahweh is with you, you mighty man of valor!"

13.Gideon said to him, "Oh, my lord, if Yahweh is with us, why then has all this happened to us? Where are all his wondrous works which our fathers told us of, saying, 'Didn't Yahweh bring us up from Egypt?' But now Yahweh has cast us off, and delivered us into the hand of Midian."

14.Yahweh looked at him, and said, "Go in this your might, and save Israel from the hand of Midian. Haven't I sent you?"

15.He said to him, "O Lord³, how shall I save Israel? Behold, my family is the poorest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my father's house."

16.Yahweh said to him, "Surely I will be with you, and you shall strike the Midianites as one man."

17.He said to him, "If now I have found favor in your sight, then show me a sign that it is you who talk with me. 18.Please don't go away, until I come to you, and bring out my present, and lay it before you."

He said, "I will wait until you come back."

19.Gideon went in, and prepared a young goat, and unleavened cakes of an ephah⁴ of meal. He put the meat in a basket and he put the broth in a pot, and brought it out to him under the oak, and presented it.

20.The angel of God said to him, "Take the meat and the unleavened cakes, and lay them on this rock, and pour out the broth."

He did so. 21.Then the angel of Yahweh stretched out the end of the staff that was in his hand, and touched the meat and the unleavened cakes; and fire went up out of the rock, and consumed the meat and the unleavened cakes; and the angel of Yahweh departed out of his sight.

22.Gideon saw that he was the angel of Yahweh; and Gideon said, "Alas, Lord Yahweh! Because I have seen the angel of Yahweh face to face!"

23.Yahweh said to him, "Peace be to you! Don't be afraid. You shall not die."

24.Then Gideon built an altar there to Yahweh, and called it "Yahweh is Peace⁵." To this day it is still in Ophrah of the Abiezrites.

25.It happened the same night, that Yahweh said to him, "Take your father's bull, even the second bull seven years old, and throw down the altar of Baal that your father has, and cut down the Asherah that is by it; 26.and build an altar to Yahweh your God on the top of this stronghold, in an orderly way, and take the second bull, and offer a burnt offering with the wood of the Asherah which you shall cut down."

27.Then Gideon took ten men of his servants, and did as Yahweh had spoken to him: and it happened, because he feared his father's household and the men of the city, so that he could not do it by day, that he did it by night.

28.When the men of the city arose early in the morning, behold, the altar of Baal was broken down, and the Asherah was cut down that was by it, and the second bull was offered on the altar that was built. 29.They said one to another, "Who has done this thing?"

When they inquired and asked, they said, "Gideon the son of Joash has done this thing."

30.Then the men of the city said to Joash, "Bring out your son, that he may die, because he has broken down the altar of Baal, and because he has cut down the Asherah that was by it." 31.Joash said to all who stood against him, "Will you contend for Baal? Or will you save him? He who will contend for him, let him be put to death by morning. If he is a god, let him contend for himself, because someone has broken down his altar." 32.Therefore on that day he named him Jerub-Baal,⁶ saying, "Let Baal contend against him, because he has broken down his altar."

33.Then all the Midianites and the Amalekites and the children of the east assembled themselves together; and they passed over, and encamped in the valley of Jezreel. 34.But the Spirit of Yahweh came on Gideon; and he blew a trumpet; and Abiezer was gathered together after him. 35.He sent messengers throughout all Manasseh; and they also were gathered together after him: and he sent messengers to Asher, and to Zebulun, and to Naphtali; and they came up to meet them.

36.Gideon said to God, "If you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken, 37.behold, I will put a fleece of wool on the threshing floor; if there be dew on the fleece only, and it be dry on all the ground, then shall I know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you have spoken."

38.It was so; for he rose up early on the next day, and pressed the fleece together, and wrung the dew out of the fleece, a bowl full of water.

39.Gideon said to God, "Don't let your anger be kindled against me, and I will speak but this once. Please let me make a trial just this once with the fleece. Let it now be dry only on the fleece, and on all the ground let there be dew."

40.God did so that night: for it was dry on the fleece only, and there was dew on all the ground.

Isaiah 33

1.Woe to you who destroy, but you weren't destroyed; and who betray, but nobody betrayed you! When you have finished destroying, you will be destroyed; and when you have made an end of betrayal, you will be betrayed.

2.Yahweh, be gracious to us. We have waited for you. Be our strength every morning, our salvation also in the time of trouble. 3.At the noise of the thunder, the peoples have fled. When you lift yourself up, the nations are scattered. 4.Your spoil will be gathered as the caterpillar gathers. Men will leap on it as locusts leap. 5.Yahweh is exalted, for he dwells on high. He has filled Zion with justice and righteousness. 6.There will be stability in your times, abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge. The fear of Yahweh is your treasure. 7.Behold, their valiant ones cry outside; the ambassadors of peace weep bitterly. 8.The highways are desolate. The traveling man ceases. The covenant is broken. He has despised the cities. He doesn't respect man. 9.The land mourns and languishes. Lebanon is confounded and withers away. Sharon is like a desert, and Bashan and Carmel are stripped bare. 10."Now I will arise," says Yahweh; "Now I will lift myself up. Now I will be exalted. 11.You will conceive chaff. You will bring forth stubble. Your breath is a fire that will devour you. 12.The peoples will be like the burning of lime, like thorns that are cut down and burned in the fire. 13.Hear, you who are far off, what I have done; and, you who are near, acknowledge my might." 14.The sinners in Zion are afraid. Trembling has seized the godless ones. Who among us can live with the devouring fire? Who among us can live with everlasting burning? 15.He who walks righteously, and speaks blamelessly; He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing to take a bribe, who stops his ears from hearing of blood, and shuts his eyes from looking at evil-- 16.he will dwell on high. His place of defense will be the fortress of rocks. His bread will be supplied. His waters will be sure. 17.Your eyes will see the king in his beauty. They will see a distant land. 18.Your heart will meditate on the terror. Where is he who counted? Where is he who weighed? Where is he who counted the towers? 19.You will no longer see the fierce people, a people of a deep speech that you can't comprehend, with a strange language that you can't understand. 20.Look at Zion, the city of our appointed festivals. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tent that won't be removed. Its stakes will never be plucked up, nor will any of its cords be broken. 21.But there Yahweh will be with us in majesty, a place of broad rivers and streams, in which no galley with oars will go, neither will any gallant ship pass by there. 22.For Yahweh is our judge. Yahweh is our lawgiver. Yahweh is our king. He will save us.

23.Your rigging is untied. They couldn't strengthen the foot of their mast. They couldn't spread the sail. Then the prey of a great spoil was divided. The lame took the prey.

24.The inhabitant won't say, "I am sick." The people who dwell therein will be forgiven their iniquity.

James 3

1.Let not many of you be teachers, my brothers, knowing that we will receive heavier judgment. 2.For in many things we all stumble. If anyone doesn't stumble in word, the same is a perfect man, able to bridle the whole body also. 3.Indeed, we put bits into the horses' mouths so that they may obey us, and we guide their whole body. 4.Behold, the ships also, though they are so big and are driven by fierce winds, are yet guided by a very small rudder, wherever the pilot desires. 5.So the tongue is also a little member, and boasts great things. See how a small fire can spread to a large forest! 6.And the tongue is a fire. The world of iniquity among our members is the tongue, which defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature, and is set on fire by Gehenna.⁸ 7.For every kind of animal, bird, creeping thing, and thing in the sea, is tamed, and has been tamed by mankind. 8.But nobody can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. 9.With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. 10.Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. 11.Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water? 12.Can a fig tree, my brothers, yield olives, or a vine figs? Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh water.

13.Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by his good conduct that his deeds are done in gentleness of wisdom. 14.But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, don't boast and don't lie against the truth. 15.This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, sensual, and demonic. 16.For where jealousy and selfish ambition are, there is confusion and every evil deed. 17.But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceful, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. 18.Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

James 4

1.Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don't they come from your pleasures that war in your members? 2.You lust, and don't have. You kill, covet, and can't obtain. You fight and make war. You don't have, because you don't ask. 3.You ask, and don't receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures. 4.You adulterers and adulteresses, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. 5.Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously"? 6.But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble."⁹ 7.Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8.Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9.Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom. 10.Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

11.Don't speak against one another, brothers. He who speaks against a brother and judges his brother, speaks against the law and judges the law. But if you judge the law, you are not a doer of the law, but a judge. 12.Only one is the lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy. But who are you to judge another?

13.Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow let's go into this city, and spend a year there, trade, and make a profit." 14.Whereas you don't know what your life will be like tomorrow. For what is your life? For you are a vapor, that appears for a little time, and then vanishes away. 15.For you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we will both live, and do this or that." 16.But now you glory in your boasting. All such boasting is evil. 17.To him therefore who knows to do good, and doesn't do it, to him it is sin.