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Daily Readings for May 8
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Deuteronomy 25
1.If there is a controversy between men, and they come to judgment, and the judges judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked; 2.and it shall be, if the wicked man be worthy to be beaten, that the judge shall cause him to lie down, and to be beaten before his face, according to his wickedness, by number. 3.Forty stripes he may give him, he shall not exceed; lest, if he should exceed, and beat him above these with many stripes, then your brother should seem vile to you. 4.You shall not muzzle the ox when he treads out the grain. 5.If brothers dwell together, and one of them die, and have no son, the wife of the dead shall not be married outside to a stranger: her husband's brother shall go in to her, and take her to him as wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her. 6.It shall be, that the firstborn whom she bears shall succeed in the name of his brother who is dead, that his name not be blotted out of Israel.
7.If the man doesn't want to take his brother's wife, then his brother's wife shall go up to the gate to the elders, and say, "My husband's brother refuses to raise up to his brother a name in Israel; he will not perform the duty of a husband's brother to me." 8.Then the elders of his city shall call him, and speak to him: and if he stand, and say, "I don't want to take her;" 9.then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, and loose his shoe from off his foot, and spit in his face; and she shall answer and say, "So shall it be done to the man who does not build up his brother's house." 10.His name shall be called in Israel, The house of him who has his shoe untied.
11.When men strive together one with another, and the wife of the one draws near to deliver her husband out of the hand of him who strikes him, and puts forth her hand, and takes him by the secrets; 12.then you shall cut off her hand, your eye shall have no pity.
13.You shall not have in your bag diverse weights, a great and a small. 14.You shall not have in your house diverse measures, a great and a small. 15.You shall have a perfect and just weight. You shall have a perfect and just measure, that your days may be long in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. 16.For all who do such things, all who do unrighteously, are an abomination to Yahweh your God. 17.Remember what Amalek did to you by the way as you came forth out of Egypt; 18.how he met you by the way, and struck the hindmost of you, all who were feeble behind you, when you were faint and weary; and he didn't fear God. 19.Therefore it shall be, when Yahweh your God has given you rest from all your enemies all around, in the land which Yahweh your God gives you for an inheritance to possess it, that you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the sky; you shall not forget.
Song of Solomon 5
Lover 1.I have come into my garden, my sister, my bride. I have gathered my myrrh with my spice; I have eaten my honeycomb with my honey; I have drunk my wine with my milk.
Friends Eat, friends! Drink, yes, drink abundantly, beloved.
Beloved 2.I was asleep, but my heart was awake. It is the voice of my beloved who knocks: "Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled; for my head is filled with dew, and my hair with the dampness of the night." 3.I have taken off my robe. Indeed, must I put it on? I have washed my feet. Indeed, must I soil them? 4.My beloved thrust his hand in through the latch opening. My heart pounded for him. 5.I rose up to open for my beloved. My hands dripped with myrrh, my fingers with liquid myrrh, on the handles of the lock. 6.I opened to my beloved; but my beloved left; and had gone away. My heart went out when he spoke. I looked for him, but I didn't find him. I called him, but he didn't answer. 7.The watchmen who go about the city found me. They beat me. They bruised me. The keepers of the walls took my cloak away from me. 8.I adjure you, daughters of Jerusalem, If you find my beloved, that you tell him that I am faint with love.
Friends 9.How is your beloved better than another beloved, you fairest among women? How is your beloved better than another beloved, that you do so adjure us?
Beloved 10.My beloved is white and ruddy. The best among ten thousand. 11.His head is like the purest gold. His hair is bushy, black as a raven. 12.His eyes are like doves beside the water brooks, washed with milk, mounted like jewels. 13.His cheeks are like a bed of spices with towers of perfumes. His lips are like lilies, dropping liquid myrrh. 14.His hands are like rings of gold set with beryl. His body is like ivory work overlaid with sapphires. 15.His legs are like pillars of marble set on sockets of fine gold. His appearance is like Lebanon, excellent as the cedars. 16.His mouth is sweetness; yes, he is altogether lovely. This is my beloved, and this is my friend, daughters of Jerusalem.
Acts 20
1.After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples, took leave of them, and departed to go into Macedonia. 2.When he had gone through those parts, and had encouraged them with many words, he came into Greece. 3.When he had spent three months there, and a plot was made against him by Jews as he was about to set sail for Syria, he determined to return through Macedonia. 4.These accompanied him as far as Asia: Sopater of Beroea; Aristarchus and Secundus of the Thessalonians; Gaius of Derbe; Timothy; and Tychicus and Trophimus of Asia. 5.But these had gone ahead, and were waiting for us at Troas. 6.We sailed away from Philippi after the days of Unleavened Bread, and came to them at Troas in five days, where we stayed seven days.
7.On the first day of the week, when the disciples were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and continued his speech until midnight. 8.There were many lights in the upper room where we69 were gathered together. 9.A certain young man named Eutychus sat in the window, weighed down with deep sleep. As Paul spoke still longer, being weighed down by his sleep, he fell down from the third story, and was taken up dead. 10.Paul went down, and fell upon him, and embracing him said, "Don't be troubled, for his life is in him."
11.When he had gone up, and had broken bread, and eaten, and had talked with them a long while, even until break of day, he departed. 12.They brought the boy in alive, and were greatly comforted.
13.But we who went ahead to the ship set sail for Assos, intending to take Paul aboard there, for he had so arranged, intending himself to go by land. 14.When he met us at Assos, we took him aboard, and came to Mitylene. 15.Sailing from there, we came the following day opposite Chios. The next day we touched at Samos and stayed at Trogyllium, and the day after we came to Miletus. 16.For Paul had determined to sail past Ephesus, that he might not have to spend time in Asia; for he was hastening, if it were possible for him, to be in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.
17.From Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called to himself the elders of the assembly. 18.When they had come to him, he said to them, "You yourselves know, from the first day that I set foot in Asia, how I was with you all the time, 19.serving the Lord with all humility, with many tears, and with trials which happened to me by the plots of the Jews; 20.how I didn't shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable, teaching you publicly and from house to house, 21.testifying both to Jews and to Greeks repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus.70 22.Now, behold, I go bound by the Spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there; 23.except that the Holy Spirit testifies in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions wait for me. 24.But these things don't count; nor do I hold my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to fully testify to the Good News of the grace of God.
25."Now, behold, I know that you all, among whom I went about preaching the Kingdom of God, will see my face no more. 26.Therefore I testify to you this day that I am clean from the blood of all men, 27.for I didn't shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. 28.Take heed, therefore, to yourselves, and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the assembly of the Lord and71 God which he purchased with his own blood. 29.For I know that after my departure, vicious wolves will enter in among you, not sparing the flock. 30.Men will arise from among your own selves, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after them. 31.Therefore watch, remembering that for a period of three years I didn't cease to admonish everyone night and day with tears. 32.Now, brothers,72 I entrust you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build up, and to give you the inheritance among all those who are sanctified. 33.I coveted no one's silver, or gold, or clothing. 34.You yourselves know that these hands served my necessities, and those who were with me. 35.In all things I gave you an example, that so laboring you ought to help the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, that he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'"
36.When he had spoken these things, he knelt down and prayed with them all. 37.They all wept a lot, and fell on Paul's neck and kissed him, 38.sorrowing most of all because of the word which he had spoken, that they should see his face no more. And they accompanied him to the ship.