Day 239 of 365

Ezra 10:1–44

1 Now while Ezra prayed and made confession, weeping and casting himself down before God's house, 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 God's house, 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 did not 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 God's house, 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 the Lord, 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.

Neh 1:1–11

1 The words of Nehemiah the son of Hacaliah. Now it happened in the month Chislev, in the twentieth year, as I was in Shushan the palace,

2 that Hanani, one of my brothers, came, he and certain men out of Judah; and I asked them concerning the Jews who had escaped, who were left of the captivity, and concerning Jerusalem.

3 They said to me, "The remnant who are left of the captivity there in the province are in great affliction and reproach. The wall of Jerusalem also is broken down, and its gates are burned with fire."

4 It happened, when I heard these words, that I sat down and wept, and mourned certain days; and I fasted and prayed before the God of heaven,

5 and said, "I beg you, Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with those who love him and keep his commandments:

6 Let your ear now be attentive, and your eyes open, that you may listen to the prayer of your servant, which I pray before you at this time, day and night, for the children of Israel your servants while I confess the sins of the children of Israel, which we have sinned against you. Yes, I and my father's house have sinned.

7 We have dealt very corruptly against you, and have not kept the commandments, nor the statutes, nor the ordinances, which you commanded your servant Moses.

8 "Remember, I beg you, the word that you commanded your servant Moses, saying, 'If you trespass, I will scatter you abroad among the peoples;

9 but if you return to me, and keep my commandments and do them, though your outcasts were in the uttermost part of the heavens, yet will I gather them from there, and will bring them to the place that I have chosen, to cause my name to dwell there.'

10 "Now these are your servants and your people, whom you have redeemed by your great power, and by your strong hand.

11 Lord, I beg you, let your ear be attentive now to the prayer of your servant, and to the prayer of your servants, who delight to fear your name; and please prosper your servant this day, and grant him mercy in the sight of this man." Now I was cup bearer to the king.

Rom 2:1–29

1 Therefore you are without excuse, O man, whoever you are who judge. For in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself. For you who judge practice the same things.

2 We know that the judgment of God is according to truth against those who practice such things.

3 Do you think this, O man who judges those who practice such things, and do the same, that you will escape the judgment of God?

4 Or do you despise the riches of his goodness, forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the goodness of God leads you to repentance?

5 But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the righteous judgment of God;

6 who "will pay back to everyone according to their works:"

7 to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory, honor, and incorruptibility, eternal life;

8 but to those who are self-seeking, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be wrath and indignation,

9 oppression and anguish, on every soul of man who works evil, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

10 But glory, honor, and peace go to every man who works good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

11 For there is no partiality with God.

12 For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without the law. As many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.

13 For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified

14 (for when Gentiles who do not have the law do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves,

15 in that they show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience testifying with them, and their thoughts among themselves accusing or else excusing them)

16 in the day when God will judge the secrets of men, according to my Good News, by Christ Jesus.

17 But if you call yourself a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God,

18 and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,

19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.

21 You therefore who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who proclaim that a man should not steal, do you steal?

22 You who say a man should not commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

23 You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God?

24 For "the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you," just as it is written.

25 For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

26 If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won't his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?

27 Won't the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;

29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

Ps 102:1–28

1 Hear my prayer, Lord! Let my cry come to you.

2 Do not hide your face from me in the day of my distress. Turn your ear to me. Answer me quickly in the day when I call.

3 For my days consume away like smoke. My bones are burned as a firebrand.

4 My heart is blighted like grass, and withered, for I forget to eat my bread.

5 By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones stick to my skin.

6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness. I have become as an owl of the waste places.

7 I watch, and have become like a sparrow that is alone on the housetop.

8 My enemies reproach me all day. Those who are mad at me use my name as a curse.

9 For I have eaten ashes like bread, and mixed my drink with tears,

10 Because of your indignation and your wrath, for you have taken me up, and thrown me away.

11 My days are like a long shadow. I have withered like grass.

12 But you, Lord, will abide forever; your renown endures to all generations.

13 You will arise and have mercy on Zion; for it is time to have pity on her. Yes, the set time has come.

14 For your servants take pleasure in her stones, and have pity on her dust.

15 So the nations will fear the name of the Lord; all the kings of the earth your glory.

16 For the Lord has built up Zion. He has appeared in his glory.

17 He has responded to the prayer of the destitute, and has not despised their prayer.

18 This will be written for the generation to come. A people which will be created will praise Yah.

19 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary. From heaven, the Lord saw the earth;

20 to hear the groans of the prisoner; to free those who are condemned to death;

21 that men may declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem;

22 when the peoples are gathered together, the kingdoms, to serve the Lord.

23 He weakened my strength along the course. He shortened my days.

24 I said, "My God, do not take me away in the midst of my days. Your years are throughout all generations.

25 Of old, you laid the foundation of the earth. The heavens are the work of your hands.

26 They will perish, but you will endure. Yes, all of them will wear out like a garment. You will change them like a cloak, and they will be changed.

27 But you are the same. Your years will have no end.

28 The children of your servants will continue. Their seed will be established before you."