Day 64 of 365
Lev 26:1–46, Mark 9:41–10:15, Prov 15:1–15
Old Testament
1 "'You shall make for yourselves no idols, neither shall you raise up an engraved image or a pillar, neither shall you place any figured stone in your land, to bow down to it: for I am the Lord your God.
2 "'You shall keep my Sabbaths, and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord.
3 "'If you walk in my statutes, and keep my commandments, and do them;
4 then I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
5 Your threshing shall reach to the vintage, and the vintage shall reach to the sowing time; and you shall eat your bread to the full, and dwell in your land safely.
6 "'I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and no one will make you afraid; and I will remove evil animals out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.
7 You shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword.
8 Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand; and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.
9 "'I will have respect for you, and make you fruitful, and multiply you, and will establish my covenant with you.
10 You shall eat old store long kept, and you shall move out the old because of the new.
11 I will set my tent among you: and my soul won't abhor you.
12 I will walk among you, and will be your God, and you will be my people.
13 I am the Lord your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that you should not be their slaves; and I have broken the bars of your yoke, and made you go upright.
14 "'But if you will not listen to me, and will not do all these commandments;
15 and if you shall reject my statutes, and if your soul abhors my ordinances, so that you will not do all my commandments, but break my covenant;
16 I also will do this to you: I will appoint terror over you, even consumption and fever, that shall consume the eyes, and make the soul to pine away; and you will sow your seed in vain, for your enemies will eat it.
17 I will set my face against you, and you will be struck before your enemies. Those who hate you will rule over you; and you will flee when no one pursues you.
18 "'If you in spite of these things will not listen to me, then I will chastise you seven times more for your sins.
19 I will break the pride of your power, and I will make your sky like iron, and your soil like brass;
20 and your strength will be spent in vain; for your land won't yield its increase, neither will the trees of the land yield their fruit.
21 "'If you walk contrary to me, and won't listen to me, then I will bring seven times more plagues on you according to your sins.
22 I will send the wild animals among you, which will rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number; and your roads will become desolate.
23 "'If by these things you won't be reformed to me, but will walk contrary to me;
24 then I will also walk contrary to you; and I will strike you, even I, seven times for your sins.
25 I will bring a sword upon you, that will execute the vengeance of the covenant; and you will be gathered together within your cities: and I will send the pestilence among you; and you will be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
26 When I break your staff of bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver your bread again by weight: and you shall eat, and not be satisfied.
27 "'If you in spite of this won't listen to me, but walk contrary to me;
28 then I will walk contrary to you in wrath; and I also will chastise you seven times for your sins.
29 You will eat the flesh of your sons, and you will eat the flesh of your daughters.
30 I will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and cast your dead bodies upon the bodies of your idols; and my soul will abhor you.
31 I will lay your cities waste, and will bring your sanctuaries to desolation, and I will not take delight in the sweet fragrance of your offerings.
32 I will bring the land into desolation; and your enemies that dwell therein will be astonished at it.
33 I will scatter you among the nations, and I will draw out the sword after you: and your land will be a desolation, and your cities shall be a waste.
34 Then the land will enjoy its sabbaths as long as it lies desolate and you are in your enemies' land. Even then the land will rest and enjoy its sabbaths.
35 As long as it lies desolate it shall have rest, even the rest which it did not have in your sabbaths, when you lived on it.
36 "'As for those of you who are left, I will send a faintness into their hearts in the lands of their enemies: and the sound of a driven leaf will put them to flight; and they shall flee, as one flees from the sword; and they will fall when no one pursues.
37 They will stumble over one another, as it were before the sword, when no one pursues: and you will have no power to stand before your enemies.
38 You will perish among the nations, and the land of your enemies will eat you up.
39 Those of you who are left will pine away in their iniquity in your enemies' lands; and also in the iniquities of their fathers shall they pine away with them.
40 "'If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me,
41 I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies: if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity;
42 then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.
43 The land also will be left by them, and will enjoy its sabbaths while it lies desolate without them: and they will accept the punishment of their iniquity; because, even because they rejected my ordinances, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
44 Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them; for I am the Lord their God;
45 but I will for their sake remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the Lord.'"
46 These are the statutes, ordinances and laws, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by Moses.
New Testament
9:41 For whoever will give you a cup of water to drink in my name, because you belong to the Messiah, truly I tell you, he will in no way lose his reward.
9:42 Whoever will cause one of these little ones who believe in me to stumble, it would be better for him if he was thrown into the sea with a millstone hung around his neck.
9:43 If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life maimed, rather than having your two hands to go into hell, into the unquenchable fire, [
9:44 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.]
9:45 If your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off. It is better for you to enter into life lame, rather than having your two feet to be cast into hell. [
9:46 where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.]
9:47 If your eye causes you to stumble, cast it out. It is better for you to enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, rather than having two eyes to be cast into hell,
9:48 'where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched.'
9:49 For everyone will be salted with fire.
9:50 Salt is good, but if the salt has lost its saltiness, with what will you season it? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another."
10:1 He arose from there and came into the borders of Judea and beyond the Jordan. Multitudes came together to him again. As he usually did, he was again teaching them.
10:2 Pharisees came to him testing him, and asked him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
10:3 He answered, "What did Moses command you?"
10:4 They said, "Moses allowed a certificate of divorce to be written, and to divorce her."
10:5 But Jesus said, "For your hardness of heart, he wrote you this commandment.
10:6 But from the beginning of the creation, he made them male and female.
10:7 For this cause a man will leave his father and mother, and will join to his wife,
10:8 and the two will become one flesh, so that they are no longer two, but one flesh.
10:9 What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate."
10:10 In the house, the disciples asked him again about the same matter.
10:11 He said to them, "Whoever divorces his wife, and marries another, commits adultery against her.
10:12 If she herself divorces her husband, and marries another, she commits adultery."
10:13 They were bringing to him little children, that he should touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.
10:14 But when Jesus saw it, he was moved with indignation, and said to them, "Allow the little children to come to me! Do not forbid them, for the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these.
10:15 Truly I tell you, whoever will not receive the Kingdom of God like a little child, he will in no way enter into it."
Wisdom
1 A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.
2 The tongue of the wise commends knowledge, but the mouth of fools gush out folly.
3 The Lord's eyes are everywhere, keeping watch on the evil and the good.
4 A gentle tongue is a tree of life, but deceit in it crushes the spirit.
5 A fool despises his father's correction, but he who heeds reproof shows prudence.
6 In the house of the righteous is much treasure, but the income of the wicked brings trouble.
7 The lips of the wise spread knowledge; not so with the heart of fools.
8 The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.
9 The way of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, but he loves him who follows after righteousness.
10 There is stern discipline for one who forsakes the way: whoever hates reproof shall die.
11 Sheol and Abaddon are before the Lord- how much more then the hearts of the children of men!
12 A scoffer doesn't love to be reproved; he will not go to the wise.
13 A glad heart makes a cheerful face; but an aching heart breaks the spirit.
14 The heart of one who has understanding seeks knowledge, but the mouths of fools feed on folly.
15 All the days of the afflicted are wretched, but one who has a cheerful heart enjoys a continual feast.
Text: New Heart English Bible.