Day 101 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 65

¹Praise awaits You, O God, in Zion; to You our vows will be fulfilled. ²O You who listen to prayer, all people will come to You. ³When iniquities prevail against me, You atone for our transgressions. ⁴Blessed is the one You choose and bring near to dwell in Your courts! We are filled with the goodness of Your house, the holiness of Your temple. ⁵With awesome deeds of righteousness You answer us, O God of our salvation, the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas. ⁶You formed the mountains by Your power, having girded Yourself with might. ⁷You stilled the roaring of the seas, the pounding of their waves, and the tumult of the nations. ⁸Those who live far away fear Your wonders; You make the dawn and sunset shout for joy. ⁹You attend to the earth and water it; with abundance You enrich it. The streams of God are full of water, for You prepare our grain by providing for the earth. ¹⁰You soak its furrows and level its ridges; You soften it with showers and bless its growth. ¹¹You crown the year with Your bounty, and Your paths overflow with plenty. ¹²The pastures of the wilderness overflow; the hills are robed with joy. ¹³The pastures are clothed with flocks, and the valleys are decked with grain. They shout in triumph; indeed, they sing.

New Testament·Luke 9:28–48

²⁸About eight days after Jesus had said these things, He took with Him Peter, John, and James, and went up on a mountain to pray. ²⁹And as He was praying, the appearance of His face changed, and His clothes became radiantly white. ³⁰Suddenly two men, Moses and Elijah, began talking with Jesus. ³¹They appeared in glory and spoke about His departure, which He was about to accomplish at Jerusalem. ³²Meanwhile Peter and his companions were overcome by sleep, but when they awoke, they saw Jesus’ glory and the two men standing with Him. ³³As Moses and Elijah were leaving, Peter said to Jesus, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters —one for You, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.) ³⁴While Peter was speaking, a cloud appeared and enveloped them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud. ³⁵And a voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is My Son, whom I have chosen. Listen to Him!” ³⁶After the voice had spoken, only Jesus was present with them. The disciples kept this to themselves, and in those days they did not tell anyone what they had seen. ³⁷The next day, when they came down from the mountain, Jesus was met by a large crowd. ³⁸Suddenly a man in the crowd cried out, “Teacher, I beg You to look at my son, for he is my only child. ³⁹A spirit keeps seizing him, and he screams abruptly. It throws him into convulsions so that he foams at the mouth. It keeps mauling him and rarely departs from him. ⁴⁰I begged Your disciples to drive it out, but they were unable.” ⁴¹“O unbelieving and perverse generation!” Jesus replied. “How long must I remain with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” ⁴²Even while the boy was approaching, the demon slammed him to the ground in a convulsion. But Jesus rebuked the unclean spirit, healed the boy, and gave him back to his father. ⁴³And they were all astonished at the greatness of God. While everyone was marveling at all that Jesus was doing, He said to His disciples, ⁴⁴“Let these words sink into your ears: The Son of Man is about to be delivered into the hands of men.” ⁴⁵But they did not understand this statement. It was veiled from them so that they could not comprehend it, and they were afraid to ask Him about it. ⁴⁶Then an argument started among the disciples as to which of them would be the greatest. ⁴⁷But Jesus, knowing the thoughts of their hearts, had a little child stand beside Him. ⁴⁸And He said to them, “Whoever welcomes this little child in My name welcomes Me, and whoever welcomes Me welcomes the One who sent Me. For whoever is the least among all of you, he is the greatest.”

Old Testament·Deuteronomy 19–21

¹When the LORD your God has cut off the nations whose land He is giving you, and when you have driven them out and settled in their cities and houses, ²then you are to set apart for yourselves three cities within the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. ³You are to build roads for yourselves and divide into three regions the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that any manslayer can flee to these cities. ⁴Now this is the situation regarding the manslayer who flees to one of these cities to save his life, having killed his neighbor accidentally, without intending to harm him: ⁵If he goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut timber and swings his axe to chop down a tree, but the blade flies off the handle and strikes and kills his neighbor, he may flee to one of these cities to save his life. ⁶Otherwise, the avenger of blood might pursue the manslayer in a rage, overtake him if the distance is great, and strike him dead though he did not deserve to die, since he did not intend any harm. ⁷This is why I am commanding you to set apart for yourselves three cities. ⁸And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as He swore to your fathers, and gives you all the land He promised them, ⁹and if you carefully keep all these commandments I am giving you today, loving the LORD your God and walking in His ways at all times, then you are to add three more cities to these three. ¹⁰Thus innocent blood will not be shed in the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, so that you will not be guilty of bloodshed. ¹¹If, however, a man hates his neighbor and lies in wait, attacks him and kills him, and then flees to one of these cities, ¹²the elders of his city must send for him, bring him back, and hand him over to the avenger of blood to die. ¹³You must show him no pity. You are to purge from Israel the guilt of shedding innocent blood, that it may go well with you. ¹⁴You must not move your neighbor’s boundary marker, which was set up by your ancestors to mark the inheritance you shall receive in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess. ¹⁵A lone witness is not sufficient to establish any wrongdoing or sin against a man, regardless of what offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses. ¹⁶If a false witness testifies against someone, accusing him of a crime, ¹⁷both parties to the dispute must stand in the presence of the LORD, before the priests and judges who are in office at that time. ¹⁸The judges shall investigate thoroughly, and if the witness is proven to be a liar who has falsely accused his brother, ¹⁹you must do to him as he intended to do to his brother. So you must purge the evil from among you. ²⁰Then the rest of the people will hear and be afraid, and they will never again do anything so evil among you. ²¹You must show no pity: life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, and foot for foot.

20When you go out to war against your enemies and see horses, chariots, and an army larger than yours, do not be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, is with you. ²When you are about to go into battle, the priest is to come forward and address the army, ³saying to them, “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle with your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be alarmed or terrified because of them. ⁴For the LORD your God goes with you to fight for you against your enemies, to give you the victory.” ⁵Furthermore, the officers are to address the army, saying, “Has any man built a new house and not dedicated it? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man dedicate it. ⁶Has any man planted a vineyard and not begun to enjoy its fruit? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man enjoy its fruit. ⁷Has any man become pledged to a woman and not married her? Let him return home, or he may die in battle and another man marry her.” ⁸Then the officers shall speak further to the army, saying, “Is any man afraid or fainthearted? Let him return home, so that the hearts of his brothers will not melt like his own.” ⁹When the officers have finished addressing the army, they are to appoint commanders to lead it. ¹⁰When you approach a city to fight against it, you are to make an offer of peace. ¹¹If they accept your offer of peace and open their gates, all the people there will become forced laborers to serve you. ¹²But if they refuse to make peace with you and wage war against you, lay siege to that city. ¹³When the LORD your God has delivered it into your hand, you must put every male to the sword. ¹⁴But the women, children, livestock, and whatever else is in the city—all its spoil—you may take as plunder, and you shall use the spoil of your enemies that the LORD your God gives you. ¹⁵This is how you are to treat all the cities that are far away from you and do not belong to the nations nearby. ¹⁶However, in the cities of the nations that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance, you must not leave alive anything that breathes. ¹⁷For you must devote them to complete destruction —the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites—as the LORD your God has commanded you, ¹⁸so that they cannot teach you to do all the detestable things they do for their gods, and so cause you to sin against the LORD your God. ¹⁹When you lay siege to a city for an extended time while fighting against it to capture it, you must not destroy its trees by putting an axe to them, because you can eat their fruit. You must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human, that you should besiege them? ²⁰But you may destroy the trees that you know do not produce fruit. Use them to build siege works against the city that is waging war against you, until it falls.

21If one is found slain, lying in a field in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess, and it is not known who killed him, ²your elders and judges must come out and measure the distance from the victim to the neighboring cities. ³Then the elders of the city nearest the victim shall take a heifer that has never been yoked or used for work, ⁴bring the heifer to a valley with running water that has not been plowed or sown, and break its neck there by the stream. ⁵And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come forward, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and pronounce blessings in His name and to give a ruling in every dispute and case of assault. ⁶Then all the elders of the city nearest the victim shall wash their hands by the stream over the heifer whose neck has been broken, ⁷and they shall declare, “Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ⁸Accept this atonement, O LORD, for Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, and do not hold the shedding of innocent blood against them.” And the bloodshed will be atoned for. ⁹So you shall purge from among you the guilt of shedding innocent blood, since you have done what is right in the eyes of the LORD. ¹⁰When you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God delivers them into your hand and you take them captive, ¹¹if you see a beautiful woman among them, and you desire her and want to take her as your wife, ¹²then you shall bring her into your house. She must shave her head, trim her nails, ¹³and put aside the clothing of her captivity. After she has lived in your house a full month and mourned her father and mother, you may have relations with her and be her husband, and she shall be your wife. ¹⁴And if you are not pleased with her, you are to let her go wherever she wishes. But you must not sell her for money or treat her as a slave, since you have dishonored her. ¹⁵If a man has two wives, one beloved and the other unloved, and both bear him sons, but the unloved wife has the firstborn son, ¹⁶when that man assigns his inheritance to his sons he must not appoint the son of the beloved wife as the firstborn over the son of the unloved wife. ¹⁷Instead, he must acknowledge the firstborn, the son of his unloved wife, by giving him a double portion of all that he has. For that son is the firstfruits of his father’s strength; the right of the firstborn belongs to him. ¹⁸If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and does not listen to them when disciplined, ¹⁹his father and mother are to lay hold of him and bring him to the elders of his city, to the gate of his hometown, ²⁰and say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he does not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” ²¹Then all the men of his city will stone him to death. So you must purge the evil from among you, and all Israel will hear and be afraid. ²²If a man has committed a sin worthy of death, and he is executed, and you hang his body on a tree, ²³you must not leave the body on the tree overnight, but you must be sure to bury him that day, because anyone who is hung on a tree is under God’s curse. You must not defile the land that the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.