Day 127 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 77:12–20

¹²I will reflect on all You have done and ponder Your mighty deeds. ¹³Your way, O God, is holy. What god is so great as our God? ¹⁴You are the God who works wonders; You display Your strength among the peoples. ¹⁵With power You redeemed Your people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah ¹⁶The waters saw You, O God; the waters saw You and swirled; even the depths were shaken. ¹⁷The clouds poured down water; the skies resounded with thunder; Your arrows flashed back and forth. ¹⁸Your thunder resounded in the whirlwind; the lightning lit up the world; the earth trembled and quaked. ¹⁹Your path led through the sea, Your way through the mighty waters, but Your footprints were not to be found. ²⁰You led Your people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

New Testament·Luke 22:31–52

³¹Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift each of you like wheat. ³²But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith will not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers.” ³³“Lord,” said Peter, “I am ready to go with You even to prison and to death.” ³⁴But Jesus replied, “I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crow today until you have denied three times that you know Me.” ³⁵Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out without purse or bag or sandals, did you lack anything?” “Nothing,” they answered. ³⁶“Now, however,” He told them, “the one with a purse should take it, and likewise a bag; and the one without a sword should sell his cloak and buy one. ³⁷For I tell you that this Scripture must be fulfilled in Me: ‘And He was numbered with the transgressors.’ For what is written about Me is reaching its fulfillment.” ³⁸So they said, “Look, Lord, here are two swords.” “That is enough,” He answered. ³⁹Jesus went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed Him. ⁴⁰When He came to the place, He told them, “Pray that you will not enter into temptation.” ⁴¹And He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, where He knelt down and prayed, ⁴²“Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me. Yet not My will, but Yours be done.” ⁴³Then an angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him. ⁴⁴And in His anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat became like drops of blood falling to the ground. ⁴⁵When Jesus rose from prayer and returned to the disciples, He found them asleep, exhausted from sorrow. ⁴⁶“Why are you sleeping?” He asked. “Get up and pray so that you will not enter into temptation.” ⁴⁷While He was still speaking, a crowd arrived, led by the man called Judas, one of the Twelve. He approached Jesus to kiss Him. ⁴⁸But Jesus asked him, “Judas, are you betraying the Son of Man with a kiss?” ⁴⁹Those around Jesus saw what was about to happen and said, “Lord, should we strike with our swords?” ⁵⁰And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. ⁵¹But Jesus answered, “No more of this!” And He touched the man’s ear and healed him. ⁵²Then Jesus said to the chief priests, temple officers, and elders who had come for Him, “Have you come out with swords and clubs as you would against an outlaw?

Old Testament·Judges 11–12

¹Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor; he was the son of a prostitute, and Gilead was his father. ²And Gilead’s wife bore him sons who grew up, drove Jephthah out, and said to him, “You shall have no inheritance in our father’s house, because you are the son of another woman.” ³So Jephthah fled from his brothers and settled in the land of Tob, where worthless men gathered around him and traveled with him. ⁴Some time later, when the Ammonites fought against Israel ⁵and made war with them, the elders of Gilead went to get Jephthah from the land of Tob. ⁶“Come,” they said, “be our commander, so that we can fight against the Ammonites.” ⁷Jephthah replied to the elders of Gilead, “Did you not hate me and expel me from my father’s house? Why then have you come to me now, when you are in distress?” ⁸They answered Jephthah, “This is why we now turn to you, that you may go with us, fight the Ammonites, and become leader over all of us who live in Gilead.” ⁹But Jephthah asked them, “If you take me back to fight the Ammonites and the LORD gives them to me, will I really be your leader?” ¹⁰And the elders of Gilead said to Jephthah, “The LORD is our witness if we do not do as you say.” ¹¹So Jephthah went with the elders of Gilead, and the people made him their leader and commander. And Jephthah repeated all his terms in the presence of the LORD at Mizpah. ¹²Then Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites, saying, “What do you have against me that you have come to fight against my land?” ¹³The king of the Ammonites answered Jephthah’s messengers, “When Israel came up out of Egypt, they seized my land, from the Arnon to the Jabbok and all the way to the Jordan. Now, therefore, restore it peaceably.” ¹⁴Jephthah again sent messengers to the king of the Ammonites ¹⁵to tell him, “This is what Jephthah says: Israel did not take away the land of Moab or of the Ammonites. ¹⁶But when Israel came up out of Egypt, they traveled through the wilderness to the Red Sea and came to Kadesh. ¹⁷Then Israel sent messengers to the king of Edom, saying, ‘Please let us pass through your land,’ but the king of Edom would not listen. They also sent messengers to the king of Moab, but he would not consent. So Israel stayed in Kadesh. ¹⁸Then Israel traveled through the wilderness and bypassed the lands of Edom and Moab. They came to the east side of the land of Moab and camped on the other side of the Arnon. But they did not enter the territory of Moab, since the Arnon was its border. ¹⁹And Israel sent messengers to Sihon king of the Amorites, who ruled in Heshbon, and said to him, ‘Please let us pass through your land into our own place.’ ²⁰But Sihon would not trust Israel to pass through his territory. So he gathered all his people, encamped in Jahaz, and fought with Israel. ²¹Then the LORD, the God of Israel, delivered Sihon and all his people into the hand of Israel, who defeated them. So Israel took possession of all the land of the Amorites who inhabited that country, ²²seizing all the land from the Arnon to the Jabbok and from the wilderness to the Jordan. ²³Now since the LORD, the God of Israel, has driven out the Amorites from before His people Israel, should you now possess it? ²⁴Do you not possess whatever your god Chemosh grants you? So also, we possess whatever the LORD our God has granted us. ²⁵Are you now so much better than Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab? Did he ever contend with Israel or fight against them? ²⁶For three hundred years Israel has lived in Heshbon, Aroer, and their villages, as well as all the cities along the banks of the Arnon. Why did you not take them back during that time? ²⁷I have not sinned against you, but you have done me wrong by waging war against me. May the LORD, the Judge, decide today between the Israelites and the Ammonites.” ²⁸But the king of the Ammonites paid no heed to the message Jephthah sent him. ²⁹Then the Spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah, and he passed through Gilead and Manasseh, then through Mizpah of Gilead. And from there he advanced against the Ammonites. ³⁰Jephthah made this vow to the LORD: “If indeed You will deliver the Ammonites into my hand, ³¹then whatever comes out the door of my house to greet me on my triumphant return from the Ammonites will belong to the LORD, and I will offer it up as a burnt offering.” ³²So Jephthah crossed over to the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his hand. ³³With a great blow he devastated twenty cities from Aroer to the vicinity of Minnith, as far as Abel-keramim. So the Ammonites were subdued before the Israelites. ³⁴And when Jephthah returned home to Mizpah, there was his daughter coming out to meet him with tambourines and dancing! She was his only child; he had no son or daughter besides her. ³⁵As soon as Jephthah saw her, he tore his clothes and said, “No! Not my daughter! You have brought me to my knees! You have brought great misery upon me, for I have given my word to the LORD and cannot take it back.” ³⁶“My father,” she replied, “you have given your word to the LORD. Do to me as you have said, for the LORD has avenged you of your enemies, the Ammonites.” ³⁷She also said to her father, “Let me do this one thing: Let me wander for two months through the mountains with my friends and mourn my virginity.” ³⁸“Go,” he said. And he sent her away for two months. So she left with her friends and mourned her virginity upon the mountains. ³⁹After two months, she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. And she had never had relations with a man. So it has become a custom in Israel ⁴⁰that each year the young women of Israel go out for four days to lament the daughter of Jephthah the Gileadite.

12Then the men of Ephraim assembled and crossed the Jordan to Zaphon. They said to Jephthah, “Why have you crossed over to fight the Ammonites without calling us to go with you? We will burn your house down with you inside!” ²But Jephthah replied, “My people and I had a serious conflict with the Ammonites, and when I called, you did not save me out of their hands. ³When I saw that you would not save me, I risked my life and crossed over to the Ammonites, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have you come today to fight against me?” ⁴Jephthah then gathered all the men of Gilead and fought against Ephraim. And the men of Gilead struck them down because the Ephraimites had said, “You Gileadites are fugitives in Ephraim, living in the territories of Ephraim and Manasseh.” ⁵The Gileadites captured the fords of the Jordan leading to Ephraim, and whenever a fugitive from Ephraim would say, “Let me cross over,” the Gileadites would ask him, “Are you an Ephraimite?” If he answered, “No,” ⁶they told him, “Please say Shibboleth.” If he said, “Sibboleth,” because he could not pronounce it correctly, they seized him and killed him at the fords of the Jordan. So at that time 42,000 Ephraimites were killed. ⁷Jephthah judged Israel six years, and when he died, he was buried in one of the cities of Gilead. ⁸After Jephthah, Ibzan of Bethlehem judged Israel. ⁹He had thirty sons, as well as thirty daughters whom he gave in marriage to men outside his clan; and for his sons he brought back thirty wives from elsewhere. Ibzan judged Israel seven years. ¹⁰Then Ibzan died, and he was buried in Bethlehem. ¹¹After Ibzan, Elon the Zebulunite judged Israel ten years. ¹²Then Elon the Zebulunite died, and he was buried in Aijalon in the land of Zebulun. ¹³After Elon, Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, judged Israel. ¹⁴He had forty sons and thirty grandsons, who rode on seventy donkeys. And he judged Israel eight years. ¹⁵Then Abdon son of Hillel, from Pirathon, died, and he was buried at Pirathon in Ephraim, in the hill country of the Amalekites.