Day 60 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 37:35–40

³⁵I have seen a wicked, ruthless man flourishing like a well-rooted native tree, ³⁶yet he passed away and was no more; though I searched, he could not be found. ³⁷Consider the blameless and observe the upright, for posterity awaits the man of peace. ³⁸But the transgressors will all be destroyed; the future of the wicked will be cut off. ³⁹The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; He is their stronghold in time of trouble. ⁴⁰The LORD helps and delivers them; He rescues and saves them from the wicked, because they take refuge in Him.

New Testament·Mark 6:25–45

²⁵At once the girl hurried back to the king with her request: “I want you to give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter immediately.” ²⁶The king was consumed with sorrow, but because of his oaths and his guests, he did not want to refuse her. ²⁷So without delay, the king commanded that John’s head be brought in. He sent an executioner, who went and beheaded him in the prison. ²⁸The man brought John’s head on a platter and presented it to the girl, who gave it to her mother. ²⁹When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and placed it in a tomb. ³⁰Meanwhile, the apostles gathered around Jesus and brought Him news of all they had done and taught. ³¹And He said to them, “Come with Me privately to a solitary place, and let us rest for a while.” For many people were coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat. ³²So they went away in a boat by themselves to a solitary place. ³³But many people saw them leaving and recognized them. They ran together on foot from all the towns and arrived before them. ³⁴When Jesus stepped ashore and saw a large crowd, He had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. And He began to teach them many things. ³⁵By now the hour was already late. So the disciples came to Jesus and said, “This is a desolate place, and the hour is already late. ³⁶Dismiss the crowd so they can go to the surrounding countryside and villages and buy themselves something to eat.” ³⁷But Jesus told them, “You give them something to eat.” They asked Him, “Should we go out and spend two hundred denarii to give all of them bread to eat?” ³⁸“Go and see how many loaves you have,” He told them. And after checking, they said, “Five—and two fish.” ³⁹Then Jesus directed them to have the people sit in groups on the green grass. ⁴⁰So they sat down in groups of hundreds and fifties. ⁴¹Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, Jesus spoke a blessing and broke the loaves. Then He gave them to His disciples to set before the people. And He divided the two fish among them all. ⁴²They all ate and were satisfied, ⁴³and the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and fish. ⁴⁴And there were five thousand men who had eaten the loaves. ⁴⁵Immediately Jesus made His disciples get into the boat and go on ahead of Him to Bethsaida, while He dismissed the crowd.

Old Testament·Leviticus 16–17

¹Now the LORD spoke to Moses after the death of two of Aaron’s sons when they approached the presence of the LORD. ²And the LORD said to Moses: “Tell your brother Aaron not to enter freely into the Most Holy Place behind the veil in front of the mercy seat on the ark, or else he will die, because I appear in the cloud above the mercy seat. ³This is how Aaron is to enter the Holy Place: with a young bull for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. ⁴He is to wear the sacred linen tunic, with linen undergarments. He must tie a linen sash around him and put on the linen turban. These are holy garments, and he must bathe himself with water before he wears them. ⁵And he shall take from the congregation of Israel two male goats for a sin offering and one ram for a burnt offering. ⁶Aaron is to present the bull for his sin offering and make atonement for himself and his household. ⁷Then he shall take the two goats and present them before the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁸After Aaron casts lots for the two goats, one for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat, ⁹he shall present the goat chosen by lot for the LORD and sacrifice it as a sin offering. ¹⁰But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to make atonement by sending it into the wilderness as the scapegoat. ¹¹When Aaron presents the bull for his sin offering and makes atonement for himself and his household, he is to slaughter the bull for his own sin offering. ¹²Then he must take a censer full of burning coals from the altar before the LORD, and two handfuls of finely ground fragrant incense, and take them inside the veil. ¹³He is to put the incense on the fire before the LORD, and the cloud of incense will cover the mercy seat above the Testimony, so that he will not die. ¹⁴And he is to take some of the bull’s blood and sprinkle it with his finger on the east side of the mercy seat; then he shall sprinkle some of it with his finger seven times before the mercy seat. ¹⁵Aaron shall then slaughter the goat for the sin offering for the people and bring its blood behind the veil, and with its blood he must do as he did with the bull’s blood: He is to sprinkle it against the mercy seat and in front of it. ¹⁶So he shall make atonement for the Most Holy Place because of the impurities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to do the same for the Tent of Meeting which abides among them, because it is surrounded by their impurities. ¹⁷No one may be in the Tent of Meeting from the time Aaron goes in to make atonement in the Most Holy Place until he leaves, after he has made atonement for himself, his household, and the whole assembly of Israel. ¹⁸Then he shall go out to the altar that is before the LORD and make atonement for it. He is to take some of the bull’s blood and some of the goat’s blood and put it on all the horns of the altar. ¹⁹He is to sprinkle some of the blood on it with his finger seven times to cleanse it and consecrate it from the uncleanness of the Israelites. ²⁰When Aaron has finished purifying the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, he is to bring forward the live goat. ²¹Then he is to lay both hands on the head of the live goat and confess over it all the iniquities and rebellious acts of the Israelites in regard to all their sins. He is to put them on the goat’s head and send it away into the wilderness by the hand of a man appointed for the task. ²²The goat will carry on itself all their iniquities into a solitary place, and the man will release it into the wilderness. ²³Then Aaron is to enter the Tent of Meeting, take off the linen garments he put on before entering the Most Holy Place, and leave them there. ²⁴He is to bathe himself with water in a holy place and put on his own clothes. Then he must go out and sacrifice his burnt offering and the people’s burnt offering to make atonement for himself and for the people. ²⁵He is also to burn the fat of the sin offering on the altar. ²⁶The man who released the goat as the scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may reenter the camp. ²⁷The bull for the sin offering and the goat for the sin offering, whose blood was brought into the Most Holy Place to make atonement, must be taken outside the camp; and their hides, flesh, and dung must be burned up. ²⁸The one who burns them must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water, and afterward he may reenter the camp. ²⁹This is to be a permanent statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you shall humble yourselves and not do any work—whether the native or the foreigner who resides among you— ³⁰because on this day atonement will be made for you to cleanse you, and you will be clean from all your sins before the LORD. ³¹It is a Sabbath of complete rest for you, that you may humble yourselves; it is a permanent statute. ³²The priest who is anointed and ordained to succeed his father as high priest shall make atonement. He will put on the sacred linen garments ³³and make atonement for the Most Holy Place, the Tent of Meeting, and the altar, and for the priests and all the people of the assembly. ³⁴This is to be a permanent statute for you, to make atonement once a year for the Israelites because of all their sins.” And all this was done as the LORD had commanded Moses.

17Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to Aaron, his sons, and all the Israelites and tell them this is what the LORD has commanded: ³‘Anyone from the house of Israel who slaughters an ox, a lamb, or a goat in the camp or outside of it ⁴instead of bringing it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to present it as an offering to the LORD before His tabernacle—that man shall incur bloodguilt. He has shed blood and must be cut off from among his people. ⁵For this reason the Israelites will bring to the LORD the sacrifices they have been offering in the open fields. They are to bring them to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and offer them as sacrifices of peace to the LORD. ⁶The priest will then sprinkle the blood on the altar of the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting and burn the fat as a pleasing aroma to the LORD. ⁷They must no longer offer their sacrifices to the goat demons to which they have prostituted themselves. This will be a permanent statute for them for the generations to come.’ ⁸Tell them that if anyone from the house of Israel or any foreigner living among them offers a burnt offering or a sacrifice ⁹but does not bring it to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting to sacrifice it to the LORD, that man must be cut off from his people. ¹⁰If anyone from the house of Israel or a foreigner living among them eats any blood, I will set My face against that person and cut him off from among his people. ¹¹For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for your souls upon the altar; for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul. ¹²Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may any foreigner living among you eat blood.’ ¹³And if any Israelite or foreigner living among them hunts down a wild animal or bird that may be eaten, he must drain its blood and cover it with dirt. ¹⁴For the life of all flesh is its blood. Therefore I have told the Israelites, ‘You must not eat the blood of any living thing, because the life of all flesh is its blood; whoever eats it must be cut off.’ ¹⁵And any person, whether native or foreigner, who eats anything found dead or mauled by wild beasts must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean until evening; then he will be clean. ¹⁶But if he does not wash his clothes and bathe himself, then he shall bear his iniquity.”