Day 61 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 38:1–13

¹O LORD, do not rebuke me in Your anger or discipline me in Your wrath. ²For Your arrows have pierced me deeply, and Your hand has pressed down on me. ³There is no soundness in my body because of Your anger; there is no rest in my bones because of my sin. ⁴For my iniquities have overwhelmed me; they are a burden too heavy to bear. ⁵My wounds are foul and festering because of my sinful folly. ⁶I am bent and brought low; all day long I go about mourning. ⁷For my loins are full of burning pain, and no soundness remains in my body. ⁸I am numb and badly crushed; I groan in anguish of heart. ⁹O Lord, my every desire is before You; my groaning is not hidden from You. ¹⁰My heart pounds, my strength fails, and even the light of my eyes has faded. ¹¹My beloved and friends shun my disease, and my kinsmen stand at a distance. ¹²Those who seek my life lay snares; those who wish me harm speak destruction, plotting deceit all day long. ¹³But like a deaf man, I do not hear; and like a mute man, I do not open my mouth.

New Testament·Mark 6:46–7:12

⁴⁶After bidding them farewell, He went up on the mountain to pray. ⁴⁷When evening came, the boat was in the middle of the sea, and Jesus was alone on land. ⁴⁸He could see that the disciples were straining to row, because the wind was against them. About the fourth watch of the night, Jesus went out to them, walking on the sea. He intended to pass by them, ⁴⁹but when they saw Him walking on the sea, they cried out, thinking He was a ghost— ⁵⁰for they all saw Him and were terrified. But Jesus spoke up at once: “Take courage! It is I. Do not be afraid.” ⁵¹Then He climbed into the boat with them, and the wind died down. And the disciples were utterly astounded, ⁵²for they had not understood about the loaves, but their hearts had been hardened. ⁵³When they had crossed over, they landed at Gennesaret and moored the boat. ⁵⁴As soon as they got out of the boat, the people recognized Jesus ⁵⁵and ran through that whole region, carrying the sick on mats to wherever they heard He was. ⁵⁶And wherever He went—villages and towns and countrysides—they laid the sick in the marketplaces and begged Him just to let them touch the fringe of His cloak. And all who touched Him were healed.

7Then the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, ²and they saw some of His disciples eating with hands that were defiled—that is, unwashed. ³Now in holding to the tradition of the elders, the Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat until they wash their hands ceremonially. ⁴And on returning from the market, they do not eat unless they wash. And there are many other traditions for them to observe, including the washing of cups, pitchers, kettles, and couches for dining. ⁵So the Pharisees and scribes questioned Jesus: “Why do Your disciples not walk according to the tradition of the elders? Instead, they eat with defiled hands.” ⁶Jesus answered them, “Isaiah prophesied correctly about you hypocrites, as it is written: ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. ⁷They worship Me in vain; they teach as doctrine the precepts of men.’ ⁸You have disregarded the commandment of God to keep the tradition of men.” ⁹He went on to say, “You neatly set aside the command of God to maintain your own tradition. ¹⁰For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses his father or mother must be put to death.’ ¹¹But you say that if a man says to his father or mother, ‘Whatever you would have received from me is Corban’ (that is, a gift devoted to God), ¹²he is no longer permitted to do anything for his father or mother.

Old Testament·Leviticus 18–19

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: I am the LORD your God. ³You must not follow the practices of the land of Egypt, where you used to live, and you must not follow the practices of the land of Canaan, into which I am bringing you. You must not walk in their customs. ⁴You are to practice My judgments and keep My statutes by walking in them. I am the LORD your God. ⁵Keep My statutes and My judgments, for the man who does these things will live by them. I am the LORD. ⁶None of you are to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD. ⁷You must not expose the nakedness of your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; you must not have sexual relations with her. ⁸You must not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; it would dishonor your father. ⁹You must not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere. ¹⁰You must not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter, for that would shame your family. ¹¹You must not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister. ¹²You must not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative. ¹³You must not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, for she is your mother’s close relative. ¹⁴You must not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations with her; she is your aunt. ¹⁵You must not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; you are not to have sexual relations with her. ¹⁶You must not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would shame your brother. ¹⁷You must not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. You are not to marry her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter and have sexual relations with her. They are close relatives; it is depraved. ¹⁸You must not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is still alive. ¹⁹You must not approach a woman to have sexual relations with her during her menstrual period. ²⁰You must not lie carnally with your neighbor’s wife and thus defile yourself with her. ²¹You must not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molech, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. ²²You must not lie with a man as with a woman; that is an abomination. ²³You must not lie carnally with any animal, thus defiling yourself with it; a woman must not stand before an animal to mate with it; that is a perversion. ²⁴Do not defile yourselves by any of these practices, for by all these things the nations I am driving out before you have defiled themselves. ²⁵Even the land has become defiled, so I am punishing it for its sin, and the land will vomit out its inhabitants. ²⁶But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances, and you must not commit any of these abominations—neither your native-born nor the foreigner who lives among you. ²⁷For the men who were in the land before you committed all these abominations, and the land has become defiled. ²⁸So if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it spewed out the nations before you. ²⁹Therefore anyone who commits any of these abominations must be cut off from among his people. ³⁰You must keep My charge not to practice any of the abominable customs that were practiced before you, so that you do not defile yourselves by them. I am the LORD your God.”

19Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to the whole congregation of Israel and tell them: Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy. ³Each of you must respect his mother and father, and you must keep My Sabbaths. I am the LORD your God. ⁴Do not turn to idols or make for yourselves molten gods. I am the LORD your God. ⁵When you sacrifice a peace offering to the LORD, you shall offer it for your acceptance. ⁶It shall be eaten on the day you sacrifice it, or on the next day; but what remains on the third day must be burned up. ⁷If any of it is eaten on the third day, it is tainted and will not be accepted. ⁸Whoever eats it will bear his iniquity, for he has profaned what is holy to the LORD. That person must be cut off from his people. ⁹When you reap the harvest of your land, you are not to reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. ¹⁰You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God. ¹¹You must not steal. You must not lie or deceive one another. ¹²You must not swear falsely by My name and so profane the name of your God. I am the LORD. ¹³You must not defraud your neighbor or rob him. You must not withhold until morning the wages due a hired hand. ¹⁴You must not curse the deaf or place a stumbling block before the blind, but you shall fear your God. I am the LORD. ¹⁵You must not pervert justice; you must not show partiality to the poor or favoritism to the rich; you are to judge your neighbor fairly. ¹⁶You must not go about spreading slander among your people. You must not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am the LORD. ¹⁷You must not harbor hatred against your brother in your heart. Directly rebuke your neighbor, so that you will not incur guilt on account of him. ¹⁸Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against any of your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD. ¹⁹You are to keep My statutes. You shall not crossbreed two different kinds of livestock; you shall not sow your fields with two kinds of seed; and you shall not wear clothing made of two kinds of material. ²⁰If a man lies carnally with a slave girl promised to another man but who has not been redeemed or given her freedom, there must be due punishment. But they are not to be put to death, because she had not been freed. ²¹The man, however, must bring a ram to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting as his guilt offering to the LORD. ²²The priest shall make atonement on his behalf before the LORD with the ram of the guilt offering for the sin he has committed, and he will be forgiven the sin he has committed. ²³When you enter the land and plant any kind of tree for food, you shall regard the fruit as forbidden. For three years it will be forbidden to you and must not be eaten. ²⁴In the fourth year all its fruit must be consecrated as a praise offering to the LORD. ²⁵But in the fifth year you may eat its fruit; thus your harvest will be increased. I am the LORD your God. ²⁶You must not eat anything with blood still in it. You must not practice divination or sorcery. ²⁷You must not cut off the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard. ²⁸You must not make any cuts in your bodies for the dead or put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD. ²⁹You must not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be prostituted and filled with depravity. ³⁰You must keep My Sabbaths and have reverence for My sanctuary. I am the LORD. ³¹You must not turn to mediums or spiritists; do not seek them out, or you will be defiled by them. I am the LORD your God. ³²You are to rise in the presence of the elderly, honor the aged, and fear your God. I am the LORD. ³³When a foreigner resides with you in your land, you must not oppress him. ³⁴You must treat the foreigner living among you as native-born and love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God. ³⁵You must not use dishonest measures of length, weight, or volume. ³⁶You shall maintain honest scales and weights, an honest ephah, and an honest hin. I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt. ³⁷You must keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and follow them. I am the LORD.”