Day 62 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 38:14–22

¹⁴I am like a man who cannot hear, whose mouth offers no reply. ¹⁵I wait for You, O LORD; You will answer, O Lord my God. ¹⁶For I said, “Let them not gloat over me— those who taunt me when my foot slips.” ¹⁷For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever with me. ¹⁸Yes, I confess my iniquity; I am troubled by my sin. ¹⁹Many are my enemies without cause, and many hate me without reason. ²⁰Those who repay my good with evil attack me for pursuing the good. ²¹Do not forsake me, O LORD; be not far from me, O my God. ²²Come quickly to help me, O Lord my Savior.

New Testament·Mark 7:13–37

¹³Thus you nullify the word of God by the tradition you have handed down. And you do so in many such matters.” ¹⁴Once again Jesus called the crowd to Him and said, “All of you, listen to Me and understand: ¹⁵Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him; but the things that come out of a man, these are what defile him.” ¹⁷After Jesus had left the crowd and gone into the house, His disciples inquired about the parable. ¹⁸“Are you still so dull?” He asked. “Do you not understand? Nothing that enters a man from the outside can defile him, ¹⁹because it does not enter his heart, but it goes into the stomach and then is eliminated.” (Thus all foods are clean.) ²⁰He continued: “What comes out of a man, that is what defiles him. ²¹For from within the hearts of men come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, ²²greed, wickedness, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance, and foolishness. ²³All these evils come from within, and these are what defile a man.” ²⁴Jesus left that place and went to the region of Tyre. Not wanting anyone to know He was there, He entered a house, but was unable to escape their notice. ²⁵Instead, a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit soon heard about Jesus, and she came and fell at His feet. ²⁶Now she was a Greek woman of Syrophoenician origin, and she kept asking Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷“First let the children have their fill,” He said. “For it is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.” ²⁸“Yes, Lord,” she replied, “even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.” ²⁹Then Jesus told her, “Because of this answer, you may go. The demon has left your daughter.” ³⁰And she went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon was gone. ³¹Then Jesus left the region of Tyre and went through Sidon to the Sea of Galilee and into the region of the Decapolis. ³²Some people brought to Him a man who was deaf and hardly able to speak, and they begged Jesus to place His hand on him. ³³So Jesus took him aside privately, away from the crowd, and put His fingers into the man’s ears. Then He spit and touched the man’s tongue. ³⁴And looking up to heaven, He sighed deeply and said to him, “Ephphatha!” (which means, “Be opened!”). ³⁵Immediately the man’s ears were opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak plainly. ³⁶Jesus ordered them not to tell anyone. But the more He ordered them, the more widely they proclaimed it. ³⁷The people were utterly astonished and said, “He has done all things well! He makes even the deaf hear and the mute speak!”

Old Testament·Leviticus 20–21

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Tell the Israelites, ‘Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death. The people of the land are to stone him. ³And I will set My face against that man and cut him off from his people, because by giving his offspring to Molech, he has defiled My sanctuary and profaned My holy name. ⁴And if the people of the land ever hide their eyes and fail to put to death the man who gives one of his children to Molech, ⁵then I will set My face against that man and his family and cut off from among their people both him and all who follow him in prostituting themselves with Molech. ⁶Whoever turns to mediums or spiritists to prostitute himself with them, I will also set My face against that person and cut him off from his people. ⁷Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, because I am the LORD your God. ⁸And you shall keep My statutes and practice them. I am the LORD who sanctifies you. ⁹If anyone curses his father or mother, he must be put to death. He has cursed his father or mother; his blood shall be upon him. ¹⁰If a man commits adultery with another man’s wife—with the wife of his neighbor—both the adulterer and the adulteress must surely be put to death. ¹¹If a man lies with his father’s wife, he has uncovered his father’s nakedness. Both must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ¹²If a man lies with his daughter-in-law, both must surely be put to death. They have acted perversely; their blood is upon them. ¹³If a man lies with a man as with a woman, they have both committed an abomination. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ¹⁴If a man marries both a woman and her mother, it is depraved. Both he and they must be burned in the fire, so that there will be no depravity among you. ¹⁵If a man lies carnally with an animal, he must be put to death. And you are also to kill the animal. ¹⁶If a woman approaches any animal to mate with it, you must kill both the woman and the animal. They must surely be put to death; their blood is upon them. ¹⁷If a man marries his sister, whether the daughter of his father or of his mother, and they have sexual relations, it is a disgrace. They must be cut off in the sight of their people. He has uncovered the nakedness of his sister; he shall bear his iniquity. ¹⁸If a man lies with a menstruating woman and has sexual relations with her, he has exposed the source of her flow, and she has uncovered the source of her blood. Both of them must be cut off from among their people. ¹⁹You must not have sexual relations with the sister of your mother or your father, for it is exposing one’s own kin; both shall bear their iniquity. ²⁰If a man lies with his uncle’s wife, he has uncovered the nakedness of his uncle. They will bear their sin; they shall die childless. ²¹If a man marries his brother’s wife, it is an act of impurity. He has uncovered the nakedness of his brother; they shall be childless. ²²You are therefore to keep all My statutes and ordinances, so that the land where I am bringing you to live will not vomit you out. ²³You must not follow the statutes of the nations I am driving out before you. Because they did all these things, I abhorred them. ²⁴But I have told you that you will inherit their land, since I will give it to you as an inheritance—a land flowing with milk and honey. I am the LORD your God, who has set you apart from the peoples. ²⁵You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you. ²⁶You are to be holy to Me because I, the LORD, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be My own. ²⁷A man or a woman who is a medium or spiritist must surely be put to death. They shall be stoned; their blood is upon them.’”

21Then the LORD said to Moses, “Speak to Aaron’s sons, the priests, and tell them that a priest is not to defile himself for a dead person among his people, ²except for his immediate family—his mother, father, son, daughter, or brother, ³or his unmarried sister who is near to him, since she has no husband. ⁴He is not to defile himself for those related to him by marriage, and so profane himself. ⁵Priests must not make bald spots on their heads, shave off the edges of their beards, or make cuts in their bodies. ⁶They must be holy to their God and not profane the name of their God. Because they present to the LORD the offerings made by fire, the food of their God, they must be holy. ⁷A priest must not marry a woman defiled by prostitution or divorced by her husband, for the priest is holy to his God. ⁸You are to regard him as holy, since he presents the food of your God. He shall be holy to you, because I the LORD am holy—I who set you apart. ⁹If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by prostituting herself, she profanes her father; she must be burned in the fire. ¹⁰The priest who is highest among his brothers, who has had the anointing oil poured on his head and has been ordained to wear the priestly garments, must not let his hair hang loose or tear his garments. ¹¹He must not go near any dead body; he must not defile himself, even for his father or mother. ¹²He must not leave or desecrate the sanctuary of his God, for the consecration of the anointing oil of his God is on him. I am the LORD. ¹³The woman he marries must be a virgin. ¹⁴He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people, ¹⁵so that he does not defile his offspring among his people, for I am the LORD who sanctifies him.” ¹⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁷“Say to Aaron, ‘For the generations to come, none of your descendants who has a physical defect may approach to offer the food of his God. ¹⁸No man who has any defect may approach—no man who is blind, lame, disfigured, or deformed; ¹⁹no man who has a broken foot or hand, ²⁰or who is a hunchback or dwarf, or who has an eye defect, a festering rash, scabs, or a crushed testicle. ²¹No descendant of Aaron the priest who has a defect shall approach to present the offerings made by fire to the LORD. Since he has a defect, he is not to come near to offer the food of his God. ²²He may eat the most holy food of his God as well as the holy food, ²³but because he has a defect, he must not go near the veil or approach the altar, so as not to desecrate My sanctuaries. For I am the LORD who sanctifies them.’” ²⁴Moses told this to Aaron and his sons and to all the Israelites.