Day 90 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 56:8–13

⁸You have taken account of my wanderings. Put my tears in Your bottle— are they not in Your book? ⁹Then my enemies will retreat on the day I cry for help. By this I will know that God is on my side. ¹⁰In God, whose word I praise, in the LORD, whose word I praise, ¹¹in God I trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me? ¹²Your vows are upon me, O God; I will render thank offerings to You. ¹³For You have delivered my soul from death, and my feet from stumbling, that I may walk before God in the light of life.

New Testament·Luke 4:26–44

²⁶Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to the widow of Zarephath in Sidon. ²⁷And there were many lepers in Israel in the time of Elisha the prophet. Yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” ²⁸On hearing this, all the people in the synagogue were enraged. ²⁹They got up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw Him over the cliff. ³⁰But Jesus passed through the crowd and went on His way. ³¹Then He went down to Capernaum, a town in Galilee, and on the Sabbath He began to teach the people. ³²They were astonished at His teaching, because His message had authority. ³³In the synagogue there was a man possessed by the spirit of an unclean demon. He cried out in a loud voice, ³⁴“Ha! What do You want with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have You come to destroy us? I know who You are—the Holy One of God!” ³⁵But Jesus rebuked the demon. “Be silent!” He said. “Come out of him!” At this, the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without harming him. ³⁶All the people were overcome with amazement and asked one another, “What is this message? With authority and power He commands the unclean spirits, and they come out!” ³⁷And the news about Jesus spread throughout the surrounding region. ³⁸After Jesus had left the synagogue, He went to the home of Simon, whose mother-in-law was suffering from a high fever. So they appealed to Jesus on her behalf, ³⁹and He stood over her and rebuked the fever, and it left her. And she got up at once and began to serve them. ⁴⁰At sunset, all who were ill with various diseases were brought to Jesus, and laying His hands on each one, He healed them. ⁴¹Demons also came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But He rebuked the demons and would not allow them to speak, because they knew He was the Christ. ⁴²At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place, and the crowds were looking for Him. They came to Him and tried to keep Him from leaving. ⁴³But Jesus told them, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns as well, because that is why I was sent.” ⁴⁴And He continued to preach in the synagogues of Judea.

Old Testament·Numbers 34–35

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Command the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land of Canaan, it will be allotted to you as an inheritance with these boundaries: ³Your southern border will extend from the Wilderness of Zin along the border of Edom. On the east, your southern border will run from the end of the Salt Sea, ⁴cross south of the Ascent of Akrabbim, continue to Zin, and go south of Kadesh-barnea. Then it will go on to Hazar-addar and proceed to Azmon, ⁵where it will turn from Azmon, join the Brook of Egypt, and end at the Sea. ⁶Your western border will be the coastline of the Great Sea; this will be your boundary on the west. ⁷Your northern border will run from the Great Sea directly to Mount Hor, ⁸and from Mount Hor to Lebo-hamath, then extend to Zedad, ⁹continue to Ziphron, and end at Hazar-enan. This will be your boundary on the north. ¹⁰And your eastern border will run straight from Hazar-enan to Shepham, ¹¹then go down from Shepham to Riblah on the east side of Ain and continue along the slopes east of the Sea of Chinnereth. ¹²Then the border will go down along the Jordan and end at the Salt Sea. This will be your land, defined by its borders on all sides.” ¹³So Moses commanded the Israelites, “Apportion this land by lot as an inheritance. The LORD has commanded that it be given to the nine and a half tribes. ¹⁴For the tribes of the Reubenites and Gadites, along with the half-tribe of Manasseh, have already received their inheritance. ¹⁵These two and a half tribes have received their inheritance across the Jordan from Jericho, toward the sunrise.” ¹⁶Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁷“These are the names of the men who are to assign the land as an inheritance for you: Eleazar the priest and Joshua son of Nun. ¹⁸Appoint one leader from each tribe to distribute the land. ¹⁹These are their names: Caleb son of Jephunneh from the tribe of Judah; ²⁰Shemuel son of Ammihud from the tribe of Simeon; ²¹Elidad son of Chislon from the tribe of Benjamin; ²²Bukki son of Jogli, a leader from the tribe of Dan; ²³Hanniel son of Ephod, a leader from the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph; ²⁴Kemuel son of Shiphtan, a leader from the tribe of Ephraim; ²⁵Eli-zaphan son of Parnach, a leader from the tribe of Zebulun; ²⁶Paltiel son of Azzan, a leader from the tribe of Issachar; ²⁷Ahihud son of Shelomi, a leader from the tribe of Asher; ²⁸and Pedahel son of Ammihud, a leader from the tribe of Naphtali.” ²⁹These are the ones whom the LORD commanded to apportion the inheritance to the Israelites in the land of Canaan.

35Again the LORD spoke to Moses on the plains of Moab by the Jordan across from Jericho: ²“Command the Israelites to give, from the inheritance they will possess, cities for the Levites to live in and pasturelands around the cities. ³The cities will be for them to live in, and the pasturelands will be for their herds, their flocks, and all their other livestock. ⁴The pasturelands around the cities you are to give the Levites will extend a thousand cubits from the wall on every side. ⁵You are also to measure two thousand cubits outside the city on the east, two thousand on the south, two thousand on the west, and two thousand on the north, with the city in the center. These areas will serve as larger pasturelands for the cities. ⁶Six of the cities you give the Levites are to be appointed as cities of refuge, to which a manslayer may flee. In addition to these, give the Levites forty-two other cities. ⁷The total number of cities you give the Levites will be forty-eight, with their corresponding pasturelands. ⁸The cities that you apportion from the territory of the Israelites should be given to the Levites in proportion to the inheritance of each tribe: more from a larger tribe and less from a smaller one.” ⁹Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁰“Speak to the Israelites and tell them: When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan, ¹¹designate cities to serve as your cities of refuge, so that a person who kills someone unintentionally may flee there. ¹²You are to have these cities as a refuge from the avenger, so that the manslayer will not die until he stands trial before the assembly. ¹³The cities you select will be your six cities of refuge. ¹⁴Select three cities across the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan as cities of refuge. ¹⁵These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or stranger among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there. ¹⁶If, however, anyone strikes a person with an iron object and kills him, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. ¹⁷Or if anyone has in his hand a stone of deadly size, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. ¹⁸If anyone has in his hand a deadly object of wood, and he strikes and kills another, he is a murderer; the murderer must surely be put to death. ¹⁹The avenger of blood is to put the murderer to death; when he finds him, he is to kill him. ²⁰Likewise, if anyone maliciously pushes another or intentionally throws an object at him and kills him, ²¹or if in hostility he strikes him with his hand and he dies, the one who struck him must surely be put to death; he is a murderer. When the avenger of blood finds the murderer, he is to kill him. ²²But if anyone pushes a person suddenly, without hostility, or throws an object at him unintentionally, ²³or without looking drops a heavy stone that kills him, but he was not an enemy and did not intend to harm him, ²⁴then the congregation must judge between the slayer and the avenger of blood according to these ordinances. ²⁵The assembly is to protect the manslayer from the hand of the avenger of blood. Then the assembly will return him to the city of refuge to which he fled, and he must live there until the death of the high priest, who was anointed with the holy oil. ²⁶But if the manslayer ever goes outside the limits of the city of refuge to which he fled ²⁷and the avenger of blood finds him outside of his city of refuge and kills him, then the avenger will not be guilty of bloodshed ²⁸because the manslayer must remain in his city of refuge until the death of the high priest. Only after the death of the high priest may he return to the land he owns. ²⁹This will be a statutory ordinance for you for the generations to come, wherever you live. ³⁰If anyone kills a person, the murderer is to be put to death on the testimony of the witnesses. But no one is to be put to death based on the testimony of a lone witness. ³¹You are not to accept a ransom for the life of a murderer who deserves to die; he must surely be put to death. ³²Nor should you accept a ransom for the person who flees to a city of refuge and allow him to return and live on his own land before the death of the high priest. ³³Do not pollute the land where you live, for bloodshed pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land on which the blood is shed, except by the blood of the one who shed it. ³⁴Do not defile the land where you live and where I dwell. For I, the LORD, dwell among the Israelites.”