Daily Readings - 22/01/2026

^55:1 God, hear my prayer, do not hide from my petition,

^55:2 give me a hearing, answer me, I cannot rest for complaining. I shudder

^55:3 at the enemy’s shouts, at the howling of the wicked; they bring misery crashing down on me, and vent their fury on me.

^55:4 My heart aches in my breast, Death’s terrors assail me,

^55:5 fear and trembling descend on me, horror overwhelms me.

^55:6 And I say, ‘Oh for the wings of a dove to fly away and find rest’.

^55:7 How far I would take my flight, and make a new home in the desert! (pause)

^55:8 There I should soon find shelter from the raging wind, and from the tempest,

^55:9 Lord, that destroys, and from their malicious tongues. I can see how Violence and Discord fill the city

^55:10 day and night they stalk together along the city walls. Sorrow and Misery live inside,

^55:11 Ruin is an inmate; Tyranny and Treachery are never absent from its central square.

^55:12 Were it an enemy who insulted me, I could put up with that; had a rival got the better of me, I could hide from him.

^55:13 But you, a man of my own rank, a colleague and a friend,

^55:14 to whom sweet conversation bound me in the house of God! May they recoil in disorder,

^55:15 may Death descend on them, may they go down, still living, to Sheol – since Evil shares their homes.

^55:16 I, for myself, appeal to God and Yahweh saves me;

^55:17 evening, morning, noon, I complain, I groan; he will hear me calling.

^55:18 His peace can ransom me from the war being waged on me. How many are ranged against me!

^55:19 But God will hear me. Sovereign from the first, he will humble them; (Pause) no change of heart for them, since they do not fear God.

^55:20 He[*a] has attacked his friends, he has gone back on his word;

^55:21 though his mouth is smoother than butter, he has war in his heart; his words may soothe more than oil, but they are naked swords.

^55:22 Unload your burden on to Yahweh, and he will support you; he will never permit the virtuous to falter.

^55:23 As for these murderous, these treacherous men, you, God, will push them down to the deepest Pit before half their days are out. For my part, I put my trust in you.

^3:7 Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the lakeside, and great crowds from Galilee followed him. From Judaea,

^3:8 Jerusalem, Idumaea, Transjordania and the region of Tyre and Sidon, great numbers who had heard of all he was doing came to him.

^3:9 And he asked his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, to keep him from being crushed.

^3:10 For he had cured so many that all who were afflicted in any way were crowding forward to touch him.

^3:11 And the unclean spirits, whenever they saw him, would fall down before him and shout, ‘You are the Son of God!’

^3:12 But he warned them strongly not to make him known.