Daily Readings - 06/02/2026

^47:2 As the fat is set apart from the communion sacrifice, so David was chosen out of all the sons of Israel.

^47:3 He played with lions as though with kids, and with bears as though with lambs of the flock.

^47:4 While still a boy, did he not slay the giant, and relieve the people of their shame, by putting out a hand to sling a stone which brought down the arrogance of Goliath?

^47:5 For he called on the Lord Most High, who gave strength to his right arm to put a mighty warrior to death, and lift up the horn of his people.

^47:6 Hence they gave him credit for ten thousand, and praised him while they blessed the Lord, by offering him a crown of glory;

^47:7 for he massacred enemies on every side, he annihilated his foes the Philistines, and crushed their horn to this very day.

^47:8 In all his activities he gave thanks to the Holy One, the Most High, in words of glory;[*a] he put all his heart into his songs out of love for his Maker.

^47:9 He placed harps before the altar to make the singing sweeter with their music;

^47:10 he gave the feasts their splendour, the festivals their solemn pomp, causing the Lord’s holy name to be praised and the sanctuary to resound from dawn.

^47:11 The Lord took away his sins, and exalted his horn for ever; he gave him a royal covenant, and a glorious throne in Israel.

^18:1 I love you, Yahweh, my strength (my saviour, you rescue me from violence.)

^18:2 Yahweh is my rock and my bastion, my deliverer is my God. I take shelter in him, my rock, my shield, my horn of salvation, my stronghold and my refuge. From violence you rescue me.

^18:3 He is to be praised; on Yahweh I call and am saved from my enemies.

^18:4 The waves of death encircled me, the torrents of Belial burst on me;

^18:5 the cords of Sheol girdled me, the snares of death were before me.

^18:6 In my distress I called to Yahweh and to my God I cried; from his Temple he heard my voice, my cry came to his ears.

^18:7 Then the earth quivered and quaked, the foundations of the mountains trembled (they quivered because he was angry);

^18:8 from his nostrils a smoke ascended, and from his mouth a fire that consumed (live embers were kindled at it).

^18:9 He bent the heavens and came down, a dark cloud under his feet;

^18:10 he mounted a cherub and flew, and soared on the wings of the wind.

^18:11 Darkness he made a veil to surround him, his tent a watery darkness, dense cloud;

^18:12 before him a flash enkindled hail and fiery embers.

^18:13 Yahweh thundered from heaven, the Most High made his voice heard;

^18:14 he let his arrows fly and scattered them, launched the lightnings and routed them.

^18:15 The bed of the seas was revealed, the foundations of the world were laid bare, at your muttered threat, Yahweh, at the blast of your nostrils’ breath.

^18:16 He sends from on high and takes me, he draws me from deep waters,

^18:17 he delivers me from my powerful enemy, from a foe too strong for me.

^18:18 They assailed me on my day of disaster, but Yahweh was my support;

^18:19 he freed me, set me at large, he rescued me, since he loves me.

^18:20 Yahweh requites me as I act justly, as my hands are pure so he repays me,

^18:21 since I have kept the ways of Yahweh, nor fallen away from my God.

^18:22 His judgements are all before me, his statutes I have not put from me;

^18:23 I am blameless in his presence, I keep sin at arm’s length.

^18:24 And Yahweh repays me as I act justly, as my purity is in his sight.

^18:25 Faithful you are with the faithful, blameless with the blameless,

^18:26 pure with the one who is pure, but crafty with the devious,

^18:27 you save a people that is humble and humiliate eyes that are haughty.

^18:28 Yahweh, you yourself are my lamp, my God lights up my darkness;

^18:29 with you I storm the barbican, with my God I leap the rampart.

^18:30 This God, his way is blameless; the word of Yahweh is without dross. He it is who is the shield of all who take shelter in him.

^18:31 Who else is God but Yahweh, who else a rock save our God?

^18:32 This God who girds me with strength and makes my way without blame,

^18:33 who makes my feet like the hinds’ and holds me from falling on the heights,

^18:34 who trains my hands for battle, my arms to bend a bow of bronze.

^18:35 You give me your saving shield (your right hand upholds me), with care you train me,

^18:36 wide room you make for my steps under me, my feet have never faltered.

^18:37 I pursue my enemies and overtake them, nor turn back till an end is made of them;

^18:38 I strike them down, and they cannot rise, they fall, they are under my feet:

^18:39 You have girt me with strength for the fight, bent down my assailants beneath me,

^18:40 made my enemies turn their backs to me; and those who hate me I destroy.

^18:41 They cry out, there is no one to save, to Yahweh, but there is no reply;

^18:42 I crush them fine as dust before the wind, trample them like the mud of the streets.

^18:43 You deliver me from a people in revolt, you place me at the head of the nations, a people I did not know are now my servants,

^18:44 foreigners come wooing my favour, no sooner do they hear than they obey me,

^18:45 foreigners grow faint of heart, they come trembling out of their fastnesses.

^18:46 Life to Yahweh! Blessed be my rock! Exalted be the God of my salvation,

^18:47 the God who gives me vengeance and subjects the peoples to me,

^18:48 who rescues me from my raging enemies. who attack me, you deliver me from the man of violence.

^18:49 For this I will praise you, Yahweh, among the heathen and sing praise to your name.

^18:50 His king he saves and saves again, displays his love for his anointed, for David and his heirs for ever.

^6:14 Meanwhile King Herod had heard about him, since by now his name was well-known. Some were saying, ‘John the Baptist has risen from the dead, and that is why miraculous powers are at work in him’.

^6:15 Others said, ‘He is Elijah’; others again, ‘He is a prophet, like the prophets we used to have’.

^6:16 But when Herod heard this he said, ‘It is John whose head I cut off; he has risen from the dead’.

^6:17 Now it was this same Herod who had sent to have John arrested, and had him chained up in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife whom he had married.

^6:18 For John had told Herod, ‘It is against the law for you to have your brother’s wife’.

^6:19 As for Herodias, she was furious with him and wanted to kill him; but she was not able to,

^6:20 because Herod was afraid of John, knowing him to be a good and holy man, and gave him his protection. When he had heard him speak he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to him.

^6:21 An opportunity came on Herod’s birthday when he gave a banquet for the nobles of his court, for his army officers and for the leading figures in Galilee.

^6:22 When the daughter of this same Herodias came in and danced, she delighted Herod and his guests; so the king said to the girl, ‘Ask me anything you like and I will give it you’.

^6:23 And he swore her an oath, ‘I will give you anything you ask, even half my kingdom’.

^6:24 She went out and said to her mother, ‘What shall I ask for?’ She replied, ‘The head of John the Baptist’

^6:25 The girl hurried straight back to the king and made her request, ‘I want you to give me John the Baptist’s head, here and now, on a dish’.

^6:26 The king was deeply distressed but, thinking of the oaths he had sworn and of his guests, he was reluctant to break his word to her.

^6:27 So the king at once sent one of the bodyguard with orders to bring John’s head.

^6:28 The man went off and beheaded him in prison; then he brought the head on a dish and gave it to the girl, and the girl gave it to her mother.

^6:29 When John’s disciples heard about this, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.