Daily Readings - 11/02/2026

^10:1 The fame of Solomon having reached the queen of Sheba… [*a] she came to test him with difficult questions.

^10:2 She brought immense riches to Jerusalem with her, camels laden with spices, great quantities of gold, and precious stones. On coming to Solomon, she opened her mind freely to him;

^10:3 and Solomon had an answer for all her questions, not one of them was too obscure for the king to expound.

^10:4 When the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built,

^10:5 the food at his table, the accommodation for his officials, the organisation of his staff and the way they were dressed, his cup-bearers, and the holocausts he offered in the Temple of Yahweh, it left her breathless,

^10:6 and she said to the king, ‘What I heard in my own country about you and your wisdom was true, then!

^10:7 Until I came and saw it with my own eyes I could not believe what they told me, but clearly they told me less than half: for wisdom and prosperity you surpass the report I heard.

^10:8 How happy your wives are! How happy are these servants of yours who wait on you always and hear your wisdom!

^10:9 Blessed be Yahweh your God who has granted you his favour, setting you on the throne of Israel! Because of Yahweh’s everlasting love for Israel, he has made you king to deal out law and justice.’

^10:10 And she presented the king with a hundred and twenty talents of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones; no such wealth of spices ever came again as those given to King Solomon by the queen of Sheba.

^36:1 The wicked man’s oracle is Sin in the depths of his heart; there is no fear of God before his eyes.

^36:2 He sees himself with too flattering an eye to detect and detest his guilt;

^36:3 all he says tends to mischief and deceit, he has turned his back on wisdom. How best to work

^36:4 mischief he plots, even when he is in bed; he persists in his evil course, he never rejects what is bad.

^36:5 Your love, Yahweh, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the clouds;

^36:6 your righteousness is like the mountains of God, your judgements like the mighty deep. Yahweh, protector of man and beast,

^36:7 how precious, God, your love! Hence the sons of men take shelter in the shadow of your wings.

^36:8 They feast on the bounty of your house, you give them drink from your river of pleasure;

^36:9 yes, with you is the fountain of life, by your light we see the light.

^36:10 Do not stop loving those who know you, or being righteous to upright hearts.

^36:11 Do not let arrogant feet crush me or wicked hands expel me.

^36:12 The evil men have fallen, there they lie, beaten down, never to stand again!

^7:14 He called the people to him again and said, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand.

^7:15 Nothing that goes into a man from outside can make him unclean; it is the things that come out of a man that make him unclean.

^7:16 If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to this.’

^7:17 When he had gone back into the house, away from the crowd, his disciples questioned him about the parable.

^7:18 He said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean,

^7:19 because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all foods clean.)

^7:20 And he went on, ‘It is what comes out of a man that makes him unclean.

^7:21 For it is from within, from men’s hearts, that evil intentions emerge: fornication, theft, murder, adultery,

^7:22 avarice, malice, deceit, indecency, envy, slander, pride, folly.

^7:23 All these evil things come from within and make a man unclean.’