Daily Readings - 12/02/2026

^11:4 When Solomon grew old his wives swayed his heart to other gods; and his heart was not wholly with Yahweh his God as his father David’s had been.

^11:5 Solomon became a follower of Astarte, the goddess of the Sidonians, and of Milcom, the Ammonite abomination.

^11:6 He did what was displeasing to Yahweh, and was not a wholehearted follower of Yahweh, as his father David had been.

^11:7 Then it was that Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the god of Moab on the mountain to the east of Jerusalem, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites.

^11:8 He did the same for all his foreign wives, who offered incense and sacrifice to their gods.

^11:9 Yahweh was angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from Yahweh the God of Israel who had twice appeared to him

^11:10 and who had then forbidden him to follow other gods; but he did not carry out Yahweh’s order.

^11:11 Yahweh therefore said to Solomon, ‘Since you behave like this and do not keep my covenant or the laws I laid down for you, I will most surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your servants.’

^11:12 For your father David’s sake, however, I will not do this during your lifetime, but will tear it out of your son’s hands.

^11:13 Even so, I will not tear the whole kingdom from him. For the sake of my servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen, I will leave your son one tribe.'[*a]

^105:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yahweh, call his name aloud, proclaim his deeds to the peoples!

^105:2 Sing to him, play to him, tell over all his marvels!

^105:3 Glory in his holy name, let the hearts that seek Yahweh rejoice!

^105:4 Seek Yahweh and his strength, seek his face untiringly;

^105:5 remember the marvels he has done, his wonders, the judgements from his mouth.

^105:6 Stock of Abraham his servant, sons of Jacob his chosen one!

^105:7 He is Yahweh our God, his authority is over all the earth.

^105:8 Remember his covenant for ever, his word of command for a thousand generations,

^105:9 the pact he made with Abraham, his oath to Isaac.

^105:10 He established it as a statute for Jacob, an everlasting covenant for Israel.

^105:11 ‘I give you a land,’ he said ‘Canaan, your allotted heritage.

^105:12 There where you were easily counted, few in number, strangers to the country.’

^105:13 They went from nation to nation, from one kingdom to another people;

^105:14 he let no man oppress them, he punished kings on their behalf.

^105:15 ‘Do not touch my anointed ones,’ he said ‘do not harm my prophets!’

^105:16 Next, he called down famine on the country, he broke their staff, that is, their bread;

^105:17 he sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave.

^105:18 They tortured his feet with fetters, they put his neck in irons;

^105:19 time passed, Joseph’s oracle came true, Yahweh’s word proved him right.

^105:20 The king gave orders to release him, that master of nations set him free,

^105:21 putting him in charge of his household, in control of all he possessed,

^105:22 to train his officials as he thought fit and convert his elders into sages.

^105:23 Israel then migrated to Egypt, Jacob settled in the land of Ham.

^105:24 He made his people fertile and more vigorous than their oppressors,

^105:25 whose hearts he then disposed to hatred of his people and double-dealing with his servants.

^105:26 He sent his servant Moses, and Aaron, the man of his choice;

^105:27 there they displayed his signs, his wonders in the land of Ham.

^105:28 He sent darkness, darkness fell, but still they defied his word.

^105:29 He turned their rivers into blood, thus killing all their fish.

^105:30 Their country was overrun with frogs even in the royal apartments;

^105:31 he spoke: flies and mosquitoes swarmed throughout the country.

^105:32 He sent them hail instead of rain, fire swept across their land;

^105:33 he blasted their vines and fig trees, he shattered the trees throughout the country.

^105:34 He spoke: there came locusts, grasshoppers, more than you could count,

^105:35 eating every scrap of greenstuff, every blade their soil produced.

^105:36 Next, he struck down all the first-born in their land, the entire first-fruits of their fertility;

^105:37 then he led Israel out with gold and silver, and not one man of their tribes was left behind.

^105:38 Egypt was glad to see them go, they had filled her with alarm;

^105:39 he spread a cloud to cover them, and a fire to glow at night.

^105:40 They demanded food, he sent them quails, he satisfied them with the bread of heaven;

^105:41 he opened the rock, the waters gushed to flow through the desert like a river.

^105:42 Yes, faithful to the sacred promise given to his servant Abraham,

^105:43 he led his happy people forward, to joyful shouts from his chosen,

^105:44 and gave them the pagans’ territories. Where others had toiled, they took possession,

^105:45 on condition that they kept his statutes and remained obedient to his laws.

^7:24 He left that place and set out for the territory of Tyre. There he went into a house and did not want anyone to know he was there, but he could not pass unrecognised.

^7:25 A woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard about him straightaway and came and fell at his feet.

^7:26 Now the woman was a pagan, by birth a Syrophoenician, and she begged him to cast the devil out of her daughter.

^7:27 And he said to her, ‘The children should be fed first, because it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the house-dogs’.

^7:28 But she spoke up: ‘Ah yes, sir,’ she replied ‘but the house-dogs under the table can eat the children’s scraps’.

^7:29 And he said to her, ‘For saying this, you may go home happy: the devil has gone out of your daughter’.

^7:30 So she went off to her home and found the child lying on the bed and the devil gone.