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]

^106:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, his love is everlasting!

^106:2 Who can count all Yahweh’s triumphs? Who can praise him enough?

^106:3 Happy are we if we exercise justice and constantly practise virtue!

^106:4 Yahweh, remember me, for the love you bear your people, come to me as a saviour,

^106:5 let me share the happiness of your chosen, the joys of your nation and take pride in being one of your heirs.

^106:6 We have sinned quite as much as our fathers, we have been wicked, we are guilty;

^106:7 our ancestors in Egypt never grasped the meaning of your marvels. They failed to appreciate your great love, they defied the Most High at the Sea of Reeds.

^106:8 For the sake of his name, he saved them to demonstrate his power.

^106:9 One word from him dried up the Sea of Reeds, he led them across the sea bed like dry land,

^106:10 he saved them from the grasp of those who hated them and rescued them from the clutches of the enemy.

^106:11 And the waters swallowed their oppressors, not one of them was left.

^106:12 Then, having faith in his promises, they immediately sang his praises.

^106:13 They forgot his achievements as quickly, going on before asking his advice;

^106:14 their desires overcame them in the desert, they challenged god in the wilds

^106:15 He granted them what they asked for, then struck them with a wasting fever;

^106:16 in camp, they grew jealous of Moses and Aaron, Yahweh’s holy one.

^106:17 The earth opened, swallowing Dathan, closing on Abiram’s faction,

^106:18 fire flamed out against their faction, the renegades went up in flames.

^106:19 They made a calf at Horeb, performed prostrations to a smelted thing,

^106:20 exchanging the one who was their glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

^106:21 They forgot the God who had saved them by performing such feats in Egypt,

^106:22 such wonders in the land of Ham, such fearful things at the Sea of Reeds.

^106:23 He talked of putting an end to them and would have done, if Moses his chosen had not stood in the breach, confronting him, and deflecting his destructive anger.

^106:24 They refused a land of delight, having no faith in his promise;

^106:25 they stayed in their camp and grumbled, they would not listen to Yahweh’s voice.

^106:26 So, raising his hand, he swore to make them fall dead in the desert

^106:27 and their descendants to fall to the heathen, and to disperse them throughout those countries.

^106:28 They accepted the yoke of Baal-peor and ate sacrifices to the dead.

^106:29 They provoked him by their behaviour; plague broke out among them.

^106:30 Then up stood Phinehas to intervene, and the plague was checked;

^106:31 hence his reputation for virtue through successive generations for ever.

^106:32 They enraged him at the waters of Meribah; as a result, things went wrong for Moses,

^106:33 since they had embittered his spirit and he spoke without stopping to think.

^106:34 They did not destroy the pagans as Yahweh had told them to do,

^106:35 but, intermarrying with them, adopted their practices instead.

^106:36 Serving the pagans’ idols, they found themselves trapped

^106:37 into sacrificing their own sons and daughters to demons.

^106:38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, offering them to the idols of Canaan, they polluted the country with blood.

^106:39 They defiled themselves by such actions, their behaviour was that of a whore.

^106:40 Yahweh’s anger blazed out at his people, he came to loathe his heirs.

^106:41 He handed them over to the pagans, those who hated them became their masters;

^106:42 their enemies tyrannised over them, crushing them under their rule.

^106:43 Time and again he rescued them, but they went on defying him deliberately and plunging deeper into wickedness;

^106:44 even so, he took pity on their distress each time he heard them calling.

^106:45 For their sake, he remembered his covenant, he relented in his great love,

^106:46 making their captors mitigate the harshness of their treatment.

^106:47 Yahweh our God and saviour, gather us from among the pagans, to give thanks to your holy name and to find our happiness in praising you.

^106:48 Blessed be Yahweh the God of Israel, from all eternity and for ever! Here, all the people are to say, ‘Amen'[*a]

^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.