Daily Readings - 04/03/2026

^18:18 ‘Come on,’ they said ‘let us concoct a plot against Jeremiah; the priest will not run short of instruction without him, nor the sage of advice, nor the prophet of the word. Come on, let us hit at him with his own tongue; let us listen carefully to every word he says.’

^18:19 Listen to me, Yahweh, hear what my adversaries are saying.

^18:20 Should evil be returned for good? (For they are digging a pit for me.) Remember how I stood in your presence to plead on their behalf, to turn your wrath away from them.

^30:1 High praise, Yahweh, I give you, for you have helped me up, and not let my enemies gloat over me.

^30:2 Yahweh, my God, I cried to you for help, and you have healed me.

^30:3 Yahweh, you have brought my soul up from Sheol, of all those who go down to the Pit you have revived me.

^30:4 Play music in Yahweh’s honour, you devout, remember his holiness, and praise him.

^30:5 His anger lasts a moment, his favour a lifetime; in the evening, a spell of tears, in the morning, shouts of joy.

^30:6 In my prosperity, I used to say, ‘Nothing can ever shake me!’

^30:7 Your favour, Yahweh, stood me on a peak impregnable; but then you hid your face and I was terrified.

^30:8 Yahweh, I call to you, I beg my God to pity me,

^30:9 ‘What do you gain by my blood[*a] if I go down to the Pit? Can the dust praise you or proclaim your faithfulness?

^30:10 ‘Hear, Yahweh, take pity on me; Yahweh, help me!’

^30:11 You have turned my mourning into dancing, you have stripped off my sackcloth and wrapped me in gladness

^30:12 and now my heart, silent no longer, will play you music; Yahweh, my God, I will praise you for ever.

^20:17 Jesus was going up to Jerusalem, and on the way he took the Twelve to one side and said to them,

^20:18 ‘Now we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man is about to be handed over to the chief priests and scribes. They will condemn him to death

^20:19 and will hand him over to the pagans to be mocked and scourged and crucified; and on the third day he will rise again.’

^20:20 Then the mother of Zebedee’s sons came with her sons to make a request of him, and bowed low;

^20:21 and he said to her, ‘What is it you want?’ She said to him, ‘Promise that these two sons of mine may sit one at your right hand and the other at your left in your kingdom’.

^20:22 ‘You do not know what you are asking’ Jesus answered. ‘Can you drink the cup that I am going to drink?’ They replied, ‘We can’.

^20:23 ‘Very well,’ he said ‘you shall drink my cup[*a], but as for seats at my right hand and my left, these are not mine to grant; they belong to those to whom they have been allotted by my Father.’

^20:24 When the other ten heard this they were indignant with the two brothers.

^20:25 But Jesus called them to him and said, ‘You know that among the pagans the rulers lord it over them, and their great men make their authority felt.

^20:26 This is not to happen among you. No; anyone who wants to be great among you must be your servant,

^20:27 and anyone who wants to be first among you must be your slave,

^20:28 just as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.’