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.

^31:1 In you, Yahweh, I take shelter; never let me be disgraced. In your righteousness deliver me, rescue me,

^31:2 turn your ear to me, make haste! Be a sheltering rock for me, a walled fortress to save me!

^31:3 For you are my rock, my fortress; for the sake of your name, guide me, lead me!

^31:4 Pull me out of the net they have spread for me, for you are my refuge;

^31:5 into your hands I commit my spirit, you have redeemed me, Yahweh. God of truth,

^31:6 you hate those who serve worthless idols; but I put my trust in Yahweh:

^31:7 I will exult, and rejoice in your love! You, who have seen my wretchedness, and known the miseries of my soul,

^31:8 have not handed me over to the enemy, you have given my feet space and to spare.

^31:9 Take pity on me, Yahweh, I am in trouble now. Grief wastes away my eye, my throat, my inmost parts.

^31:10 For my life is worn out with sorrow, my years with sighs; my strength yields under misery, my bones are wasting away.

^31:11 To every one of my oppressors I am contemptible, loathsome to my neighbours, to my friends a thing of fear. Those who see me in the street hurry past me;

^31:12 I am forgotten, as good as dead in their hearts, something discarded.

^31:13 I hear their endless slanders, threats from every quarter, as they combine against me, plotting to take my life.

^31:14 But I put my trust in you, Yahweh, I say, ‘You are my God’.

^31:15 My days are in your hand, rescue me from the hands of my enemies and persecutors;

^31:16 let your face smile on your servant, save me in your love.

^31:17 I invoke you; Yahweh; do not let me be disgraced, let the disgrace fall on the wicked! May they go speechless to Sheol,

^31:18 their lying lips struck dumb for those insolent slurs on the virtuous, for that arrogance and contempt.

^31:19 Yahweh, how great your goodness, reserved for those who fear you, bestowed on those who take shelter in you, for all mankind to see!

^31:20 Safe in your presence you hide them far from the wiles of men; inside your tent you shelter them far from the war of tongues.

^31:21 Blessed be Yahweh, who performs marvels of love for me (in a fortress-city)!

^31:22 In my alarm I exclaimed, ‘I have been snatched out of your sight!’ Yet you heard my petition when I called to you for help.

^31:23 Love Yahweh, all you devout: Yahweh, protector of the faithful, will repay the arrogant with interest.

^31:24 Be strong, let your heart be bold, all you who hope in Yahweh!

^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.’