Daily Readings - 01/04/2026

^50:4 The Lord Yahweh has given me a disciple’s tongue. So that I may know how to reply to the wearied he provides me with speech. Each morning he wakes me to hear, to listen like a disciple.

^50:5 The Lord Yahweh has opened my ear. For my part, I made no resistance, neither did I turn away.

^50:6 I offered my back to those who struck me, my cheeks to those who tore at my beard; I did not cover my face against insult and spittle.

^50:7 The Lord Yahweh comes to my help, so that I am untouched by the insults. So, too, I set my face like flint; I know I shall not be shamed.

^50:8 My vindicator is here at hand. Does anyone start proceedings against me? Then let us go to court together. Who thinks he has a case against me? Let him approach me.

^50:9 The Lord Yahweh is coming to my help, who dare condemn me? They shall all go to pieces like a garment devoured by moths.

^69:1 Save me, God! The water is already up to my neck!

^69:2 I am sinking in the deepest swamp, there is no foothold; I have stepped into deep water and the waves are washing over me.

^69:3 Worn out with calling, my throat is hoarse, my eyes are strained, looking for my God.

^69:4 More people hate me for no reason than I have hairs on my head, more are groundlessly hostile than I have hair to show. (They ask me to give back what I never took.)

^69:5 God, you know how foolish I have been, my offences are not hidden from you;

^69:6 but let those who hope in you not blush for me, Yahweh Sabaoth[*a] Let those who seek you not be ashamed of me, God of Israel!

^69:7 It is for you I am putting up with insults that cover me with shame,

^69:8 that make me a stranger to my brothers, an alien to my mother’s other sons;

^69:9 zeal for your house devours me, and the insults of those who insult you fall on me.

^69:10 If I mortify myself with fasting, they make this a pretext for insulting me;

^69:11 if I dress myself in sackcloth, I become their laughing-stock,

^69:12 the gossip of people sitting at the city gate, and the theme of drunken songs.

^69:13 For my part, I pray to you, Yahweh, at the time you wish; in your great love, answer me, God, faithful in saving power.

^69:14 Pull me out of this swamp; let me sink no further, let me escape those who hate me, save me from deep water!

^69:15 Do not let the waves wash over me, do not let the deep swallow me or the Pit close its mouth on me.

^69:16 In your loving kindness, answer me, Yahweh, in your great tenderness turn to me;

^69:17 do not hide your face from your servant, quick, I am in trouble, answer me;

^69:18 come to my side, redeem me, from so many enemies ransom me.

^69:21 They gave me poison to eat instead, when I was thirsty they gave me vinegar to drink.

^69:22 May their own table prove a trap for them, and their plentiful supplies, a snare!

^69:23 may their eyes grow dim, go blind, strike their loins with chronic palsy!

^69:24 Vent your fury on them, let your burning anger overtake them;

^69:25 may their camp be reduced to ruin, and their tents left unoccupied:

^69:26 for hounding a man after you had struck him, for adding more wounds to those which you inflicted.

^69:27 Charge them with crime after crime, deny them further access to your righteousness,

^69:28 blot them out of the book of life, strike them off the roll of the virtuous!

^69:29 For myself, wounded wretch that I am, by your saving power, God, lift me up!

^69:30 I will praise the name of God with a song, I will extol him with my thanksgiving,

^69:31 more pleasing to Yahweh than any ox or bull with horn and hoof.

^69:32 Then, seeing this, the humble can rejoice: long life to your hearts, all you who seek for God!

^69:33 Yahweh will always hear those who are in need, will never scorn his captive people.

^69:34 Let heaven and earth acclaim him, the oceans and all that moves in them!

^69:35 For God will save Zion, and rebuild the towns of Judah: they will be lived in, owned,

^69:36 handed down to his servants’ descendants, and lived in by those who love his name.

^26:14 Then one of the Twelve, the man called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests and said,

^26:15 ‘What are you prepared to give me if I hand him over to you?’

^26:16 They paid him thirty silver pieces[*b], and from that moment he looked for an opportunity to betray him.

^26:17 Now on the first day of Unleavened Bread[*c] the disciples came to Jesus to say, ‘Where do you want us to make the preparations for you to eat the passover?’

^26:18 ‘Go to so-and-so in the city’ he replied ‘and say to him, “The Master says: My time is near. It is at your house that I am keeping Passover with my disciples.”‘

^26:19 The disciples did what Jesus told them and prepared the Passover.

^26:20 When evening came he was at table with the twelve disciples.

^26:21 And while they were eating he said ‘I tell you solemnly, one of you is about to betray me’

^26:22 They were greatly distressed and started asking him in turn, ‘Not I, Lord, surely?’

^26:23 He answered, ‘Someone who has dipped his hand into the dish with me, will betray me.

^26:24 The Son of Man is going to his fate, as the scriptures say he will, but alas for that man by whom the Son of Man is betrayed! Better for that man if he had never been born!’

^26:25 Judas, who was to betray him; asked in his turn, ‘Not I, Rabbi, surely?’ ‘They are your own words’ answered Jesus.