Daily Readings - 10/06/2026

^18:20 Ahab called all Israel together and assembled the prophets on Mount Carmel.

^18:21 Elijah stepped out in front of all the people. ‘How long’ he said ‘do you mean to hobble first on one leg then on the other? If Yahweh is God, follow him; if Baal, follow him.’ But the people never said a word.

^18:22 Elijah then said to them, ‘I, I alone, am left as a prophet of Yahweh, while the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty.

^18:23 Let two bulls be given us; let them choose one for themselves, dismember it and lay it on the wood, but not set fire to it. I in my turn will prepare the other bull, but not set fire to it.

^18:24 You must call on the name of your god, and I shall call on the name of mine; the god who answers with fire, is God indeed.’ The people all answered, ‘Agreed!’

^18:25 Elijah then said to the prophets of Baal, ‘Choose one bull and begin, for there are more of you. Call on the name of your god but light no fire.’

^18:26 They took the bull and prepared it, and from morning to midday they called on the name of Baal. ‘O Baal, answer us!’ they cried, but there was no voice, no answer, as they performed their hobbling dance round the altar they had made.

^18:27 Midday came, and Elijah mocked them. ‘Call louder,’ he said ‘for he is a god: he is preoccupied or he is busy, or he has gone on a journey; perhaps he is asleep and will wake up.’

^18:28 So they shouted louder and gashed themselves, as their custom was, with swords and spears until the blood flowed down them.

^18:29 Midday passed, and they ranted on until the time the offering is presented;[*a] but there was no voice, no answer, no attention given to them.

^18:30 Then Elijah said to all the people, ‘Come closer to me’, and all the people came closer to him. He repaired the altar of Yahweh which had been broken down.

^18:31 Elijah took twelve stones, corresponding to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of Yahweh had come, ‘Israel shall be your name’,

^18:32 and built an altar in the name of Yahweh. Round the altar he dug a trench of a size to hold two measures of seed.

^18:33 He then arranged the wood, dismembered the bull, and laid it on the wood.

^18:34 Then he said, ‘Fill four jars with water and pour it on the holocaust and on the wood’; this they did. He said, ‘Do it a second time’; they did it a second time. He said, ‘Do it a third time’; they did it a third time.

^18:35 The water flowed round the altar and the trench itself was full of water.

^18:36 At the time when the offering is presented, Elijah the prophet stepped forward. ‘Yahweh, God of Abraham, Isaac and Israel,’ he said ‘let them know today that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, that I have done all these things at your command.

^18:37 Answer me, Yahweh, answer me, so that this people may know that you, Yahweh, are God and are winning back their hearts.’

^18:38 Then the fire of Yahweh fell and consumed the holocaust and wood and licked up the water in the trench.

^18:39 When all the people saw this they fell on their faces. ‘Yahweh is God,’ they cried ‘Yahweh is God.’

^16:1 Look after me, God, I take shelter in you.

^16:2 To Yahweh you say, ‘My Lord, you are my fortune, nothing else but you’,

^16:3 yet to those pagan deities in the land, ‘My princes, all my pleasure is in you’.

^16:4 Their idols teem, after these they run: shall I pour their blood-libations? – not I! Take their names on my lips ? – never!

^16:5 Yahweh, my heritage, my cup, you, and you only, hold my lot secure;

^16:6 the measuring line marks out delightful places for me, for me the heritage is superb indeed.

^16:7 I bless Yahweh, who is my counsellor, and in the night my inmost self instructs me

^16:8 I keep Yahweh before me always, for with him at my right hand nothing can shake me.

^16:9 So my heart exults, my very soul rejoices, my body, too, will rest securely,

^16:10 for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, nor allow the one you love to see the Pit;

^16:11 you will reveal the path of life to me, give me unbounded joy in your presence, and at your right hand everlasting pleasures.

^5:17 ‘Do not imagine that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I have come not to abolish but to complete them.

^5:18 I tell you solemnly, till heaven and earth disappear, not one dot, not one little stroke, shall disappear from the Law until its purpose is achieved.

^5:19 Therefore, the man who infringes even one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be considered the least in the kingdom of heaven; but the man who keeps them and teaches them will be considered great in the kingdom of heaven.