Daily Readings - 20/06/2026

^24:17 After the death of Jehoiada, the officials of Judah came to pay court to the king, and the king now turned to them for advice.

^24:18 The Judaeans abandoned the Temple of Yahweh, the God of their ancestors, for the worship of sacred poles and idols. Because of their guilt, God’s anger fell on Judah and Jerusalem.

^24:19 He sent them prophets to bring them back to Yahweh, but when these gave their message, they would not listen.

^24:20 The spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of Jehoiada the priest. He stood up before the people and said, ‘God says this, “Why do you transgress the commandments of Yahweh to no good purpose? You have deserted Yahweh, now he deserts you.”‘

^24:21 They then plotted against him and by order of the king stoned him in the court of the Temple of Yahweh.

^24:22 King Joash, forgetful of the kindness that Jehoiada, the father of Zechariah, had shown him, killed Jehoiada’s son who cried out as he died, ‘Yahweh sees and he will avenge!’

^24:23 When a year had gone by, the Aramaean army made war on Joash. They reached Judah and Jerusalem, and executed all the officials among the people, sending back to the king at Damascus all that they had plundered from them.

^24:24 Though the Aramaean army had by no means come in force, Yahweh delivered into its power an army of great size for having deserted him, the God of their ancestors. The Aramaeans treated Joash as he had deserved,

^24:25 and when they retired they left him a very sick man; and his officers, plotting against him to avenge the death of the son of Jehoiada the priest, murdered him in his bed. So he died, and they buried him in the Citadel of David, though not in the tombs of the kings.

^89:1 I will celebrate your love for ever, Yahweh, age after age my words shall proclaim your faithfulness;

^89:2 for I claim that love is built to last for ever and your faithfulness founded firmly in the heavens.

^89:3 ‘I have made a covenant with my Chosen, I have given my servant David my sworn word:

^89:4 I have founded your dynasty to last for ever, I have built you a throne to outlast all time.’ (pause)

^89:5 Yahweh, the assembly of holy ones in heaven applaud the marvel of your faithfulness.

^89:6 Who in the skies can compare with Yahweh? Which of the heaven-born can rival him?

^89:7 God, dreaded in the assembly of holy ones, great and terrible to all around him,

^89:8 Yahweh, God of Sabaoth, who is like you?-mighty Yahweh, clothed in your faithfulness!

^89:9 You control the pride of the ocean, when its waves ride high, you calm them;

^89:10 you split Rahab[*a] in two like a carcase and scattered your enemies with your mighty arm.

^89:11 The heavens are yours and the earth is yours, you founded the world and all it holds,

^89:12 you created north and south; Tabor and Hermon hail your name with joy.

^89:13 Yours was the arm, and yours the prowess, mighty and exalted your right hand;

^89:14 Righteousness and Justice support your throne, Love and Faithfulness are your attendants.

^89:15 Happy the people who learn to acclaim you! Yahweh, they will live in the light of your favour;

^89:16 they will rejoice in your name all day and exult in your righteousness.

^89:17 You are their glory and their strength, you, by your kindness, raise our fortunes,

^89:18 since both our shield and our king belong to Yahweh, the Holy One of Israel.

^89:19 Once you spoke in vision and said to your friends,[*b] I have conferred the crown on a hero, and promoted one chosen from my people.

^89:20 I have selected my servant David and anointed him with my holy oil;

^89:21 my hand will be constantly with him, he will be able to rely on my arm.

^89:22 ‘No enemy will be able to outwit him, no wicked man to worst him,

^89:23 I myself will crush his opponents, I will strike dead all who hate him.

^89:24 ‘With my faithfulness and love, his fortunes shall rise in my name.

^89:25 I will give him control of the sea, complete control of the rivers.

^89:26 ‘He will invoke me, “My father, my God and rock of my safety”,

^89:27 and I shall make him my first-born, the Most High for kings on earth.

^89:28 ‘I will keep my love for him always, my covenant with him shall stand,

^89:29 I have founded his dynasty to last for ever, his throne to be as lasting as the heavens.

^89:30 ‘Should his descendants desert my Law and disregard my rulings,

^89:31 should they violate my statutes and not keep my commandments,

^89:32 ‘I will punish their sins with the rod and their crimes with the whip,

^89:33 but never withdraw my love from him or fail in my faithfulness.

^89:34 ‘I will not break my covenant, I will not revoke my given word;

^89:35 I have sworn on my holiness, once for all, and cannot turn liar to David.

^89:36 ‘His dynasty shall last for ever, I see his throne like the sun,

^89:37 enduring for ever like the moon, that faithful witness in the sky.’ (pause)

^89:38 And yet you have rejected, disowned and raged at your anointed;

^89:39 you have repudiated the covenant with your servant and flung his crown dishonoured to the ground.

^89:40 You have pierced all his defences, and laid his forts in ruins;

^89:41 anyone may go and loot him, his neighbours treat him with scorn.

^89:42 You have let his opponents get the upper hand, and made all his enemies happy,

^89:43 you have snapped his sword on a rock and failed to support him in battle.

^89:44 You have stripped him of his glorious sceptre, and toppled his throne to the ground,

^89:45 you have aged him before his time and covered him in shame. (pause)

^89:46 Yahweh, how much longer will you hide? For ever? How much longer must your anger smoulder like a fire?

^89:47 Remember me, the short time I have left and the void to which you destine mankind.

^89:48 What man can cling to life and not see death? Who can evade the clutches of Sheol?

^89:49 Lord, where are those earlier signs of your love? You swore your oath to David on your faithfulness!

^89:50 Lord, do not forget how your servant was insulted, (pause) how I take these pagans’ taunts to heart,

^89:51 insults, Yahweh, that your enemies have offered, insults to your anointed wherever he goes. Blessed be Yahweh for ever. Amen. Amen![*c]

^6:24 ‘No one can be the slave of two masters: he will either hate the first and love the second, or treat the first with respect and the second with scorn. You cannot be the slave both of God and of money.

^6:25 ‘That is why I am telling you not to worry about your life and what you are to eat, nor about your body and how you are to clothe it. Surely life means more than food, and the body more than clothing!

^6:26 Look at the birds in the sky. They do not sow or reap or gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are we not worth much more than they are?

^6:27 Can any of you, for all his worrying, add one single cubit to his span of life?

^6:28 And why worry about clothing? Think of the flowers growing in the fields; they never have to work or spin;

^6:29 yet I assure you that not even Solomon in all his regalia was robed like one of these.

^6:30 Now if that is how God clothes the grass in the field which is there today and thrown into the furnace tomorrow, will he not much more look after you, you men of little faith?

^6:31 So do not worry; do not say, “What are we to eat? What are we to drink? How are we to be clothed?”

^6:32 It is the pagans who set their hearts on all these things. Your heavenly Father knows you need them all.

^6:33 Set your hearts on his kingdom first, and on his righteousness, and all these other things will be given you as well.

^6:34 So do not worry about tomorrow: tomorrow will take care of itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

^20:10 I hear so many disparaging me, ‘”Terror from every side!” Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’ All those who used to be my friends watched for my downfall, ‘Perhaps he will be seduced into error. Then we will master him and take our revenge!’

^20:11 But Yahweh is at my side, a mighty hero; my opponents will stumble, mastered, confounded by their failure; everlasting, unforgettable disgrace will be theirs.

^20:12 But you, Yahweh Sabaoth, you who probe with justice, who scrutinise the loins and heart, let me see the vengeance you will take on them, for I have committed my cause to you.

^20:13 Sing to Yahweh, praise Yahweh, for he has delivered the soul of the needy from the hands of evil men.

^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.

^5:12 Well then, sin entered the world through one man, and through sin death, and thus death has spread through the whole human race because everyone has sinned.

^5:13 Sin existed in the world long before the Law was given. There was no law and so no one could be accused of the sin of ‘law-breaking’,

^5:14 yet death reigned over all from Adam to Moses, even though their sin, unlike that of Adam, was not a matter of breaking a law. Adam prefigured the One to come,

^5:15 but the gift itself considerably outweighed the fall. If it is certain that through one man’s fall so many died, it is even more certain that divine grace, coming through the one man, Jesus Christ, came to so many as an abundant free gift.

^10:26 ‘Do not be afraid of them therefore. For everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear.

^10:27 What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers, proclaim from the housetops.

^10:28 ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who can destroy both body and soul in hell.

^10:29 Can you not buy two sparrows for a penny? And yet not one falls to the ground without your Father knowing.

^10:30 Why, every hair on your head has been counted.

^10:31 So there is no need to be afraid; you are worth more than hundreds of sparrows.

^10:32 ‘So if anyone declares himself for me in the presence of men, I will declare myself for him in the presence of my Father in heaven.

^10:33 But the one who disowns me in the presence of men, I will disown in the presence of my Father in heaven.