Daily Readings - 27/06/2026

^2:2 The Lord has pitilessly destroyed all the homes of Jacob; in his displeasure he has shattered the strongholds of the daughter of Judah; he has thrown to the ground, he has left accursed the kingdom and its rulers.

^2:10 Mutely they sit on the ground, the elders of the daughter of Zion; they have put dust on their heads, and wrapped themselves in sackcloth. The virgins of Jerusalem hang their heads down to the ground.

^2:11 My eyes wasted away with weeping, my entrails shuddered, my liver spilled on the ground at the ruin of the daughters of my people, as children, mere infants, fainted in the squares of the Citadel.

^2:12 They kept saying to their mothers, ‘Where is the bread?’ as they fainted like wounded men in the squares of the City, as they poured out their souls on their mothers’ breasts.

^2:13 How can I describe you, to what compare you, daughter of Jerusalem? Who can rescue and comfort you, virgin daughter of Zion? For huge as the sea is your affliction; who can possibly cure you?

^2:14 The visions your prophets had on your behalf were delusive, tinsel things, they never pointed out your sin, to ward off your exile. The visions they proffered you were false, fallacious, misleading.

^2:18 Cry aloud, then, to the Lord, groan, daughter of Zion; let your tears flow like a torrent, day and night; give yourself no relief, grant your eyes no rest.

^2:19 Up, cry out in the night-time, in the early hours of darkness; pour your heart out like water before Yahweh. Stretch out your hands to him for the lives of your children.

^74:1 God, have you finally rejected us, raging at the flock you used to pasture?

^74:2 Remember the people you long since made your own, your hereditary tribe whom you redeemed, and this Mount Zion where you came to live.

^74:3 Pick your steps over these endless ruins:

^74:4 They roared where your Assemblies used to take place, they stuck their enemy emblems over the entrance,[*a] emblems

^74:5 we had never seen before. Axes deep in the wood,

^74:6 hacking at the panels, they battered them down with mallet and hatchet;

^74:7 then, God, setting fire to your sanctuary, they profanely razed the house of your name to the ground.

^74:8 Determined to destroy us once and for all, they burned down every shrine of God in the country.

^74:9 Deprived of signs, with no prophets left, who can say how long this will last?

^74:10 How much longer, God, is the oppressor to blaspheme, is the enemy to insult your name for ever?

^74:11 Why hold back your hand, why keep your right hand hidden?

^74:12 Yet, God, my king from the first, author of saving acts throughout the earth,

^74:13 by your power you split the sea in two, and smashed the heads of monsters on the waters.

^74:14 You crushed Leviathan’s heads, leaving him for wild animals to eat,

^74:15 you opened the spring, the torrent, you dried up inexhaustible rivers.

^74:16 You are master of day and night, you instituted light and sun,

^74:17 you fixed the boundaries of the world, you created summer and winter.

^74:18 Now, Yahweh, remember the enemy’s blasphemy, how frenzied people dare to insult your name.

^74:19 Do not betray your turtledove to the beast, do not forget your wretched people for good.

^74:20 Respect the covenant! We can bear no more – every cave in the country is the scene of violence!

^74:21 Do not let the hard-pressed retreat in confusion, give the poor and needy cause to praise your name.

^74:22 Rise, God, say something on your own behalf, do not forget the madman’s day-long blaspheming,

^74:23 remember the shouting of your enemies, this ever-rising clamour of your adversaries.

^8:5 When he went into Capernaum a centurion came up and pleaded with him.

^8:6 ‘Sir,’ he said ‘my servant is lying at home paralysed, and in great pain.’

^8:7 ‘I will come myself and cure him’ said Jesus.

^8:8 The centurion replied, ‘Sir, I am not worthy to have you under my roof; just give the word and my servant will be cured.

^8:9 For I am under authority myself, and have soldiers under me; and I say to one man: Go, and he goes; to another: Come here, and he comes; to my servant: Do this, and he does it.’

^8:10 When Jesus heard this he was astonished and said to those following him, ‘I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this.

^8:11 And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven;

^8:12 but the subjects of the kingdom[*a] will be turned out into the dark, where there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.’

^8:13 And to the centurion Jesus said, ‘Go back, then; you have believed, so let this be done for you’. And the servant was cured at that moment.

^8:14 And going into Peter’s house Jesus found Peter’s mother-in-law in bed with fever.

^8:15 He touched her hand and the fever left her, and she got up and began to wait on him.

^8:16 That evening they brought him many who were possessed by devils. He cast out the spirits with a word and cured all who were sick.

^8:17 This was to fulfil the prophecy of Isaiah: He took our sicknesses away and carried our diseases for us.[*b]

^4:8 One day as Elisha was on his way to Shunem, a woman of rank who lived there pressed him to stay and eat there. After this he always broke his journey for a meal when he passed that way.

^4:9 She said to her husband, ‘Look, I am sure the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God.

^4:10 Let us build him a small room on the roof, and put him a bed in it, and a table and chair and lamp; whenever he comes to us he can rest there.’

^4:11 One day when he came, he retired to the upper room and lay down.

^4:14 ‘What can be done for her then?’ he asked. Gehazi answered, ‘Well, she has no son and her husband is old’.

^4:15 Elisha said, ‘Call her’. The servant called her and she stood at the door.

^4:16 ‘This time next year,’ he said ‘you will hold a son in your arms.’ But she said, ‘No, my lord, do not deceive your servant’.

^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]

^6:3 You have been taught that when we were baptised in Christ Jesus we were baptised in his death;

^6:4 in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life.

^6:8 But we believe that having died with Christ we shall return to life with him:

^6:9 Christ, as we know, having been raised from the dead will never die again. Death has no power over him any more.

^6:10 When he died, he died, once for all, to sin, so his life now is life with God;

^6:11 and in that way, you too must consider yourselves to be dead to sin but alive for God in Christ Jesus.

^10:37 ‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me.

^10:38 Anyone who does not take his cross and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me.

^10:39 Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.

^10:40 Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me; and those who welcome me welcome the one who sent me.

^10:41 Anyone who welcomes a prophet will have a prophet’s reward; and anyone who welcomes a holy man will have a holy man’s reward.

^10:42 ‘If anyone gives so much as a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is a disciple, then I tell you solemnly, he will most certainly not lose his reward.’