Daily Readings - 13/07/2026

^1:10 Hear the word of Yahweh, you rulers of Sodom; listen to the command of our God, you people of Gomorrah.

^1:11 ‘What are your endless sacrifices to me? says Yahweh. I am sick of holocausts of rams and the fat of calves. The blood of bulls and of goats revolts me.

^1:12 When you come to present yourselves before me, who asked you to trample over my courts?

^1:13 Bring me your worthless offerings no more, the smoke of them fills me with disgust. New Moons, sabbaths, assemblies – I cannot endure festival and solemnity.

^1:14 Your New Moons and your pilgrimages I hate with all my soul. They lie heavy on me, I am tired of bearing them.

^1:15 When you stretch out your hands I turn my eyes away. You may multiply your prayers, I shall not listen.

^1:16 Your hands are covered with blood, wash, make yourselves clean. Take your wrong-doing out of my sight. Cease to do evil.

^1:17 Learn to do good, search for justice, help the oppressed, be just to the orphan, plead for the widow.

^50:1 Yahweh, God of gods, speaks, he summons the earth. From east to west,

^50:2 from Zion, perfection of beauty, he shines.

^50:3 Let our God come, and be silent no more! Preceding him, a devouring fire, round him, a raging storm;

^50:4 he summons the heavens above and the earth, to his people’s trial:

^50:5 ‘Assemble my faithful before me who sealed my covenant by sacrifice!’

^50:6 Let the heavens proclaim his righteousness when God himself is judge! (Pause)

^50:8 ‘I am not finding fault with your sacrifices, those holocausts constantly before me;

^50:9 I do not claim one extra bull from your homes, nor one extra goat from your pens,

^50:10 ‘since all the forest animals are already mine, and the cattle on my mountains in their thousands;

^50:11 I know all the birds of the air, nothing moves in the field that does not belong to me.

^50:12 ‘If I were hungry, I should not tell you, since the world and all it holds is mine.

^50:13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls, or drink goats’ blood?

^50:14 ‘No, let thanksgiving be your sacrifice to God, fulfil the vows you make to the Most High;

^50:15 then you can invoke me in your troubles and I will rescue you, and you shall honour me.’

^50:16 But to the wicked man God says: ‘What business have you reciting my statutes, standing there mouthing my covenant,

^50:17 since you detest my discipline and thrust my words behind you?

^50:18 ‘You make friends with a thief as soon as you see one, you feel at home with adulterers,

^50:19 your mouth is given freely to evil and your tongue to inventing lies.

^50:20 ‘You sit there, slandering your own brother, you malign your own mother’s son.

^50:21 You do this, and expect me to say nothing?

^50:22 ‘You are leaving God out of account; take care! Or I will tear you to pieces where no one can rescue you!

^50:23 Whoever makes thanksgiving his sacrifice honours me; to the upright man I will show how God can save.’

^10:34 ‘Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth: it is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword.

^10:35 For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.

^10:36 A man’s enemies will be those of his own household.[*b]

^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.’

^11:1 When Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples he moved on from there to teach and preach in their towns.[*a]