Daily Readings - 31/07/2026

^26:1 At the beginning of the reign of Jehoiakim son of Josiah, king of Judah, this word was addressed to Jeremiah by Yahweh,

^26:2 ‘Yahweh says this: Stand in the court of the Temple of Yahweh. To all the people of the towns of Judah who come to worship in the Temple of Yahweh you must speak all the words I have commanded you to tell them; do not omit one syllable.

^26:3 Perhaps they will listen and each turn from his evil way: if so, I shall relent and not bring the disaster on them which I intended for their misdeeds.

^26:4 Say to them, “Yahweh says this: If you will not listen to me by following my Law which I put before you,

^26:5 by paying attention to the words of my servants the prophets whom I send so persistently to you, without your ever listening to them,

^26:6 I will treat this Temple as I treated Shiloh, and make this city a curse for all the nations of the earth”.’

^26:7 The priests and prophets and all the people heard Jeremiah say these words in the Temple of Yahweh.

^26:8 When Jeremiah had finished saying everything that Yahweh had ordered him to say to all the people, the priests and prophets seized hold of him and said, ‘You shall die!

^26:9 Why have you made this prophecy in the name of Yahweh, “This Temple will be like Shiloh, and this city will be desolate, and uninhabited”?’ And the people were all crowding round Jeremiah in the Temple of Yahweh.

^68:1 Let God arise, let his enemies be scattered, let those who hate him flee before him!

^68:2 As smoke disperses, they disperse; as wax melts when near the fire, so the wicked perish when God approaches.

^68:3 But at God’s approach, the virtuous rejoice, exulting and singing for joy.

^68:4 Sing to Yahweh, play music to his name, build a road for the Rider of the Clouds, rejoice in Yahweh, exult at his coming!

^68:5 Father of orphans, defender of widows, such is God in his holy dwelling;

^68:6 God gives the lonely a permanent home, makes prisoners happy by setting them free, but rebels must live in an arid land.

^68:7 God, when you set out at the head of your people, and marched across the desert,

^68:8 the earth rocked, (pause) the heavens deluged at God’s coming, at the coming of God, the God of Israel.

^68:9 God, you rained a downpour of blessings, when your heritage was faint you gave it strength;

^68:10 your family found a home, where you in your goodness, God, provided for the needy.

^68:12 Kings are in flight, armies in flight, the women at home take their pick of the loot.

^68:13 Meanwhile you others were lolling in the sheepfolds. There were dove-wings covered with silver, on their pinions the sheen of green gold;

^68:15 That peak of Bashan, a mountain of God? Rather, a mountain of pride, that peak of Bashan!

^68:16 Peaks of pride, have you the right to look down on a mountain where God has chosen to live, where Yahweh is going to live for ever?

^68:17 With thousands of myriads of divine chariots the Lord has left Sinai for his sanctuary.

^68:18 God, you have ascended to the height, and captured prisoners, you have taken men as tribute, yes, taken rebels to your dwelling, Yahweh!

^68:19 Blessed be the Lord day after day, the God who saves us and bears our burdens!

^68:20 This God of ours is a God who saves, to the Lord Yahweh belong the ways of escape from death;

^68:21 but God will smash the heads of his enemies, the hairy skull of the man who parades his guilt.

^68:22 The Lord has promised, ‘I will bring them back from Bashan, I will bring them back from the bottom of the sea,

^68:23 for your feet to wade in blood, for the tongues of your dogs to lap their share of the enemy’.

^68:24 God, your procession can be seen, my God’s, my king’s procession to the sanctuary,

^68:25 with cantors marching in front, musicians behind, and between them maidens playing tambourines.

^68:26 Bless God in your choirs, bless the Lord, you who spring from Israel!

^68:27 Benjamin, the youngest, is there in the lead, the princes of Judah in brocaded robes, the princes of Zebulun, the princes of Naphtali.

^68:28 Take command, God, as befits your power, that power, God, you have wielded on our behalf

^68:29 from your Temple high above Jerusalem! Kings will come to you, bringing presents.

^68:30 Rebuke the Beast of the Reeds,[*a] that herd of bulls, those calves, that people, until, humbled, they bring gold and silver. Scatter those warmongering pagans!

^68:31 Ambassadors will come from Egypt, Ethiopia will stretch out her hands to God.

^68:32 Sing to God, you kingdoms of the earth, play for

^68:33 the Rider of the Heavens, the ancient heavens! (pause) Listen to him shouting, to his thundering,

^68:34 and acknowledge the power of God! Over Israel his splendour, in the clouds his power,

^68:35 God in his sanctuary is greatly to be feared. He, the God of Israel, gives power and strength to his people. Blessed be God.

^13:54 and, coming to his home town,[*e] he taught the people in their synagogue in such a way that they were astonished and said, ‘Where did the man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?

^13:55 This is the carpenter’s son, surely? Is not his mother the woman called Mary, and his brothers James and Joseph and Simon and Jude?

^13:56 His sisters, too, are they not all here with us? So where did the man get it all?’

^13:57 And they would not accept him. But Jesus said to them, ‘A prophet is only despised in his own country and in his own house’,

^13:58 and he did not work many miracles there because of their lack of faith.