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.

^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.

^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.