Daily Readings - 19/08/2026

^22:1 My God, my God, why have you deserted me? How far from saving me, the words I groan!

^22:2 I call all day, my God, but you never answer, all night long I call and cannot rest.

^22:3 Yet, Holy One, you who make your home in the praises of Israel,

^22:4 in you our fathers put their trust, they trusted and you rescued them;

^22:5 they called to you for help and they were saved, they never trusted you in vain.

^22:6 Yet here am I, now more worm than man, scorn of mankind, jest of the people,

^22:7 all who see me jeer at me, they toss their heads and sneer,

^22:8 ‘He relied on Yahweh, let Yahweh save him! If Yahweh is his friend, let Him rescue him!’

^22:9 Yet you drew me out of the womb, you entrusted me to my mother’s breasts;

^22:10 placed on your lap from my birth, from my mother’s womb you have been my God.

^22:11 Do not stand aside: trouble is near, I have no one to help me!

^22:12 A herd of bulls surrounds me, strong bulls of Bashan close in on me;

^22:13 their jaws are agape for me, like lions tearing and roaring.

^22:14 I am like water draining away, my bones are all disjointed, my heart is like wax, melting inside me;

^22:16 A pack of dogs surrounds me, a gang of Villains closes me in; they tie me hand and foot

^22:17 I can count every one of my bones, and there they glare at me, gloating;

^22:18 they divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothes.

^22:19 Do not stand aside, Yahweh. O my strength, come quickly to my help;

^22:20 rescue my soul from the sword, my dear life from the paw of the dog,

^22:21 save me from the lion’s mouth, my poor soul from the wild bulls’ horns!

^22:22 Then I shall proclaim your name to my brothers, praise you in full assembly:

^22:23 you who fear Yahweh, praise him! Entire race of Jacob, glorify him! Entire race of Israel, revere him!

^22:24 For he has not despised or disdained the poor man in his poverty, has not hidden his face from him, but has answered him when he called.

^22:25 You are the theme of my praise in the Great Assembly, I perform my vows in the presence of those who fear him.

^22:26 The poor will receive as much as they want to eat. Those who seek Yahweh will praise him. Long life to their hearts!

^22:27 The whole earth, from end to end, will remember and come back to Yahweh; all the families of the nations will bow down before him.

^22:28 For Yahweh reigns, the ruler of nations!

^22:29 Before him all the prosperous of the earth will bow down, before him will bow all who go down to the dust. And my soul will live for him,

^22:30 my children will serve him; men will proclaim the Lord to generations

^22:31 still to come, his righteousness to a people yet unborn. All this he has done.

^20:1 ‘Now the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner going out at daybreak to hire workers for his vineyard.

^20:2 He made an agreement with the workers for one denarius a day, and sent them to his vineyard.

^20:3 Going out at about the third hour he saw others standing idle in the market place

^20:4 and said to them, “You go to my vineyard too and I will give you a fair wage”.

^20:5 So they went. At about the sixth hour and again at about the ninth hour, he went out and did the same.

^20:6 Then at about the eleventh hour he went out and found more men standing round, and he said to them, “Why have you been standing here idle all day?”

^20:7 “Because no one has hired us” they answered. He said to them, “You go into my vineyard too”.

^20:8 In the evening, the owner of the vineyard said to his bailiff, “Call the workers and pay them their wages, starting with the last arrivals and ending with the first”.

^20:9 So those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came forward and received one denarius each.

^20:10 When the first came, they expected to get more, but they too received one denarius each.

^20:11 They took it, but grumbled at the landowner.

^20:12 “The men who came last” they said “have done only one hour, and you have treated them the same as us, though we have done a heavy day’s work in all the heat.”

^20:13 He answered one of them and said, “My friend, I am not being unjust to you; did we not agree on one denarius?

^20:14 Take your earnings and go. I choose to pay the last comer as much as I pay you.

^20:15 Have I no right to do what I like with my own? Why be envious because I am generous?”

^20:16 Thus the last will be first, and the first, last.’