Daily Readings - 21/08/2026

^106:1 Alleluia! Give thanks to Yahweh, for he is good, his love is everlasting!

^106:2 Who can count all Yahweh’s triumphs? Who can praise him enough?

^106:3 Happy are we if we exercise justice and constantly practise virtue!

^106:4 Yahweh, remember me, for the love you bear your people, come to me as a saviour,

^106:5 let me share the happiness of your chosen, the joys of your nation and take pride in being one of your heirs.

^106:6 We have sinned quite as much as our fathers, we have been wicked, we are guilty;

^106:7 our ancestors in Egypt never grasped the meaning of your marvels. They failed to appreciate your great love, they defied the Most High at the Sea of Reeds.

^106:8 For the sake of his name, he saved them to demonstrate his power.

^106:9 One word from him dried up the Sea of Reeds, he led them across the sea bed like dry land,

^106:10 he saved them from the grasp of those who hated them and rescued them from the clutches of the enemy.

^106:11 And the waters swallowed their oppressors, not one of them was left.

^106:12 Then, having faith in his promises, they immediately sang his praises.

^106:13 They forgot his achievements as quickly, going on before asking his advice;

^106:14 their desires overcame them in the desert, they challenged god in the wilds

^106:15 He granted them what they asked for, then struck them with a wasting fever;

^106:16 in camp, they grew jealous of Moses and Aaron, Yahweh’s holy one.

^106:17 The earth opened, swallowing Dathan, closing on Abiram’s faction,

^106:18 fire flamed out against their faction, the renegades went up in flames.

^106:19 They made a calf at Horeb, performed prostrations to a smelted thing,

^106:20 exchanging the one who was their glory for the image of a grass-eating ox.

^106:21 They forgot the God who had saved them by performing such feats in Egypt,

^106:22 such wonders in the land of Ham, such fearful things at the Sea of Reeds.

^106:23 He talked of putting an end to them and would have done, if Moses his chosen had not stood in the breach, confronting him, and deflecting his destructive anger.

^106:24 They refused a land of delight, having no faith in his promise;

^106:25 they stayed in their camp and grumbled, they would not listen to Yahweh’s voice.

^106:26 So, raising his hand, he swore to make them fall dead in the desert

^106:27 and their descendants to fall to the heathen, and to disperse them throughout those countries.

^106:28 They accepted the yoke of Baal-peor and ate sacrifices to the dead.

^106:29 They provoked him by their behaviour; plague broke out among them.

^106:30 Then up stood Phinehas to intervene, and the plague was checked;

^106:31 hence his reputation for virtue through successive generations for ever.

^106:32 They enraged him at the waters of Meribah; as a result, things went wrong for Moses,

^106:33 since they had embittered his spirit and he spoke without stopping to think.

^106:34 They did not destroy the pagans as Yahweh had told them to do,

^106:35 but, intermarrying with them, adopted their practices instead.

^106:36 Serving the pagans’ idols, they found themselves trapped

^106:37 into sacrificing their own sons and daughters to demons.

^106:38 They shed innocent blood, the blood of their sons and daughters, offering them to the idols of Canaan, they polluted the country with blood.

^106:39 They defiled themselves by such actions, their behaviour was that of a whore.

^106:40 Yahweh’s anger blazed out at his people, he came to loathe his heirs.

^106:41 He handed them over to the pagans, those who hated them became their masters;

^106:42 their enemies tyrannised over them, crushing them under their rule.

^106:43 Time and again he rescued them, but they went on defying him deliberately and plunging deeper into wickedness;

^106:44 even so, he took pity on their distress each time he heard them calling.

^106:45 For their sake, he remembered his covenant, he relented in his great love,

^106:46 making their captors mitigate the harshness of their treatment.

^106:47 Yahweh our God and saviour, gather us from among the pagans, to give thanks to your holy name and to find our happiness in praising you.

^106:48 Blessed be Yahweh the God of Israel, from all eternity and for ever! Here, all the people are to say, ‘Amen'[*a]

^22:34 But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees they got together

^22:35 and, to disconcert him, one of them put a question,

^22:36 ‘Master, which is the greatest commandment of the Law?’

^22:37 Jesus said, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.

^22:38 This is the greatest and the first commandment.

^22:39 The second resembles it: You must love your neighbour as yourself.

^22:40 On these two commandments hang the whole Law, and the Prophets also.’