Day 115 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 71:18–24

¹⁸Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, until I proclaim Your power to the next generation, Your might to all who are to come. ¹⁹Your righteousness reaches to the heavens, O God, You who have done great things. Who, O God, is like You? ²⁰Though You have shown me many troubles and misfortunes, You will revive me once again. Even from the depths of the earth You will bring me back up. ²¹You will increase my honor and comfort me once again. ²²So I will praise You with the harp for Your faithfulness, O my God; I will sing praise to You with the lyre, O Holy One of Israel. ²³When I sing praise to You my lips will shout for joy, along with my soul, which You have redeemed. ²⁴My tongue will indeed proclaim Your righteousness all day long, for those who seek my harm are disgraced and confounded.

New Testament·Luke 16:13–31

¹³No servant can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” ¹⁴The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all of this and were scoffing at Jesus. ¹⁵So He said to them, “You are the ones who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is prized among men is detestable before God. ¹⁶The Law and the Prophets were proclaimed until John. Since that time, the gospel of the kingdom of God is being preached, and everyone is forcing his way into it. ¹⁷But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for a single stroke of a pen to drop out of the Law. ¹⁸Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery. ¹⁹Now there was a rich man dressed in purple and fine linen, who lived each day in joyous splendor. ²⁰And a beggar named Lazarus lay at his gate, covered with sores ²¹and longing to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores. ²²One day the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. And the rich man also died and was buried. ²³In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham from afar, with Lazarus by his side. ²⁴So he cried out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue. For I am in agony in this fire.’ ²⁵But Abraham answered, ‘Child, remember that during your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things. But now he is comforted here, while you are in agony. ²⁶And besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that even those who wish cannot cross from here to you, nor can anyone cross from there to us.’ ²⁷‘Then I beg you, father,’ he said, ‘send Lazarus to my father’s house, ²⁸for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also end up in this place of torment.’ ²⁹But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let your brothers listen to them.’ ³⁰‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone is sent to them from the dead, they will repent.’ ³¹Then Abraham said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead.’”

Old Testament·Joshua 14:1–15:20

¹Now these are the portions that the Israelites inherited in the land of Canaan, as distributed by Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the tribes of Israel. ²Their inheritance was assigned by lot for the nine and a half tribes, as the LORD had commanded through Moses. ³For Moses had given the inheritance east of the Jordan to the other two and a half tribes. But he granted no inheritance among them to the Levites. ⁴The descendants of Joseph became two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And no portion of the land was given to the Levites, except for cities in which to live, along with pasturelands for their flocks and herds. ⁵So the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they divided the land. ⁶Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea about you and me. ⁷I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back to him an honest report. ⁸Although my brothers who went with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear, I remained loyal to the LORD my God. ⁹On that day Moses swore to me, saying, ‘Surely the land on which you have set foot will be an inheritance to you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’ ¹⁰Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old, ¹¹still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. As my strength was then, so it is now for war, for going out, and for coming in. ¹²Now therefore give me this hill country that the LORD promised me on that day, for you yourself heard then that the Anakim were there, with great and fortified cities. Perhaps with the LORD’s help I will drive them out, as the LORD has spoken.” ¹³Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance. ¹⁴Therefore Hebron belongs to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite as an inheritance to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel. ¹⁵(Hebron used to be called Kiriath-arba, after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim.) Then the land had rest from war.

15Now the allotment for the clans of the tribe of Judah extended to the border of Edom, to the Wilderness of Zin at the extreme southern boundary: ²Their southern border started at the bay on the southern tip of the Salt Sea, ³proceeded south of the Ascent of Akrabbim, continued on to Zin, went over to the south of Kadesh-barnea, ran past Hezron up to Addar, and curved toward Karka. ⁴It proceeded to Azmon, joined the Brook of Egypt, and ended at the Sea. This was their southern border. ⁵The eastern border was the Salt Sea as far as the mouth of the Jordan. The northern border started from the bay of the sea at the mouth of the Jordan, ⁶went up to Beth-hoglah, proceeded north of Beth-arabah, and went up to the Stone of Bohan son of Reuben. ⁷Then the border went up to Debir from the Valley of Achor, turning north to Gilgal, which faces the Ascent of Adummim south of the ravine. It continued along the waters of En-shemesh and came out at En-rogel. ⁸From there the border went up the Valley of Hinnom along the southern slope of the Jebusites (that is, Jerusalem) and ascended to the top of the hill that faces the Valley of Hinnom on the west, at the northern end of the Valley of Rephaim. ⁹From the hilltop the border curved to the spring of the Waters of Nephtoah, proceeded to the cities of Mount Ephron, and then bent around toward Baalah (that is, Kiriath-jearim). ¹⁰The border curled westward from Baalah to Mount Seir, ran along the northern slope of Mount Jearim (that is, Chesalon), went down to Beth-shemesh, and crossed to Timnah. ¹¹Then it went out to the northern slope of Ekron, curved toward Shikkeron, proceeded to Mount Baalah, went on to Jabneel, and ended at the Sea. ¹²And the western border was the coastline of the Great Sea. These are the boundaries around the clans of the descendants of Judah. ¹³According to the LORD’s command to him, Joshua gave Caleb son of Jephunneh a portion among the sons of Judah—Kiriath-arba, that is, Hebron. (Arba was the forefather of Anak.) ¹⁴And Caleb drove out from there the three sons of Anak—the descendants of Sheshai, Ahiman, and Talmai, the children of Anak. ¹⁵From there he marched against the inhabitants of Debir (formerly known as Kiriath-sepher). ¹⁶And Caleb said, “To the man who strikes down Kiriath-sepher and captures it, I will give my daughter Acsah in marriage.” ¹⁷So Othniel son of Caleb’s brother Kenaz captured the city, and Caleb gave his daughter Acsah to him in marriage. ¹⁸One day Acsah came to Othniel and urged him to ask her father for a field. When she got off her donkey, Caleb asked her, “What do you desire?” ¹⁹“Give me a blessing,” she answered. “Since you have given me land in the Negev, give me springs of water as well.” So Caleb gave her both the upper and lower springs. ²⁰This is the inheritance of the clans of the tribe of Judah.