Day 19 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 17

¹Hear, O LORD, my righteous plea; listen to my cry. Give ear to my prayer— it comes from lips free of deceit. ²May my vindication come from Your presence; may Your eyes see what is right. ³You have tried my heart; You have visited me in the night. You have tested me and found no evil; I have resolved not to sin with my mouth. ⁴As for the deeds of men— by the word of Your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent. ⁵My steps have held to Your paths; my feet have not slipped. ⁶I call on You, O God, for You will answer me. Incline Your ear to me; hear my words. ⁷Show the wonders of Your loving devotion, You who save by Your right hand those who seek refuge from their foes. ⁸Keep me as the apple of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings ⁹from the wicked who assail me, from my mortal enemies who surround me. ¹⁰They have closed their callous hearts; their mouths speak with arrogance. ¹¹They have tracked us down, and now surround us; their eyes are set to cast us to the ground, ¹²like a lion greedy for prey, like a young lion lurking in ambush. ¹³Arise, O LORD, confront them! Bring them to their knees; deliver me from the wicked by Your sword, ¹⁴from such men, O LORD, by Your hand— from men of the world whose portion is in this life. May You fill the bellies of Your treasured ones and satisfy their sons, so they leave their abundance to their children. ¹⁵As for me, I will behold Your face in righteousness; when I awake, I will be satisfied in Your presence.

New Testament·Matthew 13:1–19

¹That same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. ²Such large crowds gathered around Him that He got into a boat and sat down, while all the people stood on the shore. ³And He told them many things in parables, saying, “A farmer went out to sow his seed. ⁴And as he was sowing, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it. ⁵Some fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow. ⁶But when the sun rose, the seedlings were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. ⁷Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the seedlings. ⁸Still other seed fell on good soil and produced a crop—a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold. ⁹He who has ears, let him hear.” ¹⁰Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do You speak to the people in parables?” ¹¹He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. ¹²Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. ¹³This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ ¹⁴In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. ¹⁵For this people’s heart has grown callous; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn, and I would heal them.’ ¹⁶But blessed are your eyes because they see, and your ears because they hear. ¹⁷For truly I tell you, many prophets and righteous men longed to see what you see but did not see it, and to hear what you hear but did not hear it. ¹⁸Consider, then, the parable of the sower: ¹⁹When anyone hears the message of the kingdom but does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along the path.

Old Testament·Genesis 34–35

¹Now Dinah, the daughter Leah had borne to Jacob, went out to visit the daughters of the land. ²When Shechem son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the region, saw her, he took her and lay with her by force. ³And his soul was drawn to Dinah, the daughter of Jacob. He loved the young girl and spoke to her tenderly. ⁴So Shechem told his father Hamor, “Get me this girl as a wife.” ⁵Jacob heard that Shechem had defiled his daughter Dinah, but since his sons were with his livestock in the field, he remained silent about it until they returned. ⁶Meanwhile, Shechem’s father Hamor came to speak with Jacob. ⁷When Jacob’s sons heard what had happened, they returned from the field. They were filled with grief and fury, because Shechem had committed an outrage in Israel by lying with Jacob’s daughter—a thing that should not be done. ⁸But Hamor said to them, “My son Shechem longs for your daughter. Please give her to him as his wife. ⁹Intermarry with us; give us your daughters, and take our daughters for yourselves. ¹⁰You may settle among us, and the land will be open to you. Live here, move about freely, and acquire your own property.” ¹¹Then Shechem said to Dinah’s father and brothers, “Grant me this favor, and I will give you whatever you ask. ¹²Demand a high dowry and an expensive gift, and I will give you whatever you ask. Only give me the girl as my wife!” ¹³But because Shechem had defiled their sister Dinah, Jacob’s sons answered him and his father Hamor deceitfully. ¹⁴“We cannot do such a thing,” they said. “To give our sister to an uncircumcised man would be a disgrace to us. ¹⁵We will consent to this on one condition, that you become circumcised like us—every one of your males. ¹⁶Then we will give you our daughters and take your daughters for ourselves. We will dwell among you and become one people. ¹⁷But if you will not agree to be circumcised, then we will take our sister and go.” ¹⁸Their offer seemed good to Hamor and his son Shechem. ¹⁹The young man, who was the most respected of all his father’s household, did not hesitate to fulfill this request, because he was delighted with Jacob’s daughter. ²⁰So Hamor and his son Shechem went to the gate of their city and addressed the men of their city: ²¹“These men are at peace with us. Let them live and trade in our land; indeed, it is large enough for them. Let us take their daughters in marriage and give our daughters to them. ²²But only on this condition will the men agree to dwell with us and be one people: if all our men are circumcised as they are. ²³Will not their livestock, their possessions, and all their animals become ours? Only let us consent to them, and they will dwell among us.” ²⁴All the men who went out of the city gate listened to Hamor and his son Shechem, and every male of the city was circumcised. ²⁵Three days later, while they were still in pain, two of Jacob’s sons (Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi) took their swords, went into the unsuspecting city, and slaughtered every male. ²⁶They killed Hamor and his son Shechem with their swords, took Dinah out of Shechem’s house, and went away. ²⁷Jacob’s other sons came upon the slaughter and looted the city, because their sister had been defiled. ²⁸They took their flocks and herds and donkeys, and everything else in the city or in the field. ²⁹They carried off all their possessions and women and children, and they plundered everything in their houses. ³⁰Then Jacob said to Simeon and Levi, “You have brought trouble upon me by making me a stench to the Canaanites and Perizzites, the people of this land. We are few in number; if they unite against me and attack me, I and my household will be destroyed.” ³¹But they replied, “Should he have treated our sister like a prostitute?”

35Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.” ²So Jacob told his household and all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are among you. Purify yourselves and change your garments. ³Then let us arise and go to Bethel. I will build an altar there to God, who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me wherever I have gone.” ⁴So they gave Jacob all their foreign gods and all their earrings, and Jacob buried them under the oak near Shechem. ⁵As they set out, a terror from God fell over the surrounding cities, so that they did not pursue Jacob’s sons. ⁶So Jacob and everyone with him arrived in Luz (that is, Bethel) in the land of Canaan. ⁷There Jacob built an altar, and he called that place El-bethel, because it was there that God had revealed Himself to Jacob as he fled from his brother. ⁸Now Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak below Bethel. So Jacob named it Allon-bachuth. ⁹After Jacob had returned from Paddan-aram, God appeared to him again and blessed him. ¹⁰And God said to him, “Though your name is Jacob, you will no longer be called Jacob. Instead, your name will be Israel.” So God named him Israel. ¹¹And God told him, “I am God Almighty. Be fruitful and multiply. A nation—even a company of nations—shall come from you, and kings shall descend from you. ¹²The land that I gave to Abraham and Isaac I will give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” ¹³Then God went up from the place where He had spoken with him. ¹⁴So Jacob set up a pillar in the place where God had spoken with him—a stone marker—and he poured out a drink offering on it and anointed it with oil. ¹⁵Jacob called the place where God had spoken with him Bethel. ¹⁶Later, they set out from Bethel, and while they were still some distance from Ephrath, Rachel began to give birth, and her labor was difficult. ¹⁷During her severe labor, the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid, for you are having another son.” ¹⁸And with her last breath—for she was dying—she named him Ben-oni. But his father called him Benjamin. ¹⁹So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). ²⁰Jacob set up a pillar on her grave; it marks Rachel’s tomb to this day. ²¹Israel again set out and pitched his tent beyond the Tower of Eder. ²²While Israel was living in that region, Reuben went in and slept with his father’s concubine Bilhah, and Israel heard about it. Jacob had twelve sons: ²³The sons of Leah were Reuben the firstborn of Jacob, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, and Zebulun. ²⁴The sons of Rachel were Joseph and Benjamin. ²⁵The sons of Rachel’s maidservant Bilhah were Dan and Naphtali. ²⁶And the sons of Leah’s maidservant Zilpah were Gad and Asher. These are the sons of Jacob, who were born to him in Paddan-aram. ²⁷Jacob returned to his father Isaac at Mamre, near Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron), where Abraham and Isaac had stayed. ²⁸And Isaac lived 180 years. ²⁹Then he breathed his last and died and was gathered to his people, old and full of years. And his sons Esau and Jacob buried him.