Day 21 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 18:7–15

⁷Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled; they were shaken because He burned with anger. ⁸Smoke rose from His nostrils, and consuming fire came from His mouth; glowing coals blazed forth. ⁹He parted the heavens and came down with dark clouds beneath His feet. ¹⁰He mounted a cherub and flew; He soared on the wings of the wind. ¹¹He made darkness His hiding place, and storm clouds a canopy around Him. ¹²From the brightness of His presence His clouds advanced— hailstones and coals of fire. ¹³The LORD thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded— hailstones and coals of fire. ¹⁴He shot His arrows and scattered the foes; He hurled lightning and routed them. ¹⁵The channels of the sea appeared, and the foundations of the world were exposed, at Your rebuke, O LORD, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils.

New Testament·Matthew 13:41–58

⁴¹The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will weed out of His kingdom every cause of sin and all who practice lawlessness. ⁴²And they will throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. He who has ears, let him hear. ⁴⁴The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and in his joy he went and sold all he had and bought that field. ⁴⁵Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls. ⁴⁶When he found one very precious pearl, he went away and sold all he had and bought it. ⁴⁷Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was cast into the sea and caught all kinds of fish. ⁴⁸When it was full, the men pulled it ashore. Then they sat down and sorted the good fish into containers, but threw the bad away. ⁴⁹So will it be at the end of the age: The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous, ⁵⁰and throw them into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁵¹Have you understood all these things?” “Yes,” they answered. ⁵²Then He told them, “For this reason, every scribe who has been discipled in the kingdom of heaven is like a homeowner who brings out of his storeroom new treasures as well as old.” ⁵³When Jesus had finished these parables, He withdrew from that place. ⁵⁴Coming to His hometown, He taught the people in their synagogue, and they were astonished. “Where did this man get such wisdom and miraculous powers?” they asked. ⁵⁵“Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t His mother’s name Mary, and aren’t His brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? ⁵⁶Aren’t all His sisters with us as well? Where then did this man get all these things?” ⁵⁷And they took offense at Him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own household is a prophet without honor.” ⁵⁸And He did not do many miracles there, because of their unbelief.

Old Testament·Genesis 37–38

¹Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had resided, the land of Canaan. ²This is the account of Jacob. When Joseph was seventeen years old, he was tending the flock with his brothers, the sons of his father’s wives Bilhah and Zilpah, and he brought their father a bad report about them. ³Now Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons, because Joseph had been born to him in his old age; so he made him a robe of many colors. ⁴When Joseph’s brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. ⁵Then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. ⁶He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: ⁷We were binding sheaves of grain in the field, and suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to mine.” ⁸“Do you intend to reign over us?” his brothers asked. “Will you actually rule us?” So they hated him even more because of his dream and his statements. ⁹Then Joseph had another dream and told it to his brothers. “Look,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” ¹⁰He told his father and brothers, but his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream that you have had? Will your mother and brothers and I actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” ¹¹And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept in mind what he had said. ¹²Some time later, Joseph’s brothers had gone to pasture their father’s flocks near Shechem. ¹³Israel said to him, “Are not your brothers pasturing the flocks at Shechem? Get ready; I am sending you to them.” “I am ready,” Joseph replied. ¹⁴Then Israel told him, “Go now and see how your brothers and the flocks are faring, and bring word back to me.” So he sent him off from the Valley of Hebron. And when Joseph arrived in Shechem, ¹⁵a man found him wandering in the field and asked, “What are you looking for?” ¹⁶“I am looking for my brothers,” Joseph replied. “Can you please tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?” ¹⁷“They have moved on from here,” the man answered. “I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’” So Joseph set out after his brothers and found them at Dothan. ¹⁸Now Joseph’s brothers saw him in the distance, and before he arrived, they plotted to kill him. ¹⁹“Here comes that dreamer!” they said to one another. ²⁰“Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. We can say that a vicious animal has devoured him. Then we shall see what becomes of his dreams!” ²¹When Reuben heard this, he tried to rescue Joseph from their hands. “Let us not take his life,” he said. ²²“Do not shed his blood. Throw him into this pit in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him.” Reuben said this so that he could rescue Joseph from their hands and return him to his father. ²³So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe—the robe of many colors he was wearing— ²⁴and they took him and threw him into the pit. Now the pit was empty, with no water in it. ²⁵And as they sat down to eat a meal, they looked up and saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. Their camels were carrying spices, balm, and myrrh on their way down to Egypt. ²⁶Then Judah said to his brothers, “What profit will we gain if we kill our brother and cover up his blood? ²⁷Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand on him; for he is our brother, our own flesh.” And they agreed. ²⁸So when the Midianite traders passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the pit and sold him for twenty shekels of silver to the Ishmaelites, who took him to Egypt. ²⁹When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not there, he tore his clothes, ³⁰returned to his brothers, and said, “The boy is gone! What am I going to do?” ³¹Then they took Joseph’s robe, slaughtered a young goat, and dipped the robe in its blood. ³²They sent the robe of many colors to their father and said, “We found this. Examine it to see whether it is your son’s robe or not.” ³³His father recognized it and said, “It is my son’s robe! A vicious animal has devoured him. Joseph has surely been torn to pieces!” ³⁴Then Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth around his waist, and mourned for his son many days. ³⁵All his sons and daughters tried to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. “No,” he said. “I will go down to Sheol mourning for my son.” So his father wept for him. ³⁶Meanwhile, the Midianites sold Joseph in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

38About that time, Judah left his brothers and settled near a man named Hirah, an Adullamite. ²There Judah saw the daughter of a Canaanite man named Shua, and he took her as a wife and slept with her. ³So she conceived and gave birth to a son, and Judah named him Er. ⁴Again she conceived and gave birth to a son, and she named him Onan. ⁵Then she gave birth to another son and named him Shelah; it was at Chezib that she gave birth to him. ⁶Now Judah acquired a wife for Er, his firstborn, and her name was Tamar. ⁷But Er, Judah’s firstborn, was wicked in the sight of the LORD; so the LORD put him to death. ⁸Then Judah said to Onan, “Sleep with your brother’s wife. Perform your duty as her brother-in-law and raise up offspring for your brother.” ⁹But Onan knew that the offspring would not belong to him; so whenever he would sleep with his brother’s wife, he would spill his seed on the ground so that he would not produce offspring for his brother. ¹⁰What he did was wicked in the sight of the LORD, so He put Onan to death as well. ¹¹Then Judah said to his daughter-in-law Tamar, “Live as a widow in your father’s house until my son Shelah grows up.” For he thought, “He may die too, like his brothers.” So Tamar went to live in her father’s house. ¹²After a long time Judah’s wife, the daughter of Shua, died. When Judah had finished mourning, he and his friend Hirah the Adullamite went up to his sheepshearers at Timnah. ¹³When Tamar was told, “Your father-in-law is going up to Timnah to shear his sheep,” ¹⁴she removed her widow’s garments, covered her face with a veil to disguise herself, and sat at the entrance to Enaim, which is on the way to Timnah. For she saw that although Shelah had grown up, she had not been given to him as a wife. ¹⁵When Judah saw her, he thought she was a prostitute because she had covered her face. ¹⁶Not realizing that she was his daughter-in-law, he went over to her and said, “Come now, let me sleep with you.” “What will you give me for sleeping with you?” she inquired. ¹⁷“I will send you a young goat from my flock,” Judah answered. But she replied, “Only if you leave me something as a pledge until you send it.” ¹⁸“What pledge should I give you?” he asked. She answered, “Your seal and your cord, and the staff in your hand.” So he gave them to her and slept with her, and she became pregnant by him. ¹⁹Then Tamar got up and departed. And she removed her veil and put on her widow’s garments again. ²⁰Now when Judah sent his friend Hirah the Adullamite with the young goat to collect the items he had left with the woman, he could not find her. ²¹He asked the men of that place, “Where is the shrine prostitute who was beside the road at Enaim?” “No shrine prostitute has been here,” they answered. ²²So Hirah returned to Judah and said, “I could not find her, and furthermore, the men of that place said, ‘No shrine prostitute has been here.’” ²³“Let her keep the items,” Judah replied. “Otherwise we will become a laughingstock. After all, I did send her this young goat, but you could not find her.” ²⁴About three months later, Judah was told, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has prostituted herself, and now she is pregnant.” “Bring her out!” Judah replied. “Let her be burned to death!” ²⁵As she was being brought out, Tamar sent a message to her father-in-law: “I am pregnant by the man to whom these items belong.” And she added, “Please examine them. Whose seal and cord and staff are these?” ²⁶Judah recognized the items and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again. ²⁷When the time came for Tamar to give birth, there were twins in her womb. ²⁸And as she was giving birth, one of them put out his hand; so the midwife took a scarlet thread and tied it around his wrist. “This one came out first,” she announced. ²⁹But when he pulled his hand back and his brother came out, she said, “You have broken out first!” So he was named Perez. ³⁰Then his brother came out with the scarlet thread around his wrist, and he was named Zerah.