Day 231 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 119:169–176

¹⁶⁹May my cry come before You, O LORD; give me understanding according to Your word. ¹⁷⁰May my plea come before You; rescue me according to Your promise. ¹⁷¹My lips pour forth praise, for You teach me Your statutes. ¹⁷²My tongue sings of Your word, for all Your commandments are righteous. ¹⁷³May Your hand be ready to help me, for I have chosen Your precepts. ¹⁷⁴I long for Your salvation, O LORD, and Your law is my delight. ¹⁷⁵Let me live to praise You; may Your judgments sustain me. ¹⁷⁶I have strayed like a lost sheep; seek Your servant, for I have not forgotten Your commandments.

New Testament·Romans 9

¹I speak the truth in Christ; I am not lying, as confirmed by my conscience in the Holy Spirit. ²I have deep sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. ³For I could wish that I myself were cursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my own flesh and blood, ⁴the people of Israel. Theirs is the adoption as sons; theirs the divine glory and the covenants; theirs the giving of the law, the temple worship, and the promises. ⁵Theirs are the patriarchs, and from them proceeds the human descent of Christ, who is God over all, forever worthy of praise! Amen. ⁶It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. ⁷Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” ⁸So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. ⁹For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.” ¹⁰Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. ¹¹Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, ¹²not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³So it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.” ¹⁴What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Certainly not! ¹⁵For He says to Moses: “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” ¹⁶So then, it does not depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display My power in you, and that My name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸Therefore God has mercy on whom He wants to have mercy, and He hardens whom He wants to harden. ¹⁹One of you will say to me, “Then why does God still find fault? For who can resist His will?” ²⁰But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to Him who formed it, “Why did You make me like this?” ²¹Does not the potter have the right to make from the same lump of clay one vessel for special occasions and another for common use? ²²What if God, intending to show His wrath and make His power known, bore with great patience the vessels of His wrath, prepared for destruction? ²³What if He did this to make the riches of His glory known to the vessels of His mercy, whom He prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴including us, whom He has called not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵As He says in Hosea: “I will call them ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved,” ²⁶and, “It will happen that in the very place where it was said to them, ‘You are not My people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’” ²⁷Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: “Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved. ²⁸For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.” ²⁹It is just as Isaiah foretold: “Unless the Lord of Hosts had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have resembled Gomorrah.” ³⁰What then will we say? That the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained it, a righteousness that is by faith; ³¹but Israel, who pursued a law of righteousness, has not attained it. ³²Why not? Because their pursuit was not by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, ³³as it is written: “See, I lay in Zion a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense; and the one who believes in Him will never be put to shame.”

Old Testament·Nehemiah 7:39–8:18

³⁹The priests: the descendants of Jedaiah (through the house of Jeshua), 973; ⁴⁰the descendants of Immer, 1,052; ⁴¹the descendants of Pashhur, 1,247; ⁴²and the descendants of Harim, 1,017. ⁴³The Levites: the descendants of Jeshua (through Kadmiel, through the line of Hodevah), 74. ⁴⁴The singers: the descendants of Asaph, 148. ⁴⁵The gatekeepers: the descendants of Shallum, the descendants of Ater, the descendants of Talmon, the descendants of Akkub, the descendants of Hatita, and the descendants of Shobai, 138 in all. ⁴⁶The temple servants: the descendants of Ziha, the descendants of Hasupha, the descendants of Tabbaoth, ⁴⁷the descendants of Keros, the descendants of Sia, the descendants of Padon, ⁴⁸the descendants of Lebanah, the descendants of Hagabah, the descendants of Shalmai, ⁴⁹the descendants of Hanan, the descendants of Giddel, the descendants of Gahar, ⁵⁰the descendants of Reaiah, the descendants of Rezin, the descendants of Nekoda, ⁵¹the descendants of Gazzam, the descendants of Uzza, the descendants of Paseah, ⁵²the descendants of Besai, the descendants of Meunim, the descendants of Nephushesim, ⁵³the descendants of Bakbuk, the descendants of Hakupha, the descendants of Harhur, ⁵⁴the descendants of Bazlith, the descendants of Mehida, the descendants of Harsha, ⁵⁵the descendants of Barkos, the descendants of Sisera, the descendants of Temah, ⁵⁶the descendants of Neziah, and the descendants of Hatipha. ⁵⁷The descendants of the servants of Solomon: the descendants of Sotai, the descendants of Sophereth, the descendants of Perida, ⁵⁸the descendants of Jaala, the descendants of Darkon, the descendants of Giddel, ⁵⁹the descendants of Shephatiah, the descendants of Hattil, the descendants of Pochereth-hazzebaim, and the descendants of Amon. ⁶⁰The temple servants and descendants of the servants of Solomon numbered 392 in all. ⁶¹The following came up from Tel-melah, Tel-harsha, Cherub, Addon, and Immer, but could not prove that their families were descended from Israel: ⁶²the descendants of Delaiah, the descendants of Tobiah, and the descendants of Nekoda, 642 in all. ⁶³And from among the priests: the descendants of Hobaiah, the descendants of Hakkoz, and the descendants of Barzillai (who had married a daughter of Barzillai the Gileadite and was called by their name). ⁶⁴These men searched for their family records, but they could not find them and so were excluded from the priesthood as unclean. ⁶⁵The governor ordered them not to eat the most holy things until there was a priest to consult the Urim and Thummim. ⁶⁶The whole assembly numbered 42,360, ⁶⁷in addition to their 7,337 menservants and maidservants, as well as their 245 male and female singers. ⁶⁸They had 736 horses, 245 mules, ⁶⁹435 camels, and 6,720 donkeys. ⁷⁰Some of the heads of the families contributed to the project. The governor gave to the treasury 1,000 darics of gold, 50 bowls, and 530 priestly garments. ⁷¹And some of the heads of the families gave to the treasury for the project 20,000 darics of gold and 2,200 minas of silver. ⁷²The rest of the people gave a total of 20,000 darics of gold, 2,000 minas of silver, and 67 priestly garments. ⁷³So the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, and temple servants, along with some of the people and the rest of the Israelites, settled in their own towns. And by the seventh month the Israelites had settled in their towns.

8At that time all the people gathered together in the square before the Water Gate, and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring out the Book of the Law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded for Israel. ²On the first day of the seventh month, Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of men and women and all who could listen and understand. ³So Ezra read it aloud from daybreak until noon as he faced the square before the Water Gate, in front of the men and women and those who could understand. And all the people listened attentively to the Book of the Law. ⁴Ezra the scribe stood on a high wooden platform built for this occasion. At his right side stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah, and at his left were Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam. ⁵Ezra opened the book in full view of all the people, since he was standing above them all, and as he opened it, all the people stood up. ⁶Then Ezra blessed the LORD, the great God, and with their hands uplifted, all the people said, “Amen, Amen!” Then they bowed down and worshiped the LORD with their faces to the ground. ⁷The Levites—Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, and Pelaiah—instructed the people in the Law as they stood in their places. ⁸So they read from the Book of the Law of God, explaining it and giving insight, so that the people could understand what was being read. ⁹Nehemiah the governor, Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who were instructing the people said to all of them, “This day is holy to the LORD your God. Do not mourn or weep.” For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Law. ¹⁰Then Nehemiah told them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send out portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.” ¹¹And the Levites calmed all the people, saying, “Be still, since today is holy. Do not grieve.” ¹²Then all the people began to eat and drink, to send out portions, and to rejoice greatly, because they understood the words that had been made known to them. ¹³On the second day of the month, the heads of all the families, along with the priests and Levites, gathered around Ezra the scribe to study the words of the Law. ¹⁴And they found written in the Law, which the LORD had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites were to dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month. ¹⁵So they proclaimed this message and spread it throughout their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, “Go out to the hill country and bring back branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees, to make booths, as it is written.” ¹⁶And the people went out, brought back branches, and made booths on their own rooftops, in their courtyards, in the court of the house of God, and in the squares by the Water Gate and by the Gate of Ephraim. ¹⁷The whole assembly who had returned from exile made booths and lived in them. From the days of Joshua son of Nun until that day, the Israelites had not celebrated like this. And there was great rejoicing. ¹⁸Day after day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. The Israelites kept the feast for seven days, and on the eighth day they held an assembly, according to the ordinance.