Day 233 reading

Wisdom·Psalms 121–122

¹I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? ²My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth. ³He will not allow your foot to slip; your Protector will not slumber. ⁴Behold, the Protector of Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. ⁵The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is the shade on your right hand. ⁶The sun will not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. ⁷The LORD will guard you from all evil; He will preserve your soul. ⁸The LORD will watch over your coming and going, both now and forevermore.

122I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the LORD.” ²Our feet are standing in your gates, O Jerusalem. ³Jerusalem is built up as a city united together, ⁴where the tribes go up, the tribes of the LORD, as a testimony for Israel, to give thanks to the name of the LORD. ⁵For there the thrones of judgment stand, the thrones of the house of David. ⁶Pray for the peace of Jerusalem: “May those who love you prosper. ⁷May there be peace within your walls, and prosperity inside your fortresses.” ⁸For the sake of my brothers and friends, I will say, “Peace be within you.” ⁹For the sake of the house of the LORD our God, I will seek your prosperity.

New Testament·Romans 11:1–19

¹I ask then, did God reject His people? Certainly not! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham, from the tribe of Benjamin. ²God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says about Elijah, how he appealed to God against Israel: ³“Lord, they have killed Your prophets and torn down Your altars. I am the only one left, and they are seeking my life as well”? ⁴And what was the divine reply to him? “I have reserved for Myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” ⁵In the same way, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. ⁶And if it is by grace, then it is no longer by works. Otherwise, grace would no longer be grace. ⁷What then? What Israel was seeking, it failed to obtain, but the elect did. The others were hardened, ⁸as it is written: “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes that could not see, and ears that could not hear, to this very day.” ⁹And David says: “May their table become a snare and a trap, a stumbling block and a retribution to them. ¹⁰May their eyes be darkened so they cannot see, and their backs be bent forever.” ¹¹I ask then, did they stumble so as to fall beyond recovery? Certainly not! However, because of their trespass, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel jealous. ¹²But if their trespass means riches for the world, and their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring! ¹³I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry ¹⁴in the hope that I may provoke my own people to jealousy and save some of them. ¹⁵For if their rejection is the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead? ¹⁶If the first part of the dough is holy, so is the whole batch; if the root is holy, so are the branches. ¹⁷Now if some branches have been broken off, and you, a wild olive shoot, have been grafted in among the others to share in the nourishment of the olive root, ¹⁸do not boast over those branches. If you do, remember this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you. ¹⁹You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I could be grafted in.”

Old Testament·Nehemiah 10–11

¹Now these were the ones who sealed the document: Nehemiah the governor, son of Hacaliah, and also Zedekiah, ²Seraiah, Azariah, Jeremiah, ³Pashhur, Amariah, Malchijah, ⁴Hattush, Shebaniah, Malluch, ⁵Harim, Meremoth, Obadiah, ⁶Daniel, Ginnethon, Baruch, ⁷Meshullam, Abijah, Mijamin, ⁸Maaziah, Bilgai, and Shemaiah. These were the priests. ⁹The Levites: Jeshua son of Azaniah, Binnui of the sons of Henadad, Kadmiel, ¹⁰and their associates: Shebaniah, Hodiah, Kelita, Pelaiah, Hanan, ¹¹Mica, Rehob, Hashabiah, ¹²Zaccur, Sherebiah, Shebaniah, ¹³Hodiah, Bani, and Beninu. ¹⁴And the leaders of the people: Parosh, Pahath-moab, Elam, Zattu, Bani, ¹⁵Bunni, Azgad, Bebai, ¹⁶Adonijah, Bigvai, Adin, ¹⁷Ater, Hezekiah, Azzur, ¹⁸Hodiah, Hashum, Bezai, ¹⁹Hariph, Anathoth, Nebai, ²⁰Magpiash, Meshullam, Hezir, ²¹Meshezabel, Zadok, Jaddua, ²²Pelatiah, Hanan, Anaiah, ²³Hoshea, Hananiah, Hasshub, ²⁴Hallohesh, Pilha, Shobek, ²⁵Rehum, Hashabnah, Maaseiah, ²⁶Ahijah, Hanan, Anan, ²⁷Malluch, Harim, and Baanah. ²⁸“The rest of the people—the priests, Levites, gatekeepers, singers, temple servants, and all who had separated themselves from the people of the land to obey the Law of God—along with their wives and all their sons and daughters who are able to understand, ²⁹hereby join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the Law of God given through His servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commandments, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord. ³⁰We will not give our daughters in marriage to the people of the land, and we will not take their daughters for our sons. ³¹When the people of the land bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on a Sabbath or holy day. Every seventh year we will let the fields lie fallow, and will cancel every debt. ³²We also place ourselves under the obligation to contribute a third of a shekel yearly for the service of the house of our God: ³³for the showbread, for the regular grain offerings and burnt offerings, for the Sabbath offerings, for the New Moons and appointed feasts, for the holy offerings, for the sin offerings to make atonement for Israel, and for all the duties of the house of our God. ³⁴We have cast lots among the priests, Levites, and people for the donation of wood by our families at the appointed times each year. They are to bring it to the house of our God to burn on the altar of the LORD our God, as it is written in the Law. ³⁵We will also bring the firstfruits of our land and of every fruit tree to the house of the LORD year by year. ³⁶And we will bring the firstborn of our sons and our livestock, as it is written in the Law, and will bring the firstborn of our herds and flocks to the house of our God, to the priests who minister in the house of our God. ³⁷Moreover, we will bring to the priests at the storerooms of the house of our God the firstfruits of our dough, of our grain offerings, of the fruit of all our trees, and of our new wine and oil. A tenth of our produce belongs to the Levites, so that they shall receive tithes in all the towns where we labor. ³⁸A priest of Aaron’s line is to accompany the Levites when they collect the tenth, and the Levites are to bring a tenth of these tithes to the storerooms of the treasury in the house of our God. ³⁹For the Israelites and the Levites are to bring the contributions of grain, new wine, and oil to the storerooms where the articles of the sanctuary are kept and where the ministering priests, the gatekeepers, and the singers stay. Thus we will not neglect the house of our God.”

11Now the leaders of the people settled in Jerusalem, and the rest of the people cast lots to bring one out of ten to live in the holy city of Jerusalem, while the remaining nine were to dwell in their own towns. ²And the people blessed all the men who volunteered to live in Jerusalem. ³These are the heads of the provinces who settled in Jerusalem. (In the villages of Judah, however, each lived on his own property in their towns—the Israelites, priests, Levites, temple servants, and descendants of Solomon’s servants— ⁴while some of the descendants of Judah and Benjamin settled in Jerusalem.) From the descendants of Judah: Athaiah son of Uzziah, the son of Zechariah, the son of Amariah, the son of Shephatiah, the son of Mahalalel, a descendant of Perez; ⁵and Maaseiah son of Baruch, the son of Col-hozeh, the son of Hazaiah, the son of Adaiah, the son of Joiarib, the son of Zechariah, a descendant of Shelah. ⁶The descendants of Perez who settled in Jerusalem totaled 468 men of valor. ⁷From the descendants of Benjamin: Sallu son of Meshullam, the son of Joed, the son of Pedaiah, the son of Kolaiah, the son of Maaseiah, the son of Ithiel, the son of Jeshaiah; ⁸and his followers Gabbai and Sallai—928 men. ⁹Joel son of Zichri was the officer over them, and Judah son of Hassenuah was over the Second District of the city. ¹⁰From the priests: Jedaiah son of Joiarib; Jachin; ¹¹Seraiah son of Hilkiah, the son of Meshullam, the son of Zadok, the son of Meraioth, the son of Ahitub, the chief official of the house of God; ¹²and their associates who did the work at the temple—822 men; Adaiah son of Jeroham, the son of Pelaliah, the son of Amzi, the son of Zechariah, the son of Pashhur, the son of Malchijah; ¹³and his associates, the leaders of families—242 men; Amashai son of Azarel, the son of Ahzai, the son of Meshillemoth, the son of Immer; ¹⁴and his associates —128 mighty men of valor. Zabdiel son of Haggedolim was their overseer. ¹⁵From the Levites: Shemaiah son of Hasshub, the son of Azrikam, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Bunni; ¹⁶Shabbethai and Jozabad, two leaders of the Levites, who supervised the work outside the house of God; ¹⁷Mattaniah son of Mica, the son of Zabdi, the son of Asaph, who led in thanksgiving and prayer; Bakbukiah, second among his associates; and Abda son of Shammua, the son of Galal, the son of Jeduthun. ¹⁸The Levites in the holy city totaled 284. ¹⁹And the gatekeepers: Akkub, Talmon, and their associates, who kept watch at the gates—172 men. ²⁰The rest of the Israelites, with the priests and Levites, were in all the villages of Judah, each on his own inheritance. ²¹The temple servants lived on the hill of Ophel, with Ziha and Gishpa over them. ²²Now the overseer of the Levites in Jerusalem was Uzzi son of Bani, the son of Hashabiah, the son of Mattaniah, the son of Mica. He was one of Asaph’s descendants, who were the singers in charge of the service of the house of God. ²³For there was a command from the king concerning the singers, an ordinance regulating their daily activities. ²⁴Pethahiah son of Meshezabel, a descendant of Zerah son of Judah, was the king’s agent in every matter concerning the people. ²⁵As for the villages with their fields, some of the people of Judah lived in Kiriath-arba, Dibon, Jekabzeel, and their villages; ²⁶in Jeshua, Moladah, and Beth-pelet; ²⁷in Hazar-shual; in Beersheba and its villages; ²⁸in Ziklag; in Meconah and its villages; ²⁹in En-rimmon, Zorah, Jarmuth, ³⁰Zanoah, Adullam, and their villages; in Lachish and its fields; and in Azekah and its villages. So they settled from Beersheba all the way to the Valley of Hinnom. ³¹The descendants of Benjamin from Geba lived in Michmash, Aija, and Bethel with its villages; ³²in Anathoth, Nob, Ananiah, ³³Hazor, Ramah, Gittaim, ³⁴Hadid, Zeboim, Neballat, ³⁵Lod, and Ono; and in the Valley of the Craftsmen. ³⁶And some divisions of the Levites of Judah settled in Benjamin.