Day 71 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 44:17–26

¹⁷All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten You or betrayed Your covenant. ¹⁸Our hearts have not turned back; our steps have not strayed from Your path. ¹⁹But You have crushed us in the lair of jackals; You have covered us with deepest darkness. ²⁰If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god, ²¹would not God have discovered, since He knows the secrets of the heart? ²²Yet for Your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered. ²³Wake up, O Lord! Why are You sleeping? Arise! Do not reject us forever. ²⁴Why do You hide Your face and forget our affliction and oppression? ²⁵For our soul has sunk to the dust; our bodies cling to the earth. ²⁶Rise up; be our help! Redeem us on account of Your loving devotion.

New Testament·Mark 12:1–23

¹Then Jesus began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a wine vat, and built a watchtower. Then he rented it out to some tenants and went away on a journey. ²At harvest time, he sent a servant to the tenants to collect his share of the fruit of the vineyard. ³But they seized the servant, beat him, and sent him away empty-handed. ⁴Then he sent them another servant, and they struck him over the head and treated him shamefully. ⁵He sent still another, and this one they killed. He sent many others; some they beat and others they killed. ⁶Finally, having one beloved son, he sent him to them. ‘They will respect my son,’ he said. ⁷But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’ ⁸So they seized the son, killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard. ⁹What then will the owner of the vineyard do? He will come and kill those tenants, and will give the vineyard to others. ¹⁰Have you never read this Scripture: ‘The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. ¹¹This is from the Lord, and it is marvelous in our eyes’?” ¹²At this, the leaders sought to arrest Jesus, for they knew that He had spoken this parable against them. But fearing the crowd, they left Him and went away. ¹³Later, they sent some of the Pharisees and Herodians to catch Jesus in His words. ¹⁴“Teacher,” they said, “we know that You are honest and seek favor from no one. Indeed, You are impartial and teach the way of God in accordance with the truth. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar or not? Should we pay them or not?” ¹⁵But Jesus saw through their hypocrisy and said, “Why are you testing Me? Bring Me a denarius to inspect.” ¹⁶So they brought it, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?” “Caesar’s,” they answered. ¹⁷Then Jesus told them, “Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.” And they marveled at Him. ¹⁸Then the Sadducees, who say there is no resurrection, came to Jesus and questioned Him: ¹⁹“Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man’s brother dies and leaves a wife but no children, the man is to marry his brother’s widow and raise up offspring for him. ²⁰Now there were seven brothers. The first one married and died, leaving no children. ²¹Then the second one married the widow, but he also died and left no children. And the third did likewise. ²²In this way, none of the seven left any children. And last of all, the woman died. ²³In the resurrection, then, whose wife will she be? For all seven were married to her.”

Old Testament·Numbers 5–6

¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ²“Command the Israelites to send away from the camp anyone with a skin disease, anyone who has a bodily discharge, and anyone who is defiled by a dead body. ³You must send away male and female alike; send them outside the camp so they will not defile their camp, where I dwell among them.” ⁴So the Israelites did this, sending such people outside the camp. They did just as the LORD had instructed Moses. ⁵And the LORD said to Moses, ⁶“Tell the Israelites that when a man or woman acts unfaithfully against the LORD by committing any sin against another, that person is guilty ⁷and must confess the sin he has committed. He must make full restitution, add a fifth to its value, and give all this to the one he has wronged. ⁸But if the man has no relative to whom restitution can be made for the wrong, the restitution belongs to the LORD and must be given to the priest along with the ram of atonement, by which the atonement is made for him. ⁹Every sacred contribution the Israelites bring to the priest shall belong to him. ¹⁰Each man’s sacred gifts are his own, but whatever he gives to the priest will belong to the priest.” ¹¹Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if any man’s wife goes astray and is unfaithful to him ¹³by sleeping with another man, and it is concealed from her husband and her impurity is undetected (since there is no witness against her and she was not caught in the act), ¹⁴and if a feeling of jealousy comes over her husband and he suspects his wife who has defiled herself—or if a feeling of jealousy comes over him and he suspects her even though she has not defiled herself— ¹⁵then he is to bring his wife to the priest. He must also bring for her an offering of a tenth of an ephah of barley flour. He is not to pour oil over it or put frankincense on it, because it is a grain offering for jealousy, an offering of memorial as a reminder of iniquity. ¹⁶The priest is to bring the wife forward and have her stand before the LORD. ¹⁷Then he is to take some holy water in a clay jar and put some of the dust from the tabernacle floor into the water. ¹⁸After the priest has the woman stand before the LORD, he is to let down her hair and place in her hands the grain offering of memorial, which is the grain offering for jealousy. The priest is to hold the bitter water that brings a curse. ¹⁹And he is to put the woman under oath and say to her, ‘If no other man has slept with you and you have not gone astray and become defiled while under your husband’s authority, may you be immune to this bitter water that brings a curse. ²⁰But if you have gone astray while under your husband’s authority and have defiled yourself and lain carnally with a man other than your husband’— ²¹and the priest shall have the woman swear under the oath of the curse—‘then may the LORD make you an attested curse among your people by making your thigh shrivel and your belly swell. ²²May this water that brings a curse enter your stomach and cause your belly to swell and your thigh to shrivel.’ Then the woman is to say, ‘Amen, Amen.’ ²³And the priest shall write these curses on a scroll and wash them off into the bitter water. ²⁴He is to have the woman drink the bitter water that brings a curse, and it will enter her and cause her bitter suffering. ²⁵The priest shall take from her hand the grain offering for jealousy, wave it before the LORD, and bring it to the altar. ²⁶Then the priest is to take a handful of the grain offering as a memorial portion and burn it on the altar; after that he is to have the woman drink the water. ²⁷When he has made her drink the water, if she has defiled herself and been unfaithful to her husband, then the water that brings a curse will enter her and cause bitter suffering; her belly will swell, her thigh will shrivel, and she will become accursed among her people. ²⁸But if the woman has not defiled herself and is clean, she will be unaffected and able to conceive children. ²⁹This is the law of jealousy when a wife goes astray and defiles herself while under her husband’s authority, ³⁰or when a feeling of jealousy comes over a husband and he suspects his wife. He is to have the woman stand before the LORD, and the priest is to apply to her this entire law. ³¹The husband will be free from guilt, but the woman shall bear her iniquity.”

6And the LORD said to Moses, ²“Speak to the Israelites and tell them that if a man or woman makes a special vow, the vow of a Nazirite, to separate himself to the LORD, ³he is to abstain from wine and strong drink. He must not drink vinegar made from wine or strong drink, and he must not drink any grape juice or eat fresh grapes or raisins. ⁴All the days of his separation, he is not to eat anything that comes from the grapevine, not even the seeds or skins. ⁵For the entire period of his vow of separation, no razor shall pass over his head. He must be holy until the time of his separation to the LORD is complete; he must let the hair of his head grow long. ⁶Throughout the days of his separation to the LORD, he must not go near a dead body. ⁷Even if his father or mother or brother or sister should die, he is not to defile himself, because the crown of consecration to his God is upon his head. ⁸Throughout the time of his separation, he is holy to the LORD. ⁹If someone suddenly dies in his presence and defiles his consecrated head of hair, he must shave his head on the day of his cleansing—the seventh day. ¹⁰On the eighth day he must bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons to the priest at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ¹¹And the priest is to offer one as a sin offering and the other as a burnt offering to make atonement for him, because he has sinned by being in the presence of the dead body. On that day he must consecrate his head again. ¹²He must rededicate his time of separation to the LORD and bring a year-old male lamb as a guilt offering. But the preceding days shall not be counted, because his separation was defiled. ¹³Now this is the law of the Nazirite when his time of separation is complete: He must be brought to the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, ¹⁴and he is to present an offering to the LORD of an unblemished year-old male lamb as a burnt offering, an unblemished year-old female lamb as a sin offering, and an unblemished ram as a peace offering— ¹⁵together with their grain offerings and drink offerings—and a basket of unleavened cakes made from fine flour mixed with oil and unleavened wafers coated with oil. ¹⁶The priest is to present all these before the LORD and make the sin offering and the burnt offering. ¹⁷He shall also offer the ram as a peace offering to the LORD, along with the basket of unleavened bread. And the priest is to offer the accompanying grain offering and drink offering. ¹⁸Then at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting, the Nazirite is to shave his consecrated head, take the hair, and put it on the fire under the peace offering. ¹⁹And the priest is to take the boiled shoulder from the ram, one unleavened cake from the basket, and one unleavened wafer, and put them into the hands of the Nazirite who has just shaved the hair of his consecration. ²⁰The priest shall then wave them as a wave offering before the LORD. This is a holy portion for the priest, in addition to the breast of the wave offering and the thigh that was presented. After that, the Nazirite may drink wine. ²¹This is the law of the Nazirite who vows his offering to the LORD for his separation, in addition to whatever else he can afford; he must fulfill whatever vow he makes, according to the law of his separation.” ²²Then the LORD said to Moses, ²³“Tell Aaron and his sons: This is how you are to bless the Israelites. Say to them: ²⁴‘May the LORD bless you and keep you; ²⁵may the LORD cause His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; ²⁶may the LORD lift up His countenance toward you and give you peace.’ ²⁷So they shall put My name on the Israelites, and I will bless them.”