Day 83 reading

Wisdom·Psalm 51:7–19

⁷Purify me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. ⁸Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones You have crushed rejoice. ⁹Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. ¹⁰Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. ¹¹Cast me not away from Your presence; take not Your Holy Spirit from me. ¹²Restore to me the joy of Your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. ¹³Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will return to You. ¹⁴Deliver me from bloodguilt, O God, the God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing of Your righteousness. ¹⁵O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare Your praise. ¹⁶For You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; You take no pleasure in burnt offerings. ¹⁷The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. ¹⁸In Your good pleasure, cause Zion to prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem. ¹⁹Then You will delight in righteous sacrifices, in whole burnt offerings; then bulls will be offered on Your altar.

New Testament·Luke 1:44–65

⁴⁴For as soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. ⁴⁵Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord’s word to her will be fulfilled.” ⁴⁶Then Mary said: “My soul magnifies the Lord, ⁴⁷and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior! ⁴⁸For He has looked with favor on the humble state of His servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed. ⁴⁹For the Mighty One has done great things for me. Holy is His name. ⁵⁰His mercy extends to those who fear Him, from generation to generation. ⁵¹He has performed mighty deeds with His arm; He has scattered those who are proud in the thoughts of their hearts. ⁵²He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble. ⁵³He has filled the hungry with good things, but has sent the rich away empty. ⁵⁴He has helped His servant Israel, remembering to be merciful, ⁵⁵as He promised to our fathers, to Abraham and his descendants forever.” ⁵⁶Mary stayed with Elizabeth for about three months and then returned home. ⁵⁷When the time came for Elizabeth to have her child, she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they rejoiced with her. ⁵⁹On the eighth day, when they came to circumcise the child, they were going to name him after his father Zechariah. ⁶⁰But his mother replied, “No! He shall be called John.” ⁶¹They said to her, “There is no one among your relatives who bears this name.” ⁶²So they made signs to his father to find out what he wanted to name the child. ⁶³Zechariah asked for a tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they were all amazed. ⁶⁴Immediately Zechariah’s mouth was opened and his tongue was released, and he began to speak, praising God. ⁶⁵All their neighbors were filled with awe, and people throughout the hill country of Judea were talking about these events.

Old Testament·Numbers 24–25

¹And when Balaam saw that it pleased the LORD to bless Israel, he did not resort to sorcery as on previous occasions, but he turned his face toward the wilderness. ²When Balaam looked up and saw Israel encamped tribe by tribe, the Spirit of God came upon him, ³and he lifted up an oracle, saying: “This is the prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of a man whose eyes are open, ⁴the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open: ⁵How lovely are your tents, O Jacob, your dwellings, O Israel! ⁶They spread out like palm groves, like gardens beside a stream, like aloes the LORD has planted, like cedars beside the waters. ⁷Water will flow from his buckets, and his seed will have abundant water. His king will be greater than Agag, and his kingdom will be exalted. ⁸God brought him out of Egypt with strength like a wild ox, to devour hostile nations and crush their bones, to pierce them with arrows. ⁹He crouches, he lies down like a lion; like a lioness, who dares to rouse him? Blessed are those who bless you and cursed are those who curse you.” ¹⁰Then Balak’s anger burned against Balaam, and he struck his hands together and said to Balaam, “I summoned you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have persisted in blessing them these three times. ¹¹Therefore, flee at once to your home! I said I would richly reward you, but instead the LORD has denied your reward.” ¹²Balaam answered Balak, “Did I not already tell the messengers you sent me ¹³that even if Balak were to give me his house full of silver and gold, I could not do anything of my own accord, good or bad, to go beyond the command of the LORD? I will speak whatever the LORD says. ¹⁴Now I am going back to my people, but come, let me warn you what this people will do to your people in the days to come.” ¹⁵Then Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying, “This is the prophecy of Balaam son of Beor, the prophecy of a man whose eyes are open, ¹⁶the prophecy of one who hears the words of God, who has knowledge from the Most High, who sees a vision from the Almighty, who bows down with eyes wide open: ¹⁷I see him, but not now; I behold him, but not near. A star will come forth from Jacob, and a scepter will arise from Israel. He will crush the skulls of Moab and strike down all the sons of Sheth. ¹⁸Edom will become a possession, as will Seir, his enemy; but Israel will perform with valor. ¹⁹A ruler will come from Jacob and destroy the survivors of the city.” ²⁰Then Balaam saw Amalek and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Amalek was first among the nations, but his end is destruction.” ²¹Next he saw the Kenites and lifted up an oracle, saying: “Your dwelling place is secure, and your nest is set in a cliff. ²²Yet Kain will be destroyed when Asshur takes you captive.” ²³Once more Balaam lifted up an oracle, saying: “Ah, who can live unless God has ordained it? ²⁴Ships will come from the coasts of Cyprus; they will subdue Asshur and Eber, but they too will perish forever.” ²⁵Then Balaam arose and returned to his homeland, and Balak also went on his way.

25While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with the daughters of Moab, ²who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods. ³So Israel joined in worshiping Baal of Peor, and the anger of the LORD burned against them. ⁴Then the LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that His fierce anger may turn away from Israel.” ⁵So Moses told the judges of Israel, “Each of you must kill all of his men who have joined in worshiping Baal of Peor.” ⁶Just then an Israelite man brought to his family a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses and the whole congregation of Israel while they were weeping at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. ⁷On seeing this, Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, got up from the assembly, took a spear in his hand, ⁸followed the Israelite into his tent, and drove the spear through both of them—through the Israelite and on through the belly of the woman. So the plague against the Israelites was halted, ⁹but those who died in the plague numbered 24,000. ¹⁰Then the LORD said to Moses, ¹¹“Phinehas son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, has turned My wrath away from the Israelites; for he was zealous for My sake among them, so that I did not consume the Israelites in My zeal. ¹²Declare, therefore, that I am granting him My covenant of peace. ¹³It will be a covenant of permanent priesthood for him and his descendants, because he was zealous for his God and made atonement for the Israelites.” ¹⁴The name of the Israelite who was slain with the Midianite woman was Zimri son of Salu, the leader of a Simeonite family. ¹⁵And the name of the slain Midianite woman was Cozbi, the daughter of Zur, a tribal chief of a Midianite family. ¹⁶And the LORD said to Moses, ¹⁷“Attack the Midianites and strike them dead. ¹⁸For they assailed you deceitfully when they seduced you in the matter of Peor and their sister Cozbi, the daughter of the Midianite leader, the woman who was killed on the day the plague came because of Peor.”