APRIL 5
PSALMS: 5, 35, 65, 96, 125
PROVERBS: 5
OLD TESTAMENT: 2 KINGS 8:1 - 9:13
NEW TESTAMENT: ACTS 16:16 - 40
PSALMS: 5
1 For the leader.
On wind instruments.
A psalm of David:
Give ear to my words,
ADONAI, consider my inmost thoughts.
2 Listen to my cry for help,
my king and my God, for I pray to you.
3 ADONAI, in the morning you will hear my voice;
in the morning I lay my needs before you and wait expectantly.
4 For you are not a God who takes pleasure in wickedness;
evil cannot remain with you.
5 Those who brag cannot stand before your eyes,
you hate all who do evil,
6 you destroy those who tell lies,
ADONAI detests men of blood and deceivers.
7 But I can enter your house because of your great grace and love;
I will bow down toward your holy temple in reverence for you.
8 Lead me, ADONAI, in your righteousness
because of those lying in wait for me;
make your way straight before me.
9 For in their mouths there is nothing sincere,
within them are calamities, their throats are open tombs,
they flatter with their tongues.
10 God, declare them guilty!
Let them fall through their own intrigues,
For their many crimes, throw them down;
since they have rebelled against you.
11 But let all who take refuge in you rejoice,
let them forever shout for joy!
Shelter them;
and they will be glad,
those who love your name.
12 For you, ADONAI, bless the righteous;
you surround them with favor like a shield.
PSALMS: 35
1 By David: ADONAI, oppose those who oppose me;
fight against those who fight against me.
2 Grasp your shield and protective gear,
and rise to my defense.
3 Brandish spear and battle-axe against my pursuers;
let me hear you say, "I am your salvation."
4 May those who seek my life be disgraced and put to confusion;
may those who are plotting harm for me be repulsed and put to shame.
5 May they be like chaff before the wind,
with the angel of ADONAI to drive them on.
6 May their way be dark and slippery,
with the angel of ADONAI to pursue them.
7 For unprovoked, they hid their net over a pit;
unprovoked, they dug it for me.
8 May destruction come over him unawares.
May the net he concealed catch himself;
may he fall into it and be destroyed.
9 Then I will be joyful in ADONAI,
I will rejoice in his salvation.
10 All my bones will say, "Who is like you?
Who can rescue the weak from those stronger than they,
the poor and needy from those who exploit them?"
11 Malicious witnesses come forward,
asking me things about which I know nothing.
12 They repay me evil for good;
it makes me feel desolate as a parent bereaved.
13 But I, when they were ill, wore sackcloth;
I put myself out and fasted;
I can pray that what I prayed for them might also happen to me.
14 I behaved as I would for my friend or my brother;
I bent down in sorrow as if mourning my mother.
15 But when I stumble, they gather in glee;
they gather against me and strike me unawares;
they tear me apart unceasingly.
16 With ungodly mocking and grimacing,
they grind their teeth at me.
17 Adonai, how much longer will you look on?
Rescue me from their assaults, save the one life I have from the lions!
18 I will give you thanks in the great assembly,
I will give you praise among huge crowds of people.
19 Don't let those who are wrongfully my enemies gloat over me;
and those who hate me unprovoked -don't let them smirk at me.
20 For they don't speak words of peace but devise ways
to deceive the peaceful of the land.
21 They shout to accuse me,
"Aha! Aha! we saw you with our own eyes!"
22 You saw them, ADONAI;
don't stay silent.
Adonai, don't stay far away from me.
23 Wake up! Get up, my God, my Lord!
Defend me and my cause!
24 Give judgment for me, ADONAI, my God,
as your righteousness demands.
Don't let them gloat over me.
25 Don't let them say to themselves,
"Aha! We got what we wanted!"
or say, "We swallowed them up!"
26 May those who gloat over my distress be disgraced and humiliated.
May those who aggrandize themselves at my expense be covered
with shame and confusion.
27 But may those who delight in my righteousness
shout for joy and be glad!
Let them say always, "How great is ADONAI,
who delights in the peace of his servant!
"Then my tongue will tell of your righteousness
and praise you all day long.
PSALMS: 65
1 For the leader. A psalm of David.
A song: To you, God, in Tziyon, silence is praise;
and vows to you are to be fulfilled.
2 You who listen to prayer,
to you all living creatures come.
3 When deeds of wickedness overwhelm me,
you will atone for our crimes.
4 How blessed are those you choose and bring near,
so that they can remain in your courtyards!
We will be satisfied with the goodness of your house,
the Holy Place of your temple.
5 It is just that you answer us with awesome deeds,
God of our salvation, you in whom all put their trust,
to the ends of the earth and on distant seas.
6 By your strength you set up the mountains.
You are clothed with power.
7 You still the roaring of the seas,
their crashing waves, and the peoples' turmoil.
8 This is why those living at the ends of the earth stand in awe of your signs.
The places where the sun rises and sets you cause to sing for joy.
9 You care for the earth and water it, you enrich it greatly;
with the river of God, full of water,
you provide them grain and prepare the ground.
10 Soaking its furrows and settling its soil,
you soften it with showers and bless its growth.
11 You crown the year with your goodness,
your tracks overflow with richness.
12The desert pastures drip water,
the hills are wrapped with joy,
13 the meadows are clothed with flocks and the valleys blanketed with grain,
so they shout for joy and break into song.
PSALMS: 95
1 Come, let's sing to ADONAI!
Let's shout for joy to the Rock of our salvation!
2 Let's come into his presence with thanksgiving;
let's shout for joy to him with songs of praise.
3 For ADONAI is a great God,
a great king greater than all gods.
4 He holds the depths of the earth in his hands;
the mountain peaks too belong to him.
5 The sea is his - he made it -and
his hands shaped the dry land.
6 Come, let's bow down and worship;
let's kneel before ADONAI who made us.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people in his pasture, the sheep in his care.
If only today you would listen to his voice:
8 "Don't harden your hearts, as you did at M'rivah,
as you did on that day at Massah in the desert,
9 when your fathers put me to the test;
they challenged me, even though they saw my work.
10 For forty years I loathed that generation;
I said, 'This is a people whose hearts go astray,
they don't understand how I do things.'
11 Therefore I swore in my anger
that they would not enter my rest."
PSALMS: 125
1 A song of ascents:
Those who trust in ADONAI are like Mount Tziyon,
which cannot be moved but remains forever.
2 Yerushalayim!
Mountains all around it!
Thus ADONAI is around his people henceforth and forever.
3 For the scepter of wickedness will not rule the inheritance of the righteous,
so that the righteous will not themselves turn their hands to evil.
4 Do good, ADONAI, to the good, to those upright in their hearts.
5 But as for those who turn aside to their own crooked ways,
may ADONAI turn them away, along with those who do evil.
Shalom on Isra'el!
PROVERBS: 5
1 My son, pay attention to my wisdom;
incline your ear to my understanding;
2 so that you will preserve discretion
and your lips keep watch over knowledge.
3 For the lips of a woman who is a stranger drop honey,
her mouth is smoother than oil;
4 but in the end she is as bitter as wormwood,
sharp as a double-edged sword.
5 Her feet go down to death, her steps lead straight to Sh'ol;
6she doesn't walk the level path of life -her course wanders all over,
but she doesn't know it.
7 So now, children, listen to me;
don't turn away from what I am saying:
8 distance your way from her,
stay far from the door of her house;
9 so that you won't give your vigor to others
and your years to someone who is cruel,
10 so strangers won't be filled with your strength
and what you worked for go to a foreign house.
11 Then, when your flesh and bones have shrunk,
at the end of your life, you would moan,
12 "How I hated discipline!
My whole being despised reproof,
13 I ignored what my teachers said,
I didn't listen to my instructors.
14 I took part in almost every kind of evil,
and the whole community knew it."
15 Drink the water from your own cistern,
fresh water from your own well.
16 Let what your springs produce be dispersed outside,
streams of water flowing in the streets;
17 but let them be for you alone
and not for strangers with you.
18 Let your fountain, the wife of your youth, be blessed;
find joy in her
19 a lovely deer, a graceful fawn;
let her breasts satisfy you at all times,
always be infatuated with her love.
20 My son, why be infatuated with an unknown woman?
Why embrace the body of a loose woman?
21 For ADONAI is watching a man's ways;
he surveys all his paths.
22 A wicked person's own crimes will trap him,
he will be held fast by the ropes of his sin.
23 He will die from lack of discipline;
the magnitude of his folly will make him totter and fall.
OLD TESTAMENT: 2 KINGS 8:1 - 9:13
8:1 Now Elisha had spoken to the woman, whose son he had restored to life, saying, Arise, and go you and your household, and sojourn wherever you can sojourn: for the LORD has called for a famine; and it shall also come on the land seven years. 2 The woman arose, and did according to the word of the man of God; and she went with her household, and sojourned in the land of the Pelishtim seven years. 3 It happened at the seven years' end, that the woman returned out of the land of the Pelishtim: and she went forth to cry to the king for her house and for her land. 4 Now the king was talking with Gechazi the servant of the man of God, saying, Please tell me all the great things that Elisha has done. 5 It happened, as he was telling the king how he had restored to life him who was dead, that behold, the woman, whose son he had restored to life, cried to the king for her house and for her land. Gechazi said, My lord, O king, this is the woman, and this is her son, whom Elisha restored to life. 6 When the king asked the woman, she told him. So the king appointed to her a certain officer, saying, Restore all that was hers, and all the fruits of the field since the day that she left the land, even until now. 7 Elisha came to Dammesek; and Ben-Hadad the king of Aram was sick; and it was told him, saying, The man of God is come here. 8 The king said to Haza'el, Take a present in your hand, and go, meet the man of God, and inquire of the LORD by him, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness? 9 So Haza'el went to meet him, and took a present with him, even of every good thing of Dammesek, forty camels' burden, and came and stood before him, and said, Your son Ben-Hadad king of Aram has sent me to you, saying, Shall I recover of this sickness? 10 Elisha said to him, Go, tell him, You shall surely recover; however the LORD has shown me that he shall surely die. 11 He settled his gaze steadfastly [on him], until he was ashamed: and the man of God wept. 12 Haza'el said, Why weeps my lord? He answered, Because I know the evil that you will do to the children of Yisra'el: their strongholds will you set on fire, and their young men will you kill with the sword, and will dash in pieces their little ones, and rip up their women with child. 13 Haza'el said, But what is your servant, who is but a dog, that he should do this great thing? Elisha answered, the LORD has shown me that you shall be king over Aram. 14 Then he departed from Elisha, and came to his master; who said to him, What said Elisha to you? He answered, He told me that you would surely recover. 15 It happened on the next day, that he took the coverlet, and dipped it in water, and spread it on his face, so that he died: and Haza'el reigned in his place. 16 In the fifth year of Yoram the son of Ach'av king of Yisra'el, Yehoshafat being then king of Yehudah, Yehoram the son of Yehoshafat king of Yehudah began to reign. 17 Thirty-two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Yerushalayim. 18 He walked in the way of the kings of Yisra'el, as did the house of Ach'av: for he had the daughter of Ach'av as wife; and he did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD. 19 However the LORD would not destroy Yehudah, for David his servant's sake, as he promised him to give to him a lamp for his children always. 20 In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Yehudah, and made a king over themselves. 21 Then Yoram passed over to Tza`ir, and all his chariots with him: and he rose up by night, and struck the Edom who surrounded him, and the captains of the chariots; and the people fled to their tents. 22 So Edom revolted from under the hand of Yehudah to this day. Then did Livna revolt at the same time. 23 The rest of the acts of Yoram, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yehudah? 24 Yoram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and Achazyah his son reigned in his place. 25 In the twelfth year of Yoram the son of Ach'av king of Yisra'el did Achazyah the son of Yehoram king of Yehudah begin to reign. 26 Twenty-two years old was Achazyah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Yerushalayim. His mother's name was `Atalyah the daughter of `Omri king of Yisra'el. 27 He walked in the way of the house of Ach'av, and did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, as did the house of Ach'av; for he was the son-in-law of the house of Ach'av. 28 He went with Yoram the son of Ach'av to war against Haza'el king of Aram at Ramot-Gil`ad: and the Aram wounded Yoram. 29 King Yoram returned to be healed in Yizre`el of the wounds which the Aram had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Haza'el king of Aram. Achazyah the son of Yehoram king of Yehudah went down to see Yoram the son of Ach'av in Yizre`el, because he was sick.
9:1 Elisha the prophet called one of the sons of the prophets, and said to him, Gird up your loins, and take this vial of oil in your hand, and go to Ramot-Gil`ad. 2 When you come there, look out there Yehu the son of Yehoshafat the son of Nimshi, and go in, and make him arise up from among his brothers, and carry him to an inner chamber. 3 Then take the vial of oil, and pour it on his head, and say, Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Yisra'el. Then open the door, and flee, and don't wait. 4 So the young man, even the young man the prophet, went to Ramot-Gil`ad. 5 When he came, behold, the captains of the host were sitting; and he said, I have an errand to you, captain. Yehu said, To which of us all? He said, To you, O captain. 6 He arose, and went into the house; and he poured the oil on his head, and said to him, Thus says the LORD, the God of Yisra'el, I have anointed you king over the people of the LORD, even over Yisra'el. 7 You shall strike the house of Ach'av your master, that I may avenge the blood of my servants the prophets, and the blood of all the servants of the LORD, at the hand of Izevel. 8 For the whole house of Ach'av shall perish; and I will cut off from Ach'av every man-child, and him who is shut up and him who is left at large in Yisra'el. 9 I will make the house of Ach'av like the house of Yarov`am the son of Nevat, and like the house of Ba`sha the son of Achiyah. 10 The dogs shall eat Izevel in the portion of Yizre`el, and there shall be none to bury her. He opened the door, and fled. 11 Then Yehu came forth to the servants of his lord: and one said to him, Is all well? why came this mad fellow to you? He said to them, You know the man and what his talk was. 12 They said, It is false; tell us now. He said, Thus and thus spoke he to me, saying, Thus says the LORD, I have anointed you king over Yisra'el. 13 Then they hurried, and took every man his garment, and put it under him on the top of the stairs, and blew the shofar, saying, Yehu is king.
NEW TESTAMENT: ACTS 16:16 - 40
16:16 It happened, as we were going to prayer, that a certain girl having a spirit of divination met us, who brought her masters much gain by fortune telling.
17 The same, following after Sha'ul and us, cried out, "These men are servants of Ha`Elyon God, who proclaim to us the way of salvation!"
18 This she did for many days. But Sha'ul, becoming greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, "I charge you in the name of Yeshua the Messiah to come out of her!" It came out that very hour.
19 But when her masters saw that the hope of their gain was gone, they seized Sha'ul and Sila, and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.
20 When they had brought them to the magistrates, they said, "These men, being Yehudim, are agitating our city,
21 and set forth customs which it is not lawful for us to accept or to observe, being Romans."
22 The multitude rose up together against them, and the magistrates tore their clothes off of them, and commanded them to be beaten with rods.
23 When they had laid many stripes on them, they threw them into prison, charging the jailer to keep them safely,
24 who, having received such a charge, threw them into the inner prison, and secured their feet in the stocks.
25 But about midnight Sha'ul and Sila were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
26 Suddenly there was a great earthquake, so that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened, and everyone's bonds were loosened.
27 The jailer, being roused out of sleep and seeing the prison doors open, drew his sword and was about to kill himself, supposing that the prisoners had escaped.
28 But Sha'ul cried with a loud voice, saying, "Don't harm yourself, for we are all here!"
29 He called for lights and sprang in, and, fell down trembling before Sha'ul and Sila,
30 and brought them out and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"
31 They said, "Believe in the Lord Yeshua the Messiah, and you will be saved, you and your household."
32 They spoke the word of the Lord to him, and to all who were in his house.
33 He took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes, and was immediately immersed, he and all his household.
34 He brought them up into his house, and set food before them, and rejoiced greatly, with all his household, having believed in God.
35 But when it was day, the magistrates sent the sergeants, saying, "Let those men go."
36 The jailer reported these words to Sha'ul, saying, "The magistrates have sent to let you go; now therefore come out, and go in shalom."
37 But Sha'ul said to them, "They have beaten us publicly, without a trial, men who are Romans, and have cast us into prison! Do they now release us secretly? No, most assuredly, but let them come themselves and bring us out!"
38 The sergeants reported these words to the magistrates, and they were afraid when they heard that they were Romans,
39 and they came and begged them. When they had brought them out, they asked them to depart from the city.
40 They went out of the prison, and entered into Lydia's house. When they had seen the brothers, they comforted them, and departed.
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