Genesis 8

• 1. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.
• 2. Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
• 3. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down,
• 4. and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
• 5. The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
• 6. After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark
• 7. and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.
• 8. Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground.
• 9. But the dove could find no place to set its feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark.
• 10. He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark.
• 11. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth.
• 12. He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
• 13. By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.
• 14. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
• 15. Then God said to Noah,
• 16. "Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.
• 17. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you-the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground-so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number upon it."
• 18. So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons' wives.
• 19. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds-everything that moves on the earth-came out of the ark, one kind after another.
• 20. Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.
• 21. The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
• 22. "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."

Matthew 7

• 1. "Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
• 2. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
• 3. "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
• 4. How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?
• 5. You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.
• 6. "Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and then turn and tear you to pieces.
• 7. "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
• 8. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
• 9. "Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
• 10. Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
• 11. If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
• 12. So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
• 13. "Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it.
• 14. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
• 15. "Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves.
• 16. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
• 17. Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.
• 18. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
• 19. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.
• 20. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.
• 21. "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
• 22. Many will say to me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?'
• 23. Then I will tell them plainly, 'I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!'
• 24. "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
• 25. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.
• 26. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand.
• 27. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."
• 28. When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching,
• 29. because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Ezra 7

• 1. After these things, during the reign of Artaxerxes king of Persia, Ezra son of Seraiah, the son of Azariah, the son of Hilkiah,
• 2. the son of Shallum, the son of Zadok, the son of Ahitub,
• 3. the son of Amariah, the son of Azariah, the son of Meraioth,
• 4. the son of Zerahiah, the son of Uzzi, the son of Bukki,
• 5. the son of Abishua, the son of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the chief priest-
• 6. this Ezra came up from Babylon. He was a teacher well versed in the Law of Moses, which the LORD, the God of Israel, had given. The king had granted him everything he asked, for the hand of the LORD his God was on him.
• 7. Some of the Israelites, including priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers and temple servants, also came up to Jerusalem in the seventh year of King Artaxerxes.
• 8. Ezra arrived in Jerusalem in the fifth month of the seventh year of the king.
• 9. He had begun his journey from Babylon on the first day of the first month, and he arrived in Jerusalem on the first day of the fifth month, for the gracious hand of his God was on him.
• 10. For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the LORD, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel.
• 11. This is a copy of the letter King Artaxerxes had given to Ezra the priest and teacher, a man learned in matters concerning the commands and decrees of the LORD for Israel:
• 12. Artaxerxes, king of kings, To Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law of the God of heaven: Greetings.
• 13. Now I decree that any of the Israelites in my kingdom, including priests and Levites, who wish to go to Jerusalem with you, may go.
• 14. You are sent by the king and his seven advisers to inquire about Judah and Jerusalem with regard to the Law of your God, which is in your hand.
• 15. Moreover, you are to take with you the silver and gold that the king and his advisers have freely given to the God of Israel, whose dwelling is in Jerusalem,
• 16. together with all the silver and gold you may obtain from the province of Babylon, as well as the freewill offerings of the people and priests for the temple of their God in Jerusalem.
• 17. With this money be sure to buy bulls, rams and male lambs, together with their grain offerings and drink offerings, and sacrifice them on the altar of the temple of your God in Jerusalem.
• 18. You and your brother Jews may then do whatever seems best with the rest of the silver and gold, in accordance with the will of your God.
• 19. Deliver to the God of Jerusalem all the articles entrusted to you for worship in the temple of your God.
• 20. And anything else needed for the temple of your God that you may have occasion to supply, you may provide from the royal treasury.
• 21. Now I, King Artaxerxes, order all the treasurers of Trans-Euphrates to provide with diligence whatever Ezra the priest, a teacher of the Law of the God of heaven, may ask of you-
• 22. up to a hundred talents of silver, a hundred cors of wheat, a hundred baths of wine, a hundred baths of olive oil, and salt without limit.
• 23. Whatever the God of heaven has prescribed, let it be done with diligence for the temple of the God of heaven. Why should there be wrath against the realm of the king and of his sons?
• 24. You are also to know that you have no authority to impose taxes, tribute or duty on any of the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, temple servants or other workers at this house of God.
• 25. And you, Ezra, in accordance with the wisdom of your God, which you possess, appoint magistrates and judges to administer justice to all the people of Trans-Euphrates-all who know the laws of your God. And you are to teach any who do not know them.
• 26. Whoever does not obey the law of your God and the law of the king must surely be punished by death, banishment, confiscation of property, or imprisonment.
• 27. Praise be to the LORD, the God of our fathers, who has put it into the king's heart to bring honor to the house of the LORD in Jerusalem in this way
• 28. and who has extended his good favor to me before the king and his advisers and all the king's powerful officials. Because the hand of the LORD my God was on me, I took courage and gathered leading men from Israel to go up with me.

New International Version

2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | Day 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 |