Leviticus 26

• 1. "Do not make idols or set up carved images, sacred pillars, or shaped stones to be worshiped in your land. I, the LORD, am your God.
• 2. You must keep my Sabbath days of rest and show reverence for my sanctuary. I am the LORD.
• 3. "If you keep my laws and are careful to obey my commands,
• 4. I will send the seasonal rains. The land will then yield its crops, and the trees will produce their fruit.
• 5. Your threshing season will extend until the grape harvest, and your grape harvest will extend until it is time to plant grain again. You will eat your fill and live securely in your land.
• 6. "I will give you peace in the land, and you will be able to sleep without fear. I will remove the wild animals from your land and protect you from your enemies.
• 7. In fact, you will chase down all your enemies and slaughter them with your swords.
• 8. Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand! All your enemies will fall beneath the blows of your weapons.
• 9. "I will look favorably upon you and multiply your people and fulfill my covenant with you.
• 10. You will have such a surplus of crops that you will need to get rid of the leftovers from the previous year to make room for each new harvest.
• 11. I will live among you, and I will not despise you.
• 12. I will walk among you; I will be your God, and you will be my people.
• 13. I, the LORD, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt so you would no longer be slaves. I have lifted the yoke of slavery from your neck so you can walk free with your heads held high.
• 14. "However, if you do not listen to me or obey my commands,
• 15. and if you break my covenant by rejecting my laws and treating my regulations with contempt,
• 16. I will punish you. You will suffer from sudden terrors, with wasting diseases, and with burning fevers, causing your eyes to fail and your life to ebb away. You will plant your crops in vain because your enemies will eat them.
• 17. I will turn against you, and you will be defeated by all your enemies. They will rule over you, and you will run even when no one is chasing you!
• 18. "And if, in spite of this, you still disobey me, I will punish you for your sins seven times over.
• 19. I will break down your arrogant spirit by making the skies above as unyielding as iron and the earth beneath as hard as bronze.
• 20. All your work will be for nothing, for your land will yield no crops, and your trees will bear no fruit.
• 21. "If even then you remain hostile toward me and refuse to obey, I will inflict you with seven more disasters for your sins.
• 22. I will release wild animals that will kill your children and destroy your cattle, so your numbers will dwindle and your roads will be deserted.
• 23. "And if you fail to learn a lesson from this and continue your hostility toward me,
• 24. then I myself will be hostile toward you, and I will personally strike you seven times over for your sins.
• 25. I will send armies against you to carry out these covenant threats. If you flee to your cities, I will send a plague to destroy you there, and you will be conquered by your enemies.
• 26. I will completely destroy your food supply, so the bread from one oven will have to be stretched to feed ten families. They will ration your food by weight, and even if you have food to eat, you will not be satisfied.
• 27. "If after this you still refuse to listen and still remain hostile toward me,
• 28. then I will give full vent to my hostility. I will punish you seven times over for your sins.
• 29. You will eat the flesh of your own sons and daughters.
• 30. I will destroy your pagan shrines and cut down your incense altars. I will leave your corpses piled up beside your lifeless idols, and I will despise you.
• 31. I will make your cities desolate and destroy your places of worship, and I will take no pleasure in your offerings of incense.
• 32. Yes, I myself will devastate your land. Your enemies who come to occupy it will be utterly shocked at the destruction they see.
• 33. I will scatter you among the nations and attack you with my own weapons. Your land will become desolate, and your cities will lie in ruins.
• 34. Then at last the land will make up for its missed Sabbath years as it lies desolate during your years of exile in the land of your enemies. Then the land will finally rest and enjoy its Sabbaths.
• 35. As the land lies in ruins, it will take the rest you never allowed it to take every seventh year while you lived in it.
• 36. "And for those of you who survive, I will demoralize you in the land of your enemies far away. You will live there in such constant fear that the sound of a leaf driven by the wind will send you fleeing. You will run as though chased by a warrior with a sword, and you will fall even when no one is pursuing you.
• 37. Yes, though no one is chasing you, you will stumble over each other in flight, as though fleeing in battle. You will have no power to stand before your enemies.
• 38. You will die among the foreign nations and be devoured in the land of your enemies.
• 39. Those still left alive will rot away in enemy lands because of their sins and the sins of their ancestors.
• 40. "But at last my people will confess their sins and the sins of their ancestors for betraying me and being hostile toward me.
• 41. Finally, when I have given full expression to my hostility and have brought them to the land of their enemies, then at last their disobedient hearts will be humbled, and they will pay for their sins.
• 42. Then I will remember my covenant with Jacob, with Isaac, and with Abraham, and I will remember the land.
• 43. And the land will enjoy its years of Sabbath rest as it lies deserted. At last the people will receive the due punishment for their sins, for they rejected my regulations and despised my laws.
• 44. "But despite all this, I will not utterly reject or despise them while they are in exile in the land of their enemies. I will not cancel my covenant with them by wiping them out. I, the LORD, am their God.
• 45. I will remember my ancient covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of Egypt while all the nations watched. I, the LORD, am their God."
• 46. These are the laws, regulations, and instructions that the LORD gave to the Israelites through Moses on Mount Sinai.

Psalms 33

• 1. Let the godly sing with joy to the LORD, for it is fitting to praise him.
• 2. Praise the LORD with melodies on the lyre; make music for him on the ten-stringed harp.
• 3. Sing new songs of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp and sing with joy.
• 4. For the word of the LORD holds true, and everything he does is worthy of our trust.
• 5. He loves whatever is just and good, and his unfailing love fills the earth.
• 6. The LORD merely spoke, and the heavens were created. He breathed the word, and all the stars were born.
• 7. He gave the sea its boundaries and locked the oceans in vast reservoirs.
• 8. Let everyone in the world fear the LORD, and let everyone stand in awe of him.
• 9. For when he spoke, the world began! It appeared at his command.
• 10. The LORD shatters the plans of the nations and thwarts all their schemes.
• 11. But the LORD's plans stand firm forever; his intentions can never be shaken.
• 12. What joy for the nation whose God is the LORD, whose people he has chosen for his own.
• 13. The LORD looks down from heaven and sees the whole human race.
• 14. From his throne he observes all who live on the earth.
• 15. He made their hearts, so he understands everything they do.
• 16. The best-equipped army cannot save a king, nor is great strength enough to save a warrior.
• 17. Don't count on your warhorse to give you victory--for all its strength, it cannot save you.
• 18. But the LORD watches over those who fear him, those who rely on his unfailing love.
• 19. He rescues them from death and keeps them alive in times of famine.
• 20. We depend on the LORD alone to save us. Only he can help us, protecting us like a shield.
• 21. In him our hearts rejoice, for we are trusting in his holy name.
• 22. Let your unfailing love surround us, LORD, for our hope is in you alone.

Ecclesiastes 9

• 1. This, too, I carefully explored: Even though the actions of godly and wise people are in God's hands, no one knows whether or not God will show them favor in this life.
• 2. The same destiny ultimately awaits everyone, whether they are righteous or wicked, good or bad, ceremonially clean or unclean, religious or irreligious. Good people receive the same treatment as sinners, and people who take oaths are treated like people who don't.
• 3. It seems so tragic that one fate comes to all. That is why people are not more careful to be good. Instead, they choose their own mad course, for they have no hope. There is nothing ahead but death anyway.
• 4. There is hope only for the living. For as they say, "It is better to be a live dog than a dead lion!"
• 5. The living at least know they will die, but the dead know nothing. They have no further reward, nor are they remembered.
• 6. Whatever they did in their lifetime--loving, hating, envying--is all long gone. They no longer have a part in anything here on earth.
• 7. So go ahead. Eat your food and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!
• 8. Wear fine clothes, with a dash of cologne!
• 9. Live happily with the woman you love through all the meaningless days of life that God has given you in this world. The wife God gives you is your reward for all your earthly toil.
• 10. Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom.
• 11. I have observed something else in this world of ours. The fastest runner doesn't always win the race, and the strongest warrior doesn't always win the battle. The wise are often poor, and the skillful are not necessarily wealthy. And those who are educated don't always lead successful lives. It is all decided by chance, by being at the right place at the right time.
• 12. People can never predict when hard times might come. Like fish in a net or birds in a snare, people are often caught by sudden tragedy.
• 13. Here is another bit of wisdom that has impressed me as I have watched the way our world works.
• 14. There was a small town with only a few people living in it, and a great king came with his army and besieged it.
• 15. There was a poor, wise man living there who knew how to save the town, and so it was rescued. But afterward no one thought any more about him.
• 16. Then I realized that though wisdom is better than strength, those who are wise will be despised if they are poor. What they say will not be appreciated for long.
• 17. But even so, the quiet words of a wise person are better than the shouts of a foolish king.
• 18. A wise person can overcome weapons of war, but one sinner can destroy much that is good.

New Living Translation: 112 of 365 days.