Numbers 19

• 1. The LORD said to Moses and Aaron,
• 2. "Here is another ritual law required by the LORD: Tell the people of Israel to bring you a red heifer that has no physical defects and has never been yoked to a plow.
• 3. Give it to Eleazar the priest, and it will be taken outside the camp and slaughtered in his presence.
• 4. Eleazar will take some of its blood on his finger and sprinkle it seven times toward the front of the Tabernacle.
• 5. As Eleazar watches, the heifer must be burned--its hide, meat, blood, and dung.
• 6. Eleazar the priest must then take cedarwood, a hyssop branch, and scarlet thread and throw them into the fire where the heifer is burning.
• 7. "Then the priest must wash his clothes and bathe himself in water. Afterward he may return to the camp, though he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening.
• 8. The man who burns the animal must also wash his clothes and bathe in water, and he, too, will remain unclean until evening.
• 9. Then someone who is ceremonially clean will gather up the ashes of the heifer and place them in a purified place outside the camp. They will be kept there for the people of Israel to use in the water for the purification ceremony. This ceremony is performed for the removal of sin.
• 10. The man who gathers up the ashes of the heifer must also wash his clothes, and he will remain ceremonially unclean until evening. This is a permanent law for the people of Israel and any foreigners who live among them.
• 11. "All those who touch a dead human body will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.
• 12. They must purify themselves on the third and seventh days with the water of purification; then they will be purified. But if they do not do this on the third and seventh days, they will continue to be unclean even after the seventh day.
• 13. All those who touch a dead body and do not purify themselves in the proper way defile the LORD's Tabernacle and will be cut off from the community of Israel. Since the water of purification was not sprinkled on them, their defilement continues.
• 14. "This is the ritual law that applies when someone dies in a tent: Those who enter that tent, and those who were inside when the death occurred, will be ceremonially unclean for seven days.
• 15. Any container in the tent that was not covered with a lid is also defiled.
• 16. And if someone outdoors touches the corpse of someone who was killed with a sword or who died a natural death, or if someone touches a human bone or a grave, that person will be unclean for seven days.
• 17. "To remove the defilement, put some of the ashes from the burnt purification offering in a jar and pour fresh water over them.
• 18. Then someone who is ceremonially clean must take a hyssop branch and dip it into the water. That person must sprinkle the water on the tent, on all the furnishings in the tent, and on anyone who was in the tent, or anyone who has touched a human bone, or has touched a person who was killed or who died naturally, or has touched a grave.
• 19. On the third and seventh days the ceremonially clean person must sprinkle the water on those who are unclean. Then on the seventh day the people being cleansed must wash their clothes and bathe themselves, and that evening they will be cleansed of their defilement.
• 20. "But those who become defiled and do not purify themselves will be cut off from the community, for they have defiled the sanctuary of the LORD. Since the water of purification has not been sprinkled on them, they remain defiled.
• 21. This is a permanent law. Those who sprinkle the water of purification must afterward wash their clothes, and anyone who touches the water of purification will remain defiled until evening.
• 22. Anything and anyone that a defiled person touches will be ceremonially defiled until evening."

Psalms 56

• 1. O God, have mercy on me. The enemy troops press in on me. My foes attack me all day long.
• 2. My slanderers hound me constantly, and many are boldly attacking me.
• 3. But when I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
• 4. O God, I praise your word. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?
• 5. They are always twisting what I say; they spend their days plotting ways to harm me.
• 6. They come together to spy on me--watching my every step, eager to kill me.
• 7. Don't let them get away with their wickedness; in your anger, O God, throw them to the ground.
• 8. You keep track of all my sorrows. You have collected all my tears in your bottle. You have recorded each one in your book.
• 9. On the very day I call to you for help, my enemies will retreat. This I know: God is on my side.
• 10. O God, I praise your word. Yes, LORD, I praise your word.
• 11. I trust in God, so why should I be afraid? What can mere mortals do to me?
• 12. I will fulfill my vows to you, O God, and offer a sacrifice of thanks for your help.
• 13. For you have rescued me from death; you have kept my feet from slipping. So now I can walk in your presence, O God, in your life-giving light.

Psalms 57

• 1. Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until this violent storm is past.
• 2. I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me.
• 3. He will send help from heaven to save me, rescuing me from those who are out to get me. My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness.
• 4. I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey--whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords.
• 5. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May your glory shine over all the earth.
• 6. My enemies have set a trap for me. I am weary from distress. They have dug a deep pit in my path, but they themselves have fallen into it.
• 7. My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises!
• 8. Wake up, my soul! Wake up, O harp and lyre! I will waken the dawn with my song.
• 9. I will thank you, Lord, in front of all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations.
• 10. For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
• 11. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth.

Isaiah 8

• 1. Again the LORD said to me, "Make a large signboard and clearly write this name on it: Maher-shalal-hash-baz. "
• 2. I asked Uriah the priest and Zechariah son of Jeberekiah, both known as honest men, to testify that I had written it before the child was conceived.
• 3. Then I slept with my wife, and she became pregnant and had a son. And the LORD said, "Call him Maher-shalal-hash-baz.
• 4. This name prophesies that within a couple of years, before this child is old enough to say `Papa' or `Mama,' the king of Assyria will invade both Damascus and Samaria and carry away their riches."
• 5. Then the LORD spoke to me again and said,
• 6. "The people of Judah have rejected my gentle care and are rejoicing over what will happen to King Rezin and King Pekah.
• 7. Therefore, the Lord will overwhelm them with a mighty flood from the Euphrates River--the king of Assyria and all his mighty armies.
• 8. This flood will overflow all its channels and sweep into Judah. It will submerge Immanuel's land from one end to the other.
• 9. "The Assyrians will cry, `Do your best to defend yourselves, but you will be shattered! Listen all you nations. Prepare for battle--and die! Yes, die!
• 10. Call your councils of war, develop your strategies, prepare your plans of attack--and then die! For God is with us! '"
• 11. The LORD has said to me in the strongest terms: "Do not think like everyone else does.
• 12. Do not be afraid that some plan conceived behind closed doors will be the end of you.
• 13. Do not fear anything except the LORD Almighty. He alone is the Holy One. If you fear him, you need fear nothing else.
• 14. He will keep you safe. But to Israel and Judah he will be a stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall. And for the people of Jerusalem he will be a trap that entangles them.
• 15. Many of them will stumble and fall, never to rise again. Many will be captured."
• 16. I will write down all these things as a testimony of what the LORD will do. I will entrust it to my disciples, who will pass it down to future generations.
• 17. I will wait for the LORD to help us, though he has turned away from the people of Israel. My only hope is in him.
• 18. I and the children the LORD has given me have names that reveal the plans the LORD Almighty has for his people.
• 19. So why are you trying to find out the future by consulting mediums and psychics? Do not listen to their whisperings and mutterings. Can the living find out the future from the dead? Why not ask your God?
• 20. "Check their predictions against my testimony," says the LORD. "If their predictions are different from mine, it is because there is no light or truth in them.
• 21. My people will be led away as captives, weary and hungry. And because they are hungry, they will rage and shake their fists at heaven and curse their king and their God.
• 22. Wherever they look, there will be trouble and anguish and dark despair. They will be thrown out into the darkness."

New Living Translation: 130 of 365 days.