Numbers 35

• 1. While Israel was camped beside the Jordan on the plains of Moab, across from Jericho, the LORD said to Moses,
• 2. "Instruct the people of Israel to give to the Levites from their property certain towns to live in, along with the surrounding pasturelands.
• 3. These towns will be their homes, and the surrounding lands will provide pasture for their cattle, flocks, and other livestock.
• 4. The pastureland assigned to the Levites around these towns will extend 1,500 feet from the town walls in every direction.
• 5. Measure off 3,000 feet outside the town walls in every direction--east, south, west, north--with the town at the center. This area will serve as the larger pastureland for the towns.
• 6. "You must give the Levites six cities of refuge, where a person who has accidentally killed someone can flee for safety. In addition, give them forty-two other towns.
• 7. In all, forty-eight towns with the surrounding pastureland will be given to the Levites.
• 8. These towns will come from the property of the people of Israel. The larger tribes will give more towns to the Levites, while the smaller tribes will give fewer. Each tribe will give in proportion to its inheritance."
• 9. And the LORD said to Moses,
• 10. "Say this to the people of Israel: `When you cross the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
• 11. designate cities of refuge for people to flee to if they have killed someone accidentally.
• 12. These cities will be places of protection from a dead person's relatives who want to avenge the death. The slayer must not be killed before being tried by the community.
• 13. Designate six cities of refuge for yourselves,
• 14. three on the east side of the Jordan River and three on the west in the land of Canaan.
• 15. These cities are for the protection of Israelites, resident foreigners, and traveling merchants. Anyone who accidentally kills someone may flee there for safety.
• 16. " `But if someone strikes and kills another person with a piece of iron, it must be presumed to be murder, and the murderer must be executed.
• 17. Or if someone strikes and kills another person with a large stone, it is murder, and the murderer must be executed.
• 18. The same is true if someone strikes and kills another person with a wooden weapon. It must be presumed to be murder, and the murderer must be executed.
• 19. The victim's nearest relative is responsible for putting the murderer to death. When they meet, the avenger must execute the murderer.
• 20. So if in premeditated hostility someone pushes another person or throws a dangerous object and the person dies, it is murder.
• 21. Or if someone angrily hits another person with a fist and the person dies, it is murder. In such cases, the victim's nearest relative must execute the murderer when they meet.
• 22. " `But suppose someone pushes another person without premeditated hostility, or throws something that unintentionally hits another person,
• 23. or accidentally drops a stone on someone, though they were not enemies, and the person dies.
• 24. If this should happen, the assembly must follow these regulations in making a judgment between the slayer and the avenger, the victim's nearest relative.
• 25. They must protect the slayer from the avenger, and they must send the slayer back to live in a city of refuge until the death of the high priest.
• 26. " `But if the slayer leaves the city of refuge,
• 27. and the victim's nearest relative finds him outside the city limits and kills him, it will not be considered murder.
• 28. The slayer should have stayed inside the city of refuge until the death of the high priest. But after the death of the high priest, the slayer may return to his own property.
• 29. These are permanent laws for you to observe from generation to generation, wherever you may live.
• 30. " `All murderers must be executed, but only if there is more than one witness. No one may be put to death on the testimony of only one witness.
• 31. Also, you must never accept a ransom payment for the life of someone judged guilty of murder and subject to execution; murderers must always be put to death.
• 32. And never accept a ransom payment from someone who has fled to a city of refuge, allowing the slayer to return to his property before the death of the high priest.
• 33. This will ensure that the land where you live will not be polluted, for murder pollutes the land. And no atonement can be made for murder except by the execution of the murderer.
• 34. You must not defile the land where you are going to live, for I live there myself. I am the LORD, who lives among the people of Israel.'"

Psalms 79

• 1. O God, pagan nations have conquered your land, your special possession. They have defiled your holy Temple and made Jerusalem a heap of ruins.
• 2. They have left the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of heaven. The flesh of your godly ones has become food for the wild animals.
• 3. Blood has flowed like water all around Jerusalem; no one is left to bury the dead.
• 4. We are mocked by our neighbors, an object of scorn and derision to those around us.
• 5. O LORD, how long will you be angry with us? Forever? How long will your jealousy burn like fire?
• 6. Pour out your wrath on the nations that refuse to recognize you--on kingdoms that do not call upon your name.
• 7. For they have devoured your people Israel, making the land a desolate wilderness.
• 8. Oh, do not hold us guilty for our former sins! Let your tenderhearted mercies quickly meet our needs, for we are brought low to the dust.
• 9. Help us, O God of our salvation! Help us for the honor of your name. Oh, save us and forgive our sins for the sake of your name.
• 10. Why should pagan nations be allowed to scoff, asking, "Where is their God?" Show us your vengeance against the nations, for they have spilled the blood of your servants.
• 11. Listen to the moaning of the prisoners. Demonstrate your great power by saving those condemned to die.
• 12. O Lord, take sevenfold vengeance on our neighbors for the scorn they have hurled at you.
• 13. Then we your people, the sheep of your pasture, will thank you forever and ever, praising your greatness from generation to generation.

Isaiah 27

• 1. In that day the LORD will take his terrible, swift sword and punish Leviathan, the swiftly moving serpent, the coiling, writhing serpent, the dragon of the sea.
• 2. "In that day we will sing of the pleasant vineyard.
• 3. I, the LORD, will watch over it and tend its fruitful vines. Each day I will water them; day and night I will watch to keep enemies away.
• 4. My anger against Israel will be gone. If I find briers and thorns bothering her, I will burn them up.
• 5. These enemies will be spared only if they surrender and beg for peace and protection."
• 6. The time is coming when my people will take root. Israel will bud and blossom and fill the whole earth with her fruit!
• 7. Has the LORD punished Israel in the same way he has punished her enemies? No, for he devastated her enemies,
• 8. but he has punished Israel only a little. He has exiled her from her land as though blown away in a storm from the east.
• 9. The LORD did this to purge away Israel's sin. When he has finished, all the pagan altars will be crushed to dust. There won't be an Asherah pole or incense altar left standing.
• 10. Israel's fortified cities will be silent and empty, the houses abandoned, the streets covered with grass. Cattle will graze there, chewing on twigs and branches.
• 11. The people are like the dead branches of a tree, broken off and used for kindling beneath the cooking pots. Israel is a foolish and stupid nation, for its people have turned away from God. Therefore, the one who made them will show them no pity or mercy.
• 12. Yet the time will come when the LORD will gather them together one by one like handpicked grain. He will bring them to his great threshing floor--from the Euphrates River in the east to the brook of Egypt in the west.
• 13. In that day the great trumpet will sound. Many who were dying in exile in Assyria and Egypt will return to Jerusalem to worship the LORD on his holy mountain.

New Living Translation: 146 of 365 days.