Deuteronomy 21

• 1. "Suppose someone is found murdered in a field in the land the LORD your God is giving you, and you don't know who committed the murder.
• 2. In such cases, your leaders and judges must determine which town is nearest the body.
• 3. Then the leaders of that town must select a young cow that has never been trained or yoked to a plow.
• 4. They must lead it to a valley that is neither plowed nor planted with a stream running through it. There they must break the cow's neck.
• 5. The Levitical priests must go there also, for the LORD your God has chosen them to minister before him and to pronounce blessings in the LORD's name. And they are to decide all lawsuits and punishments.
• 6. "The leaders of the town nearest the body must wash their hands over the young cow whose neck was broken.
• 7. Then they must say, `Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did we see it happen.
• 8. O LORD, forgive your people Israel whom you have redeemed. Do not charge your people Israel with the guilt of murdering an innocent person.' Then they will be absolved of the guilt of this person's blood.
• 9. By following these instructions and doing what is right in the LORD's sight, you will cleanse the guilt of murder from your community.
• 10. "Suppose you go to war against your enemies and the LORD your God hands them over to you and you take captives.
• 11. And suppose you see among the captives a beautiful woman, and you are attracted to her and want to marry her.
• 12. If this happens, you may take her to your home, where she must shave her head, cut her fingernails,
• 13. and change all her clothes. Then she must remain in your home for a full month, mourning for her father and mother. After that you may marry her.
• 14. But if you marry her and then decide you do not like her, you must let her go free. You may not sell her or treat her as a slave, for you have humiliated her.
• 15. "Suppose a man has two wives, but he loves one and not the other, and both have given him sons. And suppose the firstborn son is the son of the wife he does not love.
• 16. When the man divides the inheritance, he may not give the larger inheritance to his younger son, the son of the wife he loves.
• 17. He must give the customary double portion to his oldest son, who represents the strength of his father's manhood and who owns the rights of the firstborn son, even though he is the son of the wife his father does not love.
• 18. "Suppose a man has a stubborn, rebellious son who will not obey his father or mother, even though they discipline him.
• 19. In such cases, the father and mother must take the son before the leaders of the town.
• 20. They must declare: `This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious and refuses to obey. He is a worthless drunkard.'
• 21. Then all the men of the town must stone him to death. In this way, you will cleanse this evil from among you, and all Israel will hear about it and be afraid.
• 22. "If someone has committed a crime worthy of death and is executed and then hanged on a tree,
• 23. the body must never remain on the tree overnight. You must bury the body that same day, for anyone hanging on a tree is cursed of God. Do not defile the land the LORD your God is giving you as a special possession.

Psalms 108

• 1. My heart is confident in you, O God; no wonder I can sing your praises! Wake up, my soul!
• 2. Wake up, O harp and lyre! I will waken the dawn with my song.
• 3. I will thank you, LORD, in front of all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations.
• 4. For your unfailing love is higher than the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
• 5. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens. May your glory shine over all the earth.
• 6. Use your strong right arm to save me, and rescue your beloved people.
• 7. God has promised this by his holiness: "I will divide up Shechem with joy. I will measure out the valley of Succoth.
• 8. Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine. Ephraim will produce my warriors, and Judah will produce my kings.
• 9. Moab will become my lowly servant, and Edom will be my slave. I will shout in triumph over the Philistines."
• 10. But who will bring me into the fortified city? Who will bring me victory over Edom?
• 11. Have you rejected us, O God? Will you no longer march with our armies?
• 12. Oh, please help us against our enemies, for all human help is useless.
• 13. With God's help we will do mighty things, for he will trample down our foes.

Psalms 109

• 1. O God, whom I praise, don't stand silent and aloof
• 2. while the wicked slander me and tell lies about me.
• 3. They are all around me with their hateful words, and they fight against me for no reason.
• 4. I love them, but they try to destroy me--even as I am praying for them!
• 5. They return evil for good, and hatred for my love.
• 6. Arrange for an evil person to turn on him. Send an accuser to bring him to trial.
• 7. When his case is called for judgment, let him be pronounced guilty. Count his prayers as sins.
• 8. Let his years be few; let his position be given to someone else.
• 9. May his children become fatherless, and may his wife become a widow.
• 10. May his children wander as beggars; may they be evicted from their ruined homes.
• 11. May creditors seize his entire estate, and strangers take all he has earned.
• 12. Let no one be kind to him; let no one pity his fatherless children.
• 13. May all his offspring die. May his family name be blotted out in a single generation.
• 14. May the LORD never forget the sins of his ancestors; may his mother's sins never be erased from the record.
• 15. May these sins always remain before the LORD, but may his name be cut off from human memory.
• 16. For he refused all kindness to others; he persecuted the poor and needy, and he hounded the brokenhearted to death.
• 17. He loved to curse others; now you curse him. He never blessed others; now don't you bless him.
• 18. Cursing is as much a part of him as his clothing, or as the water he drinks, or the rich food he eats.
• 19. Now may his curses return and cling to him like clothing; may they be tied around him like a belt.
• 20. May those curses become the LORD's punishment for my accusers who are plotting against my life.
• 21. But deal well with me, O Sovereign LORD, for the sake of your own reputation! Rescue me because you are so faithful and good.
• 22. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is full of pain.
• 23. I am fading like a shadow at dusk; I am falling like a grasshopper that is brushed aside.
• 24. My knees are weak from fasting, and I am skin and bones.
• 25. I am an object of mockery to people everywhere; when they see me, they shake their heads.
• 26. Help me, O LORD my God! Save me because of your unfailing love.
• 27. Let them see that this is your doing, that you yourself have done it, LORD.
• 28. Then let them curse me if they like, but you will bless me! When they attack me, they will be disgraced! But I, your servant, will go right on rejoicing!
• 29. Make their humiliation obvious to all; clothe my accusers with disgrace.
• 30. But I will give repeated thanks to the LORD, praising him to everyone.
• 31. For he stands beside the needy, ready to save them from those who condemn them.

Isaiah 48

• 1. "Listen to me, O family of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel and born into the family of Judah. Listen, you who take oaths in the name of the LORD and call on the God of Israel. You don't follow through on any of your promises,
• 2. even though you call yourself the holy city and talk about depending on the God of Israel, whose name is the LORD Almighty.
• 3. Time and again I warned you about what was going to happen in the future. Then suddenly I took action, and all my predictions came true.
• 4. "I know how stubborn and obstinate you are. Your necks are as unbending as iron. You are as hardheaded as bronze.
• 5. That is why I told you ahead of time what I was going to do. That way, you could never say, `My idols did it. My wooden image and metal god commanded it to happen!'
• 6. You have heard my predictions and seen them fulfilled, but you refuse to admit it. Now I will tell you new things I have not mentioned before, secrets you have not yet heard.
• 7. They are brand new, not things from the past. So you cannot say, `We knew that all the time!'
• 8. "Yes, I will tell you of things that are entirely new, for I know so well what traitors you are. You have been rebels from your earliest childhood, rotten through and through.
• 9. Yet for my own sake and for the honor of my name, I will hold back my anger and not wipe you out.
• 10. I have refined you but not in the way silver is refined. Rather, I have refined you in the furnace of suffering.
• 11. I will rescue you for my sake--yes, for my own sake! That way, the pagan nations will not be able to claim that their gods have conquered me. I will not let them have my glory!
• 12. "Listen to me, O family of Jacob, Israel my chosen one! I alone am God, the First and the Last.
• 13. It was my hand that laid the foundations of the earth. The palm of my right hand spread out the heavens above. I spoke, and they came into being.
• 14. "Have any of your idols ever told you this? Come, all of you, and listen: `The LORD has chosen Cyrus as his ally. He will use him to put an end to the empire of Babylon, destroying the Babylonian armies.'
• 15. I have said it: I am calling Cyrus! I will send him on this errand and will help him succeed.
• 16. Come closer and listen. I have always told you plainly what would happen so you would have no trouble understanding." And now the Sovereign LORD and his Spirit have sent me with this message:
• 17. "The LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, says: I am the LORD your God, who teaches you what is good and leads you along the paths you should follow.
• 18. Oh, that you had listened to my commands! Then you would have had peace flowing like a gentle river and righteousness rolling like waves.
• 19. Then you would have become as numerous as the sands along the seashore--too many to count! There would have been no need for your destruction."
• 20. Yet even now, be free from your captivity! Leave Babylon and the Babylonians, singing as you go! Shout to the ends of the earth that the LORD has redeemed his servants, the people of Israel.
• 21. They were not thirsty when he led them through the desert. He divided the rock, and water gushed out for them to drink.
• 22. "But there is no peace for the wicked," says the LORD.

New Living Translation: 167 of 365 days.