1 Chronicles 19

• 1. Some time after this, King Nahash of the Ammonites died, and his son Hanun became king.
• 2. David said, "I am going to show complete loyalty to Hanun because his father, Nahash, was always completely loyal to me." So David sent ambassadors to express sympathy to Hanun about his father's death. But when David's ambassadors arrived in the land of Ammon,
• 3. Hanun's advisers said to him, "Do you really think these men are coming here to honor your father? No! David has sent them to spy out the land so that they can come in and conquer it!"
• 4. So Hanun seized David's ambassadors and shaved their beards, cut off their robes at the buttocks, and sent them back to David in shame.
• 5. When David heard what had happened, he sent messengers to tell the men to stay at Jericho until their beards grew out, for they were very embarrassed by their appearance.
• 6. Now the people of Ammon realized how seriously they had angered David, so Hanun and the Ammonites sent thirty-eight tons of silver to hire chariots and troops from Aram-naharaim, Aram-maacah, and Zobah.
• 7. They also hired thirty-two thousand chariots and secured the support of the king of Maacah and his army. These forces camped at Medeba, where they were joined by the Ammonite troops that Hanun had recruited from his own towns.
• 8. When David heard about this, he sent Joab and all his warriors to fight them.
• 9. The Ammonite troops drew up their battle lines at the gate of the city, while the other kings positioned themselves to fight in the open fields.
• 10. When Joab saw that he would have to fight on two fronts, he chose the best troops in his army. He placed them under his personal command and led them out to fight the Arameans in the fields.
• 11. He left the rest of the army under the command of his brother Abishai, who was to attack the Ammonites.
• 12. "If the Arameans are too strong for me, then come over and help me," Joab told his brother. "And if the Ammonites are too strong for you, I will help you.
• 13. Be courageous! Let us fight bravely to save our people and the cities of our God. May the LORD's will be done."
• 14. When Joab and his troops attacked, the Arameans began to run away.
• 15. And when the Ammonites saw the Arameans running, they ran from Abishai and retreated into the city. Then Joab returned to Jerusalem.
• 16. The Arameans now realized that they were no match for Israel, so they summoned additional Aramean troops from the other side of the Euphrates River. These troops arrived under the command of Shobach, the commander of all Hadadezer's forces.
• 17. When David heard what was happening, he mobilized all Israel, crossed the Jordan River, and positioned his troops in battle formation. Then he engaged the enemy troops in battle, and they fought against him.
• 18. But again the Arameans fled from the Israelites. This time David's forces killed seven thousand charioteers and forty thousand foot soldiers, including Shobach, the commander of their army.
• 19. When the servants of Hadadezer realized they had been defeated by Israel, they surrendered to David and became his subjects. After that, the Arameans were no longer willing to help the Ammonites.

1 Chronicles 20

• 1. The following spring, the time of year when kings go to war, Joab led the Israelite army in successful attacks against the towns and villages of the Ammonites. In the process they laid siege to the city of Rabbah and destroyed it. But David had stayed behind in Jerusalem.
• 2. When David arrived at Rabbah, he removed the crown from the king's head, and it was placed on David's own head. The crown was made of gold and set with gems, and it weighed about seventy-five pounds. David took a vast amount of plunder from the city.
• 3. He also made slaves of the people of Rabbah and forced them to labor with saws, picks, and axes. That is how he dealt with the people of all the Ammonite cities. Then David and his army returned to Jerusalem.
• 4. After this, war broke out with the Philistines at Gezer. As they fought, Sibbecai from Hushah killed Saph, a descendant of the giants, and so the Philistines were subdued.
• 5. During another battle with the Philistines, Elhanan son of Jair killed Lahmi, the brother of Goliath of Gath. The handle of Lahmi's spear was as thick as a weaver's beam!
• 6. In another battle with the Philistines at Gath, a huge man with six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot--a descendant of the giants--
• 7. defied and taunted Israel. But he was killed by Jonathan, the son of David's brother Shimea.
• 8. These Philistines were descendants of the giants of Gath, but they were killed by David and his warriors.

1 Peter 1

• 1. This letter is from Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ. I am writing to God's chosen people who are living as foreigners in the lands of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, the province of Asia, and Bithynia.
• 2. God the Father chose you long ago, and the Spirit has made you holy. As a result, you have obeyed Jesus Christ and are cleansed by his blood. May you have more and more of God's special favor and wonderful peace.
• 3. All honor to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is by his boundless mercy that God has given us the privilege of being born again. Now we live with a wonderful expectation because Jesus Christ rose again from the dead.
• 4. For God has reserved a priceless inheritance for his children. It is kept in heaven for you, pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay.
• 5. And God, in his mighty power, will protect you until you receive this salvation, because you are trusting him. It will be revealed on the last day for all to see.
• 6. So be truly glad! There is wonderful joy ahead, even though it is necessary for you to endure many trials for a while.
• 7. These trials are only to test your faith, to show that it is strong and pure. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold--and your faith is far more precious to God than mere gold. So if your faith remains strong after being tried by fiery trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.
• 8. You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him, you trust him; and even now you are happy with a glorious, inexpressible joy.
• 9. Your reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.
• 10. This salvation was something the prophets wanted to know more about. They prophesied about this gracious salvation prepared for you, even though they had many questions as to what it all could mean.
• 11. They wondered what the Spirit of Christ within them was talking about when he told them in advance about Christ's suffering and his great glory afterward. They wondered when and to whom all this would happen.
• 12. They were told that these things would not happen during their lifetime, but many years later, during yours. And now this Good News has been announced by those who preached to you in the power of the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. It is all so wonderful that even the angels are eagerly watching these things happen.
• 13. So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the special blessings that will come to you at the return of Jesus Christ.
• 14. Obey God because you are his children. Don't slip back into your old ways of doing evil; you didn't know any better then.
• 15. But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God--who chose you to be his children--is holy.
• 16. For he himself has said, "You must be holy because I am holy."
• 17. And remember that the heavenly Father to whom you pray has no favorites when he judges. He will judge or reward you according to what you do. So you must live in reverent fear of him during your time as foreigners here on earth.
• 18. For you know that God paid a ransom to save you from the empty life you inherited from your ancestors. And the ransom he paid was not mere gold or silver.
• 19. He paid for you with the precious lifeblood of Christ, the sinless, spotless Lamb of God.
• 20. God chose him for this purpose long before the world began, but now in these final days, he was sent to the earth for all to see. And he did this for you.
• 21. Through Christ you have come to trust in God. And because God raised Christ from the dead and gave him great glory, your faith and hope can be placed confidently in God.
• 22. Now you can have sincere love for each other as brothers and sisters because you were cleansed from your sins when you accepted the truth of the Good News. So see to it that you really do love each other intensely with all your hearts.
• 23. For you have been born again. Your new life did not come from your earthly parents because the life they gave you will end in death. But this new life will last forever because it comes from the eternal, living word of God.
• 24. As the prophet says, "People are like grass that dies away; their beauty fades as quickly as the beauty of wildflowers. The grass withers, and the flowers fall away.
• 25. But the word of the Lord will last forever." And that word is the Good News that was preached to you.

Jonah 3

• 1. Then the LORD spoke to Jonah a second time:
• 2. "Get up and go to the great city of Nineveh, and deliver the message of judgment I have given you."
• 3. This time Jonah obeyed the LORD's command and went to Nineveh, a city so large that it took three days to see it all.
• 4. On the day Jonah entered the city, he shouted to the crowds: "Forty days from now Nineveh will be destroyed!"
• 5. The people of Nineveh believed God's message, and from the greatest to the least, they decided to go without food and wear sackcloth to show their sorrow.
• 6. When the king of Nineveh heard what Jonah was saying, he stepped down from his throne and took off his royal robes. He dressed himself in sackcloth and sat on a heap of ashes.
• 7. Then the king and his nobles sent this decree throughout the city: "No one, not even the animals, may eat or drink anything at all.
• 8. Everyone is required to wear sackcloth and pray earnestly to God. Everyone must turn from their evil ways and stop all their violence.
• 9. Who can tell? Perhaps even yet God will have pity on us and hold back his fierce anger from destroying us."
• 10. When God saw that they had put a stop to their evil ways, he had mercy on them and didn't carry out the destruction he had threatened.

New Living Translation: 328 of 365 days.