Genesis 9

• 1. God blessed Noah and his sons and told them, "Multiply and fill the earth.
• 2. All the wild animals, large and small, and all the birds and fish will be afraid of you. I have placed them in your power.
• 3. I have given them to you for food, just as I have given you grain and vegetables.
• 4. But you must never eat animals that still have their lifeblood in them.
• 5. And murder is forbidden. Animals that kill people must die, and any person who murders must be killed.
• 6. Yes, you must execute anyone who murders another person, for to kill a person is to kill a living being made in God's image.
• 7. Now you must have many children and repopulate the earth. Yes, multiply and fill the earth!"
• 8. Then God told Noah and his sons,
• 9. "I am making a covenant with you and your descendants,
• 10. and with the animals you brought with you--all these birds and livestock and wild animals.
• 11. I solemnly promise never to send another flood to kill all living creatures and destroy the earth."
• 12. And God said, "I am giving you a sign as evidence of my eternal covenant with you and all living creatures.
• 13. I have placed my rainbow in the clouds. It is the sign of my permanent promise to you and to all the earth.
• 14. When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will be seen in the clouds,
• 15. and I will remember my covenant with you and with everything that lives. Never again will there be a flood that will destroy all life.
• 16. When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth."
• 17. Then God said to Noah, "Yes, this is the sign of my covenant with all the creatures of the earth."
• 18. Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, survived the Flood with their father. (Ham is the ancestor of the Canaanites.)
• 19. From these three sons of Noah came all the people now scattered across the earth.
• 20. After the Flood, Noah became a farmer and planted a vineyard.
• 21. One day he became drunk on some wine he had made and lay naked in his tent.
• 22. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked and went outside and told his brothers.
• 23. Shem and Japheth took a robe, held it over their shoulders, walked backward into the tent, and covered their father's naked body. As they did this, they looked the other way so they wouldn't see him naked.
• 24. When Noah woke up from his drunken stupor, he learned what Ham, his youngest son, had done.
• 25. Then he cursed the descendants of Canaan, the son of Ham: "A curse on the Canaanites! May they be the lowest of servants to the descendants of Shem and Japheth."
• 26. Then Noah said, "May Shem be blessed by the LORD my God; and may Canaan be his servant.
• 27. May God enlarge the territory of Japheth, and may he share the prosperity of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant."
• 28. Noah lived another 350 years after the Flood.
• 29. He was 950 years old when he died.

Matthew 8

• 1. Large crowds followed Jesus as he came down the mountainside.
• 2. Suddenly, a man with leprosy approached Jesus. He knelt before him, worshiping. "Lord," the man said, "if you want to, you can make me well again."
• 3. Jesus touched him. "I want to," he said. "Be healed!" And instantly the leprosy disappeared.
• 4. Then Jesus said to him, "Go right over to the priest and let him examine you. Don't talk to anyone along the way. Take along the offering required in the law of Moses for those who have been healed of leprosy, so everyone will have proof of your healing."
• 5. When Jesus arrived in Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him,
• 6. "Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and racked with pain."
• 7. Jesus said, "I will come and heal him."
• 8. Then the officer said, "Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed!
• 9. I know, because I am under the authority of my superior officers and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, 'Go,' and they go, or 'Come,' and they come. And if I say to my slaves, 'Do this or that,' they do it."
• 10. When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to the crowd, he said, "I tell you the truth, I haven't seen faith like this in all the land of Israel!
• 11. And I tell you this, that many Gentiles will come from all over the world and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven.
• 12. But many Israelites--those for whom the Kingdom was prepared--will be cast into outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth."
• 13. Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, "Go on home. What you have believed has happened." And the young servant was healed that same hour.
• 14. When Jesus arrived at Peter's house, Peter's mother-in-law was in bed with a high fever.
• 15. But when Jesus touched her hand, the fever left her. Then she got up and prepared a meal for him.
• 16. That evening many demon-possessed people were brought to Jesus. All the spirits fled when he commanded them to leave; and he healed all the sick.
• 17. This fulfilled the word of the Lord through Isaiah, who said, "He took our sicknesses and removed our diseases."
• 18. When Jesus noticed how large the crowd was growing, he instructed his disciples to cross to the other side of the lake.
• 19. Then one of the teachers of religious law said to him, "Teacher, I will follow you no matter where you go!"
• 20. But Jesus said, "Foxes have dens to live in, and birds have nests, but I, the Son of Man, have no home of my own, not even a place to lay my head."
• 21. Another of his disciples said, "Lord, first let me return home and bury my father."
• 22. But Jesus told him, "Follow me now! Let those who are spiritually dead care for their own dead."
• 23. Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples.
• 24. Suddenly, a terrible storm came up, with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.
• 25. The disciples went to him and woke him up, shouting, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
• 26. And Jesus answered, "Why are you afraid? You have so little faith!" Then he stood up and rebuked the wind and waves, and suddenly all was calm.
• 27. The disciples just sat there in awe. "Who is this?" they asked themselves. "Even the wind and waves obey him!"
• 28. When Jesus arrived on the other side of the lake in the land of the Gadarenes, two men who were possessed by demons met him. They lived in a cemetery and were so dangerous that no one could go through that area.
• 29. They began screaming at him, "Why are you bothering us, Son of God? You have no right to torture us before God's appointed time!"
• 30. A large herd of pigs was feeding in the distance,
• 31. so the demons begged, "If you cast us out, send us into that herd of pigs."
• 32. "All right, go!" Jesus commanded them. So the demons came out of the men and entered the pigs, and the whole herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned in the water.
• 33. The herdsmen fled to the nearby city, telling everyone what happened to the demon-possessed men.
• 34. The entire town came out to meet Jesus, but they begged him to go away and leave them alone.

Ezra 8

• 1. Here is a list of the family leaders and the genealogies of those who came with me from Babylon during the reign of King Artaxerxes:
• 2. From the family of Phinehas: Gershom. From the family of Ithamar: Daniel.
• 3. From the family of David: Hattush son of Shecaniah. From the family of Parosh: Zechariah and 150 other men.
• 4. From the family of Pahath-moab: Eliehoenai son of Zerahiah and 200 other men.
• 5. From the family of Zattu: Shecaniah son of Jahaziel and 300 other men.
• 6. From the family of Adin: Ebed son of Jonathan and 50 other men.
• 7. From the family of Elam: Jeshaiah son of Athaliah and 70 other men.
• 8. From the family of Shephatiah: Zebadiah son of Michael and 80 other men.
• 9. From the family of Joab: Obadiah son of Jehiel and 218 other men.
• 10. From the family of Bani: Shelomith son of Josiphiah and 160 other men.
• 11. From the family of Bebai: Zechariah son of Bebai and 28 other men.
• 12. From the family of Azgad: Johanan son of Hakkatan and 110 other men.
• 13. From the family of Adonikam, who came later: Eliphelet, Jeuel, Shemaiah, and 60 other men.
• 14. From the family of Bigvai: Uthai, Zaccur, and 70 other men.
• 15. I assembled the exiles at the Ahava Canal, and we camped there for three days while I went over the lists of the people and the priests who had arrived. I found that not one Levite had volunteered to come along.
• 16. So I sent for Eliezer, Ariel, Shemaiah, Elnathan, Jarib, Elnathan, Nathan, Zechariah, and Meshullam, who were leaders of the people. I also sent for Joiarib and Elnathan, who were very wise men.
• 17. I sent them to Iddo, the leader of the Levites at Casiphia, to ask him and his relatives and the Temple servants to send us ministers for the Temple of God at Jerusalem.
• 18. Since the gracious hand of our God was on us, they sent us a man named Sherebiah, along with eighteen of his sons and brothers. He was a very astute man and a descendant of Mahli, who was a descendant of Levi son of Israel.
• 19. They also sent Hashabiah, together with Jeshaiah from the descendants of Merari, and twenty of his sons and brothers,
• 20. and 220 Temple servants. The Temple servants were assistants to the Levites--a group of Temple workers first instituted by King David. They were all listed by name.
• 21. And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled.
• 22. For I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to accompany us and protect us from enemies along the way. After all, we had told the king, "Our God protects all those who worship him, but his fierce anger rages against those who abandon him."
• 23. So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer.
• 24. I appointed twelve leaders of the priests--Sherebiah, Hashabiah, and ten other priests--
• 25. to be in charge of transporting the silver, the gold, the gold bowls, and the other items that the king, his council, his leaders, and the people of Israel had presented for the Temple of God.
• 26. I weighed the treasure as I gave it to them and found the totals to be as follows: 24 tons of silver, 7,500 pounds of silver utensils, 7,500 pounds of gold,
• 27. 20 gold bowls, equal in value to 1,000 gold coins, 2 fine articles of polished bronze, as precious as gold.
• 28. And I said to these priests, "You and these treasures have been set apart as holy to the LORD. This silver and gold is a freewill offering to the LORD, the God of our ancestors.
• 29. Guard these treasures well until you present them, without an ounce lost, to the leading priests, the Levites, and the leaders of Israel at the storerooms of the LORD's Temple in Jerusalem."
• 30. So the priests and the Levites accepted the task of transporting these treasures to the Temple of our God in Jerusalem.
• 31. We broke camp at the Ahava Canal on April 19 and started off to Jerusalem. And the gracious hand of our God protected us and saved us from enemies and bandits along the way.
• 32. So at last we arrived safely in Jerusalem, where we rested for three days.
• 33. On the fourth day after our arrival, the silver, gold, and other valuables were weighed at the Temple of our God and entrusted to Meremoth son of Uriah the priest and to Eleazar son of Phinehas, along with Jozabad son of Jeshua and Noadiah son of Binnui--both of whom were Levites.
• 34. Everything was accounted for by number and weight, and the total weight was officially recorded.
• 35. Then the exiles who had returned from captivity sacrificed burnt offerings to the God of Israel. They presented twelve oxen for the people of Israel, as well as ninety-six rams and seventy-seven lambs. They also offered twelve goats as a sin offering. All this was given as a burnt offering to the LORD.
• 36. The king's decrees were delivered to his lieutenants and the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, who then cooperated by supporting the people and the Temple of God.

New Living Translation: 8 of 365 days.