New International Version

Annual Bible reading: 339 of 365 days

• 2 Chronicles 5
• 1. When all the work Solomon had done for the temple of the LORD was finished, he brought in the things his father David had dedicated-the silver and gold and all the furnishings-and he placed them in the treasuries of God's temple.
• 2. Then Solomon summoned to Jerusalem the elders of Israel, all the heads of the tribes and the chiefs of the Israelite families, to bring up the ark of the LORD's covenant from Zion, the City of David.
• 3. And all the men of Israel came together to the king at the time of the festival in the seventh month.
• 4. When all the elders of Israel had arrived, the Levites took up the ark,
• 5. and they brought up the ark and the Tent of Meeting and all the sacred furnishings in it. The priests, who were Levites, carried them up;
• 6. and King Solomon and the entire assembly of Israel that had gathered about him were before the ark, sacrificing so many sheep and cattle that they could not be recorded or counted.
• 7. The priests then brought the ark of the LORD's covenant to its place in the inner sanctuary of the temple, the Most Holy Place, and put it beneath the wings of the cherubim.
• 8. The cherubim spread their wings over the place of the ark and covered the ark and its carrying poles.
• 9. These poles were so long that their ends, extending from the ark, could be seen from in front of the inner sanctuary, but not from outside the Holy Place; and they are still there today.
• 10. There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses had placed in it at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the Israelites after they came out of Egypt.
• 11. The priests then withdrew from the Holy Place. All the priests who were there had consecrated themselves, regardless of their divisions.
• 12. All the Levites who were musicians-Asaph, Heman, Jeduthun and their sons and relatives-stood on the east side of the altar, dressed in fine linen and playing cymbals, harps and lyres. They were accompanied by 120 priests sounding trumpets.
• 13. The trumpeters and singers joined in unison, as with one voice, to give praise and thanks to the LORD. Accompanied by trumpets, cymbals and other instruments, they raised their voices in praise to the LORD and sang: "He is good; his love endures forever." Then the temple of the LORD was filled with a cloud,
• 14. and the priests could not perform their service because of the cloud, for the glory of the LORD filled the temple of God.
• 1 John 4
• 1. Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.
• 2. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God,
• 3. but every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world.
• 4. You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.
• 5. They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.
• 6. We are from God, and whoever knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.
• 7. Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.
• 8. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
• 9. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him.
• 10. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
• 11. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
• 12. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.
• 13. We know that we live in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.
• 14. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world.
• 15. If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.
• 16. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in him.
• 17. In this way, love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment, because in this world we are like him.
• 18. There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
• 19. We love because he first loved us.
• 20. If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.
• 21. And he has given us this command: Whoever loves God must also love his brother.
• Nahum 3
• 1. Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!
• 2. The crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots!
• 3. Charging cavalry, flashing swords and glittering spears! Many casualties, piles of dead, bodies without number, people stumbling over the corpses-
• 4. all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft.
• 5. "I am against you," declares the LORD Almighty. "I will lift your skirts over your face. I will show the nations your nakedness and the kingdoms your shame.
• 6. I will pelt you with filth, I will treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.
• 7. All who see you will flee from you and say, 'Nineveh is in ruins-who will mourn for her?' Where can I find anyone to comfort you?"
• 8. Are you better than Thebes, situated on the Nile, with water around her? The river was her defense, the waters her wall.
• 9. Cush and Egypt were her boundless strength; Put and Libya were among her allies.
• 10. Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street. Lots were cast for her nobles, and all her great men were put in chains.
• 11. You too will become drunk; you will go into hiding and seek refuge from the enemy.
• 12. All your fortresses are like fig trees with their first ripe fruit; when they are shaken, the figs fall into the mouth of the eater.
• 13. Look at your troops- they are all women! The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed their bars.
• 14. Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork!
• 15. There the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down and, like grasshoppers, consume you. Multiply like grasshoppers, multiply like locusts!
• 16. You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more than the stars of the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.
• 17. Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day- but when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.
• 18. O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your nobles lie down to rest. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.
• 19. Nothing can heal your wound; your injury is fatal. Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?

New International Version