Wednesday, 11 Tammuz 5784 / July 17, 2024
Day 564 Readings
Torah: Parshat Balak, 4th Portion (Bamidbar (Numbers) 22:39-23:12)
Numbers 22:39-23:12
English Standard Version
39 Then Balaam went with Balak, and they came to Kiriath-huzoth. 40 And Balak sacrificed oxen and sheep, and sent for Balaam and for the princes who were with him.
41 And in the morning Balak took Balaam and brought him up to Bamoth-baal, and from there he saw a fraction of the people.
Nahum 23
Balaam's First Oracle
1 And Balaam said to Balak, “Build for me here seven altars, and prepare for me here seven bulls and seven rams.” 2 Balak did as Balaam had said. And Balak and Balaam offered on each altar a bull and a ram. 3 And Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go. Perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever he shows me I will tell you.” And he went to a bare height, 4 and God met Balaam. And Balaam said to him, “I have arranged the seven altars and I have offered on each altar a bull and a ram.” 5 And the Lord put a word in Balaam's mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” 6 And he returned to him, and behold, he and all the princes of Moab were standing beside his burnt offering. 7 And Balaam took up his discourse and said,
“From Aram Balak has brought me, the king of Moab from the eastern mountains: ‘Come, curse Jacob for me, and come, denounce Israel!’ 8 How can I curse whom God has not cursed? How can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?9 For from the top of the crags I see him, from the hills I behold him; behold, a people dwelling alone, and not counting itself among the nations!10 Who can count the dust of Jacob or number the fourth part[a] of Israel? Let me die the death of the upright, and let my end be like his!”
11 And Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, and behold, you have done nothing but bless them.” 12 And he answered and said, “Must I not take care to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”
Bible Study Together
Nahum 3
English Standard Version
Woe to Nineveh
1 Woe to the bloody city, all full of lies and plunder— no end to the prey!2 The crack of the whip, and rumble of the wheel, galloping horse and bounding chariot!3 Horsemen charging, flashing sword and glittering spear,hosts of slain, heaps of corpses,dead bodies without end— they stumble over the bodies!4 And all for the countless whorings of the prostitute, graceful and of deadly charms,who betrays nations with her whorings, and peoples with her charms.
5 Behold, I am against you, declares the Lord of hosts, and will lift up your skirts over your face;and I will make nations look at your nakedness and kingdoms at your shame.6 I will throw filth at you and treat you with contempt and make you a spectacle.7 And all who look at you will shrink from you and say,“Wasted is Nineveh; who will grieve for her?” Where shall I seek comforters for you?
8 Are you better than Thebes[a] that sat by the Nile,with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?9 Cush was her strength; Egypt too, and that without limit; Put and the Libyans were her[b] helpers.
10 Yet she became an exile; she went into captivity;her infants were dashed in pieces at the head of every street;for her honored men lots were cast, and all her great men were bound in chains.11 You also will be drunken; you will go into hiding;you will seek a refuge from the enemy.12 All your fortresses are like fig trees with first-ripe figs—if shaken they fall into the mouth of the eater.13 Behold, your troops are women in your midst.The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has devoured your bars.
14 Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts;go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold!15 There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust.Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper! 16 You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
17 Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes[c] like clouds of locustssettling on the fences in a day of cold—when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are.
18 Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber.Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.19 There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you.For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?
Habakkuk 1:1-2
English Standard Version
1 The oracle that Habakkuk the prophet saw.
Habakkuk's Complaint
2 O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?Or cry to you “Violence!” and you will not save?3 Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong?Destruction and violence are before me; strife and contention arise.4 So the law is paralyzed, and justice never goes forth.For the wicked surround the righteous; so justice goes forth perverted.
The Lord's Answer
5 “Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded.For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told.6 For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation,who march through the breadth of the earth, to seize dwellings not their own.7 They are dreaded and fearsome; their justice and dignity go forth from themselves.8 Their horses are swifter than leopards, more fierce than the evening wolves; their horsemen press proudly on.Their horsemen come from afar; they fly like an eagle swift to devour.9 They all come for violence, all their faces forward. They gather captives like sand.10 At kings they scoff, and at rulers they laugh.They laugh at every fortress, for they pile up earth and take it.11 Then they sweep by like the wind and go on, guilty men, whose own might is their god!”
Habakkuk's Second Complaint
12 Are you not from everlasting, O Lord my God, my Holy One? We shall not die.O Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment, and you, O Rock, have established them for reproof.13 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil and cannot look at wrong,why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?14 You make mankind like the fish of the sea, like crawling things that have no ruler.15 He[a] brings all of them up with a hook; he drags them out with his net;he gathers them in his dragnet; so he rejoices and is glad.16 Therefore he sacrifices to his net and makes offerings to his dragnet;for by them he lives in luxury,[b] and his food is rich.17 Is he then to keep on emptying his net and mercilessly killing nations forever?
Habakkuk 2
1 I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint.
Philippians 2:12-30
English Standard Version
Lights in the World
12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, 13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
14 Do all things without grumbling or disputing, 15 that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world, 16 holding fast to the word of life, so that in the day of Christ I may be proud that I did not run in vain or labor in vain. 17 Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. 18 Likewise you also should be glad and rejoice with me.
Timothy and Epaphroditus
19 I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. 20 For I have no one like him, who will be genuinely concerned for your welfare. 21 For they all seek their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. 22 But you know Timothy's[a] proven worth, how as a son[b] with a father he has served with me in the gospel. 23 I hope therefore to send him just as soon as I see how it will go with me, 24 and I trust in the Lord that shortly I myself will come also.
25 I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need, 26 for he has been longing for you all and has been distressed because you heard that he was ill. 27 Indeed he was ill, near to death. But God had mercy on him, and not only on him but on me also, lest I should have sorrow upon sorrow. 28 I am the more eager to send him, therefore, that you may rejoice at seeing him again, and that I may be less anxious. 29 So receive him in the Lord with all joy, and honor such men, 30 for he nearly died[c] for the work of Christ, risking his life to complete what was lacking in your service to me.
ESV Readings
Scripture
Ecclesiastes 9:11-18
English Standard Version
Wisdom Better Than Folly
11 Again I saw that under the sun the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, nor bread to the wise, nor riches to the intelligent, nor favor to those with knowledge, but time and chance happen to them all. 12 For man does not know his time. Like fish that are taken in an evil net, and like birds that are caught in a snare, so the children of man are snared at an evil time, when it suddenly falls upon them.
13 I have also seen this example of wisdom under the sun, and it seemed great to me. 14 There was a little city with few men in it, and a great king came against it and besieged it, building great siegeworks against it. 15 But there was found in it a poor, wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no one remembered that poor man. 16 But I say that wisdom is better than might, though the poor man's wisdom is despised and his words are not heard.
17 The words of the wise heard in quiet are better than the shouting of a ruler among fools. 18 Wisdom is better than weapons of war, but one sinner destroys much good.
Joshua 16
Joshua 17
Jeremiah 9:23-26
Jeremiah 10:1-25
Matthew 24
English Standard Version
Jesus Foretells Destruction of the Temple
24 Jesus left the temple and was going away, when his disciples came to point out to him the buildings of the temple. 2 But he answered them, “You see all these, do you not? Truly, I say to you, there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.”
Signs of the End of the Age
3 As he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be, and what will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?” 4 And Jesus answered them, “See that no one leads you astray. 5 For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will lead many astray. 6 And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet. 7 For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. 8 All these are but the beginning of the birth pains.
9 “Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and put you to death, and you will be hated by all nations for my name's sake. 10 And then many will fall away[a] and betray one another and hate one another. 11 And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. 12 And because lawlessness will be increased, the love of many will grow cold. 13 But the one who endures to the end will be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.
The Abomination of Desolation
15 “So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), 16 then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 17 Let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take what is in his house, 18 and let the one who is in the field not turn back to take his cloak. 19 And alas for women who are pregnant and for those who are nursing infants in those days! 20 Pray that your flight may not be in winter or on a Sabbath. 21 For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. 22 And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. 23 Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’ or ‘There he is!’ do not believe it. 24 For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. 25 See, I have told you beforehand. 26 So, if they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the wilderness,’ do not go out. If they say, ‘Look, he is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe it. 27 For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 28 Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.
The Coming of the Son of Man
29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. 30 Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. 31 And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
The Lesson of the Fig Tree
32 “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near. 33 So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. 34 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place. 35 Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
No One Knows That Day and Hour
36 “But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son,[b] but the Father only. 37 For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, 39 and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. 41 Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one left. 42 Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. 43 But know this, that if the master of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. 44 Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
45 “Who then is the faithful and wise servant,[c] whom his master has set over his household, to give them their food at the proper time? 46 Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. 47 Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. 48 But if that wicked servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed,’ 49 and begins to beat his fellow servants[d] and eats and drinks with drunkards, 50 the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know 51 and will cut him in pieces and put him with the hypocrites. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.