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WEBC: World English Bible, Catholic Edition

View Reading Plan Day 273 of 365 75%

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Egypt and Exodus
Desert Wanderings
Conquest and Judges
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Day 273 of 365

about 17 minutes

Daniel 14

Daniel Chapter 14

¹King Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom. ²Daniel lived with the king, and was honored above all his friends. ³Now the Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day twelve great measures of fine flour, forty sheep, and six firkins of wine were spent on it. ⁴The king honored it and went daily to worship it; but Daniel worshiped his own God. The king said to him, “Why don’t you worship Bel?” ⁵He said, “Because I may not honor idols made with hands, but only the living God, who has created the sky and the earth, and has sovereignty over all flesh.” ⁶Then the king said to him, “Don’t you think that Bel is a living god? Don’t you see how much he eats and drinks every day?” ⁷Then Daniel laughed, and said, “O king, don’t be deceived; for this is just clay inside, and brass outside, and never ate or drank anything.” ⁸So the king was angry, and called for his priests, and said to them, “If you don’t tell me who this is who devours these expenses, you shall die. ⁹But if you can show me that Bel devours them, then Daniel shall die; for he has spoken blasphemy against Bel.” Daniel said to the king, “Let it be according to your word.” ¹⁰Now there were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children. The king went with Daniel into Bel’s temple. ¹¹So Bel’s priests said, “Behold, we will leave; but you, O king, set out the food, and mix the wine and set it out, shut the door securely, and seal it with your own signet. ¹²When you come in the morning, if you don’t find that Bel has eaten everything, we will suffer death, or else Daniel, who speaks falsely against us.” ¹³They weren’t concerned, for under the table they had made a secret entrance, by which they entered in continually, and consumed those things. ¹⁴It happened, when they had gone out, the king set the food before Bel. Now Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes, and they scattered them all over the temple in the presence of the king alone. Then they went out, shut the door, sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed. ¹⁵Now in the night, the priests came with their wives and children, as they usually did, and ate and drank it all. ¹⁶In the morning, the king arose, and Daniel with him. ¹⁷The king said, “Daniel, are the seals whole?” He said, “Yes, O king, they are whole.” ¹⁸And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked at the table, and cried with a loud voice, “You are great, O Bel, and with you is no deceit at all!” ¹⁹Then Daniel laughed, and held the king that he should not go in, and said, “Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps these are.” ²⁰The king said, “I see the footsteps of men, women, and children.” Then the king was angry, ²¹and took the priests with their wives and children, who showed him the secret doors, where they came in and consumed the things that were on the table. ²²Therefore the king killed them, and delivered Bel into Daniel’s power, who overthrew it and its temple. ²³In that same place there was a great dragon which the people of Babylon worshiped. ²⁴The king said to Daniel, “Will you also say that this is of brass? Behold, he lives, eats and drinks. You can’t say that he is no living god. Therefore worship him.” ²⁵Then Daniel said, “I will worship the Lord my God; for he is a living God. ²⁶But allow me, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or staff.” The king said, “I allow you.” ²⁷Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and melted them together, and made lumps of them. He put these in the dragon’s mouth, so the dragon ate and burst apart. Daniel said, “Behold, these are the gods you all worship.” ²⁸When the people of Babylon heard that, they took great indignation, and conspired against the king, saying, “The king has become a Jew. He has pulled down Bel, slain the dragon, and put the priests to the sword.” ²⁹So they came to the king, and said, “Deliver Daniel to us, or else we will destroy you and your house.” ³⁰Now when the king saw that they trapped him, being constrained, the king delivered Daniel to them. ³¹They cast him into the lion’s den, where he was six days. ³²There were seven lions in the den, and they had been giving them two carcasses and two sheep every day, which then were not given to them, intending that they would devour Daniel. ³³Now there was in Jewry the prophet Habakkuk, who had made stew, and had broken bread into a bowl. He was going into the field to bring it to the reapers. ³⁴But the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, “Go carry the dinner that you have into Babylon to Daniel, in the lions’ den.” ³⁵Habakkuk said, “Lord, I never saw Babylon. I don’t know where the den is.” ³⁶Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and lifted him up by the hair of his head, and with the blast of his breath set him in Babylon over the den. ³⁷Habakkuk cried, saying, “O Daniel, Daniel, take the dinner which God has sent you.” ³⁸Daniel said, “You have remembered me, O God! You haven’t forsaken those who love you!” ³⁹So Daniel arose and ate; and the angel of God set Habakkuk in his own place again immediately. ⁴⁰On the seventh day, the king came to mourn for Daniel. When he came to the den, he looked in, and, behold, Daniel was sitting. ⁴¹Then the king cried with a loud voice, saying, “Great are you, O Lord, you God of Daniel, and there is none other beside you!” ⁴²So he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den; and they were devoured in a moment before his face.

1: King Astyages was gathered to his fathers, and Cyrus the Persian received his kingdom.

2: Daniel lived with the king, and was honored above all his friends.

3: Now the Babylonians had an idol called Bel, and every day twelve great measures of fine flour, forty sheep, and six firkins of wine were spent on it.

4: The king honored it and went daily to worship it; but Daniel worshiped his own God. The king said to him, “Why don’t you worship Bel?”

5: He said, “Because I may not honor idols made with hands, but only the living God, who has created the sky and the earth, and has sovereignty over all flesh.”

6: Then the king said to him, “Don’t you think that Bel is a living god? Don’t you see how much he eats and drinks every day?”

7: Then Daniel laughed, and said, “O king, don’t be deceived; for this is just clay inside, and brass outside, and never ate or drank anything.”

8: So the king was angry, and called for his priests, and said to them, “If you don’t tell me who this is who devours these expenses, you shall die.

9: But if you can show me that Bel devours them, then Daniel shall die; for he has spoken blasphemy against Bel.” Daniel said to the king, “Let it be according to your word.”

10: Now there were seventy priests of Bel, besides their wives and children. The king went with Daniel into Bel’s temple.

11: So Bel’s priests said, “Behold, we will leave; but you, O king, set out the food, and mix the wine and set it out, shut the door securely, and seal it with your own signet.

12: When you come in the morning, if you don’t find that Bel has eaten everything, we will suffer death, or else Daniel, who speaks falsely against us.”

13: They weren’t concerned, for under the table they had made a secret entrance, by which they entered in continually, and consumed those things.

14: It happened, when they had gone out, the king set the food before Bel. Now Daniel had commanded his servants to bring ashes, and they scattered them all over the temple in the presence of the king alone. Then they went out, shut the door, sealed it with the king’s signet, and so departed.

15: Now in the night, the priests came with their wives and children, as they usually did, and ate and drank it all.

16: In the morning, the king arose, and Daniel with him.

17: The king said, “Daniel, are the seals whole?” He said, “Yes, O king, they are whole.”

18: And as soon as he had opened the door, the king looked at the table, and cried with a loud voice, “You are great, O Bel, and with you is no deceit at all!”

19: Then Daniel laughed, and held the king that he should not go in, and said, “Behold now the pavement, and mark well whose footsteps these are.”

20: The king said, “I see the footsteps of men, women, and children.” Then the king was angry,

21: and took the priests with their wives and children, who showed him the secret doors, where they came in and consumed the things that were on the table.

22: Therefore the king killed them, and delivered Bel into Daniel’s power, who overthrew it and its temple.

23: In that same place there was a great dragon which the people of Babylon worshiped.

24: The king said to Daniel, “Will you also say that this is of brass? Behold, he lives, eats and drinks. You can’t say that he is no living god. Therefore worship him.”

25: Then Daniel said, “I will worship the Lord my God; for he is a living God.

26: But allow me, O king, and I will kill this dragon without sword or staff.” The king said, “I allow you.”

27: Then Daniel took pitch, fat, and hair, and melted them together, and made lumps of them. He put these in the dragon’s mouth, so the dragon ate and burst apart. Daniel said, “Behold, these are the gods you all worship.”

28: When the people of Babylon heard that, they took great indignation, and conspired against the king, saying, “The king has become a Jew. He has pulled down Bel, slain the dragon, and put the priests to the sword.”

29: So they came to the king, and said, “Deliver Daniel to us, or else we will destroy you and your house.”

30: Now when the king saw that they trapped him, being constrained, the king delivered Daniel to them.

31: They cast him into the lion’s den, where he was six days.

32: There were seven lions in the den, and they had been giving them two carcasses and two sheep every day, which then were not given to them, intending that they would devour Daniel.

33: Now there was in Jewry the prophet Habakkuk, who had made stew, and had broken bread into a bowl. He was going into the field to bring it to the reapers.

34: But the angel of the Lord said to Habakkuk, “Go carry the dinner that you have into Babylon to Daniel, in the lions’ den.”

35: Habakkuk said, “Lord, I never saw Babylon. I don’t know where the den is.”

36: Then the angel of the Lord took him by the crown, and lifted him up by the hair of his head, and with the blast of his breath set him in Babylon over the den.

37: Habakkuk cried, saying, “O Daniel, Daniel, take the dinner which God has sent you.”

38: Daniel said, “You have remembered me, O God! You haven’t forsaken those who love you!”

39: So Daniel arose and ate; and the angel of God set Habakkuk in his own place again immediately.

40: On the seventh day, the king came to mourn for Daniel. When he came to the den, he looked in, and, behold, Daniel was sitting.

41: Then the king cried with a loud voice, saying, “Great are you, O Lord, you God of Daniel, and there is none other beside you!”

42: So he drew him out, and cast those that were the cause of his destruction into the den; and they were devoured in a moment before his face.

Hosea 1-4

Hosea Chapter 1

¹The LORD’s word that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel. ²When the LORD spoke at first by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking the LORD.” ³So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son. ⁴The LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease. ⁵It will happen in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.” ⁶She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them. ⁷But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.” ⁸Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son. ⁹He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. ¹⁰Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’ ¹¹The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and will go up from the land; for great will be the day of Jezreel.

1: The LORD’s word that came to Hosea the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

2: When the LORD spoke at first by Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, “Go, take for yourself a wife of prostitution and children of unfaithfulness; for the land commits great adultery, forsaking the LORD.”

3: So he went and took Gomer the daughter of Diblaim; and she conceived, and bore him a son.

4: The LORD said to him, “Call his name Jezreel, for yet a little while, and I will avenge the blood of Jezreel on the house of Jehu, and will cause the kingdom of the house of Israel to cease.

5: It will happen in that day that I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.”

6: She conceived again, and bore a daughter. Then he said to him, “Call her name Lo-Ruhamah, for I will no longer have mercy on the house of Israel, that I should in any way pardon them.

7: But I will have mercy on the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, sword, battle, horses, or horsemen.”

8: Now when she had weaned Lo-Ruhamah, she conceived, and bore a son.

9: He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi, for you are not my people, and I will not be yours.

10: Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured or counted; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’

11: The children of Judah and the children of Israel will be gathered together, and they will appoint themselves one head, and will go up from the land; for great will be the day of Jezreel.

Hosea Chapter 2

¹“Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’ ²Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts; ³lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst. ⁴Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy, for they are children of unfaithfulness. ⁵For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’ ⁶Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way. ⁷She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.’ ⁸For she didn’t know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal. ⁹Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness. ¹⁰Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand. ¹¹I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies. ¹²I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me,’ and I will make them a forest, and the animals of the field shall eat them. ¹³I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers and forgot me,” says the LORD. ¹⁴“Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her. ¹⁵I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. ¹⁶It will be in that day,” says the LORD, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’ ¹⁷For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name. ¹⁸In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely. ¹⁹I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion. ²⁰I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD. ²¹It will happen in that day, that I will respond,” says the LORD. “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth; ²²and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel. ²³I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘You are My God!’ ”

1: “Say to your brothers, ‘My people!’ and to your sisters, ‘My loved one!’

2: Contend with your mother! Contend, for she is not my wife, neither am I her husband; and let her put away her prostitution from her face, and her adulteries from between her breasts;

3: lest I strip her naked, and make her bare as in the day that she was born, and make her like a wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and kill her with thirst.

4: Indeed, on her children I will have no mercy, for they are children of unfaithfulness.

5: For their mother has played the prostitute. She who conceived them has done shamefully; for she said, ‘I will go after my lovers, who give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.’

6: Therefore behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns, and I will build a wall against her, that she can’t find her way.

7: She will follow after her lovers, but she won’t overtake them; and she will seek them, but won’t find them. Then she will say, ‘I will go and return to my first husband, for then it was better with me than now.’

8: For she didn’t know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.

9: Therefore I will take back my grain in its time, and my new wine in its season, and will pluck away my wool and my flax which should have covered her nakedness.

10: Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers, and no one will deliver her out of my hand.

11: I will also cause all her celebrations to cease: her feasts, her new moons, her Sabbaths, and all her solemn assemblies.

12: I will lay waste her vines and her fig trees, about which she has said, ‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me,’ and I will make them a forest, and the animals of the field shall eat them.

13: I will visit on her the days of the Baals, to which she burned incense when she decked herself with her earrings and her jewels, and went after her lovers and forgot me,” says the LORD.

14: “Therefore behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.

15: I will give her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope; and she will respond there as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

16: It will be in that day,” says the LORD, “that you will call me ‘my husband,’ and no longer call me ‘my master.’

17: For I will take away the names of the Baals out of her mouth, and they will no longer be mentioned by name.

18: In that day I will make a covenant for them with the animals of the field, and with the birds of the sky, and with the creeping things of the ground. I will break the bow, the sword, and the battle out of the land, and will make them lie down safely.

19: I will betroth you to me forever. Yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, in justice, in loving kindness, and in compassion.

20: I will even betroth you to me in faithfulness; and you shall know the LORD.

21: It will happen in that day, that I will respond,” says the LORD. “I will respond to the heavens, and they will respond to the earth;

22: and the earth will respond to the grain, and the new wine, and the oil; and they will respond to Jezreel.

23: I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘You are My God!’ ”

Hosea Chapter 3

¹The LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman loved by another, and an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the children of Israel, though they turn to other gods, and love cakes of raisins.” ²So I bought her for myself for fifteen pieces of silver and a homer and a half of barley. ³I said to her, “You shall stay with me many days. You shall not play the prostitute, and you shall not be with any other man. I will also be so toward you.” ⁴For the children of Israel shall live many days without king, without prince, without sacrifice, without sacred stone, and without ephod or idols. ⁵Afterward the children of Israel shall return and seek the LORD their God, and David their king, and shall come with trembling to the LORD and to his blessings in the last days.

Hosea Chapter 4

¹Hear the LORD’s word, you children of Israel, for the LORD has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land. ²There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed. ³Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells in it will waste away, with all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky; yes, the fish of the sea also die. ⁴“Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest. ⁵You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother. ⁶My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children. ⁷As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame. ⁸They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity. ⁹It will be like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds. ¹⁰They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned listening to the LORD. ¹¹Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. ¹²My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God. ¹³They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery. ¹⁴I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin. ¹⁵“Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As the LORD lives.’ ¹⁶For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. Then how will the LORD feed them like a lamb in a meadow? ¹⁷Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone! ¹⁸Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way. ¹⁹The wind has wrapped her up in its wings; and they shall be disappointed because of their sacrifices.

1: Hear the LORD’s word, you children of Israel, for the LORD has a charge against the inhabitants of the land: “Indeed there is no truth, nor goodness, nor knowledge of God in the land.

2: There is cursing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break boundaries, and bloodshed causes bloodshed.

3: Therefore the land will mourn, and everyone who dwells in it will waste away, with all living things in her, even the animals of the field and the birds of the sky; yes, the fish of the sea also die.

4: “Yet let no man bring a charge, neither let any man accuse; for your people are like those who bring charges against a priest.

5: You will stumble in the day, and the prophet will also stumble with you in the night; and I will destroy your mother.

6: My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you, that you may be no priest to me. Because you have forgotten your God’s law, I will also forget your children.

7: As they were multiplied, so they sinned against me. I will change their glory into shame.

8: They feed on the sin of my people, and set their heart on their iniquity.

9: It will be like people, like priest; and I will punish them for their ways, and will repay them for their deeds.

10: They will eat, and not have enough. They will play the prostitute, and will not increase; because they have abandoned listening to the LORD.

11: Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding.

12: My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God.

13: They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks, poplars, and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery.

14: I will not punish your daughters when they play the prostitute, nor your brides when they commit adultery; because the men consort with prostitutes, and they sacrifice with the shrine prostitutes; so the people without understanding will come to ruin.

15: “Though you, Israel, play the prostitute, yet don’t let Judah offend; and don’t come to Gilgal, neither go up to Beth Aven, nor swear, ‘As the LORD lives.’

16: For Israel has behaved extremely stubbornly, like a stubborn heifer. Then how will the LORD feed them like a lamb in a meadow?

17: Ephraim is joined to idols. Leave him alone!

18: Their drink has become sour. They play the prostitute continually. Her rulers dearly love their shameful way.

19: The wind has wrapped her up in its wings; and they shall be disappointed because of their sacrifices.

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Scripture text: World English Bible, Catholic Edition (WEBC) — public domain

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