Daily Readings

¹ Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel.² And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God.³ And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight;⁴ Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David.⁵ And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death.⁶ Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel.⁷ And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God:⁸ But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.⁹ Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days.¹⁰ He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.¹¹ Now, my son, the LORD be with thee; and prosper thou, and build the house of the LORD thy God, as he hath said of thee.¹² Only the LORD give thee wisdom and understanding, and give thee charge concerning Israel, that thou mayest keep the law of the LORD thy God.¹³ Then shalt thou prosper, if thou takest heed to fulfil the statutes and judgments which the LORD charged Moses with concerning Israel: be strong, and of good courage; dread not, nor be dismayed.¹⁴ Now, behold, in my trouble I have prepared for the house of the LORD an hundred thousand talents of gold, and a thousand thousand talents of silver; and of brass and iron without weight; for it is in abundance: timber also and stone have I prepared; and thou mayest add thereto.¹⁵ Moreover there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of work.¹⁶ Of the gold, the silver, and the brass, and the iron, there is no number. Arise therefore, and be doing, and the LORD be with thee.¹⁷ David also commanded all the princes of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying,¹⁸ Is not the LORD your God with you? and hath he not given you rest on every side? for he hath given the inhabitants of the land into mine hand; and the land is subdued before the LORD, and before his people.¹⁹ Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the LORD.

¹ And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,² Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.³ Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will therefore spread out my net over thee with a company of many people; and they shall bring thee up in my net.⁴ Then will I leave thee upon the land, I will cast thee forth upon the open field, and will cause all the fowls of the heaven to remain upon thee, and I will fill the beasts of the whole earth with thee.⁵ And I will lay thy flesh upon the mountains, and fill the valleys with thy height.⁶ I will also water with thy blood the land wherein thou swimmest, even to the mountains; and the rivers shall be full of thee.⁷ And when I shall put thee out, I will cover the heaven, and make the stars thereof dark; I will cover the sun with a cloud, and the moon shall not give her light.⁸ All the bright lights of heaven will I make dark over thee, and set darkness upon thy land, saith the Lord GOD.⁹ I will also vex the hearts of many people, when I shall bring thy destruction among the nations, into the countries which thou hast not known.¹⁰ Yea, I will make many people amazed at thee, and their kings shall be horribly afraid for thee, when I shall brandish my sword before them; and they shall tremble at every moment, every man for his own life, in the day of thy fall.¹¹ For thus saith the Lord GOD; The sword of the king of Babylon shall come upon thee.¹² By the swords of the mighty will I cause thy multitude to fall, the terrible of the nations, all of them: and they shall spoil the pomp of Egypt, and all the multitude thereof shall be destroyed.¹³ I will destroy also all the beasts thereof from beside the great waters; neither shall the foot of man trouble them any more, nor the hoofs of beasts trouble them.¹⁴ Then will I make their waters deep, and cause their rivers to run like oil, saith the Lord GOD.¹⁵ When I shall make the land of Egypt desolate, and the country shall be destitute of that whereof it was full, when I shall smite all them that dwell therein, then shall they know that I am the LORD.¹⁶ This is the lamentation wherewith they shall lament her: the daughters of the nations shall lament her: they shall lament for her, even for Egypt, and for all her multitude, saith the Lord GOD.¹⁷ It came to pass also in the twelfth year, in the fifteenth day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,¹⁸ Son of man, wail for the multitude of Egypt, and cast them down, even her, and the daughters of the famous nations, unto the nether parts of the earth, with them that go down into the pit.¹⁹ Whom dost thou pass in beauty? go down, and be thou laid with the uncircumcised.²⁰ They shall fall in the midst of them that are slain by the sword: she is delivered to the sword: draw her and all her multitudes.²¹ The strong among the mighty shall speak to him out of the midst of hell with them that help him: they are gone down, they lie uncircumcised, slain by the sword.²² Asshur is there and all her company: his graves are about him: all of them slain, fallen by the sword:²³ Whose graves are set in the sides of the pit, and her company is round about her grave: all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which caused terror in the land of the living.²⁴ There is Elam and all her multitude round about her grave, all of them slain, fallen by the sword, which are gone down uncircumcised into the nether parts of the earth, which caused their terror in the land of the living; yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit.²⁵ They have set her a bed in the midst of the slain with all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword: though their terror was caused in the land of the living, yet have they borne their shame with them that go down to the pit: he is put in the midst of them that be slain.²⁶ There is Meshech, Tubal, and all her multitude: her graves are round about him: all of them uncircumcised, slain by the sword, though they caused their terror in the land of the living.²⁷ And they shall not lie with the mighty that are fallen of the uncircumcised, which are gone down to hell with their weapons of war: and they have laid their swords under their heads, but their iniquities shall be upon their bones, though they were the terror of the mighty in the land of the living.²⁸ Yea, thou shalt be broken in the midst of the uncircumcised, and shalt lie with them that are slain with the sword.²⁹ There is Edom, her kings, and all her princes, which with their might are laid by them that were slain by the sword: they shall lie with the uncircumcised, and with them that go down to the pit.³⁰ There be the princes of the north, all of them, and all the Zidonians, which are gone down with the slain; with their terror they are ashamed of their might; and they lie uncircumcised with them that be slain by the sword, and bear their shame with them that go down to the pit.³¹ Pharaoh shall see them, and shall be comforted over all his multitude, even Pharaoh and all his army slain by the sword, saith the Lord GOD.³² For I have caused my terror in the land of the living: and he shall be laid in the midst of the uncircumcised with them that are slain with the sword, even Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.

¹ For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,² If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward:³ How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words,⁴ Whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ)⁵ Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit;⁶ That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:⁷ Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power.⁸ Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;⁹ And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:¹⁰ To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,¹¹ According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord:¹² In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.¹³ Wherefore I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations for you, which is your glory.¹⁴ For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,¹⁵ Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,¹⁶ That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man;¹⁷ That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,¹⁸ May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height;¹⁹ And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.²⁰ Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,²¹ Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

¹ I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,² With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love;³ Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.⁴ There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;⁵ One Lord, one faith, one baptism,⁶ One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.⁷ But unto every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.⁸ Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.⁹ (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?¹⁰ He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)¹¹ And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;¹² For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:¹³ Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:¹⁴ That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;¹⁵ But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:¹⁶ From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.¹⁷ This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind,¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart:¹⁹ Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.²⁰ But ye have not so learned Christ;²¹ If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:²² That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.²⁵ Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.²⁶ Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:²⁷ Neither give place to the devil.²⁸ Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.²⁹ Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.³⁰ And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.³¹ Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:³² And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.