1 Now this is the blessing with which Moses the man of God blessed the sons of Israel before his death. 2 He said,
“The Lord came from Sinai,
And dawned on them from Seir;
He shone from Mount Paran,
And He came from the midst of myriads of holy ones;
At His right hand there was flashing lightning for them.
3 Indeed, He loves the people;
All Your holy ones are in Your hand,
And they followed in Your steps;
Everyone takes of Your words.
4 Moses issued to us the Law,
A possession for the assembly of Jacob.
5 And He was king in Jeshurun,
When the heads of the people gathered,
The tribes of Israel together.
6 “May Reuben live and not die,
Nor may his people be few.”
7 And this was regarding Judah; so he said:
“Hear, Lord, the voice of Judah,
And bring him to his people.
With his hands he contended for them,
And may You be a help against his adversaries.”
8 Of Levi he said,
“Let Your Thummim and Your Urim belong to Your godly man,
Whom You tested at Massah,
With whom You contended at the waters of Meribah;
9 Who said of his father and his mother,
‘I did not consider them’;
And he did not acknowledge his brothers,
Nor did he regard his own sons,
For they kept Your word,
And complied with Your covenant.
10 They will teach Your ordinances to Jacob,
And Your Law to Israel.
They shall put incense before You,
And whole burnt offerings on Your altar.
11 Lord, bless his strength,
And accept the work of his hands;
Smash the hips of those who rise up against him,
And those who hate him, so that they do not rise again.”
12 Of Benjamin he said,
“May the beloved of the Lord live in security beside Him
Who shields him all the day long,
And he lives between His shoulders.”
13 Of Joseph he said,
“Blessed of the Lord be his land,
With the choice things of heaven, with the dew,
And from the deep waters lying beneath,
14 And with the choice yield of the sun,
And the choice produce of the months;
15 And with the best things of the ancient mountains,
With the choice things of the everlasting hills,
16 And with the choice things of the earth and its fullness,
And the favor of Him who dwelt in the bush.
Let it come to the head of Joseph,
And to the top of the head of the one who was prince among his brothers.
17 As the firstborn of his ox, majesty is his,
And his horns are the horns of the wild ox;
With them he will gore the peoples
All at once, to the ends of the earth.
And those are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And those are the thousands of Manasseh.”
18 Of Zebulun he said,
“Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out,
And, Issachar, in your tents.
19 They will call peoples to the mountain;
There they will offer righteous sacrifices;
For they will draw out the abundance of the seas,
And the hidden treasures of the sand.”
20 Of Gad he said,
“Blessed is the one who enlarges Gad;
He lies down as a lion,
And tears the arm, also the crown of the head.
21 Then he selected the choicest part for himself,
For there the ruler’s portion was reserved;
And he came with the leaders of the people;
He executed the justice of the Lord,
And His ordinances with Israel.”
22 Of Dan he said,
“Dan is a lion’s cub;
He leaps out from Bashan.”
23 Of Naphtali he said,
“Naphtali, satisfied with favor,
And full of the blessing of the Lord,
Take possession of the sea and the south.”
24 Of Asher he said,
“More blessed than sons is Asher;
May he be favored by his brothers,
And may he dip his foot in olive oil.
25 Your bars will be iron and bronze,
And as your days, so will your strength be.
26 “There is no one like the God of Jeshurun,
Who rides the heavens to your help,
And the clouds in His majesty.
27 The eternal God is a hiding place,
And underneath are the everlasting arms;
And He drove out the enemy from you,
And said, ‘Destroy!’
28 So Israel lives in security,
The fountain of Jacob secluded,
In a land of grain and new wine;
His heavens also drip down dew.
29 Blessed are you, Israel;
Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord,
The shield of your help,
And He who is the sword of your majesty!
So your enemies will cringe before you,
And you will trample on their high places.”
1 Now on that very occasion there were some present who reported to Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus responded and said to them, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans just because they have suffered this fate? 3 No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish. 4 Or do you think that those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them were worse offenders than all the other people who live in Jerusalem? 5 No, I tell you, but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish.”
6 And He began telling this parable: “A man had a fig tree which had been planted in his vineyard; and he came looking for fruit on it and did not find any. 7 And he said to the vineyard-keeper, ‘Look! For three years I have come looking for fruit on this fig tree without finding any. Cut it down! Why does it even use up the ground?’ 8 But he answered and said to him, ‘Sir, leave it alone for this year too, until I dig around it and put in fertilizer; 9 and if it bears fruit next year, fine; but if not, cut it down.’”
10 Now Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. 11 And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent over double, and could not straighten up at all. 12 When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” 13 And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she stood up straight again, and began glorifying God. 14 But the synagogue leader, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days during which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” 15 But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does each of you on the Sabbath not untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it away to water it? 16 And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this restraint on the Sabbath day?” 17 And as He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.
18 So He was saying, “What is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it? 19 It is like a mustard seed, which a man took and threw into his own garden; and it grew and became a tree, and the birds of the sky nested in its branches.”
20 And again He said, “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? 21 It is like leaven, which a woman took and hid in three sata of flour until it was all leavened.”
65 Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep,
Like a warrior overcome by wine.
66 He drove His adversaries backward;
He put on them an everlasting disgrace.
67 He also rejected the tent of Joseph,
And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 But chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 And He built His sanctuary like the heights,
Like the earth which He has established forever.
70 He also chose His servant David
And took him from the sheepfolds;
71 From the care of the ewes with nursing lambs He brought him
To shepherd Jacob His people,
And Israel His inheritance.
72 So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
And guided them with his skillful hands.
25 Anxiety in a person’s heart weighs it down,
But a good word makes it glad.
