Judges 14:20-15:20
And Samson's wife was given to his companion, who had been his best man. After a while, at the time of the wheat harvest, Samson went to visit his wife, bringing along a kid. He said, "I want to go into my wife's room." But her father would not allow him to go in. Her father said, "I was sure that you had rejected her; so I gave her to your companion. Is not her younger sister prettier than she? Why not take her instead?" Samson said to them, "This time, when I do mischief to the Philistines, I will be without blame." So Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took some torches; and he turned the foxes tail to tail, and put a torch between each pair of tails. When he had set fire to the torches, he let the foxes go into the standing grain of the Philistines, and burned up the shocks and the standing grain, as well as the vineyards and olive groves. Then the Philistines asked, "Who has done this?" And they said, "Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he has taken Samson's wife and given her to his companion." So the Philistines came up, and burned her and her father. Samson said to them, "If this is what you do, I swear I will not stop until I have taken revenge on you." He struck them down hip and thigh with great slaughter; and he went down and stayed in the cleft of the rock of Etam. Then the Philistines came up and encamped in Judah, and made a raid on Lehi. The men of Judah said, "Why have you come up against us?" They said, "We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he did to us." Then three thousand men of Judah went down to the cleft of the rock of Etam, and they said to Samson, "Do you not know that the Philistines are rulers over us? What then have you done to us?" He replied, "As they did to me, so I have done to them." They said to him, "We have come down to bind you, so that we may give you into the hands of the Philistines." Samson answered them, "Swear to me that you yourselves will not attack me." They said to him, "No, we will only bind you and give you into their hands; we will not kill you." So they bound him with two new ropes, and brought him up from the rock. When he came to Lehi, the Philistines came shouting to meet him; and the spirit of the LORD rushed on him, and the ropes that were on his arms became like flax that has caught fire, and his bonds melted off his hands. Then he found a fresh jawbone of a donkey, reached down and took it, and with it he killed a thousand men. And Samson said, "With the jawbone of a donkey, heaps upon heaps, with the jawbone of a donkey I have slain a thousand men." When he had finished speaking, he threw away the jawbone; and that place was called Ramath-lehi. By then he was very thirsty, and he called on the LORD, saying, "You have granted this great victory by the hand of your servant. Am I now to die of thirst, and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised?" So God split open the hollow place that is at Lehi, and water came from it. When he drank, his spirit returned, and he revived. Therefore it was named En-hakkore, which is at Lehi to this day. And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
Acts 7:17-29
"But as the time drew near for the fulfillment of the promise that God had made to Abraham, our people in Egypt increased and multiplied until another king who had not known Joseph ruled over Egypt. He dealt craftily with our race and forced our ancestors to abandon their infants so that they would die. At this time Moses was born, and he was beautiful before God. For three months he was brought up in his father's house; and when he was abandoned, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and brought him up as her own son. So Moses was instructed in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was powerful in his words and deeds. "When he was forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his relatives, the Israelites. When he saw one of them being wronged, he defended the oppressed man and avenged him by striking down the Egyptian. He supposed that his kinsfolk would understand that God through him was rescuing them, but they did not understand. The next day he came to some of them as they were quarreling and tried to reconcile them, saying, 'Men, you are brothers; why do you wrong each other?' But the man who was wronging his neighbor pushed Moses aside, saying, 'Who made you a ruler and a judge over us? Do you want to kill me as you killed the Egyptian yesterday?' When he heard this, Moses fled and became a resident alien in the land of Midian. There he became the father of two sons.
John 4:43-54
When the two days were over, he went from that place to Galilee (for Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in the prophet's own country). When he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, since they had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the festival; for they too had gone to the festival. Then he came again to Cana in Galilee where he had changed the water into wine. Now there was a royal official whose son lay ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went and begged him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death. Then Jesus said to him, "Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe." The official said to him, "Sir, come down before my little boy dies." Jesus said to him, "Go; your son will live." The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and started on his way. As he was going down, his slaves met him and told him that his child was alive. So he asked them the hour when he began to recover, and they said to him, "Yesterday at one in the afternoon the fever left him." The father realized that this was the hour when Jesus had said to him, "Your son will live." So he himself believed, along with his whole household. Now this was the second sign that Jesus did after coming from Judea to Galilee.
Morning Psalms
Psalm 102 Domine, exaudi
1 LORD, hear my prayer, and let my cry come before you; hide not your face from me in the day of my trouble.
2 Incline your ear to me; when I call, make haste to answer me,
3 For my days drift away like smoke, and my bones are hot as burning coals.
4 My heart is smitten like grass and withered, so that I forget to eat my bread.
5 Because of the voice of my groaning I am but skin and bones.
6 I have become like a vulture in the wilderness, like an owl among the ruins.
7 I lie awake and groan; I am like a sparrow, lonely on a house-top.
8 My enemies revile me all day long, and those who scoff at me have taken an oath against me.
9 For I have eaten ashes for bread and mingled my drink with weeping.
10 Because of your indignation and wrath you have lifted me up and thrown me away.
11 My days pass away like a shadow, and I wither like the grass.
12 But you, O LORD, endure for ever, and your Name from age to age.
13 You will arise and have compassion on Zion, for it is time to have mercy upon her; indeed, the appointed time has come.
14 For your servants love her very rubble, and are moved to pity even for her dust.
15 The nations shall fear your Name, O LORD, and all the kings of the earth your glory.
16 For the LORD will build up Zion, and his glory will appear.
17 He will look with favor on the prayer of the homeless; he will not despise their plea.
18 Let this be written for a future generation, so that a people yet unborn may praise the LORD.
19 For the LORD looked down from his holy place on high; from the heavens he beheld the earth;
20 That he might hear the groan of the captive and set free those condemned to die;
21 That they may declare in Zion the Name of the LORD, and his praise in Jerusalem;
22 When the peoples are gathered together, and the kingdoms also, to serve the LORD.
23 He has brought down my strength before my time; he has shortened the number of my days;
24 And I said, "O my God, do not take me away in the midst of my days; your years endure throughout all generations.
25 In the beginning, O LORD, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands;
26 They shall perish, but you will endure; they all shall wear out like a garment; as clothing you will change them, and they shall be changed;
27 But you are always the same, and your years will never end.
28 The children of your servants shall continue, and their offspring shall stand fast in your sight."
Evening Psalms
Psalm 107: Part I Confitemini Domino
1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, and his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let all those whom the LORD has redeemed proclaim that he redeemed them from the hand of the foe.
3 He gathered them out of the lands; from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
4 Some wandered in desert wastes; they found no way to a city where they might dwell.
5 They were hungry and thirsty; their spirits languished within them.
6 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
7 He put their feet on a straight path to go to a city where they might dwell.
8 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and the wonders he does for his children.
9 For he satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
10 Some sat in darkness and deep gloom, bound fast in misery and iron;
11 Because they rebelled against the words of God and despised the counsel of the Most High.
12 So he humbled their spirits with hard labor; they stumbled, and there was none to help.
13 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
14 He led them out of darkness and deep gloom and broke their bonds asunder.
15 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and the wonders he does for his children.
16 For he shatters the doors of bronze and breaks in two the iron bars.
17 Some were fools and took to rebellious ways; they were afflicted because of their sins.
18 They abhorred all manner of food and drew near to death's door.
19 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
20 He sent forth his word and healed them and saved them from the grave.
21 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and the wonders he does for his children.
22 Let them offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving and tell of his acts with shouts of joy.
23 Some went down to the sea in ships and plied their trade in deep waters;
24 They beheld the works of the LORD and his wonders in the deep.
25 Then he spoke, and a stormy wind arose, which tossed high the waves of the sea.
26 They mounted up to the heavens and fell back to the depths; their hearts melted because of their peril.
27 They reeled and staggered like drunkards and were at their wits' end.
28 Then they cried to the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them from their distress.
29 He stilled the storm to a whisper and quieted the waves of the sea.
30 Then were they glad because of the calm, and he brought them to the harbor they were bound for.
31 Let them give thanks to the LORD for his mercy and the wonders he does for his children.
32 Let them exalt him in the congregation of the people and praise him in the council of the elders.
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