Taking his stand among them he said, “Are you such fools, O Israelites, as to condemn a daughter of Israel without examination and without learning the facts?” From Daniel 13:41-62, NRSV Today’s reading tells the intriguing tale of a crime committed by two elders against a Hebrew woman called Susanna. This beautiful young woman was…
Read more
But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. From Jeremiah 31:31-34, NRSV In today’s reading, we hear…
Read more
And I did not know it was against me that they devised schemes, saying,‘Let us destroy the tree with its fruit, let us cut him off from the land of the living, so that his name will no longer be remembered!’ But you, O Lord of hosts, who judge righteously, who try the heart and the mind,…
Read more
Let us see if his words are true,and let us test what will happen at the end of his life;for if the righteous man is God’s child, he will help him,and will deliver him from the hand of his adversaries.Let us test him with insult and torture,so that we may find out how gentle he…
Read more
The Lord said to Moses, ‘I have seen this people, how stiff-necked they are. Now let me alone, so that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them; and of you I will make a great nation.’ From Exodus 32:7-14, NRSV This exchange which took place between God and Moses on Mount…
Read more
But Zion said, ‘The Lord has forsaken me, my Lord has forgotten me.’Can a woman forget her nursing-child, or show no compassion for the child of her womb?Even these may forget, yet I will not forget you. From Isaiah 49:8-15 NRSV This prophecy was written towards the end of the exile of the people of Israel in…
Read more
He said to me, ‘This water flows towards the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah; and when it enters the sea, the sea of stagnant waters, the water will become fresh. Wherever the river goes, every living creature that swarms will live, and there will be very many fish, once these waters reach…
Read more
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.But be glad and rejoice for ever in what I am creating;for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. From Isaiah 65:17-21, NRSV In recent readings…
Read more
In the first year of King Cyrus of Persia, in fulfilment of the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah, the Lord stirred up the spirit of King Cyrus of Persia so that he sent a herald throughout all his kingdom and also declared in a written edict: ‘Thus says King Cyrus of Persia: The Lord, the God of heaven, has…
Read more
What shall I do with you, O Ephraim? What shall I do with you, O Judah?Your love is like a morning cloud, like the dew that goes away early.Therefore I have hewn them by the prophets, I have killed them by the words of my mouth, and my judgement goes forth as the light.For I desire steadfast love and…
Read more
