Bible Reading
December 16
The World English Bible
Dec.
16
Joel
1-3
Joe
1:1 The Word of Yahweh that came to Joel, the son of Pethuel.
Joe
1:2 Hear this, you elders, And listen, all you inhabitants of the
land. Has this ever happened in your days, or in the days of your
fathers?
Joe
1:3 Tell your children about it, and have your children tell their
children, and their children, another generation.
Joe
1:4 What the swarming locust has left, the great locust has eaten.
What the great locust has left, the grasshopper has eaten. What the
grasshopper has left, the caterpillar has eaten.
Joe
1:5 Wake up, you drunkards, and weep! Wail, all you drinkers of
wine, because of the sweet wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.
Joe
1:6 For a nation has come up on my land, strong, and without number.
His teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he has the fangs of a lioness.
Joe
1:7 He has laid my vine waste, and stripped my fig tree. He has
stripped its bark, and thrown it away. Its branches are made white.
Joe
1:8 Mourn like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her
youth!
Joe
1:9 The meal offering and the drink offering are cut off from
Yahweh's house. The priests, Yahweh's ministers, mourn.
Joe
1:10 The field is laid waste. The land mourns, for the grain is
destroyed, The new wine has dried up, and the oil languishes.
Joe
1:11 Be confounded, you farmers! Wail, you vineyard keepers; for the
wheat and for the barley; for the harvest of the field has perished.
Joe
1:12 The vine has dried up, and the fig tree withered; the
pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple tree, even all of
the trees of the field are withered; for joy has withered away from
the sons of men.
Joe
1:13 Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests! Wail, you ministers of
the altar. Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God,
for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your
God's house.
Joe
1:14 Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders, and
all the inhabitants of the land, to the house of Yahweh, your God,
and cry to Yahweh.
Joe
1:15 Alas for the day! For the day of Yahweh is at hand, and it will
come as destruction from the Almighty.
Joe
1:16 Isn't the food cut off before our eyes; joy and gladness from
the house of our God?
Joe
1:17 The seeds rot under their clods. The granaries are laid
desolate. The barns are broken down, for the grain has withered.
Joe
1:18 How the animals groan! The herds of livestock are perplexed,
because they have no pasture. Yes, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate.
Joe
1:19 Yahweh, I cry to you, For the fire has devoured the pastures of
the wilderness, and the flame has burned all the trees of the field.
Joe
1:20 Yes, the animals of the field pant to you, for the water brooks
have dried up, And the fire has devoured the pastures of the
wilderness.
Joe
2:1 Blow the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy
mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of
Yahweh comes, for it is close at hand:
Joe
2:2 A day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick
darkness. As the dawn spreading on the mountains, a great and strong
people; there has never been the like, neither will there be any more
after them, even to the years of many generations.
Joe
2:3 A fire devours before them, and behind them, a flame burns. The
land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them, a
desolate wilderness. Yes, and no one has escaped them.
Joe
2:4 The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses, and as
horsemen, so do they run.
Joe
2:5 Like the noise of chariots on the tops of the mountains do they
leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devours the stubble, as
a strong people set in battle array.
Joe
2:6 At their presence the peoples are in anguish. All faces have
grown pale.
Joe
2:7 They run like mighty men. They climb the wall like warriors.
They each march in his line, and they don't swerve off course.
Joe
2:8 Neither does one jostle another; they march everyone in his
path, and they burst through the defenses, and don't break ranks.
Joe
2:9 They rush on the city. They run on the wall. They climb up into
the houses. They enter in at the windows like thieves.
Joe
2:10 The earth quakes before them. The heavens tremble. The sun and
the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
Joe
2:11 Yahweh thunders his voice before his army; for his forces are
very great; for he is strong who obeys his command; for the day of
Yahweh is great and very awesome, and who can endure it?
Joe
2:12 "Yet even now," says Yahweh, "turn to me with
all your heart, and with fasting, and with weeping, and with
mourning."
Joe
2:13 Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh,
your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and
abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.
Joe
2:14 Who knows? He may turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind
him, even a meal offering and a drink offering to Yahweh, your God.
Joe
2:15 Blow the trumpet in Zion! Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn
assembly.
Joe
2:16 Gather the people. Sanctify the assembly. Assemble the elders.
Gather the children, and those who suck the breasts. Let the
bridegroom go forth from his room, and the bride out of her chamber.
Joe
2:17 Let the priests, the ministers of Yahweh, weep between the
porch and the altar, and let them say, "Spare your people,
Yahweh, and don't give your heritage to reproach, that the nations
should rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where
is their God?' "
Joe
2:18 Then Yahweh was jealous for his land, And had pity on his
people.
Joe
2:19 Yahweh answered his people, "Behold, I will send you
grain, new wine, and oil, and you will be satisfied with them; and I
will no more make you a reproach among the nations.
Joe
2:20 But I will remove the northern army far away from you, and will
drive it into a barren and desolate land, its front into the eastern
sea, and its back into the western sea; and its stench will come up,
and its bad smell will rise." Surely he has done great things.
Joe
2:21 Land, don't be afraid. Be glad and rejoice, for Yahweh has done
great things.
Joe
2:22 Don't be afraid, you animals of the field; for the pastures of
the wilderness spring up, for the tree bears its fruit. The fig tree
and the vine yield their strength.
Joe
2:23 "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in
Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the former rain in just measure,
and he causes the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the
latter rain, as before.
Joe
2:24 The threshing floors will be full of wheat, and the vats will
overflow with new wine and oil.
Joe
2:25 I will restore to you the years that the swarming locust has
eaten, the great locust, the grasshopper, and the caterpillar, my
great army, which I sent among you.
Joe
2:26 You will have plenty to eat, and be satisfied, and will praise
the name of Yahweh, your God, who has dealt wondrously with you; and
my people will never again be disappointed.
Joe
2:27 You will know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am
Yahweh, your God, and there is no one else; and my people will never
again be disappointed.
Joe
2:28 "It will happen afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit
on all flesh; and your sons and your daughters will prophesy. Your
old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.
Joe
2:29 And also on the servants and on the handmaids in those days, I
will pour out my Spirit.
Joe
2:30 I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood,
fire, and pillars of smoke.
Joe
2:31 The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood,
before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes.
Joe
2:32 It will happen that whoever will call on the name of Yahweh
shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be
those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those
whom Yahweh calls.
Joe
3:1 "For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I
restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
Joe
3:2 I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the
valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for
my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered
among the nations. They have divided my land,
Joe
3:3 and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a
prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.
Joe
3:4 "Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, and all the
regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will
swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
Joe
3:5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried
my finest treasures into your temples,
Joe
3:6 and have sold the children of Judah and the children of
Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far
from their border.
Joe
3:7 Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold
them, and will return your repayment on your own head;
Joe
3:8 and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of
the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba,
to a faraway nation, for Yahweh has spoken it."
Joe
3:9 Proclaim this among the nations: "Prepare for war! Stir up
the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up.
Joe
3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into
spears. Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'
Joe
3:11 Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather
yourselves together." Cause your mighty ones to come down there,
Yahweh.
Joe
3:12 "Let the nations arouse themselves, and come up to the
valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the
surrounding nations.
Joe
3:13 Put in the sickle; for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for
the winepress is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is
great."
Joe
3:14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day
of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.
Joe
3:15 The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their
shining.
Joe
3:16 Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the
heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his
people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
Joe
3:17 "So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in
Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers
will pass through her any more.
Joe
3:18 It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down
sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah
will flow with waters, and a fountain will come forth from the house
of Yahweh, and will water the valley of Shittim.
Joe
3:19 Egypt will be a desolation, and Edom will be a desolate
wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because
they have shed innocent blood in their land.
Joe
3:20 But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from
generation to generation.
Joe
3:21 I will cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed: for
Yahweh dwells in Zion."
Dec.
16
2
John
2Jn
1:1 The elder, to the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in
truth; and not I only, but also all those who know the truth;
2Jn
1:2 for the truth's sake, which remains in us, and it will be with
us forever:
2Jn
1:3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, in truth and
love.
2Jn
1:4 I rejoice greatly that I have found some of your children
walking in truth, even as we have been commanded by the Father.
2Jn
1:5 Now I beg you, dear lady, not as though I wrote to you a new
commandment, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love
one another.
2Jn
1:6 This is love, that we should walk according to his commandments.
This is the commandment, even as you heard from the beginning, that
you should walk in it.
2Jn
1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who don't
confess that Jesus Christ came in the flesh. This is the deceiver and
the Antichrist.
2Jn
1:8 Watch yourselves, that we don't lose the things which we have
accomplished, but that we receive a full reward.
2Jn
1:9 Whoever transgresses and doesn't remain in the teaching of
Christ, doesn't have God. He who remains in the teaching, the same
has both the Father and the Son.
2Jn
1:10 If anyone comes to you, and doesn't bring this teaching, don't
receive him into your house, and don't welcome him,
2Jn
1:11 for he who welcomes him participates in his evil works.
2Jn
1:12 Having many things to write to you, I don't want to do so with
paper and ink, but I hope to come to you, and to speak face to face,
that our joy may be made full.
2Jn
1:13 The children of your chosen sister greet you. Amen.
