Psalm 16 (Listen)

You Will Not Abandon My Soul

A Miktam¹ of David.

16   Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
2   I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;
    I have no good apart from you.”
3   As for the saints in the land, they are the excellent ones,
    in whom is all my delight.²
4   The sorrows of those who run after³ another god shall multiply;
    their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
    or take their names on my lips.
5   The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup;
    you hold my lot.
6   The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance.
7   I bless the LORD who gives me counsel;
    in the night also my heart instructs me.⁴
8   I have set the LORD always before me;
    because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.
9   Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being⁵ rejoices;
    my flesh also dwells secure.
10   For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol,
    or let your holy one see corruption.⁶
11   You make known to me the path of life;
    in your presence there is fullness of joy;
    at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

(ESV)

1 Samuel 3 (Listen)

The Lord Calls Samuel

3 Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD in the presence of Eli. And the word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.

2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. 3 The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD, where the ark of God was.

4 Then the LORD called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” 5 and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.

6 And the LORD called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” 7 Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, and the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him.

8 And the LORD called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the LORD was calling the boy. 9 Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

10 And the LORD came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.” 11 Then the LORD said to Samuel, “Behold, I am about to do a thing in Israel at which the two ears of everyone who hears it will tingle. 12 On that day I will fulfill against Eli all that I have spoken concerning his house, from beginning to end. 13 And I declare to him that I am about to punish his house forever, for the iniquity that he knew, because his sons were blaspheming God,¹ and he did not restrain them. 14 Therefore I swear to the house of Eli that the iniquity of Eli’s house shall not be atoned for by sacrifice or offering forever.”

15 Samuel lay until morning; then he opened the doors of the house of the LORD. And Samuel was afraid to tell the vision to Eli. 16 But Eli called Samuel and said, “Samuel, my son.” And he said, “Here I am.” 17 And Eli said, “What was it that he told you? Do not hide it from me. May God do so to you and more also if you hide anything from me of all that he told you.” 18 So Samuel told him everything and hid nothing from him. And he said, “It is the LORD. Let him do what seems good to him.”

19 And Samuel grew, and the LORD was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground. 20 And all Israel from Dan to Beersheba knew that Samuel was established as a prophet of the LORD. 21 And the LORD appeared again at Shiloh, for the LORD revealed himself to Samuel at Shiloh by the word of the LORD.

(ESV)

Jeremiah 48 (Listen)

Judgment on Moab

48 Concerning Moab.

Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel:

  “Woe to Nebo, for it is laid waste!
    Kiriathaim is put to shame, it is taken;
  the fortress is put to shame and broken down;
2     the renown of Moab is no more.
  In Heshbon they planned disaster against her:
    ‘Come, let us cut her off from being a nation!’
  You also, O Madmen, shall be brought to silence;
    the sword shall pursue you.
3   “A voice! A cry from Horonaim,
    ‘Desolation and great destruction!’
4   Moab is destroyed;
    her little ones have made a cry.
5   For at the ascent of Luhith
    they go up weeping;¹
  for at the descent of Horonaim
    they have heard the distressed cry² of destruction.
6   Flee! Save yourselves!
    You will be like a juniper in the desert!
7   For, because you trusted in your works and your treasures,
    you also shall be taken;
  and Chemosh shall go into exile
    with his priests and his officials.
8   The destroyer shall come upon every city,
    and no city shall escape;
  the valley shall perish,
    and the plain shall be destroyed,
    as the LORD has spoken.
9   “Give wings to Moab,
    for she would fly away;
  her cities shall become a desolation,
    with no inhabitant in them.

10 “Cursed is he who does the work of the LORD with slackness, and cursed is he who keeps back his sword from bloodshed.

11   “Moab has been at ease from his youth
    and has settled on his dregs;
  he has not been emptied from vessel to vessel,
    nor has he gone into exile;
  so his taste remains in him,
    and his scent is not changed.

12 “Therefore, behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I shall send to him pourers who will pour him, and empty his vessels and break his³ jars in pieces. 13 Then Moab shall be ashamed of Chemosh, as the house of Israel was ashamed of Bethel, their confidence.

14   “How do you say, ‘We are heroes
    and mighty men of war’?
15   The destroyer of Moab and his cities has come up,
    and the choicest of his young men have gone down to slaughter,
    declares the King, whose name is the LORD of hosts.
16   The calamity of Moab is near at hand,
    and his affliction hastens swiftly.
17   Grieve for him, all you who are around him,
    and all who know his name;
  say, ‘How the mighty scepter is broken,
    the glorious staff.’
18   “Come down from your glory,
    and sit on the parched ground,
    O inhabitant of Dibon!
  For the destroyer of Moab has come up against you;
    he has destroyed your strongholds.
19   Stand by the way and watch,
    O inhabitant of Aroer!
  Ask him who flees and her who escapes;
    say, ‘What has happened?’
20   Moab is put to shame, for it is broken;
    wail and cry!
  Tell it beside the Arnon,
    that Moab is laid waste.

21 “Judgment has come upon the tableland, upon Holon, and Jahzah, and Mephaath, 22 and Dibon, and Nebo, and Beth-diblathaim, 23 and Kiriathaim, and Beth-gamul, and Beth-meon, 24 and Kerioth, and Bozrah, and all the cities of the land of Moab, far and near. 25 The horn of Moab is cut off, and his arm is broken, declares the LORD.

26 “Make him drunk, because he magnified himself against the LORD, so that Moab shall wallow in his vomit, and he too shall be held in derision. 27 Was not Israel a derision to you? Was he found among thieves, that whenever you spoke of him you wagged your head?

28   “Leave the cities, and dwell in the rock,
    O inhabitants of Moab!
  Be like the dove that nests
    in the sides of the mouth of a gorge.
29   We have heard of the pride of Moab—
    he is very proud—
  of his loftiness, his pride, and his arrogance,
    and the haughtiness of his heart.
30   I know his insolence, declares the LORD;
    his boasts are false,
    his deeds are false.
31   Therefore I wail for Moab;
    I cry out for all Moab;
    for the men of Kir-hareseth I mourn.
32   More than for Jazer I weep for you,
    O vine of Sibmah!
  Your branches passed over the sea,
    reached to the Sea of Jazer;
  on your summer fruits and your grapes
    the destroyer has fallen.
33   Gladness and joy have been taken away
    from the fruitful land of Moab;
  I have made the wine cease from the winepresses;
    no one treads them with shouts of joy;
    the shouting is not the shout of joy.

34 “From the outcry at Heshbon even to Elealeh, as far as Jahaz they utter their voice, from Zoar to Horonaim and Eglath-shelishiyah. For the waters of Nimrim also have become desolate. 35 And I will bring to an end in Moab, declares the LORD, him who offers sacrifice in the high place and makes offerings to his god. 36 Therefore my heart moans for Moab like a flute, and my heart moans like a flute for the men of Kir-hareseth. Therefore the riches they gained have perished.

37 “For every head is shaved and every beard cut off. On all the hands are gashes, and around the waist is sackcloth. 38 On all the housetops of Moab and in the squares there is nothing but lamentation, for I have broken Moab like a vessel for which no one cares, declares the LORD. 39 How it is broken! How they wail! How Moab has turned his back in shame! So Moab has become a derision and a horror to all that are around him.”

40   For thus says the LORD:
  “Behold, one shall fly swiftly like an eagle
    and spread his wings against Moab;
41   the cities shall be taken
    and the strongholds seized.
  The heart of the warriors of Moab shall be in that day
    like the heart of a woman in her birth pains;
42   Moab shall be destroyed and be no longer a people,
    because he magnified himself against the LORD.
43   Terror, pit, and snare
    are before you, O inhabitant of Moab!
      declares the LORD.
44   He who flees from the terror
    shall fall into the pit,
  and he who climbs out of the pit
    shall be caught in the snare.
  For I will bring these things upon Moab,
    the year of their punishment,
      declares the LORD.
45   “In the shadow of Heshbon
    fugitives stop without strength,
  for fire came out from Heshbon,
    flame from the house of Sihon;
  it has destroyed the forehead of Moab,
    the crown of the sons of tumult.
46   Woe to you, O Moab!
    The people of Chemosh are undone,
  for your sons have been taken captive,
    and your daughters into captivity.
47   Yet I will restore the fortunes of Moab
    in the latter days, declares the LORD.”
  Thus far is the judgment on Moab.

(ESV)

Mark 15 (Listen)

Jesus Delivered to Pilate

15 And as soon as it was morning, the chief priests held a consultation with the elders and scribes and the whole council. And they bound Jesus and led him away and delivered him over to Pilate. 2 And Pilate asked him, “Are you the King of the Jews?” And he answered him, “You have said so.” 3 And the chief priests accused him of many things. 4 And Pilate again asked him, “Have you no answer to make? See how many charges they bring against you.” 5 But Jesus made no further answer, so that Pilate was amazed.

Pilate Delivers Jesus to Be Crucified

6 Now at the feast he used to release for them one prisoner for whom they asked. 7 And among the rebels in prison, who had committed murder in the insurrection, there was a man called Barabbas. 8 And the crowd came up and began to ask Pilate to do as he usually did for them. 9 And he answered them, saying, “Do you want me to release for you the King of the Jews?” 10 For he perceived that it was out of envy that the chief priests had delivered him up. 11 But the chief priests stirred up the crowd to have him release for them Barabbas instead. 12 And Pilate again said to them, “Then what shall I do with the man you call the King of the Jews?” 13 And they cried out again, “Crucify him.” 14 And Pilate said to them, “Why? What evil has he done?” But they shouted all the more, “Crucify him.” 15 So Pilate, wishing to satisfy the crowd, released for them Barabbas, and having scourged¹ Jesus, he delivered him to be crucified.

Jesus Is Mocked

16 And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters),² and they called together the whole battalion.³ 17 And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. 18 And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” 19 And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. 20 And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him.

The Crucifixion

21 And they compelled a passerby, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming in from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to carry his cross. 22 And they brought him to the place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull). 23 And they offered him wine mixed with myrrh, but he did not take it. 24 And they crucified him and divided his garments among them, casting lots for them, to decide what each should take. 25 And it was the third hour⁴ when they crucified him. 26 And the inscription of the charge against him read, “The King of the Jews.” 27 And with him they crucified two robbers, one on his right and one on his left.⁵ 29 And those who passed by derided him, wagging their heads and saying, “Aha! You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, 30 save yourself, and come down from the cross!” 31 So also the chief priests with the scribes mocked him to one another, saying, “He saved others; he cannot save himself. 32 Let the Christ, the King of Israel, come down now from the cross that we may see and believe.” Those who were crucified with him also reviled him.

The Death of Jesus

33 And when the sixth hour⁶ had come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour.⁷ 34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?” which means, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” 35 And some of the bystanders hearing it said, “Behold, he is calling Elijah.” 36 And someone ran and filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink, saying, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to take him down.” 37 And Jesus uttered a loud cry and breathed his last. 38 And the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. 39 And when the centurion, who stood facing him, saw that in this way he⁸ breathed his last, he said, “Truly this man was the Son⁹ of God!”

40 There were also women looking on from a distance, among whom were Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James the younger and of Joses, and Salome. 41 When he was in Galilee, they followed him and ministered to him, and there were also many other women who came up with him to Jerusalem.

Jesus Is Buried

42 And when evening had come, since it was the day of Preparation, that is, the day before the Sabbath, 43 Joseph of Arimathea, a respected member of the council, who was also himself looking for the kingdom of God, took courage and went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. 44 Pilate was surprised to hear that he should have already died.¹⁰ And summoning the centurion, he asked him whether he was already dead. 45 And when he learned from the centurion that he was dead, he granted the corpse to Joseph. 46 And Joseph¹¹ bought a linen shroud, and taking him down, wrapped him in the linen shroud and laid him in a tomb that had been cut out of the rock. And he rolled a stone against the entrance of the tomb. 47 Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of Joses saw where he was laid.

(ESV)