Friday, April 23

2For there is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.

3Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.

4'And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

5But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

6'Are not five sparrows sold for two copper coins? And not one of them is forgotten before God.

7But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

8'Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God.

9But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

10'And anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but to him who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven.

11'Now when they bring you to the synagogues and magistrates and authorities, do not worry about how or what you should answer, or what you should say.

12For the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say.'

10'Be glad, O Jerusalem, and celebrate holy days in her. All you who love her, rejoice exceedingly, and all you who mourn over her;

11that you may nurse and be satisfied by the breast of her consolation; that you may take pleasure in nursing because of the entrance of her glory.'

12For thus says the Lord: 'Behold, I will turn to them like a river of peace and like a brook, to flood them with the glory of the Gentiles. Their children shall be taken up on shoulders and comforted on knees.

13Like someone a mother comforts, so also will I comfort you, and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem.'

14You shall see, and your heart will rejoice. Your bones shall rise up like a pasture, and the Lord's hand shall be known by those who fear Him; but He shall threaten the disobedient.

15For behold, the Lord shall come like a fire, and His chariots like a sudden blast of wind, to render His vengeance with anger and His renunciation with a flame of fire.

16For all the earth shall be judged in the fire of the Lord, and all flesh with His sword; and many shall be wounded by the Lord.

17'Those who purify and cleanse themselves in the gardens and porches, who eat the meat of a pig or any abomination, they shall be destroyed together at the same time,' says the Lord;

18'and I know their works and their reasoning. I am coming to gather all the nations and tongues, and they shall come and see My glory.

19And I will leave signs upon them, and those among them who are saved, I will send forth to the Gentiles: to Tarshish, and Pul and Lud and Tubal, and to Greece and to the coastlands far off, to those who have not heard My name, nor seen My glory; and they shall declare My glory among the Gentiles.

20They shall bring your brethren from among all the Gentiles as a gift to the Lord, with horses and chariots, in litters drawn by mules and covered with sunshades, to the holy city of Jerusalem,' says the Lord, 'just as the children of Israel would bring Me their sacrifices with psalms into the house of the Lord.

21I shall take some of them to be My priests and Levites,' says the Lord.

22'For just as the new heaven and the new earth which I make shall remain before Me,' says the Lord, 'so shall your seed and your name remain.

23It shall come to pass from month to month and from Sabbath to Sabbath, all flesh shall worship before Me in Jerusalem,' says the Lord.

24'They shall go forth and see the dead bodies of the men who transgressed against Me, for their worm shall not die, and their fire shall not be extinguished; and they shall be a vision to all flesh.'

33Thus when Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew his feet up into the bed and breathed his last, and was added to his people.

1Now Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him, and kissed him.

2Then Joseph commanded his servants the physicians to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel.

3Forty days were required for him, for such are the days required for those embalmed; and the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days.

4So when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph spoke to the princes of Pharaoh, saying, 'If now I have found grace in your sight, speak in the hearing of Pharaoh, saying,

5'My father made me swear, saying, 'Behold, in the grave I dug for myself in the land of Canaan, there you shall bury me.' Now therefore, let me go up and bury my father, and I will come back.' '

6Then Pharaoh said, 'Go up and bury your father, as he made you swear.'

7So Joseph went up to bury his father; and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt,

8as well as all the house of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's house. Only their sheep and oxen they left in the land of Goshen.

9There also went up with him both chariots and horses, and it was a very great gathering.

10Then they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, and they mourned there with a great and very solemn lamentation. He observed seven days of mourning for his father.

11So when the inhabitants of the land of Canaan saw the mourning at the threshing floor of Atad, they said, 'This is a deep mourning of the Egyptians.' Therefore its name was called the Mourning of Egypt, which is beyond the Jordan.

12Thus his sons did for him just as he commanded them.

13For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan, and buried him in the cave of the field of Machpelah, opposite Mamre, which Abraham bought from Ephron the Hittite as property for a burial place.

14After he buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt, he and his brothers and all who went up with him to bury his father.

15When Joseph's brothers saw their father was dead, they said, 'Perhaps Joseph will hate us, and may actually repay us for all the evil we did to him.'

16So they came to Joseph, saying, 'Before your father died he commanded, saying,

17'Thus you shall say to Joseph, 'I beg you, forgive the injustice of your brothers and their sin; for they did evil to you.' ' Now, forgive the injustice of the servants of the God of your father.' And Joseph wept when they spoke to him.

18Then his brothers also went and fell down before his face, and they said, 'Behold, we are your servants.'

19So Joseph said to them, 'Do not be afraid, for I belong to God.

20But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.

21Now therefore, do not be afraid; I will provide for you and your households.' Thus he comforted them and spoke to their heart.

22So Joseph dwelt in Egypt, he and his brothers. Then Joseph lived one hundred and ten years.

23Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation and the children of Machir, the son of Manasseh, were also brought up on Joseph's knees.

24Then Joseph said to his brethren, 'I am about to die; but God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land to the land God swore to our fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.'

25Thus Joseph took an oath from the children of Israel, saying, 'God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here.'

26So Joseph died, being one hundred and ten years old; and they embalmed him, and put him in a coffin in Egypt.

8Open your mouth for the word of God, And judge all men fairly;

9Open your mouth and judge righteously, And plead the cause of the poor and helpless.

10Who will find a courageous wife? For such a one is more valuable than precious stones.

11The heart of her husband trusts in her; She will not be at a loss for fine spoils, For she provides good things for her husband all her life.

12She weaves wool and linen cloth And is productive with her hands.

13She is like a ship trading afar off, So she procures her livelihood.

14She also rises before dawn And gives food to her household, And appoints tasks for her maidservants.

15Seeing a farm, she buys it, And from the fruits of her hands she plants her plot of land.

16Strongly girding her loins, She strengthens her arms for work.

17She experiences work as a good thing, And her lamp is not quenched all night.

18She extends her arms to do profitable things, And she applies her hands to the spindle.

19She opens her hands to the poor And reaches out with her fruit to the needy.

20Her husband is not anxious about those at home When he spends a long time elsewhere, For all her household are clothed.

21She makes a double upper garment for her husband And garments of fine linen and purple for herself.

22Her husband is respected at the gates And when he sits in council with the elders who inhabit the land.

23She makes and sells fine linens And girdles to the Canaanites.

24She opens her mouth carefully and lawfully And controls her tongue.

25She clothes herself with strength and dignity And rejoices in the last days.

26She runs her household carefully, And she does not eat the bread of idleness.

27She opens her mouth wisely and lawfully, And her charity raises her children, and they become rich, And her husband praises her,

28"Many daughters acquire riches; many do mighty things, But you excel and surpass all."

29Desires to please are deceitful, and the beauty of a wife is vain; For a wise wife is blessed, And let her in fear praise the Lord.

30Give to her from the fruits of her hands, And let her husband praise her at the gates.

1Now about that time Herod the king stretched out his hand to harass some from the church.

2Then he killed James the brother of John with the sword.

3And because he saw that it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to seize Peter also. Now it was during the Days of Unleavened Bread.

4So when he had arrested him, he put him in prison, and delivered him to four squads of soldiers to keep him, intending to bring him before the people after Passover.

5Peter was therefore kept in prison, but constant prayer was offered to God for him by the church.

6And when Herod was about to bring him out, that night Peter was sleeping, bound with two chains between two soldiers; and the guards before the door were keeping the prison.

7Now behold, an angel of the Lord stood by him, and a light shone in the prison; and he struck Peter on the side and raised him up, saying, 'Arise quickly!' And his chains fell off his hands.

8Then the angel said to him, 'Gird yourself and tie on your sandals'; and so he did. And he said to him, 'Put on your garment and follow me.'

9So he went out and followed him, and did not know that what was done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision.

10When they were past the first and the second guard posts, they came to the iron gate that leads to the city, which opened to them of its own accord; and they went out and went down one street, and immediately the angel departed from him.

11And when Peter had come to himself, he said, 'Now I know for certain that the Lord has sent His angel, and has delivered me from the hand of Herod and from all the expectation of the Jewish people.'

17These things I command you, that you love one another.

18'If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you.

19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

20Remember the word that I said to you, 'A servant is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

21But all these things they will do to you for My name's sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.

22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.

23He who hates Me hates My Father also.

24If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father.

25But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, 'They hated Me without cause.'

26'But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of Me.

27And you also will bear witness, because you have been with Me from the beginning.

1These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble.

2They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.