One Year Bible.

Answer Me When I Call!

¹For the choirmaster. With stringed instruments. A Psalm of David.

Answer me when I call,

O God of my righteousness!

You have relieved my distress;

show me grace and hear my prayer.

²How long, O men, will my honor be maligned?

How long will you love vanity and seek after lies?

Selah

³Know that the LORD has set apart the godly for Himself;

the LORD hears when I call to Him.

⁴Be angry, yet do not sin;

on your bed, search your heart and be still.

Selah

⁵Offer the sacrifices of the righteous

and trust in the LORD.

⁶Many ask, “Who can show us the good?”

Shine the light of Your face upon us, O LORD.

⁷You have filled my heart with more joy

than when grain and new wine abound.

⁸I will lie down and sleep in peace,

for You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.

The Lord’s Prayer

¹One day in a place where Jesus had just finished praying, one of His disciples requested, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.”

²So Jesus told them, “When you pray, say:

‘Father, hallowed be Your name.

Your kingdom come.

³Give us each day our daily bread.

⁴And forgive us our sins,

for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

And lead us not into temptation.’”

Ask, Seek, Knock

⁵Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose one of you goes to his friend at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, ⁶because a friend of mine has come to me on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him.’

⁷And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Do not bother me. My door is already shut, and my children and I are in bed. I cannot get up to give you anything.’

⁸I tell you, even though he will not get up to provide for him because of his friendship, yet because of the man’s persistence, he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

⁹So I tell you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. ¹⁰For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

¹¹What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? ¹²Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? ¹³So if you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

A House Divided

¹⁴One day Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. And when the demon was gone, the man who had been mute spoke. The crowds were amazed, ¹⁵but some of them said, “It is by Beelzebul, the prince of the demons, that He drives out demons.” ¹⁶And others tested Him by demanding a sign from heaven.

¹⁷Knowing their thoughts, Jesus said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be laid waste, and a house divided against a house will fall. ¹⁸If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? After all, you say that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹And if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁰But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.

²¹When a strong man, fully armed, guards his house, his possessions are secure. ²²But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted, and then he divides up his plunder.

²³He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.

An Unclean Spirit Returns

²⁴When an unclean spirit comes out of a man, it passes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ ²⁵On its return, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. ²⁶Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and dwell there. And the final plight of that man is worse than the first.”

True Blessedness

²⁷As Jesus was saying these things, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and blessed are the breasts that nursed You!”

²⁸But He replied, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it.”

The Sign of Jonah

²⁹As the crowds were increasing, Jesus said, “This is a wicked generation. It demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah. ³⁰For as Jonah was a sign to the Ninevites, so the Son of Man will be a sign to this generation.

³¹The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here. ³²The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here.

The Lamp of the Body

³³No one lights a lamp and puts it in a cellar or under a basket. Instead, he sets it on a stand, so those who enter can see the light.

³⁴Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eyes are good, your whole body also is full of light. But when they are bad, your body is full of darkness. ³⁵Be careful, then, that the light within you is not darkness. ³⁶So if your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, you will be radiant, as though a lamp were shining on you.”

Woes to Pharisees and Experts in the Law

³⁷As Jesus was speaking, a Pharisee invited Him to dine with him; so He went in and reclined at the table. ³⁸But the Pharisee was surprised to see that Jesus did not first wash before the meal.

³⁹Then the Lord said, “Now you Pharisees clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside you are full of greed and wickedness. ⁴⁰You fools! Did not the One who made the outside make the inside as well? ⁴¹But give as alms the things that are within you, and behold, everything will be clean for you.

⁴²Woe to you Pharisees! For you pay tithes of mint, rue, and every herb, but you disregard justice and the love of God. You should have practiced the latter without neglecting the former.

⁴³Woe to you Pharisees! For you love the chief seats in the synagogues and the greetings in the marketplaces. ⁴⁴Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without even noticing.”

⁴⁵One of the experts in the law told Him, “Teacher, when You say these things, You insult us as well.”

⁴⁶“Woe to you as well, experts in the law!” He replied. “For you weigh men down with heavy burdens, but you yourselves will not lift a finger to lighten their load.

⁴⁷Woe to you! For you build tombs for the prophets, but it was your fathers who killed them. ⁴⁸So you are witnesses consenting to the deeds of your fathers: They killed the prophets, and you build their tombs. ⁴⁹Because of this, the wisdom of God said, ‘I will send them prophets and apostles; some of them they will kill and others they will persecute.’

⁵⁰As a result, this generation will be charged with the blood of all the prophets that has been shed since the foundation of the world, ⁵¹from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zechariah, who was killed between the altar and the sanctuary. Yes, I tell you, all of it will be charged to this generation.

⁵²Woe to you experts in the law! For you have taken away the key to knowledge. You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering.”

⁵³As Jesus went on from there, the scribes and Pharisees began to oppose Him bitterly and to ply Him with questions about many things, ⁵⁴waiting to catch Him in something He might say.

The Valley of Vision

¹This is the burden against the Valley of Vision:

What ails you now,

that you have all gone up to the rooftops,

²O city of commotion,

O town of revelry?

Your slain did not die by the sword,

nor were they killed in battle.

³All your rulers have fled together,

captured without a bow.

All your fugitives were captured together,

having fled to a distant place.

⁴Therefore I said,

“Turn away from me, let me weep bitterly!

Do not try to console me

over the destruction of the daughter of my people.”

⁵For the Lord GOD of Hosts has set a day

of tumult and trampling and confusion in the Valley of Vision—

of breaking down the walls

and crying to the mountains.

⁶Elam takes up a quiver, with chariots and horsemen,

and Kir uncovers the shield.

⁷Your choicest valleys are full of chariots,

and horsemen are posted at the gates.

⁸He has uncovered

the defenses of Judah.

On that day you looked to the weapons in the House of the Forest. ⁹You saw that there were many breaches in the walls of the City of David. You collected water from the lower pool. ¹⁰You counted the houses of Jerusalem and tore them down to strengthen the wall. ¹¹You built a reservoir between the walls for the waters of the ancient pool, but you did not look to the One who made it, or consider Him who planned it long ago.

¹²On that day the Lord GOD of Hosts

called for weeping and wailing,

for shaven heads

and the wearing of sackcloth.

¹³But look, there is joy and gladness,

butchering of cattle and slaughtering of sheep,

eating of meat and drinking of wine:

“Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die!”

¹⁴The LORD of Hosts has revealed in my hearing:

“Until your dying day,

this sin of yours will never be atoned for,”

says the Lord GOD of Hosts.

A Message for Shebna

¹⁵This is what the Lord GOD of Hosts says: “Go, say to Shebna, the steward in charge of the palace: ¹⁶What are you doing here, and who authorized you to carve out a tomb for yourself here — to chisel your tomb in the height and cut your resting place in the rock?

¹⁷Look, O mighty man! The LORD is about to shake you violently. He will take hold of you, ¹⁸roll you into a ball, and sling you into a wide land. There you will die, and there your glorious chariots will remain— a disgrace to the house of your master. ¹⁹I will remove you from office, and you will be ousted from your position.

²⁰On that day I will summon My servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. ²¹I will clothe him with your robe and tie your sash around him. I will put your authority in his hand, and he will be a father to the dwellers of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. ²²I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. ²³I will drive him like a peg into a firm place, and he will be a throne of glory for the house of his father.

²⁴So they will hang on him all the glory of his father’s house: the descendants and the offshoots— all the lesser vessels, from bowls to every kind of jar.

²⁵In that day, declares the LORD of Hosts, the peg driven into a firm place will give way; it will be sheared off and fall, and the load upon it will be cut down.”

Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

The Burden against Tyre

¹This is the burden against Tyre:

Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for Tyre is laid waste,

without house or harbor.

Word has reached them

from the land of Cyprus.

²Be silent, O dwellers of the coastland,

you merchants of Sidon,

whose traders have crossed the sea.

³On the great waters

came the grain of Shihor;

the harvest of the Nile was the revenue of Tyre;

she was the merchant of the nations.

⁴Be ashamed, O Sidon, the stronghold of the sea,

for the sea has spoken:

“I have not been in labor

or given birth.

I have not raised young men

or brought up young women.”

⁵When the report reaches Egypt,

they will writhe in agony over the news of Tyre.

⁶Cross over to Tarshish;

wail, O inhabitants of the coastland!

⁷Is this your jubilant city,

whose origin is from antiquity,

whose feet have taken her

to settle far away?

⁸Who planned this against Tyre,

the bestower of crowns,

whose traders are princes,

whose merchants are renowned on the earth?

⁹The LORD of Hosts planned it,

to defile all its glorious beauty,

to disgrace all the renowned of the earth.

¹⁰Cultivate your land like the Nile, O Daughter of Tarshish;

there is no longer a harbor.

¹¹The LORD has stretched out His hand over the sea;

He has made kingdoms tremble.

He has given a command

that the strongholds of Canaan be destroyed.

¹²He said, “You shall rejoice no more,

O oppressed Virgin Daughter of Sidon.

Get up and cross over to Cyprus—

even there you will find no rest.”

¹³Look at the land of the Chaldeans—

a people now of no account.

The Assyrians destined it for the desert creatures;

they set up their siege towers and stripped its palaces.

They brought it to ruin.

¹⁴Wail, O ships of Tarshish,

for your harbor has been destroyed!

¹⁵At that time Tyre will be forgotten for seventy years— the span of a king’s life. But at the end of seventy years, it will happen to Tyre as in the song of the harlot:

¹⁶“Take up your harp,

stroll through the city,

O forgotten harlot.

Make sweet melody,

sing many a song,

so you will be remembered.”

¹⁷And at the end of seventy years, the LORD will restore Tyre. Then she will return to hire as a prostitute and sell herself to all the kingdoms on the face of the earth. ¹⁸Yet her profits and wages will be set apart to the LORD; they will not be stored or saved, for her profit will go to those who live before the LORD, for abundant food and fine clothing.