Daily Bible GNT April 03 Scroll

The Plot against Jesus
(Mark 14.1, 2; Luke 22.1, 2; John 11.45-53)

Matthew 26 When Jesus had finished teaching all these things, he said to his disciples, ²"In two days, as you know, it will be the Passover Festival, and the Son of Man will be handed over to be crucified."

³Then the chief priests and the elders met together in the palace of Caiaphas, the High Priest, ⁴and made plans to arrest Jesus secretly and put him to death. ⁵"We must not do it during the festival," they said, "or the people will riot."

Jesus Is Anointed at Bethany
(Mark 14.3-9; John 12.1-8)

⁶Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon, a man who had suffered from a dreaded skin disease. ⁷While Jesus was eating, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar filled with an expensive perfume, which she poured on his head. ⁸The disciples saw this and became angry. "Why all this waste?" they asked. ⁹"This perfume could have been sold for a large amount and the money given to the poor!"

¹⁰Jesus knew what they were saying, and so he said to them, "Why are you bothering this woman? It is a fine and beautiful thing that she has done for me. ¹¹You will always have poor people with you, but you will not always have me. ¹²What she did was to pour this perfume on my body to get me ready for burial. ¹³Now, I assure you that wherever this gospel is preached all over the world, what she has done will be told in memory of her."

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus
(Mark 14.10, 11; Luke 22.3-6)

¹⁴Then one of the twelve disciples--the one named Judas Iscariot--went to the chief priests ¹⁵and asked, "What will you give me if I betray Jesus to you?" They counted out thirty silver coins and gave them to him. ¹⁶From then on Judas was looking for a good chance to hand Jesus over to them.

Jesus Eats the Passover Meal with His Disciples
(Mark 14.12-21; Luke 22.7-13, 21-23; John 13.21-30)

¹⁷On the first day of the Festival of Unleavened Bread the disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "Where do you want us to get the Passover meal ready for you?"

¹⁸"Go to a certain man in the city," he said to them, "and tell him: 'The Teacher says, My hour has come; my disciples and I will celebrate the Passover at your house.'"

¹⁹The disciples did as Jesus had told them and prepared the Passover meal.

²⁰When it was evening, Jesus and the twelve disciples sat down to eat. ²¹During the meal Jesus said, "I tell you, one of you will betray me."

²²The disciples were very upset and began to ask him, one after the other, "Surely, Lord, you don't mean me?"

²³Jesus answered, "One who dips his bread in the dish with me will betray me. ²⁴The Son of Man will die as the Scriptures say he will, but how terrible for that man who will betray the Son of Man! It would have been better for that man if he had never been born!"

²⁵Judas, the traitor, spoke up. "Surely, Teacher, you don't mean me?" he asked.

Jesus answered, "So you say."

The Cities Assigned to the Levites

Numbers 35 In the plains of Moab across the Jordan from Jericho the LORD said to Moses, ²"Tell the Israelites that from the property they receive they must give the Levites some cities to live in and pasture land around the cities. ³These cities will belong to the Levites, and they will live there. The pasture land will be for their cattle and all their other animals. ⁴The pasture land is to extend outward from the city walls five hundred yards in each direction, ⁵so that there is a square area measuring one thousand yards on each side, with the city in the middle. ⁶You are to give the Levites six cities of refuge to which any of you can escape if you kill someone accidentally. In addition, give them forty-two other cities ⁷with their pasture land, making a total of forty-eight. ⁸The number of Levite cities in each tribe is to be determined according to the size of its territory."

The Cities of Refuge
(Deuteronomy 19.1-13; Joshua 20.1-9)

⁹The LORD told Moses ¹⁰to say to the people of Israel: "When you cross the Jordan River and enter the land of Canaan, ¹¹you are to choose cities of refuge to which any of you can escape if you kill someone accidentally. ¹²There you will be safe from the dead person's relative who seeks revenge. No one accused of manslaughter is to be put to death without a public trial. ¹³Choose six cities, ¹⁴three east of the Jordan and three in the land of Canaan. ¹⁵These will serve as cities of refuge for Israelites and for foreigners who are temporary or permanent residents. Anyone who kills someone accidentally can escape to one of them.

^16-18"If, however, any of you use a weapon of iron or stone or wood to kill someone, you are guilty of murder and are to be put to death. ¹⁹The dead person's nearest relative has the responsibility for putting the murderer to death. When he finds you, he is to kill you.

²⁰"If you hate someone and kill him by pushing him down or by throwing something at him ²¹or by striking him with your fist, you are guilty of murder and are to be put to death. The dead person's nearest relative has the responsibility for putting the murderer to death. When he finds you, he is to kill you.

²²"But suppose you accidentally kill someone you do not hate, whether by pushing him down or by throwing something at him. ²³Or suppose that, without looking, you throw a stone that kills someone whom you did not intend to hurt and who was not your enemy. ²⁴In such cases the community shall judge in your favor and not in favor of the dead person's relative who is seeking revenge. ²⁵You are guilty only of manslaughter, and the community is to rescue you from the dead person's relative, and they are to return you to the city of refuge to which you had escaped. You must live there until the death of the man who is then High Priest. ²⁶If you leave the city of refuge to which you have escaped ²⁷and if the dead person's relative finds you and kills you, this act of revenge is not murder. ²⁸Any of you guilty of manslaughter must remain in the city of refuge until the death of the High Priest, but after that you may return home. ²⁹These rules apply to you and your descendants wherever you may live.

³⁰"Those accused of murder may be found guilty and put to death only on the evidence of two or more witnesses; the evidence of one witness is not sufficient to support an accusation of murder. ³¹Murderers must be put to death. They cannot escape this penalty by the payment of money. ³²If they have fled to a city of refuge, do not allow them to make a payment in order to return home before the death of the High Priest. ³³If you did this, you would defile the land where you are living. Murder defiles the land, and except by the death of the murderer there is no way to perform the ritual of purification for the land where someone has been murdered. ³⁴Do not defile the land where you are living, because I am the LORD and I live among the people of Israel."

The Inheritance of Married Women

Numbers 36 The heads of the families in the clan of Gilead, the son of Machir and grandson of Manasseh son of Joseph, went to Moses and the other leaders. ²They said, "The LORD commanded you to distribute the land to the people of Israel by drawing lots. He also commanded you to give the property of our relative Zelophehad to his daughters. ³But remember, if they marry men of another tribe, their property will then belong to that tribe, and the total allotted to us will be reduced. ⁴In the Year of Restoration, when all property that has been sold is restored to its original owners, the property of Zelophehad's daughters will be permanently added to the tribe into which they marry and will be lost to our tribe."

⁵So Moses gave the people of Israel the following command from the LORD. He said, "What the tribe of Manasseh says is right, ⁶and so the LORD says that the daughters of Zelophehad are free to marry anyone they wish but only within their own tribe. ⁷The property of every Israelite will remain attached to his tribe. ⁸Every woman who inherits property in an Israelite tribe must marry a man belonging to that tribe. In this way all Israelites will inherit the property of their ancestors, ⁹and the property will not pass from one tribe to another. Each tribe will continue to possess its own property."

^10-11So Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah, and Noah, the daughters of Zelophehad, did as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they married their cousins. ¹²They married within the clans of the tribe of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their property remained in their father's tribe.

¹³These are the rules and regulations that the LORD gave the Israelites through Moses in the plains of Moab across the Jordan River from Jericho.

Job's Complaint to God

Job 3 Finally Job broke the silence and cursed the day on which he had been born.

Job

^2-3O God, put a curse on the day I was born;

put a curse on the night when I was conceived!

⁴Turn that day into darkness, God.

Never again remember that day;

never again let light shine on it.

⁵Make it a day of gloom and thick darkness;

cover it with clouds, and blot out the sun.

⁶Blot that night out of the year,

and never let it be counted again;

⁷

make it a barren, joyless night.

⁸Tell the sorcerers to curse that day,

those who know how to control Leviathan.

⁹Keep the morning star from shining;

give that night no hope of dawn.

¹⁰Curse that night for letting me be born,

for exposing me to trouble and grief.

¹¹I wish I had died in my mother's womb

or died the moment I was born.

¹²Why did my mother hold me on her knees?

Why did she feed me at her breast?

¹³If I had died then, I would be at rest now,

¹⁴

sleeping like the kings and rulers

who rebuilt ancient palaces.

¹⁵Then I would be sleeping like princes

who filled their houses with gold and silver,

¹⁶

or sleeping like a stillborn child.

¹⁷In the grave wicked people stop their evil,

and tired workers find rest at last.

¹⁸Even prisoners enjoy peace,

free from shouts and harsh commands.

¹⁹Everyone is there, the famous and the unknown,

and slaves at last are free.

²⁰Why let people go on living in misery?

Why give light to those in grief ?

²¹They wait for death, but it never comes;

they prefer a grave to any treasure.

²²They are not happy till they are dead and buried;

²³

God keeps their future hidden

and hems them in on every side.

²⁴Instead of eating, I mourn,

and I can never stop groaning.

²⁵Everything I fear and dread comes true.

²⁶I have no peace, no rest,

and my troubles never end.

This reading is from The Holy Bible, Today's English Version, Second Edition copyright © American Bible Society, 1992;
Old Testament copyright © American Bible Society, 1976, 1992; New Testament © American Bible Society, 1966, 1971, 1976, 1992.

These daily Bible readings from the Good News Translation (GNT), formerly the Today's English Version (TEV), are published by BibleNetUSA. The web site and BibleCard® designs are by iCreative. All BibleCard® images are copyrighted by iCreative. All rights reserved.