Daily Bible GNT June 21 Scroll

Jairus' Daughter and the Woman Who Touched Jesus' Cloak
(Matthew 9.18-26; Luke 8.40-56)

Mark 5 ²¹Jesus went back across to the other side of the lake. There at the lakeside a large crowd gathered around him. ²²Jairus, an official of the local synagogue, arrived, and when he saw Jesus, he threw himself down at his feet ²³and begged him earnestly, "My little daughter is very sick. Please come and place your hands on her, so that she will get well and live!"

²⁴Then Jesus started off with him. So many people were going along with Jesus that they were crowding him from every side.

²⁵There was a woman who had suffered terribly from severe bleeding for twelve years, ²⁶even though she had been treated by many doctors. She had spent all her money, but instead of getting better she got worse all the time. ²⁷She had heard about Jesus, so she came in the crowd behind him, ²⁸saying to herself, "If I just touch his clothes, I will get well."

²⁹She touched his cloak, and her bleeding stopped at once; and she had the feeling inside herself that she was healed of her trouble. ³⁰At once Jesus knew that power had gone out of him, so he turned around in the crowd and asked, "Who touched my clothes?"

³¹His disciples answered, "You see how the people are crowding you; why do you ask who touched you?"

³²But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it. ³³The woman realized what had happened to her, so she came, trembling with fear, knelt at his feet, and told him the whole truth. ³⁴Jesus said to her, "My daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace, and be healed of your trouble."

³⁵While Jesus was saying this, some messengers came from Jairus' house and told him, "Your daughter has died. Why bother the Teacher any longer?"

³⁶Jesus paid no attention to what they said, but told him, "Don't be afraid, only believe." ³⁷Then he did not let anyone else go on with him except Peter and James and his brother John. ³⁸They arrived at Jairus' house, where Jesus saw the confusion and heard all the loud crying and wailing. ³⁹He went in and said to them, "Why all this confusion? Why are you crying? The child is not dead--she is only sleeping!"

⁴⁰They started making fun of him, so he put them all out, took the child's father and mother and his three disciples, and went into the room where the child was lying. ⁴¹He took her by the hand and said to her, "Talitha, koum," which means, "Little girl, I tell you to get up!"

⁴²She got up at once and started walking around. (She was twelve years old.) When this happened, they were completely amazed. ⁴³But Jesus gave them strict orders not to tell anyone, and he said, "Give her something to eat."

Joab Arranges for Absalom's Return

2 Samuel 14 Joab knew that King David missed Absalom very much, ²so he sent for a clever woman who lived in Tekoa. When she arrived, he said to her, "Pretend that you are in mourning; put on your mourning clothes, and don't comb your hair. Act like a woman who has been in mourning for a long time. ³Then go to the king and say to him what I tell you to say." Then Joab told her what to say.

⁴The woman went to the king, bowed down to the ground in respect, and said, "Help me, Your Majesty!"

⁵"What do you want?" he asked her.

"I am a poor widow, sir," she answered. "My husband is dead. ⁶Sir, I had two sons, and one day they got into a quarrel out in the fields, where there was no one to separate them, and one of them killed the other. ⁷And now, sir, all my relatives have turned against me and are demanding that I hand my son over to them, so that they can kill him for murdering his brother. If they do this, I will be left without a son. They will destroy my last hope and leave my husband without a son to keep his name alive."

⁸"Go back home," the king answered, "and I will take care of the matter."

⁹"Your Majesty," she said, "whatever you do, my family and I will take the blame; you and the royal family are innocent."

¹⁰The king replied, "If anyone threatens you, bring him to me, and he will never bother you again."

¹¹She said, "Your Majesty, please pray to the LORD your God, so that my relative who is responsible for avenging the death of my son will not commit a greater crime by killing my other son."

"I promise by the living LORD," David replied, "that your son will not be harmed in the least."

¹²"Please, Your Majesty, let me say just one more thing," the woman said.

"All right," he answered.

¹³She said to him, "Why have you done such a wrong to God's people? You have not allowed your own son to return from exile, and so you have condemned yourself by what you have just said. ¹⁴We will all die; we are like water spilled on the ground, which can't be gathered again. Even God does not bring the dead back to life, but the king can at least find a way to bring a man back from exile. ¹⁵Now, Your Majesty, the reason I have come to speak to you is that the people threatened me, and so I said to myself that I would speak to you in the hope that you would do what I ask. ¹⁶I thought you would listen to me and save me from the one who is trying to kill my son and me and so remove us from the land God gave his people. ¹⁷I said to myself that your promise, sir, would make me safe, because the king is like God's angel and can distinguish good from evil. May the LORD your God be with you!"

¹⁸The king answered, "I'm going to ask you a question, and you must tell me the whole truth."

"Ask me anything, Your Majesty," she answered.

¹⁹"Did Joab put you up to this?" he asked her.

She answered, "I swear by all that is sacred, Your Majesty, that there is no way to avoid answering your question. It was indeed your officer Joab who told me what to do and what to say. ²⁰But he did it in order to straighten out this whole matter. Your Majesty is as wise as the angel of God and knows everything that happens."

²¹Later on the king said to Joab, "I have decided to do what you want. Go and get the young man Absalom and bring him back here."

²²Joab threw himself to the ground in front of David in respect, and said, "God bless you, Your Majesty! Now I know that you are pleased with me, because you have granted my request." ²³Then he got up and went to Geshur and brought Absalom back to Jerusalem. ²⁴The king, however, gave orders that Absalom should not live in the palace. "I don't want to see him," the king said. So Absalom lived in his own house and did not appear before the king.

Absalom Is Reconciled to David

²⁵There was no one in Israel as famous for his good looks as Absalom; he had no defect from head to toe. ²⁶His hair was very thick, and he had to cut it once a year, when it grew too long and heavy. It would weigh about five pounds according to the royal standard of weights. ²⁷Absalom had three sons and one daughter named Tamar, a very beautiful woman.

²⁸Absalom lived two years in Jerusalem without seeing the king. ²⁹Then he sent for Joab, to ask him to go to the king for him; but Joab would not come. Again Absalom sent for him, and again Joab refused to come. ³⁰So Absalom said to his servants, "Look, Joab's field is next to mine, and it has barley growing in it. Go and set fire to it." So they went and set the field on fire.

³¹Joab went to Absalom's house and demanded, "Why did your servants set fire to my field?"

³²Absalom answered, "Because you wouldn't come when I sent for you. I wanted you to go to the king and ask for me: 'Why did I leave Geshur and come here? It would have been better for me to have stayed there.'" And Absalom went on, "I want you to arrange for me to see the king, and if I'm guilty, then let him put me to death."

³³So Joab went to King David and told him what Absalom had said. The king sent for Absalom, who went to him and bowed down to the ground in front of him. The king welcomed him with a kiss.

Daniel's Vision of a Ram and a Goat

Daniel 8 In the third year that Belshazzar was king, I saw a second vision. ²In the vision I suddenly found myself in the walled city of Susa in the province of Elam. I was standing by the Ulai River, ³and there beside the river I saw a ram that had two long horns, one of which was longer and newer than the other. ⁴I watched the ram butting with his horns to the west, the north, and the south. No animal could stop him or escape his power. He did as he pleased and grew arrogant.

⁵While I was wondering what this meant, a goat came rushing out of the west, moving so fast that his feet didn't touch the ground. He had one prominent horn between his eyes. ⁶He came toward the ram, which I had seen standing beside the river, and rushed at him with all his force. ⁷I watched him attack the ram. He was so angry that he smashed into him and broke the two horns. The ram had no strength to resist. He was thrown to the ground and trampled on, and there was no one who could save him.

⁸The goat grew more and more arrogant, but at the height of his power his horn was broken. In its place four prominent horns came up, each pointing in a different direction. ⁹Out of one of these four horns grew a little horn, whose power extended toward the south and the east and toward the Promised Land. ¹⁰It grew strong enough to attack the army of heaven, the stars themselves, and it threw some of them to the ground and trampled on them. ¹¹It even defied the Prince of the heavenly army, stopped the daily sacrifices offered to him, and ruined the Temple. ¹²People sinned there instead of offering the proper daily sacrifices, and true religion was thrown to the ground. The horn was successful in everything it did.

¹³Then I heard one angel ask another, "How long will these things that were seen in the vision continue? How long will an awful sin replace the daily sacrifices? How long will the army of heaven and the Temple be trampled on?"

¹⁴I heard the other angel answer, "It will continue for 2,300 evenings and mornings, during which sacrifices will not be offered. Then the Temple will be restored."

The Angel Gabriel Explains the Vision

¹⁵I was trying to understand what the vision meant, when suddenly someone was standing in front of me. ¹⁶I heard a voice call out over the Ulai River, "Gabriel, explain to him the meaning of what he saw." ¹⁷Gabriel came and stood beside me, and I was so terrified that I fell to the ground.

He said to me, "Mortal man, understand the meaning. The vision has to do with the end of the world." ¹⁸While he was talking, I fell to the ground unconscious. But he took hold of me, raised me to my feet, ¹⁹and said, "I am showing you what the result of God's anger will be. The vision refers to the time of the end.

²⁰"The ram you saw that had two horns represents the kingdoms of Media and Persia. ²¹The goat represents the kingdom of Greece, and the prominent horn between his eyes is the first king. ²²The four horns that came up when the first horn was broken represent the four kingdoms into which that nation will be divided and which will not be as strong as the first kingdom.

²³"When the end of those kingdoms is near and they have become so wicked that they must be punished, there will be a stubborn, vicious, and deceitful king. ²⁴He will grow strong--but not by his own power. He will cause terrible destruction and be successful in everything he does. He will bring destruction on powerful men and on God's own people. ²⁵Because he is cunning, he will succeed in his deceitful ways. He will be proud of himself and destroy many people without warning. He will even defy the greatest King of all, but he will be destroyed without the use of any human power. ²⁶This vision about the evening and morning sacrifices which has been explained to you will come true. But keep it secret now, because it will be a long time before it does come true."

²⁷I was depressed and ill for several days. Then I got up and went back to the work that the king had assigned to me, but I was puzzled by the vision and could not understand it.

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.