Daily Bible GNT January 04 Scroll

Jesus Heals a Roman Officer's Servant
(Matthew 8.5-13)

Luke 7 When Jesus had finished saying all these things to the people, he went to Capernaum. ²A Roman officer there had a servant who was very dear to him; the man was sick and about to die. ³When the officer heard about Jesus, he sent some Jewish elders to ask him to come and heal his servant. ⁴They came to Jesus and begged him earnestly, "This man really deserves your help. ⁵He loves our people and he himself built a synagogue for us."

⁶So Jesus went with them. He was not far from the house when the officer sent friends to tell him, "Sir, don't trouble yourself. I do not deserve to have you come into my house, ⁷neither do I consider myself worthy to come to you in person. Just give the order, and my servant will get well. ⁸I, too, am a man placed under the authority of superior officers, and I have soldiers under me. I order this one, 'Go!' and he goes; I order that one, 'Come!' and he comes; and I order my slave, 'Do this!' and he does it."

⁹Jesus was surprised when he heard this; he turned around and said to the crowd following him, "I tell you, I have never found faith like this, not even in Israel!"

¹⁰The messengers went back to the officer's house and found his servant well.

Jesus Raises a Widow's Son

¹¹Soon afterward Jesus went to a town named Nain, accompanied by his disciples and a large crowd. ¹²Just as he arrived at the gate of the town, a funeral procession was coming out. The dead man was the only son of a woman who was a widow, and a large crowd from the town was with her. ¹³When the Lord saw her, his heart was filled with pity for her, and he said to her, "Don't cry." ¹⁴Then he walked over and touched the coffin, and the men carrying it stopped. Jesus said, "Young man! Get up, I tell you!" ¹⁵The dead man sat up and began to talk, and Jesus gave him back to his mother.

¹⁶They all were filled with fear and praised God. "A great prophet has appeared among us!" they said; "God has come to save his people!"

¹⁷This news about Jesus went out through all the country and the surrounding territory.

The End of the Flood

Genesis 8 God had not forgotten Noah and all the animals with him in the boat; he caused a wind to blow, and the water started going down. ²The outlets of the water beneath the earth and the floodgates of the sky were closed. The rain stopped, ³and the water gradually went down for 150 days. ⁴On the seventeenth day of the seventh month the boat came to rest on a mountain in the Ararat range. ⁵The water kept going down, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains appeared.

⁶After forty days Noah opened a window ⁷and sent out a raven. It did not come back, but kept flying around until the water was completely gone. ⁸Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if the water had gone down, ⁹but since the water still covered all the land, the dove did not find a place to light. It flew back to the boat, and Noah reached out and took it in. ¹⁰He waited another seven days and sent out the dove again. ¹¹It returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water had gone down. ¹²Then he waited another seven days and sent out the dove once more; this time it did not come back.

¹³When Noah was 601 years old, on the first day of the first month, the water was gone. Noah removed the covering of the boat, looked around, and saw that the ground was getting dry. ¹⁴By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.

¹⁵God said to Noah, ¹⁶"Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons, and their wives. ¹⁷Take all the birds and animals out with you, so that they may reproduce and spread over all the earth." ¹⁸So Noah went out of the boat with his wife, his sons, and their wives. ¹⁹All the animals and birds went out of the boat in groups of their own kind.

Noah Offers a Sacrifice

²⁰Noah built an altar to the LORD; he took one of each kind of ritually clean animal and bird, and burned them whole as a sacrifice on the altar. ²¹The odor of the sacrifice pleased the LORD, and he said to himself, "Never again will I put the earth under a curse because of what people do; I know that from the time they are young their thoughts are evil. Never again will I destroy all living beings, as I have done this time. ²²As long as the world exists, there will be a time for planting and a time for harvest. There will always be cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night."

God's Covenant with Noah

Genesis 9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said, "Have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth. ²All the animals, birds, and fish will live in fear of you. They are all placed under your power. ³Now you can eat them, as well as green plants; I give them all to you for food. ⁴The one thing you must not eat is meat with blood still in it; I forbid this because the life is in the blood. ⁵If anyone takes human life, he will be punished. I will punish with death any animal that takes a human life. ⁶Human beings were made like God, so whoever murders one of them will be killed by someone else.

⁷"You must have many children, so that your descendants will live all over the earth."

⁸God said to Noah and his sons, ⁹"I am now making my covenant with you and with your descendants, ¹⁰and with all living beings--all birds and all animals--everything that came out of the boat with you. ¹¹With these words I make my covenant with you: I promise that never again will all living beings be destroyed by a flood; never again will a flood destroy the earth. ¹²As a sign of this everlasting covenant which I am making with you and with all living beings, ¹³I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be the sign of my covenant with the world. ¹⁴Whenever I cover the sky with clouds and the rainbow appears, ¹⁵I will remember my promise to you and to all the animals that a flood will never again destroy all living beings. ¹⁶When the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and all living beings on earth. ¹⁷That is the sign of the promise which I am making to all living beings."

Noah and His Sons

¹⁸The sons of Noah who went out of the boat were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) ¹⁹These three sons of Noah were the ancestors of all the people on earth.

²⁰Noah, who was a farmer, was the first man to plant a vineyard. ²¹After he drank some of the wine, he became drunk, took off his clothes, and lay naked in his tent. ²²When Ham, the father of Canaan, saw that his father was naked, he went out and told his two brothers. ²³Then Shem and Japheth took a robe and held it behind them on their shoulders. They walked backward into the tent and covered their father, keeping their faces turned away so as not to see him naked. ²⁴When Noah sobered up and learned what his youngest son had done to him, ²⁵he said,

"A curse on Canaan!

He will be a slave to his brothers.

²⁶Give praise to the LORD, the God of Shem!

Canaan will be the slave of Shem.

²⁷May God cause Japheth to increase!

May his descendants live with the people of Shem!

Canaan will be the slave of Japheth."

²⁸After the flood Noah lived 350 years ²⁹and died at the age of 950.

The Descendants of Noah's Sons
(1 Chronicles 1.5-23)

Genesis 10 These are the descendants of Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. These three had sons after the flood.

²The sons of Japheth--Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras--were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ³The descendants of Gomer were the people of Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴The descendants of Javan were the people of Elishah, Spain, Cyprus, and Rhodes; ⁵they were the ancestors of the people who live along the coast and on the islands. These are the descendants of Japheth, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

⁶The sons of Ham--Cush, Egypt, Libya, and Canaan--were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ⁷The descendants of Cush were the people of Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca. The descendants of Raamah were the people of Sheba and Dedan. ⁸Cush had a son named Nimrod, who became the world's first great conqueror. ⁹By the LORD's help he was a great hunter, and that is why people say, "May the LORD make you as great a hunter as Nimrod!" ¹⁰At first his kingdom included Babylon, Erech, and Accad, all three of them in Babylonia. ¹¹From that land he went to Assyria and built the cities of Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, ¹²and Resen, which is between Nineveh and the great city of Calah.

¹³The descendants of Egypt were the people of Lydia, Anam, Lehab, Naphtuh, ¹⁴Pathrus, Casluh, and of Crete, from whom the Philistines are descended.

¹⁵Canaan's sons--Sidon, the oldest, and Heth--were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ¹⁶Canaan was also the ancestor of the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, ¹⁷the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, ¹⁸the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. The different tribes of the Canaanites spread out, ¹⁹until the Canaanite borders reached from Sidon southward to Gerar near Gaza, and eastward to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim near Lasha. ²⁰These are the descendants of Ham, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

²¹Shem, the older brother of Japheth, was the ancestor of all the Hebrews. ²²Shem's sons--Elam, Asshur, Arpachshad, Lud, and Aram--were the ancestors of the peoples who bear their names. ²³The descendants of Aram were the people of Uz, Hul, Gether, and Meshek. ²⁴Arpachshad was the father of Shelah, who was the father of Eber. ²⁵Eber had two sons: one was named Peleg, because during his time the people of the world were divided; and the other was named Joktan. ²⁶The descendants of Joktan were the people of Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All of them were descended from Joktan. ³⁰The land in which they lived extended from Mesha to Sephar in the eastern hill country. ³¹These are the descendants of Shem, living in their different tribes and countries, each group speaking its own language.

³²All these peoples are the descendants of Noah, nation by nation, according to their different lines of descent. After the flood all the nations of the earth were descended from the sons of Noah.

Evening Prayer for Help

Psalm 4 Answer me when I pray,

O God, my defender!

When I was in trouble, you helped me.

Be kind to me now and hear my prayer.

²How long will you people insult me?

How long will you love what is worthless

and go after what is false?

³Remember that the LORD has chosen the righteous for his own,

and he hears me when I call to him.

⁴Tremble with fear and stop sinning;

think deeply about this,

when you lie in silence on your beds.

⁵Offer the right sacrifices to the LORD,

and put your trust in him.

⁶There are many who pray:

"Give us more blessings, O LORD.

Look on us with kindness!"

⁷But the joy that you have given me

is more than they will ever have

with all their grain and wine.

⁸When I lie down, I go to sleep in peace;

you alone, O LORD, keep me perfectly safe.

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.