Daily Bible GNT January 23 Scroll

The Parable of the Widow and the Judge

Luke 18 Then Jesus told his disciples a parable to teach them that they should always pray and never become discouraged. ²"In a certain town there was a judge who neither feared God nor respected people. ³And there was a widow in that same town who kept coming to him and pleading for her rights, saying, 'Help me against my opponent!' ⁴For a long time the judge refused to act, but at last he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or respect people, ⁵yet because of all the trouble this widow is giving me, I will see to it that she gets her rights. If I don't, she will keep on coming and finally wear me out!'"

⁶And the Lord continued, "Listen to what that corrupt judge said. ⁷Now, will God not judge in favor of his own people who cry to him day and night for help? Will he be slow to help them? ⁸I tell you, he will judge in their favor and do it quickly. But will the Son of Man find faith on earth when he comes?"

The Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector

⁹Jesus also told this parable to people who were sure of their own goodness and despised everybody else. ¹⁰"Once there were two men who went up to the Temple to pray: one was a Pharisee, the other a tax collector. ¹¹The Pharisee stood apart by himself and prayed, 'I thank you, God, that I am not greedy, dishonest, or an adulterer, like everybody else. I thank you that I am not like that tax collector over there. ¹²I fast two days a week, and I give you one tenth of all my income.' ¹³But the tax collector stood at a distance and would not even raise his face to heaven, but beat on his breast and said, 'God, have pity on me, a sinner!' ¹⁴I tell you," said Jesus, "the tax collector, and not the Pharisee, was in the right with God when he went home. For those who make themselves great will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be made great."

Jesus Blesses Little Children
(Matthew 19.13-15; Mark 10.13-16)

¹⁵Some people brought their babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. The disciples saw them and scolded them for doing so, ¹⁶but Jesus called the children to him and said, "Let the children come to me and do not stop them, because the Kingdom of God belongs to such as these. ¹⁷Remember this! Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it."

The Children Born to Jacob

Genesis 29 ³¹When the LORD saw that Leah was loved less than Rachel, he made it possible for her to have children, but Rachel remained childless. ³²Leah became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, "The LORD has seen my trouble, and now my husband will love me"; so she named him Reuben. ³³She became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, "The LORD has given me this son also, because he heard that I was not loved"; so she named him Simeon. ³⁴Once again she became pregnant and gave birth to another son. She said, "Now my husband will be bound more tightly to me, because I have borne him three sons"; so she named him Levi. ³⁵Then she became pregnant again and gave birth to another son. She said, "This time I will praise the LORD"; so she named him Judah. Then she stopped having children.
Genesis 30 But Rachel had not borne Jacob any children, and so she became jealous of her sister and said to Jacob, "Give me children, or I will die."

²Jacob became angry with Rachel and said, "I can't take the place of God. He is the one who keeps you from having children."

³She said, "Here is my slave Bilhah; sleep with her, so that she can have a child for me. In this way I can become a mother through her." ⁴So she gave Bilhah to her husband, and he had intercourse with her. ⁵Bilhah became pregnant and bore Jacob a son. ⁶Rachel said, "God has judged in my favor. He has heard my prayer and has given me a son"; so she named him Dan. ⁷Bilhah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a second son. ⁸Rachel said, "I have fought a hard fight with my sister, but I have won"; so she named him Naphtali.

⁹When Leah realized that she had stopped having children, she gave her slave Zilpah to Jacob as his wife. ¹⁰Then Zilpah bore Jacob a son. ¹¹Leah said, "I have been lucky"; so she named him Gad. ¹²Zilpah bore Jacob another son, ¹³and Leah said, "How happy I am! Now women will call me happy"; so she named him Asher.

¹⁴During the wheat harvest Reuben went into the fields and found mandrakes, which he brought to his mother Leah. Rachel said to Leah, "Please give me some of your son's mandrakes."

¹⁵Leah answered, "Isn't it enough that you have taken away my husband? Now you are even trying to take away my son's mandrakes."

Rachel said, "If you will give me your son's mandrakes, you can sleep with Jacob tonight."

¹⁶When Jacob came in from the fields in the evening, Leah went out to meet him and said, "You are going to sleep with me tonight, because I have paid for you with my son's mandrakes." So he had intercourse with her that night.

¹⁷God answered Leah's prayer, and she became pregnant and bore Jacob a fifth son. ¹⁸Leah said, "God has given me my reward, because I gave my slave to my husband"; so she named her son Issachar. ¹⁹Leah became pregnant again and bore Jacob a sixth son. ²⁰She said, "God has given me a fine gift. Now my husband will accept me, because I have borne him six sons"; so she named him Zebulun. ²¹Later she bore a daughter, whom she named Dinah.

²²Then God remembered Rachel; he answered her prayer and made it possible for her to have children. ²³She became pregnant and gave birth to a son. She said, "God has taken away my disgrace by giving me a son. ²⁴May the LORD give me another son"; so she named him Joseph.

Jacob's Bargain with Laban

²⁵After the birth of Joseph, Jacob said to Laban, "Let me go, so that I can return home. ²⁶Give me my wives and children that I have earned by working for you, and I will leave. You know how well I have served you."

²⁷Laban said to him, "Let me say this: I have learned by divination that the LORD has blessed me because of you. ²⁸Name your wages, and I will pay them."

²⁹Jacob answered, "You know how I have worked for you and how your flocks have prospered under my care. ³⁰The little you had before I came has grown enormously, and the LORD has blessed you wherever I went. Now it is time for me to look out for my own interests."

³¹"What shall I pay you?" Laban asked.

Jacob answered, "I don't want any wages. I will continue to take care of your flocks if you agree to this suggestion: ³²Let me go through all your flocks today and take every black lamb and every spotted or speckled young goat. That is all the wages I want. ³³In the future you can easily find out if I have been honest. When you come to check up on my wages, if I have any goat that isn't speckled or spotted or any sheep that isn't black, you will know that it has been stolen."

³⁴Laban answered, "Agreed. We will do as you suggest." ³⁵But that day Laban removed the male goats that had stripes or spots and all the females that were speckled and spotted or which had white on them; he also removed all the black sheep. He put his sons in charge of them, ³⁶and then went away from Jacob with this flock as far as he could travel in three days. Jacob took care of the rest of Laban's flocks.

³⁷Jacob got green branches of poplar, almond, and plane trees and stripped off some of the bark so that the branches had white stripes on them. ³⁸He placed these branches in front of the flocks at their drinking troughs. He put them there, because the animals mated when they came to drink. ³⁹So when the goats bred in front of the branches, they produced young that were streaked, speckled, and spotted.

⁴⁰Jacob kept the sheep separate from the goats and made them face in the direction of the streaked and black animals of Laban's flock. In this way he built up his own flock and kept it apart from Laban's.

⁴¹When the healthy animals were mating, Jacob put the branches in front of them at the drinking troughs, so that they would breed among the branches. ⁴²But he did not put the branches in front of the weak animals. Soon Laban had all the weak animals, and Jacob all the healthy ones. ⁴³In this way Jacob became very wealthy. He had many flocks, slaves, camels, and donkeys.

The LORD Our Shepherd

Psalm 23 The LORD is my shepherd;

I have everything I need.

²He lets me rest in fields of green grass

and leads me to quiet pools of fresh water.

³He gives me new strength.

He guides me in the right paths,

as he has promised.

⁴Even if I go through the deepest darkness,

I will not be afraid, LORD,

for you are with me.

Your shepherd's rod and staff protect me.

⁵You prepare a banquet for me,

where all my enemies can see me;

you welcome me as an honored guest

and fill my cup to the brim.

⁶I know that your goodness and love will be with me all my life;

and your house will be my home as long as I live.

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.