2 John 1

Translation: ESV

Greeting

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Date: July 4 2025

1 The elder to the elect lady and her children, whom I love in truth,

and not only I, but also all who know the truth, 2 because of the truth that abides in us and will be with us forever:

3 Grace, mercy, and peace will be with us, from God the Father and from Jesus Christ the Father's Son, in truth and love.

Walking in Truth and Love

4 I rejoiced greatly to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as we were commanded by the Father. 5 And now I ask you, dear lady—not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning—that we love one another. 6 And this is love, that we walk according to his commandments; this is the commandment, just as you have heard from the beginning, so that you should walk in it. 7 For many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh. Such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist. 8 Watch yourselves, so that you may not lose what we have worked for, but may win a full reward. 9 Everyone who goes on ahead and does not abide in the teaching of Christ, does not have God. Whoever abides in the teaching has both the Father and the Son. 10 If anyone comes to you and does not bring this teaching, do not receive him into your house or give him any greeting, 11 for whoever greets him takes part in his wicked works.

Final Greetings

12 Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete.

13 The children of your elect sister greet you.

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Psalm 43 (MT: Psalm 44)

Translation: ESV

Come to Our Help

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.

44 O God, we have heard with our ears,

    our fathers have told us,

what deeds you performed in their days,

    in the days of old:

2 you with your own hand drove out the nations,

    but them you planted;

you afflicted the peoples,

    but them you set free;

3 for not by their own sword did they win the land,

    nor did their own arm save them,

but your right hand and your arm,

    and the light of your face,

    for you delighted in them.

4 You are my King, O God;

    ordain salvation for Jacob!

5 Through you we push down our foes;

    through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.

6 For not in my bow do I trust,

    nor can my sword save me.

7 But you have saved us from our foes

    and have put to shame those who hate us.

8 In God we have boasted continually,

    and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah

9 But you have rejected us and disgraced us

    and have not gone out with our armies.

10 You have made us turn back from the foe,

    and those who hate us have gotten spoil.

11 You have made us like sheep for slaughter

    and have scattered us among the nations.

12 You have sold your people for a trifle,

    demanding no high price for them.

13 You have made us the taunt of our neighbors,

    the derision and scorn of those around us.

14 You have made us a byword among the nations,

    a laughingstock among the peoples.

15 All day long my disgrace is before me,

    and shame has covered my face

16 at the sound of the taunter and reviler,

    at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.

17 All this has come upon us,

    though we have not forgotten you,

    and we have not been false to your covenant.

18 Our heart has not turned back,

    nor have our steps departed from your way;

19 yet you have broken us in the place of jackals

    and covered us with the shadow of death.

20 If we had forgotten the name of our God

    or spread out our hands to a foreign god,

21 would not God discover this?

    For he knows the secrets of the heart.

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22 Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long;

    we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.

23 Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord?

    Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!

24 Why do you hide your face?

    Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?

25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust;

    our belly clings to the ground.

26 Rise up; come to our help!

    Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love!

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2 Chronicles 10

Translation: ESV

The Revolt Against Rehoboam

10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 And as soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt. 3 And they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all Israel came and said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” 5 He said to them, “Come to me again in three days.” So the people went away.

6 Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7 And they said to him, “If you will be good to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.” 8 But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. 9 And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” 10 And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us’; thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs.

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11 And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, “Come to me again the third day.” 13 And the king answered them harshly; and forsaking the counsel of the old men, 

14 King Rehoboam spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turn of affairs brought about by God that the Lord might fulfill his word, which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

16 And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Each of you to your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So all Israel went to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. 18 Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and the people of Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam quickly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

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2 Chronicles 29

Translation: ESV

Hezekiah Reigns in Judah

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1 Hezekiah began to reign when he was twenty-five years old, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abijah the daughter of Zechariah.

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2 And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.

Hezekiah Cleanses the Temple

3 In the first year of his reign, in the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them. 4 He brought in the priests and the Levites and assembled them in the square on the east 5 and said to them, “Hear me, Levites! Now consecrate yourselves, and consecrate the house of the Lord, the God of your fathers, and carry out the filth from the Holy Place. 6 For our fathers have been unfaithful and have done what was evil in the sight of the Lord our God. They have forsaken him and have turned away their faces from the habitation of the Lord and turned their backs. 7 They also shut the doors of the vestibule and put out the lamps and have not burned incense or offered burnt offerings in the Holy Place to the God of Israel. 8 Therefore the wrath of the Lord came on Judah and Jerusalem, and he has made them an object of horror, of astonishment, and of hissing, as you see with your own eyes. 9 For behold, our fathers have fallen by the sword, and our sons and our daughters and our wives are in captivity for this. 10 Now it is in my heart to make a covenant with the Lord, the God of Israel, in order that his fierce anger may turn away from us. 11 My sons, do not now be negligent, for the Lord has chosen you to stand in his presence, to minister to him and to be his ministers and make offerings to him.”

12 Then the Levites arose, Mahath the son of Amasai, and Joel the son of Azariah, of the sons of the Kohathites; and of the sons of Merari, Kish the son of Abdi, and Azariah the son of Jehallelel; and of the Gershonites, Joah the son of Zimmah, and Eden the son of Joah; 13 and of the sons of Elizaphan, Shimri and Jeuel; and of the sons of Asaph, Zechariah and Mattaniah; 14 and of the sons of Heman, Jehuel and Shimei; and of the sons of Jeduthun, Shemaiah and Uzziel. 15 They gathered their brothers and consecrated themselves and went in as the king had commanded, by the words of the Lord, to cleanse the house of the Lord. 16 The priests went into the inner part of the house of the Lord to cleanse it, and they brought out all the uncleanness that they found in the temple of the Lord into the court of the house of the Lord. And the Levites took it and carried it out to the brook Kidron. 17 They began to consecrate on the first day of the first month, and on the eighth day of the month they came to the vestibule of the Lord. Then for eight days they consecrated the house of the Lord, and on the sixteenth day of the first month they finished. 18 Then they went in to Hezekiah the king and said, “We have cleansed all the house of the Lord, the altar of burnt offering and all its utensils, and the table for the showbread and all its utensils. 19 All the utensils that King Ahaz discarded in his reign when he was faithless, we have made ready and consecrated, and behold, they are before the altar of the Lord.”

Hezekiah Restores Temple Worship

20 Then Hezekiah the king rose early and gathered the officials of the city and went up to the house of the Lord. 21 And they brought seven bulls, seven rams, seven lambs, and seven male goats for a sin offering for the kingdom and for the sanctuary and for Judah. And he commanded the priests, the sons of Aaron, to offer them on the altar of the Lord. 22 So they slaughtered the bulls, and the priests received the blood and threw it against the altar. And they slaughtered the rams, and their blood was thrown against the altar. And they slaughtered the lambs, and their blood was thrown against the altar. 23 Then the goats for the sin offering were brought to the king and the assembly, and they laid their hands on them, 24 and the priests slaughtered them and made a sin offering with their blood on the altar, to make atonement for all Israel. For the king commanded that the burnt offering and the sin offering should be made for all Israel.

25 And he stationed the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, harps, and lyres, according to the commandment of David and of Gad the king's seer and of Nathan the prophet, for the commandment was from the Lord through his prophets. 26 The Levites stood with the instruments of David, and the priests with the trumpets. 27 Then Hezekiah commanded that the burnt offering be offered on the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song to the Lord began also, and the trumpets, accompanied by the instruments of David king of Israel. 28 The whole assembly worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. All this continued until the burnt offering was finished. 29 When the offering was finished, the king and all who were present with him bowed themselves and worshiped. 30 And Hezekiah the king and the officials commanded the Levites to sing praises to the Lord with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sang praises with gladness, and they bowed down and worshiped.

31 Then Hezekiah said, “You have now consecrated yourselves to the Lord. Come near; bring sacrifices and thank offerings to the house of the Lord.” And the assembly brought sacrifices and thank offerings, and all who were of a willing heart brought burnt offerings. 32 The number of the burnt offerings that the assembly brought was 70 bulls, 100 rams, and 200 lambs; all these were for a burnt offering to the Lord. 33 And the consecrated offerings were 600 bulls and 3,000 sheep. 34 But the priests were too few and could not flay all the burnt offerings, so until other priests had consecrated themselves, their brothers the Levites helped them, until the work was finished—for the Levites were more upright in heart than the priests in consecrating themselves. 35 Besides the great number of burnt offerings, there was the fat of the peace offerings, and there were the drink offerings for the burnt offerings. Thus the service of the house of the Lord was restored. 36 And Hezekiah and all the people rejoiced because God had provided for the people, for the thing came about suddenly.

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Job 30

 Translation: ESV

30 “But now they laugh at me,

    men who are younger than I,

whose fathers I would have disdained

    to set with the dogs of my flock.

2 What could I gain from the strength of their hands,

    men whose vigor is gone?

3 Through want and hard hunger

    they gnaw the dry ground by night in waste and desolation;

4 they pick saltwort and the leaves of bushes,

    and the roots of the broom tree for their food.

5 They are driven out from human company;

    they shout after them as after a thief.

6 In the gullies of the torrents they must dwell,

    in holes of the earth and of the rocks.

7 Among the bushes they bray;

    under the nettles they huddle together.

8 A senseless, a nameless brood,

    they have been whipped out of the land.

9 “And now I have become their song;

    I am a byword to them.

10 They abhor me; they keep aloof from me;

    they do not hesitate to spit at the sight of me.

11 Because God has loosed my cord and humbled me,

    they have cast off restraint in my presence.

12 On my right hand the rabble rise;

    they push away my feet;

    they cast up against me their ways of destruction.

13 They break up my path;

    they promote my calamity;

    they need no one to help them.

14 As through a wide breach they come;

    amid the crash they roll on.

15 Terrors are turned upon me;

    my honor is pursued as by the wind,

    and my prosperity has passed away like a cloud.

16 “And now my soul is poured out within me;

    days of affliction have taken hold of me.

17 The night racks my bones,

    and the pain that gnaws me takes no rest.

18 With great force my garment is disfigured;

    it binds me about like the collar of my tunic.

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Inktober prompt: Dragonfly

19 God has cast me into the mire,

    and I have become like dust and ashes.

20 I cry to you for help and you do not answer me;

    I stand, and you only look at me.

21 You have turned cruel to me;

    with the might of your hand you persecute me.

22 You lift me up on the wind; you make me ride on it,

    and you toss me about in the roar of the storm.

23 For I know that you will bring me to death

    and to the house appointed for all living.

24 “Yet does not one in a heap of ruins stretch out his hand,

    and in his disaster cry for help?

25 Did not I weep for him whose day was hard?

    Was not my soul grieved for the needy?

26 But when I hoped for good, evil came,

    and when I waited for light, darkness came.

27 My inward parts are in turmoil and never still;

    days of affliction come to meet me.

28 I go about darkened, but not by the sun;

    I stand up in the assembly and cry for help.

29 I am a brother of jackals

    and a companion of ostriches.

30 My skin turns black and falls from me,

    and my bones burn with heat.

31 My lyre is turned to mourning,

    and my pipe to the voice of those who weep.

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