How then will you comfort me with empty nothings? There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood.
Daily Bible Reading: Tuesday, November 8, 2022
Job 21:1, 17-34 (NRSV)
1Then Job answered:
17"How often is the lamp of the wicked put out?
How often does calamity come upon them?
How often does God distribute pains in his anger?
18How often are they like straw before the wind,
and like chaff that the storm carries away?
19You say, 'God stores up their iniquity for their children.'
Let it be paid back to them, so that they may know it.
20Let their own eyes see their destruction,
and let them drink of the wrath of the Almighty.
21For what do they care for their household after them,
when the number of their months is cut off?
22Will any teach God knowledge,
seeing that he judges those that are on high?
23One dies in full prosperity,
being wholly at ease and secure,
24is loins full of milk
and the marrow of his bones moist.
25Another dies in bitterness of soul,
never having tasted of good.
26They lie down alike in the dust,
and the worms cover them.
27"Oh, I know your thoughts,
and your schemes to wrong me.
28For you say, 'Where is the house of the prince?
Where is the tent in which the wicked lived?'
29Have you not asked those who travel the roads,
and do you not accept their testimony,
30that the wicked are spared in the day of calamity,
and are rescued in the day of wrath?
31Who declares their way to their face,
and who repays them for what they have done?
32When they are carried to the grave,
a watch is kept over their tomb.
33The clods of the valley are sweet to them;
everyone will follow after,
and those who went before are innumerable.
34How then will you comfort me with empty nothings?
There is nothing left of your answers but falsehood."
Guard me as the apple of the eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings,
Daily Bible Reading: Saturday, November 5, 2022
Psalm 17:1-9 (NRSV)
1Hear a just cause, O LORD; attend to my cry;
give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.
2From you let my vindication come;
let your eyes see the right.
3If you try my heart, if you visit me by night,
if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me;
my mouth does not transgress.
4As for what others do, by the word of your lips
I have avoided the ways of the violent.
5My steps have held fast to your paths;
my feet have not slipped.
6I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;
incline your ear to me, hear my words.
7Wondrously show your steadfast love,
O savior of those who seek refuge
from their adversaries at your right hand.
8Guard me as the apple of the eye;
hide me in the shadow of your wings,
9from the wicked who despoil me,
my deadly enemies who surround me.
But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever — forever and ever.
Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 (NRSV)
All Saints Day
1In the first year of King Belshazzar of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his head as he lay in bed. Then he wrote down the dream: 2I, Daniel, saw in my vision by night the four winds of heaven stirring up the great sea, 3and four great beasts came up out of the sea, different from one another. 15As for me, Daniel, my spirit was troubled within me, and the visions of my head terrified me. 16I approached one of the attendants to ask him the truth concerning all this. So he said that he would disclose to me the interpretation of the matter: 17As for these four great beasts, four kings shall arise out of the earth. 18But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever — forever and ever."
ELCA's daily Bible readings are chosen from "Revised Common Lectionary Daily Readings," prepared by Consultation on the Common Texts, © 2005.
All text is from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyrighted, 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of Churches USA, and is used by permission. All rights reserved.
