Daily Lectionary

Deuteronomy 19:1-20

¹ “When the LORD your God cuts off the nations whose land the LORD your God is giving you, and you dispossess them and dwell in their cities and in their houses,
² you shall set apart three cities for yourselves in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
³ You shall measure the distances and divide into three parts the area of the land that the LORD your God gives you as a possession, so that any manslayer can flee to them.
⁴ “This is the provision for the manslayer, who by fleeing there may save his life. If anyone kills his neighbor unintentionally without having hated him in the past—
⁵ as when someone goes into the forest with his neighbor to cut wood, and his hand swings the axe to cut down a tree, and the head slips from the handle and strikes his neighbor so that he dies—he may flee to one of these cities and live,
⁶ lest the avenger of blood in hot anger pursue the manslayer and overtake him, because the way is long, and strike him fatally, though the man did not deserve to die, since he had not hated his neighbor in the past.
⁷ Therefore I command you, You shall set apart three cities.
⁸ And if the LORD your God enlarges your territory, as he has sworn to your fathers, and gives you all the land that he promised to give to your fathers—
⁹ provided you are careful to keep all this commandment, which I command you today, by loving the LORD your God and by walking ever in his ways—then you shall add three other cities to these three,
¹⁰ lest innocent blood be shed in your land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance, and so the guilt of bloodshed be upon you.
¹¹ “But if anyone hates his neighbor and lies in wait for him and attacks him and strikes him fatally so that he dies, and he flees into one of these cities,
¹² then the elders of his city shall send and take him from there, and hand him over to the avenger of blood, so that he may die.
¹³ Your eye shall not pity him, but you shall purge the guilt of innocent blood from Israel, so that it may be well with you.
¹⁴ “You shall not move your neighbor’s landmark, which the men of old have set, in the inheritance that you will hold in the land that the LORD your God is giving you to possess.
¹⁵ “A single witness shall not suffice against a person for any crime or for any wrong in connection with any offense that he has committed. Only on the evidence of two witnesses or of three witnesses shall a charge be established.
¹⁶ If a malicious witness arises to accuse a person of wrongdoing,
¹⁷ then both parties to the dispute shall appear before the LORD, before the priests and the judges who are in office in those days.
¹⁸ The judges shall inquire diligently, and if the witness is a false witness and has accused his brother falsely,
¹⁹ then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother. So you shall purge the evil from your midst.
²⁰ And the rest shall hear and fear, and shall never again commit any such evil among you. (ESV)

Matthew 12:22-37

²² Then a demon-oppressed man who was blind and mute was brought to him, and he healed him, so that the man spoke and saw.
²³ And all the people were amazed, and said, “Can this be the Son of David?”
²⁴ But when the Pharisees heard it, they said, “It is only by Beelzebul, the prince of demons, that this man casts out demons.”
²⁵ Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand.
²⁶ And if Satan casts out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then will his kingdom stand?
²⁷ And if I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges.
²⁸ But if it is by the Spirit of God that I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
²⁹ Or how can someone enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? Then indeed he may plunder his house.
³⁰ Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
³¹ Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.
³² And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.
³³ “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.
³⁴ You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
³⁵ The good person out of his good treasure brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure brings forth evil.
³⁶ I tell you, on the day of judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak,
³⁷ for by your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be condemned.” (ESV)