February 4, 2026

2The king therefore said to Joab and the leaders of the army who were with him, “Tour all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beer-sheba and register the people, that I may know their number.” 9Joab then reported the census figures to the king: of men capable of wielding a sword, there were in Israel eight hundred thousand, and in Judah five hundred thousand. 10Afterward, however, David regretted having numbered the people. David said to the LORD: “I have sinned grievously in what I have done. Take away, LORD, your servant’s guilt, for I have acted very foolishly.” 11When David rose in the morning, the word of the LORD came to the prophet Gad, David’s seer, saying: 12Go, tell David: Thus says the LORD: I am offering you three options; choose one of them, and I will give you that. 13Gad then went to David to inform him. He asked: “Should three years of famine come upon your land; or three months of fleeing from your enemy while he pursues you; or is it to be three days of plague in your land? Now consider well: what answer am I to give to him who sent me?” 14David answered Gad: “I am greatly distressed. But let us fall into the hand of God, whose mercy is great, rather than into human hands.” 15Thus David chose the plague. At the time of the wheat harvest it broke out among the people. The LORD sent plague over Israel from morning until the time appointed, and from Dan to Beer-sheba seventy thousand of the people died. 16But when the angel stretched forth his hand toward Jerusalem to destroy it, the LORD changed his mind about the calamity, and said to the angel causing the destruction among the people: Enough now! Stay your hand. The angel of the LORD was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 17When David saw the angel who was striking the people, he said to the LORD: “It is I who have sinned; it is I, the shepherd, who have done wrong. But these sheep, what have they done? Strike me and my father’s family!”

1Psalm 32 Remission of Sin - Of David. A maskil. I - Blessed is the one whose fault is removed, whose sin is forgiven. 2Blessed is the man to whom the LORD imputes no guilt, in whose spirit is no deceit. 5Then I declared my sin to you; my guilt I did not hide. I said, “I confess my transgression to the LORD,” and you took away the guilt of my sin. Selah 6Therefore every loyal person should pray to you in time of distress. Though flood waters threaten, they will never reach him. 7You are my shelter; you guard me from distress; with joyful shouts of deliverance you surround me. Selah

27My sheep hear my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

1He departed from there and came to his native place, accompanied by his disciples. 2When the sabbath came he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astonished. They said, “Where did this man get all this? What kind of wisdom has been given him? What mighty deeds are wrought by his hands! 3Is he not the carpenter, the son of Mary, and the brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon? And are not his sisters here with us?” And they took offense at him. 4Jesus said to them, “A prophet is not without honor except in his native place and among his own kin and in his own house.” 5So he was not able to perform any mighty deed there, apart from curing a few sick people by laying his hands on them. 6He was amazed at their lack of faith. The Mission of the Twelve. He went around to the villages in the vicinity teaching.