August 19, 2027

29Jephthah’s Vow. The spirit of the LORD came upon Jephthah. He passed through Gilead and Manasseh, and through Mizpah of Gilead as well, and from Mizpah of Gilead he crossed over against the Ammonites. 30Jephthah made a vow to the LORD. “If you deliver the Ammonites into my power,” he said, 31“whoever comes out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return from the Ammonites in peace shall belong to the LORD. I shall offer him up as a burnt offering.” 32Jephthah then crossed over against the Ammonites to fight against them, and the LORD delivered them into his power. 33He inflicted a very severe defeat on them from Aroer to the approach of Minnith—twenty cities in all—and as far as Abel-keramin. So the Ammonites were brought into subjection by the Israelites. 34When Jephthah returned to his house in Mizpah, it was his daughter who came out to meet him, with tambourine-playing and dancing. She was his only child: he had neither son nor daughter besides her. 35When he saw her, he tore his garments and said, “Ah, my daughter! You have struck me down and brought calamity upon me. For I have made a vow to the LORD and I cannot take it back.” 36“Father,” she replied, “you have made a vow to the LORD. Do with me as you have vowed, because the LORD has taken vengeance for you against your enemies the Ammonites.” 37Then she said to her father, “Let me have this favor. Do nothing for two months, that I and my companions may go wander in the mountains to weep for my virginity.” 38“Go,” he replied, and sent her away for two months. So she departed with her companions and wept for her virginity in the mountains. 39At the end of the two months she returned to her father, and he did to her as he had vowed. She had not had relations with any man. It became a custom in Israel

5Blessed the man who sets his security in the LORD, who turns not to the arrogant or to those who stray after falsehood. 7Sacrifice and offering you do not want; you opened my ears. Holocaust and sin-offering you do not request; 8so I said, “See; I come with an inscribed scroll written upon me. 9I delight to do your will, my God; your law is in my inner being!” 10When I sing of your righteousness in a great assembly, See, I do not restrain my lips; as you, LORD, know.

8Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah, as on the day of Massah in the desert.

1Jesus again in reply spoke to them in parables, saying, 2“The kingdom of heaven may be likened to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son. 3He dispatched his servants to summon the invited guests to the feast, but they refused to come. 4A second time he sent other servants, saying, ‘Tell those invited: “Behold, I have prepared my banquet, my calves and fattened cattle are killed, and everything is ready; come to the feast.”’ 5Some ignored the invitation and went away, one to his farm, another to his business. 6The rest laid hold of his servants, mistreated them, and killed them. 7The king was enraged and sent his troops, destroyed those murderers, and burned their city. 8Then he said to his servants, ‘The feast is ready, but those who were invited were not worthy to come. 9Go out, therefore, into the main roads and invite to the feast whomever you find.’ 10The servants went out into the streets and gathered all they found, bad and good alike, and the hall was filled with guests. 11But when the king came in to meet the guests he saw a man there not dressed in a wedding garment. 12He said to him, ‘My friend, how is it that you came in here without a wedding garment?’ But he was reduced to silence. 13Then the king said to his attendants, ‘Bind his hands and feet, and cast him into the darkness outside, where there will be wailing and grinding of teeth.’ 14Many are invited, but few are chosen.” Paying Taxes to the Emperor.