Day 271 of 364

^2:1“Now, you priests, this commandment is for you. ^2:2If you will not listen, and if you will not take it to heart, to give glory to my name,” says the LORD of Armies, “then I will send the curse on you, and I will curse your blessings. Indeed, I have cursed them already, because you do not take it to heart. ^2:3Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it. ^2:4You will know that I have sent this commandment to you, that my covenant may be with Levi,” says the LORD of Armies. ^2:5“My covenant was with him of life and peace; and I gave them to him that he might be reverent toward me; and he was reverent toward me, and stood in awe of my name. ^2:6The law of truth was in his mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips. He walked with me in peace and uprightness, and turned many away from iniquity. ^2:7For the priest’s lips should keep knowledge, and they should seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the LORD of Armies. ^2:8But you have turned away from the path. You have caused many to stumble in the law. You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” says the LORD of Armies. ^2:9“Therefore I have also made you contemptible and wicked before all the people, according to the way you have not kept my ways, but have had respect for persons in the law. ^2:10Don’t we all have one father? Hasn’t one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously every man against his brother, profaning the covenant of our fathers? ^2:11Judah has dealt treacherously, and an abomination is committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah has profaned the holiness of the LORD which he loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god. ^2:12The LORD will cut off the man who does this, him who wakes and him who answers, out of the tents of Jacob and him who offers an offering to the LORD of Armies. ^2:13“This again you do: you cover the LORD’s altar with tears, with weeping, and with sighing, because he doesn’t regard the offering any more, neither receives it with good will at your hand. ^2:14Yet you say, ‘Why?’ Because the LORD has been witness between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously, though she is your companion and the wife of your covenant. ^2:15Did he not make you one, although he had the residue of the Spirit? Why one? He sought godly offspring. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let no one deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. ^2:16One who hates and divorces”, says the LORD, the God of Israel, “covers his garment with violence!” says the LORD of Armies. “Therefore pay attention to your spirit, that you don’t be unfaithful. ^2:17You have wearied the LORD with your words. Yet you say, ‘How have we wearied him?’ In that you say, ‘Everyone who does evil is good in the LORD’s sight, and he delights in them;’ or ‘Where is the God of justice?’ ^3:1“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me! The Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple. Behold, the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, is coming!” says the LORD of Armies. ^3:2“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderers’ soap; ^3:3and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to the LORD offerings in righteousness. ^3:4Then the offering of Judah and Jerusalem will be pleasant to the LORD as in the days of old and as in ancient years. ^3:5I will come near to you to judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says the LORD of Armies. ^3:6“For I, the LORD, don’t change; therefore you, sons of Jacob, are not consumed. ^3:7From the days of your fathers you have turned away from my ordinances and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you,” says the LORD of Armies. “But you say, ‘How shall we return?’ ^3:8Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me! But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In tithes and offerings. ^3:9You are cursed with the curse; for you rob me, even this whole nation. ^3:10Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house, and test me now in this,” says the LORD of Armies, “if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there will not be enough room for. ^3:11I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast its fruit before its time in the field,” says the LORD of Armies. ^3:12“All nations shall call you blessed, for you will be a delightful land,” says the LORD of Armies. ^3:13“Your words have been harsh against me,” says the LORD. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’ ^3:14You have said, ‘It is vain to serve God,’ and ‘What profit is it that we have followed his instructions and that we have walked mournfully before the LORD of Armies? ^3:15Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’ ^3:16Then those who feared the LORD spoke one with another; and the LORD listened and heard, and a book of memory was written before him for those who feared the LORD and who honored his name. ^3:17They shall be mine,” says the LORD of Armies, “my own possession in the day that I make. I will spare them, as a man spares his own son who serves him. ^3:18Then you shall return and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him who serves God and him who doesn’t serve him. ^4:1“For behold, the day comes, burning like a furnace, when all the proud and all who work wickedness will be stubble. The day that comes will burn them up,” says the LORD of Armies, “so that it will leave them neither root nor branch. ^4:2But to you who fear my name shall the sun of righteousness arise with healing in its wings. You will go out and leap like calves of the stall. ^4:3You shall tread down the wicked; for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I make,” says the LORD of Armies. ^4:4“Remember the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded to him in Horeb for all Israel, even statutes and ordinances. ^4:5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the LORD comes. ^4:6He will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

^1:1The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. ^1:2Abraham became the father of Isaac. Isaac became the father of Jacob. Jacob became the father of Judah and his brothers. ^1:3Judah became the father of Perez and Zerah by Tamar. Perez became the father of Hezron. Hezron became the father of Ram. ^1:4Ram became the father of Amminadab. Amminadab became the father of Nahshon. Nahshon became the father of Salmon. ^1:5Salmon became the father of Boaz by Rahab. Boaz became the father of Obed by Ruth. Obed became the father of Jesse. ^1:6Jesse became the father of King David. David the king became the father of Solomon by her who had been Uriah’s wife. ^1:7Solomon became the father of Rehoboam. Rehoboam became the father of Abijah. Abijah became the father of Asa. ^1:8Asa became the father of Jehoshaphat. Jehoshaphat became the father of Joram. Joram became the father of Uzziah. ^1:9Uzziah became the father of Jotham. Jotham became the father of Ahaz. Ahaz became the father of Hezekiah. ^1:10Hezekiah became the father of Manasseh. Manasseh became the father of Amon. Amon became the father of Josiah. ^1:11Josiah became the father of Jechoniah and his brothers at the time of the exile to Babylon. ^1:12After the exile to Babylon, Jechoniah became the father of Shealtiel. Shealtiel became the father of Zerubbabel. ^1:13Zerubbabel became the father of Abiud. Abiud became the father of Eliakim. Eliakim became the father of Azor. ^1:14Azor became the father of Zadok. Zadok became the father of Achim. Achim became the father of Eliud. ^1:15Eliud became the father of Eleazar. Eleazar became the father of Matthan. Matthan became the father of Jacob. ^1:16Jacob became the father of Joseph, the husband of Mary, from whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ. ^1:17So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; from David to the exile to Babylon fourteen generations; and from the carrying away to Babylon to the Christ, fourteen generations. ^1:18Now the birth of Jesus Christ was like this: After his mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, before they came together, she was found pregnant by the Holy Spirit. ^1:19Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man, and not willing to make her a public example, intended to put her away secretly. ^1:20But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. ^1:21She shall give birth to a son. You shall name him Jesus, for it is he who shall save his people from their sins.” ^1:22Now all this has happened that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ^1:23“Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall give birth to a son. They shall call his name Immanuel,” which is, being interpreted, “God with us.” ^1:24Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took his wife to himself; ^1:25and didn’t know her sexually until she had given birth to her firstborn son. He named him Jesus. ^2:1Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of King Herod, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem, saying, ^2:2“Where is he who is born King of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and have come to worship him.” ^2:3When King Herod heard it, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. ^2:4Gathering together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he asked them where the Christ would be born. ^2:5They said to him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for this is written through the prophet, ^2:6‘You Bethlehem, land of Judah, are in no way least among the princes of Judah; for out of you shall come a governor who shall shepherd my people, Israel.’” ^2:7Then Herod secretly called the wise men, and learned from them exactly what time the star appeared. ^2:8He sent them to Bethlehem, and said, “Go and search diligently for the young child. When you have found him, bring me word, so that I also may come and worship him.” ^2:9They, having heard the king, went their way; and behold, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them until it came and stood over where the young child was. ^2:10When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy. ^2:11They came into the house and saw the young child with Mary, his mother, and they fell down and worshiped him. Opening their treasures, they offered to him gifts: gold, frankincense, and myrrh. ^2:12Being warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they went back to their own country another way. ^2:13Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and stay there until I tell you, for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.” ^2:14He arose and took the young child and his mother by night and departed into Egypt, ^2:15and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called my son.” ^2:16Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked by the wise men, was exceedingly angry, and sent out and killed all the male children who were in Bethlehem and in all the surrounding countryside, from two years old and under, according to the exact time which he had learned from the wise men. ^2:17Then that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled, saying, ^2:18“A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children; she wouldn’t be comforted, because they are no more.” ^2:19But when Herod was dead, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ^2:20“Arise and take the young child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who sought the young child’s life are dead.” ^2:21He arose and took the young child and his mother, and came into the land of Israel. ^2:22But when he heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in the place of his father, Herod, he was afraid to go there. Being warned in a dream, he withdrew into the region of Galilee, ^2:23and came and lived in a city called Nazareth; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through the prophets that he will be called a Nazarene.