14 Tammuz, 5785

Then Balak said to him, “Come with me to another place from which you can see them—you will see only a portion of them; you will not see all of them—and damn them for me from there.”

With that, he took him to Sedehzophim, on the summit of Pisgah. He built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar.

And [Balaam] said to Balak, “Stay here beside your offerings, while I seek a manifestation yonder.”

The LORD manifested Himself to Balaam and put a word in his mouth, saying, “Return to Balak and speak thus.”

He went to him and found him standing beside his offerings, and the Moabite dignitaries with him. Balak asked him, “What did the LORD say?”

And he took up his theme, and said: Up, Balak, attend, Give ear unto me, son of Zippor!

God is not man to be capricious, Or mortal to change His mind. Would He speak and not act, Promise and not fulfill?

My message was to bless: When He blesses, I cannot reverse it.

No harm is in sight for Jacob, No woe in view for Israel. The LORD their God is with them, And their King’s acclaim in their midst.

God who freed them from Egypt Is for them like the horns of the wild ox.

Lo, there is no augury in Jacob, No divining in Israel: Jacob is told at once, Yea Israel, what God has planned.

Lo, a people that rises like a lion, Leaps up like the king of beasts, Rests not till it has feasted on prey And drunk the blood of the slain.

Thereupon Balak said to Balaam, “Don’t curse them and don’t bless them!”

In reply, Balaam said to Balak, “But I told you: Whatever the LORD says, that I must do.”

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, published by JPS
Copyright: JPS, 1985

Psalms 72

Of Solomon. O God, endow the king with Your judgments, the king’s son with Your righteousness; that he may judge Your people rightly, Your lowly ones, justly. Let the mountains produce well-being for the people, the hills, the reward of justice. Let him champion the lowly among the people, deliver the needy folk, and crush those who wrong them. Let them fear You as long as the sun shines, while the moon lasts, generations on end. Let him be like rain that falls on a mown field, like a downpour of rain on the ground, that the righteous may flourish in his time, and well-being abound, till the moon is no more. Let him rule from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. Let desert-dwellers kneel before him, and his enemies lick the dust. Let kings of Tarshish and the islands pay tribute, kings of Sheba and Seba offer gifts. Let all kings bow to him, and all nations serve him. For he saves the needy who cry out, the lowly who have no helper. He cares about the poor and the needy; He brings the needy deliverance. He redeems them from fraud and lawlessness; the shedding of their blood weighs heavily upon him. So let him live, and receive gold of Sheba; let prayers for him be said always, blessings on him invoked at all times. Let abundant grain be in the land, to the tops of the mountains; let his crops thrive like the forest of Lebanon; and let men sprout up in towns like country grass. May his name be eternal; while the sun lasts, may his name endure; let men invoke his blessedness upon themselves; let all nations count him happy. Blessed is the LORD God, God of Israel, who alone does wondrous things; Blessed is His glorious name forever; His glory fills the whole world. Amen and Amen. End of the prayers of David son of Jesse.

Psalms 73

A psalm of Asaph. God is truly good to Israel, to those whose heart is pure. As for me, my feet had almost strayed, my steps were nearly led off course, for I envied the wanton; I saw the wicked at ease. Death has no pangs for them; their body is healthy. They have no part in the travail of men; they are not afflicted like the rest of mankind. So pride adorns their necks, lawlessness enwraps them as a mantle. Fat shuts out their eyes; their fancies are extravagant. They scoff and plan evil; from their eminence they plan wrongdoing. They set their mouths against heaven, and their tongues range over the earth. So they pound His people again and again, until they are drained of their very last tear. Then they say, “How could God know? Is there knowledge with the Most High?” Such are the wicked; ever tranquil, they amass wealth. It was for nothing that I kept my heart pure and washed my hands in innocence, seeing that I have been constantly afflicted, that each morning brings new punishments. Had I decided to say these things, I should have been false to the circle of Your disciples. So I applied myself to understand this, but it seemed a hopeless task till I entered God’s sanctuary and reflected on their fate. You surround them with flattery; You make them fall through blandishments. How suddenly are they ruined, wholly swept away by terrors. When You are aroused You despise their image, as one does a dream after waking, O Lord. My mind was stripped of its reason, my feelings were numbed. I was a dolt, without knowledge; I was brutish toward You. Yet I was always with You, You held my right hand; You guided me by Your counsel and led me toward honor. Whom else have I in heaven? And having You, I want no one on earth. My body and mind fail; but God is the stay of my mind, my portion forever. Those who keep far from You perish; You annihilate all who are untrue to You. As for me, nearness to God is good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, that I may recount all Your works.

Psalms 74

A maskil of Asaph. Why, O God, do You forever reject us, do You fume in anger at the flock that You tend? Remember the community You made Yours long ago, Your very own tribe that You redeemed, Mount Zion, where You dwell. Bestir Yourself because of the perpetual tumult, all the outrages of the enemy in the sanctuary. Your foes roar inside Your meeting-place; they take their signs for true signs. It is like men wielding axes against a gnarled tree; with hatchet and pike they hacked away at its carved work. They made Your sanctuary go up in flames; they brought low in dishonor the dwelling-place of Your presence. They resolved, “Let us destroy them altogether!” They burned all God’s tabernacles in the land. No signs appear for us; there is no longer any prophet; no one among us knows for how long. Till when, O God, will the foe blaspheme, will the enemy forever revile Your name? Why do You hold back Your hand, Your right hand? Draw it out of Your bosom! O God, my King from of old, who brings deliverance throughout the land; it was You who drove back the sea with Your might, who smashed the heads of the monsters in the waters; it was You who crushed the heads of Leviathan, who left him as food for the denizens of the desert; it was You who released springs and torrents, who made mighty rivers run dry; the day is Yours, the night also; it was You who set in place the orb of the sun; You fixed all the boundaries of the earth; summer and winter—You made them. Be mindful of how the enemy blasphemes the LORD, how base people revile Your name. Do not deliver Your dove to the wild beast; do not ignore forever the band of Your lowly ones. Look to the covenant! For the dark places of the land are full of the haunts of lawlessness. Let not the downtrodden turn away disappointed; let the poor and needy praise Your name. Rise, O God, champion Your cause; be mindful that You are blasphemed by base men all day long. Do not ignore the shouts of Your foes, the din of Your adversaries that ascends all the time.

Psalms 75

For the leader; al tashḥeth. A psalm of Asaph, a song. We praise You, O God; we praise You; Your presence is near; men tell of Your wondrous deeds. “At the time I choose, I will give judgment equitably. Earth and all its inhabitants dissolve; it is I who keep its pillars firm.Selah. To wanton men I say, ‘Do not be wanton!’ to the wicked, ‘Do not lift up your horns!’” Do not lift your horns up high in vainglorious bluster. For what lifts a man comes not from the east or the west or the wilderness; for God it is who gives judgment; He brings down one man, He lifts up another. There is a cup in the LORD’s hand with foaming wine fully mixed; from this He pours; all the wicked of the earth drink, draining it to the very dregs. As for me, I will declare forever, I will sing a hymn to the God of Jacob. “All the horns of the wicked I will cut; but the horns of the righteous shall be lifted up.”

Psalms 76

For the leader; with instrumental music. A psalm of Asaph, a song. God has made Himself known in Judah, His name is great in Israel; Salem became His abode; Zion, His den. There He broke the fiery arrows of the bow, the shield and the sword of war.Selah. You were resplendent, glorious, on the mountains of prey. The stout-hearted were despoiled; they were in a stupor; the bravest of men could not lift a hand. At Your blast, O God of Jacob, horse and chariot lay stunned. O You! You are awesome! Who can withstand You when You are enraged? In heaven You pronounced sentence; the earth was numbed with fright as God rose to execute judgment, to deliver all the lowly of the earth.Selah. The fiercest of men shall acknowledge You, when You gird on the last bit of fury. Make vows and pay them to the LORD your God; -all who are around Him shall bring tribute to the Awesome One. He curbs the spirit of princes, inspires awe in the kings of the earth.

Tanakh: The Holy Scriptures, published by JPS
Copyright: JPS, 1985

At that time Herod the tetrarch heard about the fame of Yeshua, and he said to his servants, “This is Yochanan the immerser. He has been raised from the dead; that is why these miraculous powers are at work in him.” For Herod had seized Yochanan and bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, because Yochanan had been saying to him, “It is not lawful for you to have her.” And though he wanted to put him to death, he feared the people, because they held him to be a prophet. But when Herod’s birthday came, the daughter of Herodias danced before the company and pleased Herod, so that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she might ask. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me the head of Yochanan the immerser here on a platter.” And the king was sorry, but because of his oaths and his guests he commanded it to be given. He sent and had Yochanan beheaded in the prison, and his head was brought on a platter and given to the girl, and she brought it to her mother. And his disciples came and took the body and buried it, and they went and told Yeshua.

Now when Yeshua heard this, he withdrew from there in a boat to a desolate place by himself. But when the crowds heard it, they followed him on foot from the towns. When he went ashore he saw a great crowd, and he had compassion on them and healed their sick. Now when it was evening, the disciples came to him and said, “This is a desolate place, and the day is now over; send the crowds away to go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Yeshua said, “They need not go away; you give them something to eat.” They said to him, “We have only five loaves here and two fish.” And he said, “Bring them here to me.” Then he ordered the crowds to sit down on the grass, and taking the five loaves and the two fish, he looked up to heaven and said a blessing. Then he broke the loaves and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds. And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up twelve baskets full of the broken pieces left over. And those who ate were about five thousand men, besides women and children.

Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. But immediately Yeshua spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.”

And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Yeshua. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” Yeshua immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.”

And when they had crossed over, they came to land at Gennesaret. And when the men of that place recognized him, they sent around to all that region and brought to him all who were sick and implored him that they might only touch the tzitzit of his garment. And as many as touched it were made well.

(ESV)