Formation Journal Reading Plan

9:1 Now when these things were done, the princes drew near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.

9:2 For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass.”

9:3 When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.

9:4 Then were assembled to me everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of their trespass of the captivity; and I sat confounded until the evening offering.

9:5 At the evening offering I arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn; and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God;

9:6 and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.

9:7 Since the days of our fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.

9:8 Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.

9:9 For we are bondservants; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.

9:10 “Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,

9:11 which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land, to which you go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness.

9:12 Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’

9:13 “After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,

9:14 shall we again break your commandments, and join in affinity with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?

9:15 Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for none can stand before you because of this.”

33:10 Yahweh brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the thoughts of the peoples to be of no effect.

33:11 The counsel of Yahweh stands fast forever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations.

33:12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh, the people whom he has chosen for his own inheritance.

33:13 Yahweh looks from heaven. He sees all the sons of men.

33:14 From the place of his habitation he looks out on all the inhabitants of the earth,

33:15 he who fashions all of their hearts; and he considers all of their works.

33:16 There is no king saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength.

33:17 A horse is a vain thing for safety, neither does he deliver any by his great power.

33:18 Behold, Yahweh’s eye is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his loving kindness;

33:19 to deliver their soul from death, to keep them alive in famine.

33:20 Our soul has waited for Yahweh. He is our help and our shield.

33:21 For our heart rejoices in him, because we have trusted in his holy name.

33:22 Let your loving kindness be on us, Yahweh, since we have hoped in you.

2:17 Indeed you bear the name of a Jew, and rest on the law, and glory in God,

2:18 and know his will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law,

2:19 and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light to those who are in darkness,

2:20 a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babies, having in the law the form of knowledge and of the truth.

2:21 You therefore who teach another, don’t you teach yourself? You who preach that a man shouldn’t steal, do you steal?

2:22 You who say a man shouldn’t commit adultery. Do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?

2:23 You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God?

2:24 For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” just as it is written.

2:25 For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision.

2:26 If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision?

2:27 Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law?

2:28 For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh;

2:29 but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.