Monday, July 20, 2026

¹Listen now to what Yahweh says: “Arise, plead your case before the mountains, and let the hills hear what you have to say.

²Hear, you mountains, Yahweh’s indictment, and you enduring foundations of the earth; for Yahweh has a case against his people, and he will contend with Israel.

³My people, what have I done to you? How have I burdened you? Answer me!

⁴For I brought you up out of the land of Egypt, and redeemed you out of the house of bondage. I sent before you Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

⁶How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?

⁷Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

⁸He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

⁵“Gather my saints together to me, those who have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.”

⁶The heavens shall declare his righteousness, for God himself is judge. Selah.

⁸I don’t rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.

¹⁶But to the wicked God says, “What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,

¹⁷since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?

²¹You have done these things, and I kept silent. You thought that I was just like you. I will rebuke you, and accuse you in front of your eyes.

²³Whoever offers the sacrifice of thanksgiving glorifies me, and prepares his way so that I will show God’s salvation to him.”

³⁸Then certain of the scribes and Pharisees answered, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from you.”

³⁹But he answered them, “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, but no sign will be given to it but the sign of Jonah the prophet.

⁴⁰For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the huge fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

⁴¹The men of Nineveh will stand up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and behold, someone greater than Jonah is here.

⁴²The Queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and will condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here.