Bible in a Year.

On the thirty-seventh day, we see provision, victory, and administrative wisdom. Exodus 17-18 recounts God's provision of water from the rock at Horeb, the victory over Amalek with Moses holding his hands high, and Jethro's wise counsel to Moses to delegate judicial responsibilities. Leviticus 12 addresses the laws of purification after childbirth, emphasizing the holiness necessary to draw near to God. Psalm 73 addresses the enigma of the prosperity of the wicked, concluding that only in God's presence do we find true perspective and eternal satisfaction.

Chapter 17

1. Then all the multitude of the children of Israel setting forward from the desert of Sin, by their mansions, according to the word of the Lord, encamped in Raphidim, where there was no water for the people to drink.

2. And they chode with Moses, and said: Give us water, that we may drink. And Moses answered them: Why chide you with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord?

3. So the people were thirsty there for want of water, and murmured against Moses, saying: Why didst thou make us go forth out of Egypt, to kill us and our children, and our beasts with thirst?

4. And Moses cried to the Lord, saying: What shall I do to this people? Yet a little more and they will stone me.

5. And the Lord said to Moses: God before the people, and take with thee of the ancients of Israel: and take in thy hand the rod wherewith thou didst strike the river, and go.

6. Behold I will stand there before thee, upon the rock Horeb: and thou shalt strike the rock, and water shall come out of it that the people may drink. Moses did so before the ancients of Israel:

7. And he called the name of that place Temptation, because the chiding of the children of Israel, and for that they tempted the Lord, saying: Is the Lord amongst us or not?

8. And Amalec came, and fought against Israel in Raphidim.

9. And Moses said to Josue: Choose out men: and go out and fight against Amalec: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill having the rod of God in my hand.

10. Josue did as Moses had spoken, and he fought against Amalec; but Moses, and Aaron, and Hur went up upon the top of the hill.

11. And when Moses lifted up his hands, Israel overcame: but if he let them down a little, Amalec overcame.

12. And Moses' hands were heavy: so they took a stone, and put under him, and he sat on it: and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands on both sides. And it came to pass that his hands were not weary until sunset.

13. And Josue put Amalec and his people to flight, by the edge of the sword.

14. And the Lord said to Moses: Write this for a memorial in a book, and deliver it to the ears of Josue: for I will destroy the memory of Amalec from under heaven.

15. And Moses built an altar: and called the name thereof, The Lord my exaltation, saying:

16. Because the hand of the throne of the Lord, and the war of the Lord shall be against Amalec, from generation to generation.

Chapter 18

1. And when Jethro the priest of Madian, the kinsman of Moses, had heard all the things that God had done to Moses, and to Israel his people, and that the Lord had brought forth Israel out of Egypt,

2. He took Sephora the wife of Moses whom he had sent back:

3. And her two sons, of whom one was called Gersam, his father saying: I have been a stranger in a foreign country.

4. And the other Eliezer: For the God of my father, said he, is my helper, and hath delivered me from the sword of Pharao.

5. And Jethro the kinsman of Moses came with his sons and his wife, to Moses into the desert, where he was camped by the mountain of God.

6. And he sent word to Moses, saying: I Jethro thy kinsman come to thee, and thy wife, and thy two sons with her.

7. And he went out to meet his kinsman, and worshipped and kissed him: and they saluted one another with words of peace. And when he was come into the tent,

8. Moses told his kinsman all that the Lord had done to Pharao, and the Egyptians, in favour of Israel: and all the labour which had befallen them in the journey, and that the Lord had delivered them.

9. And Jethro rejoiced for all the good things that the Lord had done to Israel, because he had delivered them out of the hands of the Egyptians.

10. And he said: Blessed is the Lord, who hath delivered you out of the hand of Pharao, and out of the hand of the Egyptians, who hath delivered his people out of the hand of Egypt.

11. Now I know that the Lord is great above all gods: because they dealt proudly against them.

12. So Jethro the kinsman of Moses offered holocausts and sacrifices to God: and Aaron and all the ancients of Israel came, to eat bread with them before God.

13. And the next day Moses sat, to judge the people, who stood by Moses from morning until night.

14. And when his kinsman had seen all things that he did among the people, he said: What is it that thou dost among the people? Why sittest thou alone, and all the people wait from morning till night.

15. And Moses answered him: The people come to me to seek the judgment of God.

16. And when any controversy falleth out among them, they come to me to judge between them, and to shew the precepts of God, and his laws.

17. But he said: The thing thou dost is not good.

18. Thou are spent with foolish labour, both thou and this people that is with thee: the business is above thy strength, thou alone canst not bear it.

19. But hear my words and counsels, and God shall be with thee. Be thou to the people in those things that pertain to God, to bring their words to him:

20. And to shew the people the ceremonies and the manner of worshipping, and the way wherein they ought to walk, and the work that they ought to do.

21. And provide out of all the people able men, such as fear God, in whom there is truth, and that hate avarice, and appoint of them rulers of thousands, and of hundreds, and of fifties, and of tens.

22. Who may judge the people at all times: and when any great matter soever shall fall out, let them refer it to thee, and let them judge the lesser matters only: that so it may be lighter for thee, the burden being shared out unto others.

23. If thou dost this, thou shalt fulfil the commandment of God, and shalt be able to bear his precepts: and all this people shall return to their places with peace.

24. And when Moses heard this, he did all things that he had suggested unto him.

25. And choosing able men out of all Israel, he appointed them rulers of the people, rulers over thousands, and over hundreds, and over fifties, and over tens.

26. And they judged the people at all times: and whatsoever was of greater difficulty they referred to him, and they judged the easier cases only.

27. And he let his kinsman depart: and he returned and went into his own country.

1. And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying:

2. Speak to the children of Israel, and thou shalt say to them: If a woman having received seed shall bear a man child, she shall be unclean seven days, according to the days of the separation of her flowers.

3. And on the eighth day the infant shall be circumcised:

4. But she shall remain three and thirty days in the blood of her purification. She shall touch no holy thing, neither shall she enter into the sanctuary, until the days of her purification be fulfilled.

5. But if she shall bear a maid child, she shall be unclean two weeks, according to the custom of her monthly courses, and she shall remain in the blood of her purification sixty-six days.

6. And when the days of her purification are expired, for a son, or for a daughter, she shall bring to the door of the tabernacle of the testimony, a lamb of a year old for a holocaust, and a young pigeon or a turtle for sin, and shall deliver them to the priest:

7. Who shall offer them before the Lord, and shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed from the issue of her blood. This is the law for her that beareth a man child or a maid child.

8. And if her hand find not sufficiency, and she is not able to offer a lamb, she shall take two turtles, or two young pigeons, one for a holocaust, and another for sin: and the priest shall pray for her, and so she shall be cleansed.

1. A psalm for Asaph. How good is God to Israel, to them that are of a right heart!

2. But my feet were almost moved; my steps had well nigh slipped.

3. Because I had a zeal on occasion of the wicked, seeing the prosperity of sinners.

4. For there is no regard to their death, nor is there strength in their stripes.

5. They are not in the labour of men: neither shall they be scourged like other men. B Therefore pride hath held them fast: they are covered with their iniquity and their wickedness.

7. Their iniquity hath come forth, as it were from fatness: they have passed into the affection of the heart.

8. They have thought and spoken wickedness: they have spoken iniquity on high.

9. They have set their mouth against heaven: and their tongue hath passed through the earth.

10. Therefore will my people return here and full days shall be found in them.

11. And they said: How doth God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?

12. Behold these are sinners; and yet abounding in the world they have obtained riches.

13. And I said: Then have I in vain justified my heart, and washed my hands among the innocent.

14. And I have been scourged all the day; and my chastisement hath been in the mornings.

15. If I said: I will speak thus; behold I should condemn the generation of thy children.

16. I studied that I might know this thing, it is a labour in my sight:

17. Until I go into the sanctuary of God, and understand concerning their last ends.

18. But indeed for deceits thou hast put it to them: when they were lifted up thou hast cast them down.

19. How are they brought to desolation? they have suddenly ceased to be: they have perished by reason of their iniquity.

20. As the dream of them that awake, O Lord; so in thy city thou shalt bring their image to nothing.

21. For my heart hath been inflamed, and my reins have been changed:

22. and I am brought to nothing, and I knew not.

23. I am become as a beast before thee: and I am always with thee.

24. Thou hast held me by my right hand; and by thy will thou hast conducted me, and with thy glory thou hast received me.

25. For what have I in heaven? and besides thee what do I desire upon earth?

26. For thee my flesh and my heart hath fainted away: thou art the God of my heart, and the God that is my portion for ever.

27. For behold they that go far from thee shall perish: thou hast destroyed all them that are disloyal to thee.

28. But it is good for me to adhere to my God, to put my hope in the Lord God: That I may declare all thy praises, in the gates of the daughter of Sion.