1 Chron. 7:1–19
7:1 The sons of Issachar: Tola, Puah, Jashub, and Shimron—four in all.
2The sons of Tola: Uzzi, Rephaiah, Jeriel, Jahmai, Jibsam, and Samuel. They were leaders of their families. In the time of David there were 22,600 warriors listed in Tola’s genealogical records.
3The son of Uzzi: Izrahiah.
The sons of Izrahiah: Michael, Obadiah, Joel, and Isshiah. All five were leaders.
4According to the genealogical records of their families, they had 36,000 warriors available for battle, for they had numerous wives and sons. 5Altogether the genealogical records of the clans of Issachar listed 87,000 warriors.
6The sons of Benjamin: Bela, Beker, and Jediael—three in all.
7The sons of Bela: Ezbon, Uzzi, Uzziel, Jerimoth, and Iri. The five of them were leaders of their families. There were 22,034 warriors listed in their genealogical records.
8The sons of Beker: Zemirah, Joash, Eliezer, Elioenai, Omri, Jeremoth, Abijah, Anathoth, and Alemeth. All these were the sons of Beker. 9There were 20,200 family leaders and warriors listed in their genealogical records.
10The son of Jediael: Bilhan.
The sons of Bilhan: Jeush, Benjamin, Ehud, Kenaanah, Zethan, Tarshish, and Ahishahar. 11All these were the sons of Jediael. There were 17,200 family leaders and warriors who were capable of marching out to battle.
12The Shuppites and Huppites were descendants of Ir; the Hushites were descendants of Aher.
13The sons of Naphtali: Jahziel, Guni, Jezer, and Shallum—sons of Bilhah.
14The sons of Manasseh: Asriel, who was born to Manasseh’s Aramean concubine. She also gave birth to Makir the father of Gilead. 15Now Makir married a wife from the Huppites and Shuppites. (His sister’s name was Maacah.)
Zelophehad was Manasseh’s second son; he had only daughters.
16Maacah, Makir’s wife, gave birth to a son, whom she named Peresh. His brother was Sheresh, and his sons were Ulam and Rekem.
17The son of Ulam: Bedan.
These were the sons of Gilead, son of Makir, son of Manasseh. 18His sister Hammoleketh gave birth to Ishhod, Abiezer, and Mahlah.
19The sons of Shemida were Ahian, Shechem, Likhi, and Aniam.
(NET Bible)Ps. 109:1–20
109:1 For the music director, a psalm of David.
O God whom I praise, do not ignore me.
2For they say cruel and deceptive things to me;
they lie to me.
3They surround me and say hateful things;
they attack me for no reason.
4They repay my love with accusations,
but I continue to pray.
5They repay me evil for good
and hate for love.
6 Appoint an evil man to testify against him.
May an accuser stand at his right side.
7When he is judged, he will be found guilty.
Then his prayer will be regarded as sinful.
8May his days be few.
May another take his job.
9May his children be fatherless,
and his wife a widow.
10May his children roam around begging,
asking for handouts as they leave their ruined home.
11May the creditor seize all he owns.
May strangers loot his property.
12May no one show him kindness.
May no one have compassion on his fatherless children.
13May his descendants be cut off.
May the memory of them be wiped out by the time the next generation arrives.
14May his ancestors’ sins be remembered by the Lord.
May his mother’s sin not be forgotten.
15May the Lord be constantly aware of them
and cut off the memory of his children from the earth.
16For he never bothered to show kindness;
he harassed the oppressed and needy
and killed the disheartened.
17He loved to curse others, so those curses have come upon him.
He had no desire to bless anyone, so he has experienced no blessings.
18He made cursing a way of life,
so curses poured into his stomach like water
and seeped into his bones like oil.
19May a curse attach itself to him, like a garment one puts on,
or a belt one wears continually.
20May the Lord repay my accusers in this way,
those who say evil things about me.
(NET Bible)Mark 9:42–10:12
9:42 “If anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a huge millstone tied around his neck and to be thrown into the sea. 43If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better for you to enter into life crippled than to have two hands and go into hell, to the unquenchable fire. 45If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off! It is better to enter life lame than to have two feet and be thrown into hell. 47If your eye causes you to sin, tear it out! It is better to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, 48where their worm never dies and the fire is never quenched. 49Everyone will be salted with fire. 50Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can you make it salty again? Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with each other.”
10:1 Then Jesus left that place and went to the region of Judea and beyond the Jordan River. Again crowds gathered to him, and again, as was his custom, he taught them. 2Then some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” 3He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” 4They said, “Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” 5But Jesus said to them, “He wrote this commandment for you because of your hard hearts. 6But from the beginning of creation he made them male and female. 7For this reason a man will leave his father and mother, 8and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. 9Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.”
10In the house once again, the disciples asked him about this. 11So he told them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her. 12And if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”
(NET Bible)
That Luther was not ready to admit that there were errors even in the numerical statements of the Bible we see in his exposition of Genesis 11:27, 28: “ is passage is among the most obscure statements of the Old Testament that has caused us many questions, which a diligent reader will encounter here and there in the older and more recent writers.— There is added another fault, that vain spirits hold it very praiseworthy if they can pass unrestricted judgments concerning the difficult and dark statements of Scripture and then can obstinately maintain their opinions. is is a disease of our nature against which an exegete of Holy Scripture should carefully guard himself.” Then he discusses the question as to what, in his opinion, makes these passages so difficult: “The second question is still more difficult, though neither Lyra nor the other teachers have paid attention to it. That in connection with Abraham sixty years are lost for us. For the reckoning the text brings with itself is easy. Terah was seventy years when he begot Abraham, now Abraham, when he was seventy five years old, left Haran, where Terah had died. If you add these together you will have 145 years. But when the account reckons together the years of Terah, it shows clearly that when he died he had lived 205 years. The question is, therefore, as to how we can account for these years. It would be unfitting to follow the example of audacious people who, when they arrive at such difficulties, immediately dare to correct books written by others. For my part I do not know how I should correctly solve the questions though I have carefully reckoned together the years of the world. So with a humble and proper confession of ignorance (for it is the Holy Ghost who alone knows and understands all things) I conclude that God, because of a certain plan of His own, caused seventy years to be lost out of Abraham’s life so that no one would venture from the exact computation of the years of the world to presume to predict something certain concerning the end of the world.” This hypothesis (because Luther does not express his opinion) may appear even absurd to us moderns, but it will not seem so absurd if we recall that at that time it was customary to place the age of the world at six thousand years, but Luther risks this hypothetical reckoning rather than to admit an error in the Biblical figure. He does not even consider the possibility of such an error. (52)
–Johann Michael Reu, Luther on the Scriptures
This daily Bible reading guide, Reading the Word of God, was conceived and prepared as a result of the ongoing discussions between representatives of three church bodies: Lutheran Church—Canada (LCC), The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the North American Lutheran Church (NALC). The following individuals have represented their church bodies and approved this introduction and the reading guide: LCC: President Robert Bugbee; NALC: Bishop John Bradosky, Revs. Mark Chavez, James Nestingen, and David Wendel; LCMS: Revs. Albert Collver, Joel Lehenbauer, John Pless, and Larry Vogel.