Tuesday in Season after Pentecost

1Verse 1. After some time, David’s son Amnon fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of David’s son Absalom. 2Verse 2. Amnon was sick with frustration over his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed implausible for him to do anything to her. 3Verse 3. Now Amnon had a friend named Jonadab, the son of David’s brother Shimeah. Jonadab was a very shrewd man, 4Verse 4. and he asked Amnon, “Why are you, the son of the king, so depressed morning after morning? Won’t you tell me?” Amnon replied, “I am in love with Tamar, my brother Absalom’s sister.” 5Verse 5. Jonadab told him, “Lie down on your bed and pretend you are ill. When your father comes to see you, say to him, ‘Please let my sister Tamar come and give me something to eat. Let her prepare it in my sight so I may watch her and eat it from her hand.’” 6Verse 6. So Amnon lay down and feigned illness. When the king came to see him, Amnon said, “Please let my sister Tamar come and make a couple of cakes in my sight, so that I may eat from her hand.” 7Verse 7. Then David sent word to Tamar at the palace: “Please go to the house of Amnon your brother and prepare a meal for him.” 8Verse 8. So Tamar went to the house of her brother Amnon, who was lying down. She took some dough, kneaded it, made cakes in his sight, and baked them. 9Verse 9. Then she brought the pan and set it down before him, but he refused to eat. “Send everyone away!” said Amnon. And everyone went out. 10Verse 10. Then Amnon said to Tamar, “Bring the food into the bedroom, so that I may eat it from your hand.” Tamar took the cakes she had made and went to her brother Amnon’s bedroom. 11Verse 11. And when she had brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her and said, “Come lie with me, my sister!” 12Verse 12. “No, my brother!” she cried. “Do not violate me, for such a thing should never be done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing! 13Verse 13. Where could I ever take my shame? And you would be like one of the fools in Israel! Please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you.” 14Verse 14. But Amnon refused to listen to her, and being stronger, he violated her and lay with her. 15Verse 15. Then Amnon hated Tamar with such intensity that his hatred was greater than the love he previously had. “Get up!” he said to her. “Be gone!” 16Verse 16. “No,” she replied, “sending me away is worse than this great wrong you have already done to me!” But he refused to listen to her. 17Verse 17. Instead, he called to his attendant and said, “Throw this woman out and bolt the door behind her!” 18Verse 18. So Amnon’s attendant threw her out and bolted the door behind her. Now Tamar was wearing a robe of many colors, because this is what the king’s virgin daughters wore. 19Verse 19. And Tamar put ashes on her head and tore her robe. And putting her hand on her head, she went away crying aloud.

1Verse 1. You must carefully follow every commandment I am giving you today, so that you may live and multiply, and enter and possess the land that the LORD swore to give your fathers. 2Verse 2. Remember that these forty years the LORD your God led you all the way in the wilderness, so that He might humble you and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep His commandments. 3Verse 3. He humbled you, and in your hunger He gave you manna to eat, which neither you nor your fathers had known, so that you might understand that man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the LORD. 4Verse 4. Your clothing did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these forty years. 5Verse 5. So know in your heart that just as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you. 6Verse 6. Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the LORD your God, walking in His ways and fearing Him. 7Verse 7. For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks and fountains and springs that flow through the valleys and hills; 8Verse 8. a land of wheat, barley, vines, fig trees, and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and honey; 9Verse 9. a land where you will eat food without scarcity, where you will lack nothing; a land whose rocks are iron and whose hills are ready to be mined for copper. 10Verse 10. When you eat and are satisfied, you are to bless the LORD your God for the good land that He has given you. 11Verse 11. Be careful not to forget the LORD your God by failing to keep His commandments and ordinances and statutes, which I am giving you this day. 12Verse 12. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses in which to dwell, 13Verse 13. and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all that you have is multiplied, 14Verse 14. then your heart will become proud, and you will forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 15Verse 15. He led you through the vast and terrifying wilderness with its venomous snakes and scorpions, a thirsty and waterless land. He brought you water from the rock of flint. 16Verse 16. He fed you in the wilderness with manna that your fathers had not known, in order to humble you and test you, so that in the end He might cause you to prosper. 17Verse 17. You might say in your heart, “The power and strength of my hands have made this wealth for me.” 18Verse 18. But remember that it is the LORD your God who gives you the power to gain wealth, in order to confirm His covenant that He swore to your fathers even to this day. 19Verse 19. If you ever forget the LORD your God and go after other gods to worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely perish. 20Verse 20. Like the nations that the LORD has destroyed before you, so you will perish if you do not obey the LORD your God.