Contemplative Bible Reading

Proverbs 14:4 (New Living Translation) Without oxen a stable stays clean, but you need a strong ox for a large harvest. Start with the second statement: an ox is a useful and sometimes necessary tool for farming. Now to the first statement: if you don’t have an ox, you don’t have to shovel the manure […]

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Proverbs 11:24  (New Living Translation) Give freely and become more wealthy; be stingy and lose everything. These two lines are right from today’s “sharing economy.” Give your ideas away and everyone will come to you for help. And, by the way, they will pay you handsomely for your help. The source of all that new-found […]

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2 Chronicles 6:18 (New Living Translation) “But will God really live on earth among people? Why, even the highest heavens cannot contain you. How much less this Temple I have built!” The magnificent Temple in Jerusalem is completed. It is built to honor YHWH God. The builder first admits that it is almost useless as […]

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Nehemiah 2:7-8 (The Living Bible) 7 Then I added this to my request: “If it pleases the king, give me letters to the governors west of the Euphrates River instructing them to let me travel through their countries on my way to Judah; 8 also a letter the Asap, the manager of the king’s forest, […]

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Malachi 1:2-3 (The Living Bible) “I have loved you very deeply,” says the LORD. But you retort, “Really? When was this?” And the LORD replies, “I showed my love for you by loving your father, Jacob. I didn’t need to. I even rejected his very own brother, Esau, and destroyed Esau’s mountains and inheritance, to give […]

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Zechariah 9:9-10 (New Living Translation) 9 Rejoice, O people of Zion! Shout in triumph, O people of Jerusalem! Look, your king is coming to you. He is righteous and victorious, yet he is humble, riding on a donkey— riding on a donkey’s colt. 10 I will remove the battle chariots from Israel and the warhorses from Jerusalem. […]

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Zechariah 14:12 (New Living Translation) And the Lord will send a plague on all the nations that fought against Jerusalem. Their people will become like walking corpses, their flesh rotting away. Their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. As I read this, it hit me—this is a […]

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Psalm 131:1-3 (New Living Translation) 1 Lord, my heart is not proud; my eyes are not haughty. I don’t concern myself with matters too great or too awesome for me to grasp. 2 Instead, I have calmed and quieted myself, like a weaned child who no longer cries for its mother’s milk. Yes, like a weaned child […]

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2 Samuel 5:1-2 (New Living Translation) Then all the tribes of Israel went to David at Hebron and told him, “We are your own flesh and blood. 2 In the past, when Saul was our king, you were the one who really led the forces of Israel. And the Lord told you, ‘You will be the […]

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1 Samuel 22:1-2 (New Living Translation) So David left Gath and escaped to the cave of Adullam. Soon his brothers and all his other relatives joined him there. 2 Then others began coming—men who were in trouble or in debt or who were just discontented—until David was the captain of about 400 men. David raises […]

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