Daily Reading for Thursday, August 19th, 2021

Reading 1, Judges 11:29-39

²⁹ The spirit of Yahweh was on Jephthah, who crossed Gilead and Manasseh, crossed by way of Mizpah in Gilead, and from Mizpah in Gilead crossed into Ammonite territory.

³⁰ And Jephthah made a vow to Yahweh, 'If you deliver the Ammonites into my grasp,

³¹ the first thing to come out of the doors of my house to meet me when I return in triumph from fighting the Ammonites shall belong to Yahweh, and I shall sacrifice it as a burnt offering.'

³² Jephthah crossed into Ammonite territory to attack them, and Yahweh delivered them into his grasp.

³³ He beat them from Aroer to the border of Minnith (twenty towns) and to Abel-Keramim. It was a very severe defeat, and the Ammonites were humbled by the Israelites.

³⁴ As Jephthah returned to his house at Mizpah, his daughter came out to meet him, dancing to the sound of tambourines. She was his only child; apart from her, he had neither son nor daughter.

³⁵ When he saw her, he tore his clothes and exclaimed, 'Oh my daughter, what misery you have brought upon me! You have joined those who bring misery into my life! I have made a promise before Yahweh which I cannot retract.'

³⁶ She replied, 'Father, you have made a promise to Yahweh; treat me as the promise that you have made requires, since Yahweh has granted you vengeance on your enemies the Ammonites.'

³⁷ She then said to her father, 'Grant me this! Let me be free for two months. I shall go and wander in the mountains, and with my companions bewail my virginity.'

³⁸ He replied, 'Go,' and let her go away for two months. So she went away with her companions and bewailed her virginity in the mountains.

³⁹ When the two months were over she went back to her father, and he treated her as the vow that he had uttered bound him. She had remained a virgin. And hence, the custom in Israel

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 40:5, 7-8, 8-9, 10

⁵ How much you have done, Yahweh, my God -- your wonders, your plans for us -- you have no equal. I will proclaim and speak of them; they are beyond number.

⁷ then I said, 'Here I am, I am coming.' In the scroll of the book it is written of me,

⁸ my delight is to do your will; your law, my God, is deep in my heart.

⁹ I proclaimed the saving justice of Yahweh in the great assembly. See, I will not hold my tongue, as you well know.

¹⁰ I have not kept your saving justice locked in the depths of my heart, but have spoken of your constancy and saving help. I have made no secret of your faithful and steadfast love, in the great assembly.