Daily Reading for Wednesday, January 31st, 2024

Reading 1, Second Samuel 24:2, 9-17

² The king said to Joab and the senior army officers who were with him, 'Now, go through all the tribes of Israel from Dan to Beersheba, and take a census of the people; I wish to know the size of the population.'

⁹ Joab gave the king the census results for the people; Israel had eight hundred thousand fighting men who could wield a sword, and Judah five hundred thousand.

¹⁰ But afterwards David's heart misgave him for having taken a census of the people. David then said to Yahweh, 'I have committed a grave sin by doing this. But now, Yahweh, I beg you to forgive your servant for this fault, for I have acted very foolishly.'

¹¹ When, however, David got up next morning, the following message had come from Yahweh to the prophet Gad, David's seer,

¹² 'Go and say to David, "Yahweh says this: I offer you three things; choose which one of them I am to inflict on you." '

¹³ So Gad went to David and said, 'Which do you prefer: to have three years of famine befall your country; to flee for three months before a pursuing army; or to have three days of epidemic in your country? Now think, and decide how I am to answer him who sends me.'

¹⁴ David said to Gad, 'I am very apprehensive . . . Better to fall into Yahweh's hands, since his mercies are great, than to fall into the hands of men!'

¹⁵ So David chose the epidemic. It was the time of the wheat harvest. So Yahweh unleashed an epidemic on Israel from that morning until the time determined; plague ravaged the people and, of the people from Dan to Beersheba, seventy thousand died.

¹⁶ But when the angel stretched his hand towards Jerusalem to destroy it, Yahweh felt sorry about the calamity and said to the angel who was destroying the people, 'Enough now! Hold your hand!' The angel of Yahweh was standing by the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite.

¹⁷ When David saw the angel who was ravaging the people, he said to Yahweh, 'I was the one who sinned. I was the one who acted wrongly. But these, the flock, what have they done? Let your hand lie heavy on me and on my family!'

Responsorial Psalm, Psalms 32:1-2, 5, 6, 7

¹ [Of David Poem] How blessed are those whose offence is forgiven, whose sin blotted out.

² How blessed are those to whom Yahweh imputes no guilt, whose spirit harbours no deceit.

⁵ I made my sin known to you, did not conceal my guilt. I said, 'I shall confess my offence to Yahweh.' And you, for your part, took away my guilt, forgave my sin.

⁶ That is why each of your faithful ones prays to you in time of distress. Even if great floods overflow, they will never reach your faithful.

⁷ You are a refuge for me, you guard me in trouble, with songs of deliverance you surround me.