Psalm 83^[a]

A song. A psalm of Asaph.

Haman Impaled

7 So the king and Haman went to Queen Esther’s banquet,^{(A) 2} and as they were drinking wine^(B) on the second day, the king again asked, “Queen Esther, what is your petition? It will be given you. What is your request? Even up to half the kingdom,^(C) it will be granted.^(D)”

³ Then Queen Esther answered, “If I have found favor^(E) with you, Your Majesty, and if it pleases you, grant me my life—this is my petition. And spare my people—this is my request. ⁴ For I and my people have been sold to be destroyed, killed and annihilated.^(F) If we had merely been sold as male and female slaves, I would have kept quiet, because no such distress would justify disturbing the king.^[a]”

⁵ King Xerxes asked Queen Esther, “Who is he? Where is he—the man who has dared to do such a thing?”

⁶ Esther said, “An adversary and enemy! This vile Haman!”

Then Haman was terrified before the king and queen. ⁷ The king got up in a rage,^(G) left his wine and went out into the palace garden.^(H) But Haman, realizing that the king had already decided his fate,^(I) stayed behind to beg Queen Esther for his life.

⁸ Just as the king returned from the palace garden to the banquet hall, Haman was falling on the couch^(J) where Esther was reclining.^(K)

The king exclaimed, “Will he even molest the queen while she is with me in the house?”^(L)

As soon as the word left the king’s mouth, they covered Haman’s face.^{(M) 9} Then Harbona,^(N) one of the eunuchs attending the king, said, “A pole reaching to a height of fifty cubits^[b](O) stands by Haman’s house. He had it set up for Mordecai, who spoke up to help the king.”

The king said, “Impale him on it!”^{(P) 10} So they impaled^(Q) Haman^(R) on the pole^(S) he had set up for Mordecai.^(T) Then the king’s fury subsided.^(U)

¹¹ God did extraordinary miracles^(A) through Paul, ¹² so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured^(B) and the evil spirits left them.

¹³ Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits^(C) tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of the Jesus^(D) whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” ¹⁴ Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this. ¹⁵ One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and Paul I know about, but who are you?” ¹⁶ Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.

¹⁷ When this became known to the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus,^(E) they were all seized with fear,^(F) and the name of the Lord Jesus was held in high honor. ¹⁸ Many of those who believed now came and openly confessed what they had done. ¹⁹ A number who had practiced sorcery brought their scrolls together and burned them publicly. When they calculated the value of the scrolls, the total came to fifty thousand drachmas.^{[a] 20} In this way the word of the Lord^(G) spread widely and grew in power.^(H)

Jesus Rejected at Nazareth

¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee^(A) in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside.^{(B) 15} He was teaching in their synagogues,^(C) and everyone praised him.

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth,^(D) where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue,^(E) as was his custom. He stood up to read,^{(F) 17} and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

²⁰ Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.^(J) The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him. ²¹ He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled^(K) in your hearing.”

²² All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked.^(L)

²³ Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown^(M) what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’”^(N)

²⁴ “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown.^{(O) 25} I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land.^{(P) 26} Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon.^{(Q) 27} And there were many in Israel with leprosy^[b] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.”^(R)

²⁸ All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. ²⁹ They got up, drove him out of the town,^(S) and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him off the cliff. ³⁰ But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.^(T)