Joel 1:13-15

New International Version

A Call to Lamentation

¹³Put on sackcloth,^(A) you priests, and mourn;
    wail, you who minister^(B) before the altar.
Come, spend the night in sackcloth,
    you who minister before my God;
for the grain offerings and drink offerings^(C)
    are withheld from the house of your God.
¹⁴Declare a holy fast;^(D)
    call a sacred assembly.
Summon the elders
    and all who live in the land^(E)
to the house of the Lord your God,
    and cry out^(F) to the Lord.^(G)

¹⁵Alas for that^(H) day!
For the day of the Lord^(I) is near;
it will come like destruction from the Almighty.^[a]^(J)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Joel 1:15 Hebrew Shaddai

Joel 2:1-2

New International Version

An Army of Locusts

2 Blow the trumpet^(A) in Zion;^(B)
sound the alarm on my holy hill.^(C)

Let all who live in the land tremble,
    for the day of the Lord^(D) is coming.
It is close at hand^(E)—
²    a day of darkness^(F) and gloom,^(G)
    a day of clouds^(H) and blackness.^(I)
Like dawn spreading across the mountains
    a large and mighty army^(J) comes,
such as never was in ancient times^(K)
    nor ever will be in ages to come.

Read full chapter

Psalm 9:1-8

New International Version

Psalm 9^[a]^[b]

For the director of music. To the tune of “The Death of the Son.” A psalm of David.

¹I will give thanks to you, Lord, with all my heart;^(A)
I will tell of all your wonderful deeds.^(B)
²I will be glad and rejoice^(C) in you;
I will sing the praises^(D) of your name,^(E) O Most High.

³My enemies turn back;
    they stumble and perish before you.
⁴For you have upheld my right^(F) and my cause,^(G)
    sitting enthroned^(H) as the righteous judge.^(I)
⁵You have rebuked the nations^(J) and destroyed the wicked;
    you have blotted out their name^(K) for ever and ever.
⁶Endless ruin has overtaken my enemies,
    you have uprooted their cities;^(L)
    even the memory of them^(M) has perished.

⁷The Lord reigns forever;^(N)
he has established his throne^(O) for judgment.
⁸He rules the world in righteousness^(P)
and judges the peoples with equity.^(Q)

Read full chapter

Footnotes

Psalm 9:1 Psalms 9 and 10 may originally have been a single acrostic poem in which alternating lines began with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Septuagint they constitute one psalm.
Psalm 9:1 In Hebrew texts 9:1-20 is numbered 9:2-21.

Luke 11:14-26

New International Version

Jesus and Beelzebul^(A)^(B)

¹⁴Jesus was driving out a demon that was mute. When the demon left, the man who had been mute spoke, and the crowd was amazed.^(C) ¹⁵But some of them said, “By Beelzebul,^(D) the prince of demons, he is driving out demons.”^(E) ¹⁶Others tested him by asking for a sign from heaven.^(F)

¹⁷Jesus knew their thoughts^(G) and said to them: “Any kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and a house divided against itself will fall. ¹⁸If Satan^(H) is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹Now if I drive out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your followers drive them out? So then, they will be your judges. ²⁰But if I drive out demons by the finger of God,^(I) then the kingdom of God^(J) has come upon you.

²¹“When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. ²²But when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up his plunder.

²³“Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.^(K)

²⁴“When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ ²⁵When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. ²⁶Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.”^(L)

Read full chapter