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.’

⁸ Be alert and of sober mind.^(A) Your enemy the devil prowls around^(B) like a roaring lion^(C) looking for someone to devour.

⁴³ “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. ⁴⁴ Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. ⁴⁵ Then it goes and takes with it 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.^(A) That is how it will be with this wicked generation.”

Psalm 63^[a]

A psalm of David. When he was in the Desert of Judah.

² And the Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”^(A)

⁷ The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”^(A)

¹⁰ And he begged Jesus again and again not to send them out of the area.

² in which you used to live^(A) when you followed the ways of this world^(B) and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air,^(C) the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.^(D)

²⁵ When Jesus saw that a crowd was running to the scene,^(A) he rebuked the impure spirit. “You deaf and mute spirit,” he said, “I command you, come out of him and never enter him again.”