A Woman's Faith

(Mark 7.24-30)

²¹ Jesus left and went to the territory near the towns of Tyre and Sidon. ²² Suddenly a Canaanite woman^[a] from there came out shouting, “Lord and Son of David,^[b] have pity on me! My daughter is full of demons.” ²³ Jesus did not say a word. But the woman kept following along and shouting, so his disciples came up and asked him to send her away.

²⁴ Jesus said, “I was sent only to the people of Israel! They are like a flock of lost sheep.”

²⁵ The woman came closer. Then she knelt down and begged, “Please help me, Lord!”

²⁶ Jesus replied, “It isn't right to take food away from children and feed it to dogs.”^[c]

²⁷ “Lord, this is true,” the woman said, “but even puppies get the crumbs that fall from their owner's table.”

²⁸ Jesus answered, “Dear woman, you really do have a lot of faith, and you will be given what you want.” At that moment her daughter was healed.

Jesus Heals Many People

²⁹ From there, Jesus went along Lake Galilee. Then he climbed a hill and sat down. ³⁰ Large crowds came and brought many people who were paralyzed or blind or lame or unable to talk. They placed them, and many others, in front of Jesus, and he healed them all. ³¹ Everyone was amazed at what they saw and heard. People who had never spoken could now speak. The lame were healed, the paralyzed could walk, and the blind were able to see. Everyone was praising the God of Israel.

Jesus Feeds Four Thousand

(Mark 8.1-10)

³² Jesus called his disciples together and told them, “I feel sorry for these people. They have been with me for three days, and they don't have anything to eat. I don't want to send them away hungry. They might faint on their way home.”

³³ His disciples said, “This place is like a desert. Where can we find enough food to feed such a crowd?”

³⁴ Jesus asked them how much food they had. They replied, “Seven small loaves of bread^[d] and a few little fish.”

³⁵ After Jesus had told the people to sit down, ³⁶ he took the seven loaves of bread and the fish and gave thanks. He then broke them and handed them to his disciples, who passed them around to the crowds.

³⁷ Everyone ate all they wanted, and the leftovers filled seven large baskets.

³⁸ There were 4,000 men who ate, not counting the women and children.

³⁹ After Jesus had sent the crowds away, he got into a boat and sailed across the lake. He came to shore near the town of Magadan.^[e]

Blessings for Obeying the Lord

The Lord said:

26 ^(A) I am the Lord your God! So don't make or worship idols or images. ² Respect the Sabbath and honor the place where I am worshiped, because I am the Lord.

^3 (B) Faithfully obey my laws, ⁴ and I will send rain to make your crops grow and your trees produce fruit. ⁵ Your harvest of grain and grapes will be so abundant, that you won't know what to do with it all. You will eat and be satisfied, and you will live in safety. ⁶ I will bless your country with peace, and you will rest without fear. I will wipe out the dangerous animals and protect you from enemy attacks. ⁷ You will chase and destroy your enemies, ⁸ even if there are only 5 of you and 100 of them, or only 100 of you and 10,000 of them. ⁹ I will treat you with such kindness that your nation will grow strong, and I will also keep my promises to you. ¹⁰ Your barns will overflow with grain each year. ¹¹ I will live among you and never again look on you with disgust. ^12 (C) I will walk with you—I will be your God, and you will be my people. ¹³ I am the Lord your God, and I rescued you from Egypt, so that you would never again be slaves. I have set you free; now walk with your heads held high.

Punishment for Disobeying the Lord

The Lord said:

^14-15 (D) If you disobey me and my laws, and if you break our agreement, ¹⁶ I will punish you terribly, and you will be ruined. You will be struck with incurable diseases and with fever that leads to blindness and depression. Your enemies will eat the crops you plant, ¹⁷ and I will turn from you and let you be destroyed by your attackers. You will even run at the very rumor of attack. ¹⁸ Then, if you still refuse to obey me, I will punish you seven times for each of your sins, ¹⁹ until your pride is completely crushed. I will hold back the rain, so the sky above you will be like iron, and the ground beneath your feet will be like copper. ²⁰ All of your hard work will be for nothing—and there will be no harvest of grain or fruit.

²¹ If you keep rebelling against me, I'll punish you seven times worse, just as your sins deserve! ²² I'll send wild animals to attack you, and they will gobble up your children and livestock. So few of you will be left that your roads will be deserted.

²³ If you remain my enemies after this, ²⁴ I'll remain your enemy and punish you even worse. ²⁵ War will break out because you broke our agreement, and if you escape to your walled cities, I'll punish you with horrible diseases, and you will be captured by your enemies. ²⁶ You will have such a shortage of bread, that ten women will be able to bake their bread in the same oven. Each of you will get only a few crumbs, and you will go hungry.

²⁷ Then if you don't stop rebelling, ²⁸ I'll really get furious and punish you terribly for your sins! ²⁹ In fact, you will be so desperate for food that you will eat your own children. ³⁰ I'll destroy your shrines and tear down your incense altars, leaving your dead bodies piled on top of your idols. And you will be disgusting to me. ³¹ I'll wipe out your towns and your places of worship and will no longer be pleased with the smell of your sacrifices. ³² Your land will become so desolate that even your enemies who settle there will be shocked when they see it. ³³ After I destroy your towns and ruin your land with war, I'll scatter you among the nations.

^34-35 While you are prisoners in foreign lands, your own land will enjoy years of rest and refreshment, as it should have done each seventh year when you lived there. ^36-37 In the land of your enemies, you will tremble at the rustle of a leaf, as though it were a sword. And you will become so weak that you will stumble and fall over each other, even when no one is chasing you. ³⁸ Many of you will die in foreign lands, ³⁹ and others of you will waste away in sorrow as the result of your sins and the sins of your ancestors.

^40-41 Then suppose you realize that I turned against you and brought you to the land of your enemies because both you and your ancestors had stubbornly sinned against me. If you humbly confess what you have done and start living right, ^42 (E) I'll keep the promise I made to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I will bless your land ⁴³ and let it rest during the time that you are in a foreign country, paying for your rebellion against me and my laws.

^44 (F) No matter what you have done, I am still the Lord your God, and I will never completely reject you or become absolutely disgusted with you there in the land of your enemies. ⁴⁵ While nations watched, I rescued your ancestors from Egypt so that I would be their God. Yes, I am your Lord, and I will never forget our agreement.

⁴⁶ Moses was on Mount Sinai when the Lord gave him these laws and teachings for the people of Israel.

Making Promises to the Lord

27 The Lord told Moses ² to say to the community of Israel:

If you ever want to free someone who has been promised to me, ^3-7 you may do so by paying the following amounts, weighed according to the official standards:

⁸ If you have promised to give someone to me and can't afford to pay the full amount for that person's release, you will be taken to a priest, and he will decide how much you can afford.

⁹ If you promise to sacrifice an animal to me, it becomes holy, and there is no way you can set it free. ¹⁰ If you try to substitute any other animal, no matter how good, for the one you promised, they will both become holy and must be sacrificed. ¹¹ Donkeys are unfit for sacrifice, so if you promise me a donkey,^[a] you must bring it to the priest, ¹² and let him determine its value. ¹³ But if you want to buy it back, you must pay an additional 20 percent.

¹⁴ If you promise a house to me, a priest will set the price, whatever the condition of the house. ¹⁵ But if you decide to buy it back, you must pay an additional 20 percent.

¹⁶ If you promise part of your family's land to me, its value must be determined by the amount of seed needed to plant the land, and the rate will be ten pieces of silver for every 20 kilograms of seed. ¹⁷ If this promise is made in the Year of Celebration,^[b] the land will be valued at the full price. ¹⁸ But any time after that, the price will be figured according to the number of years before the next Year of Celebration. ¹⁹ If you decide to buy back the land, you must pay the price plus an additional 20 percent, ²⁰ but you cannot buy it back once someone else has bought it. ²¹ When the Year of Celebration comes, the land becomes holy because it belongs to me, and it will be given to the priests.

²² If you promise me a field that you have bought, ²³ its value will be decided by a priest, according to the number of years before the next Year of Celebration, and the money you pay will be mine. ²⁴ However, on the next Year of Celebration, the land will go back to the family of its original owner. ²⁵ Every price will be set by the official standards.

Various Offerings

The Lord said:

²⁶ All first-born animals of your flocks and herds are already mine, and so you cannot promise any of them to me. ²⁷ If you promise me a donkey,^[c] you may buy it back by adding an additional 20 percent to its value. If you don't buy it back, it can be sold to someone else for whatever a priest has said it is worth.

^28 (G) Anything that you completely dedicate to me must be completely destroyed.^[d] It cannot be bought back or sold. Every person, animal, and piece of property that you dedicate completely is only for me. ²⁹ In fact, any humans who have been promised to me in this way must be put to death.

^30 (H) Ten percent of everything you harvest is holy and belongs to me, whether it grows in your fields or on your fruit trees. ³¹ If you want to buy back this part of your harvest, you may do so by paying what it is worth plus an additional 20 percent.

³² When you count your flocks and herds, one out of ten of every newborn animal^[e] is holy and belongs to me, ³³ no matter how good or bad it is. If you substitute one animal for another, both of them become holy, and neither can be bought back.

³⁴ Moses was on Mount Sinai when the Lord gave him these laws for the people of Israel.

It Is Senseless To Be Wise

¹² I said these things when I lived in Jerusalem as king of Israel. ¹³ With all my wisdom I tried to understand everything that happens here on earth. And God has made this so hard for us humans to do. ¹⁴ I have seen it all, and everything is just as senseless as chasing the wind.^[a]

^16 (A) I said to myself, “You are by far the wisest person who has ever lived in Jerusalem. You are eager to learn, and you have learned a lot.” ¹⁷ Then I decided to find out all I could about wisdom and foolishness. Soon I realized that this too was as senseless as chasing the wind.^[b]

It Is Senseless To Be Selfish

2 I said to myself, “Have fun and enjoy yourself!” But this didn't make sense. ² Laughing and having fun is crazy. What good does it do? ³ I wanted to find out what was best for us during the short time we have on this earth. So I decided to make myself happy with wine and find out what it means to be foolish, without really being foolish myself.

^4 (B) I did some great things. I built houses and planted vineyards. ⁵ I had flower gardens and orchards full of fruit trees. ⁶ And I had pools where I could get water for the trees. ^7 (C) I owned slaves, and their sons and daughters became my slaves. I had more sheep and goats than anyone who had ever lived in Jerusalem. ^8 (D) Foreign rulers brought me silver, gold, and precious treasures. Men and women sang for me, and I had many wives^[c] who gave me great pleasure.

^9 (E) I was the most famous person who had ever lived in Jerusalem, and I was very wise. ¹⁰ I got whatever I wanted and did whatever made me happy. But most of all, I enjoyed my work. ¹¹ Then I thought about everything I had done, including the hard work, and it was simply chasing the wind.^[d] Nothing on earth is worth the trouble.

Wisdom Comes from God

¹² I asked myself, “What can the next king do that I haven't done?” Then I decided to compare wisdom with foolishness and stupidity. ¹³ And I discovered that wisdom is better than foolishness, just as light is better than darkness. ¹⁴ Wisdom is like having two good eyes; foolishness leaves you in the dark. But wise or foolish, we all end up the same.

¹⁵ Finally, I said to myself, “Being wise got me nowhere! The same thing will happen to me that happens to fools. Nothing makes sense. ¹⁶ Wise or foolish, we all die and are soon forgotten.” ¹⁷ This made me hate life. Everything we do is painful; it's just as senseless as chasing the wind.^[e]

¹⁸ Suddenly I realized that others would someday get everything I had worked for so hard, then I started hating it all. ¹⁹ Who knows if those people will be sensible or stupid? Either way, they will own everything I have earned by hard work and wisdom. It doesn't make sense.

²⁰ I thought about all my hard work, and I felt depressed. ²¹ When we use our wisdom, knowledge, and skill to get what we own, why do we have to leave it to someone who didn't work for it? This is senseless and wrong. ²² What do we really gain from all of our hard work? ^23 (F) Our bodies ache during the day, and work is torture. Then at night our thoughts are troubled. It just doesn't make sense.

^24 (G) The best thing we can do is to enjoy eating, drinking, and working.^[f] I believe these are God's gifts to us, ²⁵ and no one enjoys eating and living more than I do. ^26 (H) If we please God, he will make us wise, understanding, and happy. But if we sin, God will make us struggle for a living, then he will give all we own to someone who pleases him. This makes no more sense than chasing the wind.^[g]