Psalm 85
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Psalm 85[a]
Prayer for Divine Favor
1 For the leader. A psalm of the Korahites.
I
2 You once favored, Lord, your land,
restored the captives of Jacob.(A)
3 You forgave the guilt of your people,
pardoned all their sins.
Selah
4 You withdrew all your wrath,
turned back from your burning anger.(B)
II
5 Restore us, God of our salvation;
let go of your displeasure with us.(C)
6 Will you be angry with us forever,
prolong your anger for all generations?(D)
7 Certainly you will again restore our life,
that your people may rejoice in you.
8 Show us, Lord, your mercy;
grant us your salvation.
III
9 [b]I will listen for what God, the Lord, has to say;
surely he will speak of peace
To his people and to his faithful.
May they not turn to foolishness!
10 Near indeed is his salvation for those who fear him;
glory will dwell in our land.
11 [c]Love and truth will meet;
justice and peace will kiss.(E)
12 Truth will spring from the earth;
justice will look down from heaven.(F)
13 Yes, the Lord will grant his bounty;
our land will yield its produce.(G)
14 Justice will march before him,
and make a way for his footsteps.
Footnotes
- Psalm 85 A national lament reminding God of past favors and forgiveness (Ps 85:2–4) and begging for forgiveness and grace now (Ps 85:5–8). A speaker represents the people who wait humbly with open hearts (Ps 85:9–10): God will be active on their behalf (Ps 85:11–13). The situation suggests the conditions of Judea during the early postexilic period, the fifth century B.C.; the thoughts are similar to those of postexilic prophets (Hg 1:5–11; 2:6–9).
- 85:9 The prophet listens to God’s revelation, cf. Hb 2:1.
- 85:11–13 Divine activity is personified as pairs of virtues.
Hosea 1:11-2:15
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Chapter 2
1 [a]The number of the Israelites
will be like the sand of the sea,
which can be neither measured nor counted.(A)
Instead of being told,
“You are Not-My-People,”
They will be called,
“Children of the living God.”(B)
2 Then the people of Judah and of Israel
will gather together;
They will appoint for themselves one head
and rise up from the land;
great indeed shall be the day of Jezreel!
3 Say to your brothers, “My People,”
and to your sisters, “Pitied.”
The Lord and Israel His Spouse[b]
4 Accuse your mother, accuse!
for she is not my wife,
and I am not her husband.[c]
Let her remove her prostitution from her face.
her adultery from between her breasts,
5 Or I will strip her naked,[d]
leaving her as on the day of her birth;
I will make her like the wilderness,
make her like an arid land,
and let her die of thirst.
6 I will have no pity on her children,
for they are children of prostitution.
7 Yes, their mother has prostituted herself;
she who conceived them has acted shamefully.
For she said, “I will go after my lovers,[e]
who give me my bread and my water,
my wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.”(C)
8 [f]Therefore, I will hedge in her way with thorns
and erect a wall against her,
so that she cannot find her paths.
9 If she runs after her lovers, she will not overtake them;
if she seeks them she will not find them.
Then she will say,
“I will go back to my first husband,
for I was better off then than now.”(D)
10 She did not know
that it was I who gave her
the grain, the wine, and the oil,
I who lavished upon her silver,
and gold, which they used for Baal,[g]
11 Therefore I will take back my grain in its time,
and my wine in its season;
I will snatch away my wool and my flax,
which were to cover her nakedness.
12 Now I will lay bare her shame
in full view of her lovers,(E)
and no one can deliver her out of my hand.(F)
13 I will put an end to all her joy,
her festivals, her new moons, her sabbaths—
all her seasonal feasts.
14 I will lay waste her vines and fig trees,
of which she said, “These are the fees
my lovers have given me”;
I will turn them into rank growth
and wild animals shall devour them.
15 I will punish her for the days of the Baals,[h]
for whom she burnt incense,
When she decked herself out with her rings and her jewelry,
and went after her lovers—
but me she forgot—oracle of the Lord.(G)
Footnotes
- 2:1–3 These verses abruptly reverse the tone of the judgments of 1:2–9 with words of hope for the covenant people: the name Jezreel is given a positive interpretation in contrast to its negative meaning in 1:4; the child named “Not-Pitied” in 1:6 is renamed “Pitied” in 2:3; the child named “Not-My-People” is renamed “My People.” The reversal of these names occurs again in 2:25.
- 2:4–25 The section contains three oracles of doom (vv. 4–6, 7–9, 10–15), a transition (vv. 16–17), and three oracles of salvation (vv. 18–19, 20–22, 23–25).
- 2:4 The Lord speaks of Israel, still using the example of Hosea’s wife.
- 2:5 I will strip her naked: it was the husband’s responsibility to provide food and clothing for his wife (Ex 21:10) and now, because of her adultery, he takes back his support.
- 2:7 My lovers: even though Israel had experienced the Lord as the God of the desert, covenant and conquest, the people were inclined to turn to the local fertility deities, the Baals, who were believed to be responsible for agricultural success. They easily forgot that the Lord provides them with everything (v. 10; cf. Dt 7:13), and thus prostituted themselves by worshiping other gods.
- 2:8 The crop failures sent by the Lord are meant to make Israel see the folly of its ways.
- 2:10 For Baal: as an offering to Baal or to make statues of Baal.
- 2:15 The days of the Baals: feast days of the Baal cult (v. 13), or the whole period of Israel’s apostasy.
Luke 8:22-25
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
22 [a]One day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, “Let us cross to the other side of the lake.” So they set sail, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A squall blew over the lake, and they were taking in water and were in danger. 24 They came and woke him saying, “Master, master, we are perishing!” He awakened, rebuked the wind and the waves, and they subsided and there was a calm. 25 Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” But they were filled with awe and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is this, who commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey him?”
The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac.(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 8:22–56 This section records four miracles of Jesus that manifest his power and authority: (1) the calming of a storm on the lake (Lk 8:22–25); (2) the exorcism of a demoniac (Lk 8:26–39); (3) the cure of a hemorrhaging woman (Lk 8:40–48); (4) the raising of Jairus’s daughter to life (Lk 8:49–56). They parallel the same sequence of stories at Mk 4:35–5:43.
Psalm 138
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
Psalm 138[a]
Hymn of a Grateful Heart
1 Of David.
I
I thank you, Lord, with all my heart;(A)
in the presence of the angels[b] to you I sing.
2 I bow low toward your holy temple;
I praise your name for your mercy and faithfulness.
For you have exalted over all
your name and your promise.
3 On the day I cried out, you answered;
you strengthened my spirit.
II
4 All the kings of earth will praise you, Lord,
when they hear the words of your mouth.
5 They will sing of the ways of the Lord:
“How great is the glory of the Lord!”
6 The Lord is on high, but cares for the lowly(B)
and knows the proud from afar.
7 Though I walk in the midst of dangers,
you guard my life when my enemies rage.
You stretch out your hand;
your right hand saves me.
8 The Lord is with me to the end.
Lord, your mercy endures forever.
Never forsake the work of your hands!
Footnotes
- Psalm 138 A thanksgiving to God, who came to the rescue of the psalmist. Divine rescue was not the result of the psalmist’s virtues but of God’s loving fidelity (Ps 138:1–3). The act is not a private transaction but a public act that stirs the surrounding nations to praise God’s greatness and care for the people (Ps 138:4–6). The psalmist, having experienced salvation, trusts that God will always be there in moments of danger (Ps 138:7–8).
- 138:1 In the presence of the angels: heavenly beings who were completely subordinate to Israel’s God. The earthly Temple represents the heavenly palace of God.
Esther 4
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
IV. Esther and Mordecai Plead for Help
Chapter 4
Mordecai Exhorts Esther. 1 When Mordecai learned all that was happening, he tore his garments, put on sackcloth and ashes, and went through the city crying out loudly and bitterly,(A) 2 till he came before the royal gate, which no one clothed in sackcloth might enter. 3 Likewise in each of the provinces, wherever the king’s decree and law reached, the Jews went into deep mourning, with fasting, weeping, and lament; most of them lay on sackcloth and ashes.
4 Esther’s maids and eunuchs came and told her. Overwhelmed with anguish, the queen sent garments for Mordecai to put on, so that he might take off his sackcloth; but he refused. 5 Esther then summoned Hathach, one of the king’s eunuchs whom he had placed at her service, and commanded him to find out what this action of Mordecai meant and the reason for it. 6 So Hathach went out to Mordecai in the public square in front of the royal gate, 7 and Mordecai recounted all that had happened to him, as well as the exact amount of silver Haman had promised to pay to the royal treasury for the slaughter of the Jews. 8 He also gave him a copy of the written decree for their destruction that had been promulgated in Susa, to show and explain to Esther. Hathach was to instruct her to go to the king and to plead and intercede with him on behalf of her people.[a]
9 Hathach returned to Esther and told her what Mordecai had said. 10 Then Esther replied to Hathach and gave him this message for Mordecai: 11 “All the servants of the king and the people of his provinces know that any man or woman who goes to the king in the inner court without being summoned is subject to the same law—death. Only if the king extends the golden scepter will such a person live. Now as for me, I have not been summoned to the king for thirty days.”(B)
12 When Esther’s words were reported to Mordecai, 13 he had this reply brought to her: “Do not imagine that you are safe in the king’s palace, you alone of all the Jews. 14 Even if you now remain silent, relief and deliverance will come to the Jews from another source;[b] but you and your father’s house will perish. Who knows—perhaps it was for a time like this that you became queen?”
15 Esther sent back to Mordecai the response: 16 “Go and assemble all the Jews who are in Susa; fast on my behalf, all of you, not eating or drinking night or day for three days. I and my maids will also fast in the same way. Thus prepared, I will go to the king, contrary to the law. If I perish, I perish!”(C) 17 Mordecai went away and did exactly as Esther had commanded.
Chapter C
Prayer of Mordecai. 1 Recalling all that the Lord had done, Mordecai prayed to the Lord 2 and said: “Lord, Lord, King and Ruler of all, everything is in your power, and there is no one to oppose you when it is your will to save Israel. 3 You made heaven and earth and every wonderful thing under heaven. 4 You are Lord of all, and there is no one who can resist you, the Lord. 5 (D)You know all things. You know, Lord, that it was not out of insolence or arrogance or desire for glory that I acted thus in not bowing down to the arrogant Haman. 6 I would have gladly kissed the soles of his feet for the salvation of Israel. 7 But I acted as I did so as not to place the honor of a mortal above that of God. I will not bow down to anyone but you, my Lord. It is not out of arrogance that I am acting thus. 8 And now, Lord God, King, God of Abraham, spare your people, for our enemies regard us with deadly envy and are bent upon destroying the inheritance that was yours from the beginning. 9 Do not spurn your portion, which you redeemed for yourself out of the land of Egypt. 10 Hear my prayer; have pity on your inheritance and turn our mourning into feasting, that we may live to sing praise to your name, Lord. Do not silence the mouths of those who praise you.”
11 All Israel, too, cried out with all their strength, for death was staring them in the face.
Prayer of Esther. 12 (E)Queen Esther, seized with mortal anguish, fled to the Lord for refuge. 13 Taking off her splendid garments, she put on garments of distress and mourning. In place of her precious ointments she covered her head with dung and ashes. She afflicted her body severely and in place of her festive adornments, her tangled hair covered her.
14 Then she prayed to the Lord, the God of Israel, saying: “My Lord, you alone are our King. Help me, who am alone and have no help but you, 15 for I am taking my life in my hand.(F) 16 From birth, I have heard among my people that you, Lord, chose Israel from among all nations, and our ancestors from among all their forebears, as a lasting inheritance, and that you fulfilled all your promises to them.(G) 17 But now we have sinned in your sight, and you have delivered us into the hands of our enemies, 18 because we worshiped their gods. You are just, O Lord. 19 But now they are not satisfied with our bitter servitude, but have sworn an oath to their idols 20 to do away with the decree you have pronounced, to destroy your inheritance, to close the mouths of those who praise you, to extinguish the glory of your house and your altar, 21 to open the mouths of the nations to acclaim their worthless gods, and to extol a mortal king forever.
22 “Lord, do not relinquish your scepter to those who are nothing. Do not let our foes gloat over our ruin, but turn their own counsel against them and make an example of the one who began this against us. 23 Be mindful of us, Lord. Make yourself known in the time of our distress and give me courage, King of gods and Ruler of every power. 24 Put in my mouth persuasive words in the presence of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred for our enemy, so that he and his co-conspirators may perish. 25 Save us by your power, and help me, who am alone and have no one but you, Lord.
26 “You know all things. You know that I hate the pomp of the lawless, and abhor the bed of the uncircumcised or of any foreigner. 27 You know that I am under constraint, that I abhor the sign of grandeur that rests on my head when I appear in public. I abhor it like a polluted rag, and do not wear it in private. 28 I, your servant, have never eaten at the table of Haman, nor have I graced the banquet of the king or drunk the wine of libations.[c] 29 From the day I was brought here till now, your servant has had no joy except in you, Lord, God of Abraham. 30 O God, whose power is over all, hear the voice of those in despair. Save us from the power of the wicked, and deliver me from my fear.”
Chapter D
Esther Goes to Ahasuerus.[d] 1 On the third day, ending her prayers, she took off her prayer garments and arrayed herself in her splendid attire. 2 In making her appearance, after invoking the all-seeing God and savior, she took with her two maids; 3 on the one she leaned gently for support, 4 while the other followed her, bearing her train. 5 She glowed with perfect beauty and her face was as joyous as it was lovely, though her heart was pounding with fear. 6 She passed through all the portals till she stood before the king, who was seated on his royal throne, clothed in full robes of state, and covered with gold and precious stones, so that he inspired great awe. 7 As he looked up in extreme anger, his features fiery and majestic, the queen staggered, turned pale and fainted, collapsing against the maid in front of her. 8 But God changed the king’s anger to gentleness. In great anxiety he sprang from his throne, held her in his arms until she recovered, and comforted her with reassuring words. 9 “What is it, Esther?” he said to her. “I am your brother.[e] Take courage! 10 You shall not die; this order of ours applies only to our subjects. 11 Come near!” 12 Raising the golden scepter, he touched her neck with it, embraced her, and said, “Speak to me.”(H)
13 She replied: “I saw you, my lord, as an angel of God, and my heart was shaken by fear of your majesty. 14 For you are awesome, my lord, though your countenance is full of mercy.” 15 As she said this, she fainted. 16 The king was shaken and all his attendants tried to revive her.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 4:8 The Greek text adds the following to Mordecai’s message to Esther: “Remember the days of your lowly estate, when you were brought up in my charge; for Haman, who is second to the king, has asked for our death. Invoke the Lord and speak to the king for us: save us from death.”
- 4:14 From another source: probably Mordecai refers to divine aid; the Greek additions (C) are explicit about this.
- C:28 Wine of libations: offered in sacrifice to the gods.
- D:1–16 Addition D expands on and replaces 5:1–2 of the Hebrew text.
- D:9 Brother: along with “sister,” a common term of affection between lovers or husband and wife. See, e.g., Sg 4:9–12; 8:1; Tb 5:22; 7:11.
Luke 8:22-25
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
22 [a]One day he got into a boat with his disciples and said to them, “Let us cross to the other side of the lake.” So they set sail, 23 and while they were sailing he fell asleep. A squall blew over the lake, and they were taking in water and were in danger. 24 They came and woke him saying, “Master, master, we are perishing!” He awakened, rebuked the wind and the waves, and they subsided and there was a calm. 25 Then he asked them, “Where is your faith?” But they were filled with awe and amazed and said to one another, “Who then is this, who commands even the winds and the sea, and they obey him?”
The Healing of the Gerasene Demoniac.(A)
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 8:22–56 This section records four miracles of Jesus that manifest his power and authority: (1) the calming of a storm on the lake (Lk 8:22–25); (2) the exorcism of a demoniac (Lk 8:26–39); (3) the cure of a hemorrhaging woman (Lk 8:40–48); (4) the raising of Jairus’s daughter to life (Lk 8:49–56). They parallel the same sequence of stories at Mk 4:35–5:43.
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.