Book of Common Prayer

Babylon’s judgment

⁹ The kings of the earth who committed fornication with her and shared her luxury will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke from her fire. ¹⁰ They will stand far off, fearful of her tortures. “Alas, alas,” they will say, “the great city! Babylon the powerful city! Your judgment has come in a single hour.” ¹¹ The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, because nobody will buy their cargo anymore, ¹² their cargo of gold and silver, of precious stones and pearls, fine linen and purple, silk and scarlet, all the sweet-smelling wood, carved ivory, vessels of expensive wood, brass, iron, marble, ¹³ cinnamon, oriental spice, incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, olive oil, fine flour, wheat, cattle, sheep, horses, chariots and bodies . . . yes, human lives.

¹⁴ All the fruit for which you longed has gone from you; all your luxuries and sparkling objects have been destroyed; you won’t find them anymore. ¹⁵ The merchants who sold these things, and who made themselves rich from her, will stand a long way off for fear of her tortures. They will weep and mourn, ¹⁶ and say, “Alas, alas! The great city! It was clothed in fine linen, purple and scarlet, decked out in gold, precious stones and pearls— ¹⁷ but in a single hour such great wealth has been destroyed!”

All the master mariners, all those who ply their ships to and fro, all sailors, and all who do business on the sea, stood a long way off ¹⁸ and shouted out when they saw the smoke of her fire. “Who is like the great city?” they said. ¹⁹ They threw dust on their heads and shouted out, weeping and mourning. “Alas, alas,” they said, “the great city! Everyone who had ships on the sea could get rich from her wealth, but in a single hour she has become a desert.”

²⁰ Celebrate over her, heaven, and you holy ones, apostles and prophets, because God has passed against her the sentence she passed against you.

The Canaanite woman

²¹ Jesus left that place and went off to the district of Tyre and Sidon. ²² A Canaanite woman from those parts came out and shouted, “Have pity on me, Lord, son of David! My daughter is demon-possessed! She’s in a bad way!” ²³ Jesus, however, said nothing at all to her.

His disciples came up.

“Please send her away,” they asked. “She’s shouting after us.”

²⁴ “I was only sent,” replied Jesus, “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”

²⁵ The woman, however, came and threw herself down at his feet.

“Master,” she said, “please help me!”

²⁶ “It isn’t right,” replied Jesus, “to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.”

²⁷ “I know, Master,” she said. “But even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from their master’s table.”

²⁸ “You’ve got great faith, haven’t you, my friend!” replied Jesus. “All right; let it be as you wish.”

And her daughter was healed from that moment.