Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
88 O Jehovah, God of my salvation, I have wept before you day and night. 2 Now hear my prayers; oh, listen to my cry, 3 for my life is full of troubles, and death draws near. 4 They say my life is ebbing out—a hopeless case. 5 They have left me here to die, like those slain on battlefields from whom your mercies are removed.
6 You have thrust me down to the darkest depths. 7 Your wrath lies heavy on me; wave after wave engulfs me. 8 You have made my friends to loathe me, and they have gone away. I am in a trap with no way out. 9 My eyes grow dim with weeping. Each day I beg your help; O Lord, I reach my pleading hands to you for mercy.
10 Soon it will be too late! Of what use are your miracles when I am in the grave? How can I praise you then? 11 Can those in the grave declare your loving-kindness? Can they proclaim your faithfulness? 12 Can the darkness speak of your miracles? Can anyone in the Land of Forgetfulness talk about your help?
13 O Lord, I plead for my life and will keep on pleading day by day. 14 O Jehovah, why have you thrown my life away? Why are you turning your face from me and looking the other way?
15 From my youth I have been sickly and ready to die. I stand helpless before your terrors. 16 Your fierce wrath has overwhelmed me. Your terrors have cut me off. 17 They flow around me all day long. 18 Lover, friend, acquaintance—all are gone. There is only darkness everywhere.
20 Hezekiah now became deathly sick, and Isaiah the prophet went to visit him.
“Set your affairs in order and prepare to die,” Isaiah told him. “The Lord says you won’t recover.”
2 Hezekiah turned his face to the wall.
3 “O Lord,” he pleaded, “remember how I’ve always tried to obey you and to please you in everything I do. . . . ” Then he broke down and cried.
4 So before Isaiah had left the courtyard, the Lord spoke to him again.
5 “Go back to Hezekiah, the leader of my people, and tell him that the Lord God of his ancestor David has heard his prayer and seen his tears. I will heal him, and three days from now he will be out of bed and at the Temple! 6 I will add fifteen years to his life and save him and this city from the king of Assyria. And it will all be done for the glory of my own name and for the sake of my servant David.”
7 Isaiah then instructed Hezekiah to boil some dried figs and to make a paste of them and spread it on the boil. And he recovered!
8 Meanwhile, King Hezekiah had said to Isaiah, “Do a miracle to prove to me that the Lord will heal me and that I will be able to go to the Temple again three days from now.”
9 “All right, the Lord will give you a proof,” Isaiah told him. “Do you want the shadow on the sundial to go forward ten points or backward ten points?”
10 “The shadow always moves forward,” Hezekiah replied; “make it go backward.”
11 So Isaiah asked the Lord to do this, and he caused the shadow to move ten points backward on the sundial of Ahaz![a]
14 At the bottom of the mountain they found a great crowd surrounding the other nine disciples, as some Jewish leaders argued with them. 15 The crowd watched Jesus in awe as he came toward them, and then ran to greet him. 16 “What’s all the argument about?” he asked.
17 One of the men in the crowd spoke up and said, “Teacher, I brought my son for you to heal—he can’t talk because he is possessed by a demon. 18 And whenever the demon is in control of him it dashes him to the ground and makes him foam at the mouth and grind his teeth and become rigid.[a] So I begged your disciples to cast out the demon, but they couldn’t do it.”
19 Jesus said to his disciples,[b] “Oh, what tiny faith you have; how much longer must I be with you until you believe? How much longer must I be patient with you? Bring the boy to me.”
20 So they brought the boy, but when he saw Jesus, the demon convulsed the child horribly, and he fell to the ground writhing and foaming at the mouth.
21 “How long has he been this way?” Jesus asked the father.
And he replied, “Since he was very small, 22 and the demon often makes him fall into the fire or into water to kill him. Oh, have mercy on us and do something if you can.”
23 “If I can?” Jesus asked.
24 The father instantly replied, “I do have faith; oh, help me to have more!”
25 When Jesus saw the crowd was growing, he rebuked the demon.
“O demon of deafness and dumbness,” he said, “I command you to come out of this child and enter him no more!”
26 Then the demon screamed terribly and convulsed the boy again and left him; and the boy lay there limp and motionless, to all appearance dead. A murmur ran through the crowd—“He is dead.” 27 But Jesus took him by the hand and helped him to his feet and he stood up and was all right! 28 Afterwards, when Jesus was alone in the house with his disciples, they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast that demon out?”
29 Jesus replied, “Cases like this require prayer.”[c]
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.