Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)
5 Your mercy and loving-kindness, O Lord, extend to the skies, and Your faithfulness to the clouds.
6 Your righteousness is like the mountains of God, Your judgments are like the great deep. O Lord, You preserve man and beast.
7 How precious is Your steadfast love, O God! The children of men take refuge and put their trust under the shadow of Your wings.
8 They relish and feast on the abundance of Your house; and You cause them to drink of the stream of Your pleasures.
9 For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light.(A)
10 O continue Your loving-kindness to those who know You, Your righteousness (salvation) to the upright in heart.
4 If you will return, O Israel, says the Lord, if you will return to Me, and if you will put away your abominable false gods out of My sight and not stray or waver,
2 And if you swear, As the Lord lives, in truth, in judgment and justice, and in righteousness (uprightness in every area and relation), then the nations will bless themselves in Him and in Him will they glory.
3 For thus says the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem: Break up your ground left uncultivated for a season, so that you may not sow among thorns.
4 Circumcise yourselves to the Lord and take away the foreskins of your hearts, you men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, lest My wrath go forth like fire [consuming all that gets in its way] and burn so that no one can quench it because of the evil of your doings.
14 Now Jesus was driving out a demon that was dumb; and it occurred that when the demon had gone out, the dumb man spoke. And the crowds marveled.
15 But some of them said, He drives out demons [because He is in league with and] by Beelzebub, the prince of demons,
16 While others, to try and test and tempt Him, demanded a sign of Him from heaven.
17 But He, [well] aware of their intent and purpose, said to them, Every kingdom split up against itself is doomed and brought to desolation, and so house falls upon house. [The disunited household will collapse.]
18 And if Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom last? For you say that I expel demons with the help of and by Beelzebub.
19 Now if I expel demons with the help of and by Beelzebub, with whose help and by whom do your sons drive them out? Therefore they shall be your judges.
20 But if I drive out the demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has [already] come upon you.
21 When the strong man, fully armed, [[a]from his courtyard] guards his own dwelling, his belongings are undisturbed [his property is at peace and is secure].
22 But when one stronger than he attacks him and conquers him, he robs him of his whole armor on which he had relied and divides up and distributes all his goods as plunder (spoil).
23 He who is not with Me [siding and believing with Me] is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me [engage in My interest], scatters.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation