Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

146 Praise the Lord! Yes, really praise him! ² I will praise him as long as I live, yes, even with my dying breath.

³ Don’t look to men for help; their greatest leaders fail; ⁴ for every man must die. His breathing stops, life ends, and in a moment all he planned for himself is ended. ⁵ But happy is the man who has the God of Jacob as his helper, whose hope is in the Lord his God— ⁶ the God who made both earth and heaven, the seas and everything in them. He is the God who keeps every promise, ⁷ who gives justice to the poor and oppressed and food to the hungry. He frees the prisoners ⁸ and opens the eyes of the blind; he lifts the burdens from those bent down beneath their loads. For the Lord loves good men. ⁹ He protects the immigrants and cares for the orphans and widows. But he turns topsy-turvy the plans of the wicked.

¹⁰ The Lord will reign forever. O Jerusalem,^[a] your God is King in every generation! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

33 Woe to you, Assyrians,^[a] who have destroyed everything around you but have never felt destruction for yourselves. You expect others to respect their promises to you, while you betray them! Now you, too, will be betrayed and destroyed.

² But to us, O Lord, be merciful, for we have waited for you. Be our strength each day and our salvation in the time of trouble. ³ The enemy runs at the sound of your voice. When you stand up, the nations flee. ⁴ Just as locusts strip the fields and vines, so Jerusalem will strip the fallen army of Assyria!^[b]

⁵ The Lord is very great and lives in heaven. He will make Jerusalem the home of justice and goodness and righteousness. ⁶ An abundance of salvation is stored up for Judah in a safe place, along with wisdom and knowledge and reverence for God.

⁷ But now your ambassadors weep in bitter disappointment, for Assyria has refused their cry for peace. ⁸ Your roads lie in ruins; travelers detour on back roads. The Assyrians have broken their peace pact^[c] and care nothing for the promises they made in the presence of witnesses—they have no respect for anyone. ⁹ All the land of Israel is in trouble; Lebanon has been destroyed; Sharon has become a wilderness; Bashan and Carmel are plundered.

²¹ Jesus then left that part of the country and walked the fifty miles to Tyre and Sidon.^[a]

²² A woman from Canaan who was living there came to him, pleading, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, King David’s Son! For my daughter has a demon within her, and it torments her constantly.”

²³ But Jesus gave her no reply—not even a word. Then his disciples urged him to send her away. “Tell her to get going,” they said, “for she is bothering us with all her begging.”

²⁴ Then he said to the woman, “I was sent to help the Jews—the lost sheep of Israel—not the Gentiles.”

²⁵ But she came and worshiped him and pled again, “Sir, help me!”

²⁶ “It doesn’t seem right to take bread from the children and throw it to the dogs,” he said.

²⁷ “Yes, it is!” she replied, “for even the puppies beneath the table are permitted to eat the crumbs that fall.”

²⁸ “Woman,” Jesus told her, “your faith is large, and your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed right then.

²⁹ Jesus now returned to the Sea of Galilee and climbed a hill and sat there. ³⁰ And a vast crowd brought him their lame, blind, maimed, and those who couldn’t speak, and many others, and laid them before Jesus, and he healed them all. ³¹ What a spectacle it was! Those who hadn’t been able to say a word before were talking excitedly, and those with missing arms and legs had new ones; the crippled were walking and jumping around, and those who had been blind were gazing about them! The crowds just marveled and praised the God of Israel.