Revised Common Lectionary (Complementary)

65 I was [ready to be] inquired of by those who asked not; I was [ready to be] found by those who sought Me not. I said, Here I am, here I am [says I Am] to a nation [Israel] that has not called on My name.^(A)

² I have spread out My hands all the day long to a rebellious people, who walk in a way that is not good, after their own thoughts—

³ A people who provoke Me to My face continually, sacrificing [to idols] in gardens and burning incense upon bricks [instead of at God’s prescribed altar];

⁴ Who sit among the graves [trying to talk with the dead] and lodge among the secret places [or caves where familiar spirits were thought to dwell]; who eat swine’s flesh, and the broth of abominable and loathsome things is in their vessels;

⁵ Who say, Keep to yourself; do not come near me, for I am set apart from you [and lest I sanctify you]! These are smoke in My nostrils, a fire that burns all the day.

⁶ Behold, it is written before Me: I will not keep silence but will repay; yes, I will repay into their bosom

⁷ Both your own iniquities and the iniquities of your fathers, says the Lord. Because they too burned incense upon the mountains and reviled and blasphemed Me upon the hills, therefore will I measure and stretch out their former doings into their own bosom.

⁸ Thus says the Lord: As the juice [of the grape] is found in the cluster, and one says, Do not destroy it, for there is a blessing in it, so will I do for My servants’ sake, that I may not destroy them all.

⁹ And I will bring forth an offspring from Jacob, and from Judah an inheritor of My mountains; My chosen and elect will inherit it, and My servants will dwell there.

¹⁹ But be not far from me, O Lord; O my Help, hasten to aid me!

²⁰ Deliver my life from the sword, my dear life [my only one] from the power of the dog [the agent of execution].

²¹ Save me from the lion’s mouth; for You have answered me [kindly] from the horns of the wild oxen.

²² I will declare Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise You.^(A)

²³ You who fear (revere and worship) the Lord, praise Him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him. Fear (revere and worship) Him, all you offspring of Israel.

²⁴ For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard.

²⁵ My praise shall be of You in the great congregation. I will pay to Him my vows [made in the time of trouble] before them who fear (revere and worship) Him.

²⁶ The poor and afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; they shall praise the Lord—they who [diligently] seek for, inquire of and for Him, and require Him [as their greatest need]. May your hearts be quickened now and forever!

²⁷ All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow down and worship before You,

²⁸ For the kingship and the kingdom are the Lord’s, and He is the ruler over the nations.

²³ Now before the faith came, we were perpetually guarded under the Law, kept in custody in preparation for the faith that was destined to be revealed (unveiled, disclosed),

²⁴ So that the Law served ^[a][to us Jews] as our trainer [our guardian, our guide to Christ, to lead us] until Christ [came], that we might be justified (declared righteous, put in right standing with God) by and through faith.

²⁵ But now that the faith has come, we are no longer under a trainer (the guardian of our childhood).

²⁶ For in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God through faith.

²⁷ For as many [of you] as were baptized into Christ [into a spiritual union and communion with Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah] have put on (clothed yourselves with) Christ.

²⁸ There is [now no distinction] neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is not male ^[b]and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

²⁹ And if you belong to Christ [are in Him Who is Abraham’s Seed], then you are Abraham’s offspring and [spiritual] heirs according to promise.

²⁶ Then they came to the country of the Gerasenes, which is opposite Galilee.

²⁷ Now when Jesus stepped out on land, there met Him a certain man out of the town who had [was possessed by] demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he lived not in a house but in the tombs.

²⁸ And when he saw Jesus, he raised a deep (terrible) cry [from the depths of his throat] and fell down before Him [in terror] and shouted loudly, What have You [to do] with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? [^[a]What have we in common?] I beg You, do not torment me!

²⁹ For Jesus was already commanding the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For many times it had snatched and held him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and fetters, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilderness (desert).

³⁰ Jesus then asked him, What is your name? And he answered, Legion; for many demons had entered him.

³¹ And they begged [Jesus] not to command them to depart into the Abyss (bottomless pit).^(A)

³² Now a great herd of swine was there feeding on the hillside; and [the demons] begged Him to give them leave to enter these. And He allowed them [to do so].

³³ Then the demons came out of the man and entered into the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep cliff into the lake and were drowned.

³⁴ When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they ran away and told it in the town and in the country.

³⁵ And [people] went out to see what had occurred, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone out, sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right (sound) mind; and they were seized with alarm and fear.

³⁶ And those [also] who had seen it told them how he who had been possessed with demons was restored [to health].

³⁷ Then all the people of the country surrounding the Gerasenes’ district asked [Jesus] to depart from them, for they were possessed and suffering with dread and terror; so He entered a boat and returned [to the west side of the Sea of Galilee].

³⁸ But the man from whom the demons had gone out kept begging and ^[b]praying that he might accompany Him and be with Him, but [Jesus] sent him away, saying,

³⁹ Return to your home, and recount [the story] of how many and great things God has done for you. And [the man] departed, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.