Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

A Song of Praise

135 Praise the Lord! Praise the name of the Lord! Praise Him, O servants of the Lord, ² you who stand in the house of the Lord, within the walls of the house of our God. ³ Praise the Lord, for the Lord is good. Sing praises to His name, for it is sweet. ⁴ For the Lord has chosen Jacob for Himself. Israel belongs to Him.

⁵ I know that the Lord is great. He is greater than all gods. ⁶ The Lord does whatever is pleasing to Him, in heaven and on earth, in the seas and in all waters. ⁷ He makes the clouds rise from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning come with the rain. He brings the wind out from where He stores His riches.

⁸ He killed the first-born of Egypt, both man and animal. ⁹ He sent special things to see and did great works among you, O Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants. ¹⁰ He crushed many nations and killed powerful kings, ¹¹ King Sihon of the Amorites, King Og of Bashan, and all the kings of Canaan. ¹² And He gave their land as a gift, a gift to Israel His people. ¹³ O Lord, Your name lasts forever. O Lord, You will be remembered for all time. ¹⁴ For the Lord will decide in favor of His people. He will have loving-pity on His servants. ¹⁵ The gods of the nations are silver and gold, made by the hands of men. ¹⁶ They have mouths but they do not speak. They have eyes but they do not see. ¹⁷ They have ears but they do not hear. And there is no breath in their mouths. ¹⁸ Those who make them and those who trust in them will be like them.

¹⁹ O house of Israel, give honor and thanks to the Lord. O house of Aaron, give honor and thanks to the Lord. ²⁰ O house of Levi, give honor and thanks to the Lord. You who fear the Lord, give honor and thanks to the Lord. ²¹ Honor and thanks be to the Lord from Zion, Who lives in Jerusalem. Praise the Lord!

Those Not Faithful Are Judged

¹² Then the Word of the Lord came to me saying, ¹³ “Son of man, if a country sins against Me by not being faithful, I will put out My hand against it. I will destroy its store of bread, and send hunger against it, and take away both man and animal from it. ¹⁴ For even if these three men, Noah, Daniel and Job, were in this country, they would save only their own lives by being right and good,” says the Lord God. ¹⁵ “If I sent wild animals to pass through the land to kill its people and destroy it so that no one would go through it because of the wild animals, ¹⁶ even if these three men were in the land, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they could not save their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved, but the country would be laid waste. ¹⁷ If I bring a sword against that country and say, ‘Let the sword pass through the country and cut off man and animal from it,’ ¹⁸ even if these three men were in the land, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they could not save their sons or their daughters. They alone would be saved. ¹⁹ Or if I send a disease against that country and show My anger by killing, to take away man and animal from it, ²⁰ even if Noah, Daniel and Job were in the land, as I live,” says the Lord God, “they could not save their son or daughter. They would save only themselves by being right and good.

²¹ “For the Lord God says, ‘How much worse will it be when I send my four worst punishments against Jerusalem! I will send the sword, hunger, wild animals, and disease, to take away man and animal from it! ²² Yet there will be some people and their children left alive in it who will be brought out. When they come to you, see how sinful they are. Then you will know that all the trouble I brought upon Jerusalem was right. ²³ It will help you when you see how they act. Then you will know that there was a good reason for everything I did,’ says the Lord God.”

Jesus Puts a Demon out of a Girl ^(A)

²⁴ Jesus went from their towns and cities to the cities of Tyre and Sidon. He went into a house and wanted to stay there without people knowing where He was. But He could not hide Himself. ²⁵ A woman who had a daughter with a demon heard of Him. She came and got down at His feet. ²⁶ The woman was not a Jew. She was from the country of Syrophenicia. She asked Jesus if He would put the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷ Jesus said to her, “Let the children have what they want first. It is wrong to take children’s food and throw it to the dogs.” ²⁸ She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, but even the dogs eat the pieces that fall from the children’s table.” ²⁹ He said to her, “Because of what you have said, go your way. The demon is gone out of your daughter.” ³⁰ So she went to her house and found the demon was gone and her daughter was lying on the bed.