Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

35 O Lord, fight those fighting me; declare war on them for their attacks on me. ² Put on your armor, take your shield and protect me by standing in front. ³ Lift your spear in my defense, for my pursuers are getting very close. Let me hear you say that you will save me from them. ⁴ Dishonor those who are trying to kill me. Turn them back and confuse them. ⁵ Blow them away like chaff in the wind—wind sent by the Angel of the Lord. ⁶ Make their path dark and slippery before them, with the Angel of the Lord pursuing them. ⁷ For though I did them no wrong, yet they laid a trap for me and dug a pitfall in my path. ⁸ Let them be overtaken by sudden ruin, caught in their own net and destroyed.

⁹ But I will rejoice in the Lord. He shall rescue me! ¹⁰ From the bottom of my heart praise rises to him. Where is his equal in all of heaven and earth? Who else protects the weak and helpless from the strong, and the poor and needy from those who would rob them?

29 ^1-2 After Jeconiah the king, the queen mother, the court officials, the tribal officers, and craftsmen had been deported to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, Jeremiah wrote them a letter from Jerusalem, addressing it to the Jewish elders, priests, prophets, and to all the people. ³ He sent the letter with Elasah (son of Shaphan) and Gemariah (son of Hilkiah) when they went to Babylon as King Zedekiah’s ambassadors to Nebuchadnezzar. And this is what the letter said:

⁴ The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, sends this message to all the captives he has exiled to Babylon from Jerusalem:

⁵ Build homes and plan to stay; plant vineyards, for you will be there many years. ⁶ Marry and have children, and then find mates for them and have many grandchildren. Multiply! Don’t dwindle away! ⁷ And work for the peace and prosperity of Babylon. Pray for her, for if Babylon has peace, so will you.

⁸ The Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: Don’t let the false prophets and mediums who are there among you fool you. Don’t listen to the dreams that they invent, ⁹ for they prophesy lies in my name. I have not sent them, says the Lord. ¹⁰ The truth is this: You will be in Babylon for seventy years. But then I will come and do for you all the good things I have promised and bring you home again. ¹¹ For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord. They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ¹² In those days when you pray, I will listen. ¹³ You will find me when you seek me, if you look for me in earnest.

¹⁴ Yes, says the Lord, I will be found by you, and I will end your slavery and restore your fortunes; I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and bring you back home again to your own land.

5 ^1-2 When they arrived at the other side of the lake, a demon-possessed man ran out from a graveyard, just as Jesus was climbing from the boat.

^3-4 This man lived among the gravestones and had such strength that whenever he was put into handcuffs and shackles—as he often was—he snapped the handcuffs from his wrists and smashed the shackles and walked away. No one was strong enough to control him. ⁵ All day long and through the night he would wander among the tombs and in the wild hills, screaming and cutting himself with sharp pieces of stone.

⁶ When Jesus was still far out on the water, the man had seen him and had run to meet him, and fell down before him.

^7-8 Then Jesus spoke to the demon within the man and said, “Come out, you evil spirit.”

It gave a terrible scream, shrieking, “What are you going to do to me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? For God’s sake, don’t torture me!”

⁹ “What is your name?” Jesus asked, and the demon replied, “Legion, for there are many of us here within this man.”

¹⁰ Then the demons begged him again and again not to send them to some distant land.

¹¹ Now as it happened there was a huge herd of hogs rooting around on the hill above the lake. ¹² “Send us into those hogs,” the demons begged.

¹³ And Jesus gave them permission. Then the evil spirits came out of the man and entered the hogs, and the entire herd plunged down the steep hillside into the lake and drowned.

¹⁴ The herdsmen fled to the nearby towns and countryside, spreading the news as they ran. Everyone rushed out to see for themselves. ¹⁵ And a large crowd soon gathered where Jesus was; but as they saw the man sitting there, fully clothed and perfectly sane, they were frightened. ¹⁶ Those who saw what happened were telling everyone about it, ¹⁷ and the crowd began pleading with Jesus to go away and leave them alone! ¹⁸ So he got back into the boat. The man who had been possessed by the demons begged Jesus to let him go along. ¹⁹ But Jesus said no.

“Go home to your friends,” he told him, “and tell them what wonderful things God has done for you; and how merciful he has been.”

²⁰ So the man started off to visit the Ten Towns^[a] of that region and began to tell everyone about the great things Jesus had done for him; and they were awestruck by his story.