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The Righteousness of God’s Judgement

65I was ready to be sought out by those who did not ask,
   to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, ‘Here I am, here I am’,
   to a nation that did not call on my name.
² I held out my hands all day long
   to a rebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
   following their own devices;
³ a people who provoke me
   to my face continually,
sacrificing in gardens
   and offering incense on bricks;
⁴ who sit inside tombs,
   and spend the night in secret places;
who eat swine’s flesh,
   with broth of abominable things in their vessels;
⁵ who say, ‘Keep to yourself,
   do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.’
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
   a fire that burns all day long.
⁶ See, it is written before me:
   I will not keep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their laps
⁷   their^* iniquities and their^* ancestors’ iniquities together,

says the Lord;
because they offered incense on the mountains
   and reviled me on the hills,
I will measure into their laps
   full payment for their actions.
⁸ Thus says the Lord:
As the wine is found in the cluster,
   and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
   for there is a blessing in it’,
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
   and not destroy them all.
⁹ I will bring forth descendants^* from Jacob,
   and from Judah inheritors^* of my mountains;
my chosen shall inherit it,
   and my servants shall settle there.

19  Be not far from me, O Lord; ♦︎
   you are my strength; hasten to help me.
20  Deliver my soul from the sword, ♦︎
   my poor life from the power of the dog.
21  Save me from the lion’s mouth,
      from the horns of wild oxen. ♦︎
   You have answered me!
22  I will tell of your name to my people; ♦︎
   in the midst of the congregation will I praise you.
23  Praise the Lord, you that fear him; ♦︎
   O seed of Jacob, glorify him;
      stand in awe of him, O seed of Israel.
24  For he has not despised nor abhorred the suffering of the poor;
      neither has he hidden his face from them; ♦︎
   but when they cried to him he heard them.
25  From you comes my praise in the great congregation; ♦︎
   I will perform my vows
      in the presence of those that fear you.
26  The poor shall eat and be satisfied; ♦︎
   those who seek the Lord shall praise him;
      their hearts shall live for ever.
27  All the ends of the earth
      shall remember and turn to the Lord, ♦︎
   and all the families of the nations shall bow before him.
28  For the kingdom is the Lord’s ♦︎
   and he rules over the nations.

23 Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed. ²⁴Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith. ²⁵But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian, ²⁶for in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith. ²⁷As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s offspring,^* heirs according to the promise.

Jesus Heals the Gerasene Demoniac

26 Then they arrived at the country of the Gerasenes,^* which is opposite Galilee. ²⁷As he stepped out on land, a man of the city who had demons met him. For a long time he had worn^* no clothes, and he did not live in a house but in the tombs. ²⁸When he saw Jesus, he fell down before him and shouted at the top of his voice, ‘What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me’— ²⁹for Jesus^* had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many times it had seized him; he was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the wilds.) ³⁰Jesus then asked him, ‘What is your name?’ He said, ‘Legion’; for many demons had entered him. ³¹They begged him not to order them to go back into the abyss.

32 Now there on the hillside a large herd of swine was feeding; and the demons^* begged Jesus^* to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. ³³Then the demons came out of the man and entered the swine, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and was drowned.

34 When the swineherds saw what had happened, they ran off and told it in the city and in the country. ³⁵Then people came out to see what had happened, and when they came to Jesus, they found the man from whom the demons had gone sitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. ³⁶Those who had seen it told them how the one who had been possessed by demons had been healed. ³⁷Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes^* asked Jesus^* to leave them; for they were seized with great fear. So he got into the boat and returned. ³⁸The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him; but Jesus^* sent him away, saying, ³⁹‘Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.’ So he went away, proclaiming throughout the city how much Jesus had done for him.