Bible Browser

Psalm 74

1  O God, why have you utterly disowned us? ♦︎
   Why does your anger burn
      against the sheep of your pasture?
2  Remember your congregation that you purchased of old, ♦︎
   the tribe you redeemed for your own possession,
      and Mount Zion where you dwelt.
3  Hasten your steps towards the endless ruins, ♦︎
   where the enemy has laid waste all your sanctuary.
4  Your adversaries roared in the place of your worship; ♦︎
   they set up their banners as tokens of victory.
5  Like men brandishing axes on high in a thicket of trees, ♦︎
   all her carved work they smashed down with hatchet and hammer.
6  They set fire to your holy place; ♦︎
   they defiled the dwelling place of your name
      and razed it to the ground.
7  They said in their heart, ‘Let us make havoc of them altogether,’ ♦︎
   and they burned down all the sanctuaries of God in the land.
8  There are no signs to see, not one prophet left, ♦︎
   not one among us who knows how long.
9  How long, O God, will the adversary scoff? ♦︎
   Shall the enemy blaspheme your name for ever?
10  Why have you withheld your hand ♦︎
   and hidden your right hand in your bosom?
11  Yet God is my king from of old, ♦︎
   who did deeds of salvation in the midst of the earth.
12  It was you that divided the sea by your might ♦︎
   and shattered the heads of the dragons on the waters;
13  You alone crushed the heads of Leviathan ♦︎
   and gave him to the beasts of the desert for food.
14  You cleft the rock for fountain and flood; ♦︎
   you dried up ever-flowing rivers.
15  Yours is the day, yours also the night; ♦︎
   you established the moon and the sun.
16  You set all the bounds of the earth; ♦︎
   you fashioned both summer and winter.
17  Remember now, Lord, how the enemy scoffed, ♦︎
   how a foolish people despised your name.
18  Do not give to wild beasts the soul of your turtle dove; ♦︎
   forget not the lives of your poor for ever.
19  Look upon your creation,
      for the earth is full of darkness, ♦︎
   full of the haunts of violence.
20  Let not the oppressed turn away ashamed, ♦︎
   but let the poor and needy praise your name.
21  Arise, O God, maintain your own cause; ♦︎
   remember how fools revile you all the day long.
22  Forget not the clamour of your adversaries, ♦︎
   the tumult of your enemies that ascends continually.

¹⁶ O Lord, in distress they sought you,
   they poured out a prayer^*
   when your chastening was on them.
¹⁷ Like a woman with child,
   who writhes and cries out in her pangs
   when she is near her time,
so were we because of you, O Lord;
¹⁸   we were with child, we writhed,
   but we gave birth only to wind.
We have won no victories on earth,
   and no one is born to inhabit the world.
¹⁹ Your dead shall live, their corpses^* shall rise.
   O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy!
For your dew is a radiant dew,
   and the earth will give birth to those long dead.^*

²⁰ Come, my people, enter your chambers,
   and shut your doors behind you;
hide yourselves for a little while
   until the wrath is past.
²¹ For the Lord comes out from his place
   to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity;
the earth will disclose the blood shed on it,
   and will no longer cover its slain.

Israel’s Redemption

27On that day the Lord with his cruel and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will kill the dragon that is in the sea.

Jesus and Beelzebul

14 Now he was casting out a demon that was mute; when the demon had gone out, the one who had been mute spoke, and the crowds were amazed. ¹⁵But some of them said, ‘He casts out demons by Beelzebul, the ruler of the demons.’ ¹⁶Others, to test him, kept demanding from him a sign from heaven. ¹⁷But he knew what they were thinking and said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself becomes a desert, and house falls on house. ¹⁸If Satan also is divided against himself, how will his kingdom stand? —for you say that I cast out the demons by Beelzebul. ¹⁹Now if I cast out the demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your exorcists^* cast them out? Therefore they will be your judges. ²⁰But if it is by the finger of God that I cast out the demons, then the kingdom of God has come to you. ²¹When a strong man, fully armed, guards his castle, his property is safe. ²²But when one stronger than he attacks him and overpowers him, he takes away his armour in which he trusted and divides his plunder. ²³Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.

The Return of the Unclean Spirit

24 ‘When the unclean spirit has gone out of a person, it wanders through waterless regions looking for a resting-place, but not finding any, it says, “I will return to my house from which I came.” ²⁵When it comes, it finds it swept and put in order. ²⁶Then it goes and brings seven other spirits more evil than itself, and they enter and live there; and the last state of that person is worse than the first.’

True Blessedness

27 While he was saying this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to him, ‘Blessed is the womb that bore you and the breasts that nursed you!’ ²⁸But he said, ‘Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it!’