Bible Browser

Psalm 116

1  I love the Lord,
      for he has heard the voice of my supplication; ♦︎
   because he inclined his ear to me
      on the day I called to him.
2  The snares of death encompassed me;
      the pains of hell took hold of me; ♦︎
   by grief and sorrow was I held.
3  Then I called upon the name of the Lord: ♦︎
   ‘O Lord, I beg you, deliver my soul.’
4  Gracious is the Lord and righteous; ♦︎
   our God is full of compassion.
5  The Lord watches over the simple; ♦︎
   I was brought very low and he saved me.
6  Turn again to your rest, O my soul, ♦︎
   for the Lord has been gracious to you.
7  For you have delivered my soul from death, ♦︎
   my eyes from tears and my feet from falling.
8  I will walk before the Lord ♦︎
   in the land of the living.
9  I believed that I should perish
      for I was sorely troubled; ♦︎
   and I said in my alarm,
      ‘Everyone is a liar.’
10  How shall I repay the Lord ♦︎
   for all the benefits he has given to me?
11  I will lift up the cup of salvation ♦︎
   and call upon the name of the Lord.
12  I will fulfil my vows to the Lord ♦︎
   in the presence of all his people.
13  Precious in the sight of the Lord ♦︎
   is the death of his faithful servants.
14  O Lord, I am your servant, ♦︎
   your servant, the child of your handmaid;
      you have freed me from my bonds.
15  I will offer to you a sacrifice of thanksgiving ♦︎
   and call upon the name of the Lord.
16  I will fulfil my vows to the Lord ♦︎
   in the presence of all his people,
17  In the courts of the house of the Lord, ♦︎
   in the midst of you, O Jerusalem.
      Alleluia.

¹² Are you not from of old,
   O Lord my God, my Holy One?
   You^* shall not die.
O Lord, you have marked them for judgement;
   and you, O Rock, have established them for punishment.
¹³ Your eyes are too pure to behold evil,
   and you cannot look on wrongdoing;
why do you look on the treacherous,
   and are silent when the wicked swallow
   those more righteous than they?
¹⁴ You have made people like the fish of the sea,
   like crawling things that have no ruler.

¹⁵ The enemy^* brings all of them up with a hook;
   he drags them out with his net,
he gathers them in his seine;
   so he rejoices and exults.
¹⁶ Therefore he sacrifices to his net
   and makes offerings to his seine;
for by them his portion is lavish,
   and his food is rich.
¹⁷ Is he then to keep on emptying his net,
   and destroying nations without mercy?

God’s Reply to the Prophet’s Complaint

2I will stand at my watch-post,
   and station myself on the rampart;
I will keep watch to see what he will say to me,
   and what he^* will answer concerning my complaint.
² Then the Lord answered me and said:
Write the vision;
   make it plain on tablets,
   so that a runner may read it.
³ For there is still a vision for the appointed time;
   it speaks of the end, and does not lie.
If it seems to tarry, wait for it;
   it will surely come, it will not delay.
⁴ Look at the proud!
   Their spirit is not right in them,
   but the righteous live by their faith.^*
5 Moreover, wealth^* is treacherous;
   the arrogant do not endure.
They open their throats wide as Sheol;
   like Death they never have enough.
They gather all nations for themselves,
   and collect all peoples as their own.

The Syrophoenician Woman’s Faith

24 From there he set out and went away to the region of Tyre.^* He entered a house and did not want anyone to know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, ²⁵but a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed down at his feet. ²⁶Now the woman was a Gentile, of Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the demon out of her daughter. ²⁷He said to her, ‘Let the children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s food and throw it to the dogs.’ ²⁸But she answered him, ‘Sir,^* even the dogs under the table eat the children’s crumbs.’ ²⁹Then he said to her, ‘For saying that, you may go—the demon has left your daughter.’ ³⁰So she went home, found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.