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Psalm 140

1  Deliver me, O Lord, from evildoers ♦︎
   and protect me from the violent,
2  Who devise evil in their hearts ♦︎
   and stir up strife all the day long.
3  They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; ♦︎
   adder’s poison is under their lips.
4  Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; ♦︎
   protect me from the violent
      who seek to make me stumble.
5  The proud have laid a snare for me
      and spread out a net of cords; ♦︎
   they have set traps along my path.
6  I have said to the Lord, ‘You are my God; ♦︎
   listen, O Lord, to the voice of my supplication.
7  ‘O Lord God, the strength of my salvation, ♦︎
   you have covered my head in the day of battle.
8  ‘Do not grant the desires of the wicked, O Lord, ♦︎
   do not prosper their wicked plans.
9  ‘Let not those who surround me lift up their heads; ♦︎
   let the evil of their own lips fall upon them.
10  ‘Let hot burning coals rain upon them; ♦︎
   let them be cast into the depths, that they rise not again.’
11  No slanderer shall prosper on the earth, ♦︎
   and evil shall hunt down the violent to overthrow them.
12  I know that the Lord will bring justice for the oppressed ♦︎
   and maintain the cause of the needy.
13  Surely, the righteous will give thanks to your name, ♦︎
   and the upright shall dwell in your presence.

Jeremiah Denounces His Persecutors

⁷ O Lord, you have enticed me,
   and I was enticed;
you have overpowered me,
   and you have prevailed.
I have become a laughing-stock all day long;
   everyone mocks me.
⁸ For whenever I speak, I must cry out,
   I must shout, ‘Violence and destruction!’
For the word of the Lord has become for me
   a reproach and derision all day long.
⁹ If I say, ‘I will not mention him,
   or speak any more in his name’,
then within me there is something like a burning fire
   shut up in my bones;
I am weary with holding it in,
   and I cannot.
¹⁰ For I hear many whispering:
   ‘Terror is all around!
Denounce him! Let us denounce him!’
   All my close friends
   are watching for me to stumble.
‘Perhaps he can be enticed,
   and we can prevail against him,
   and take our revenge on him.’
¹¹ But the Lord is with me like a dread warrior;
   therefore my persecutors will stumble,
   and they will not prevail.
They will be greatly shamed,
   for they will not succeed.
Their eternal dishonour
   will never be forgotten.
¹² O Lord of hosts, you test the righteous,
   you see the heart and the mind;
let me see your retribution upon them,
   for to you I have committed my cause.

¹³ Sing to the Lord;
   praise the Lord!
For he has delivered the life of the needy
   from the hands of evildoers.

¹⁴ Cursed be the day
   on which I was born!
The day when my mother bore me,
   let it not be blessed!
¹⁵ Cursed be the man
   who brought the news to my father, saying,
‘A child is born to you, a son’,
   making him very glad.
¹⁶ Let that man be like the cities
   that the Lord overthrew without pity;
let him hear a cry in the morning
   and an alarm at noon,
¹⁷ because he did not kill me in the womb;
   so my mother would have been my grave,
   and her womb for ever great.
¹⁸ Why did I come forth from the womb
   to see toil and sorrow,
   and spend my days in shame?

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

17 When Jesus arrived, he found that Lazarus^* had already been in the tomb for four days. ¹⁸Now Bethany was near Jerusalem, some two miles^* away, ¹⁹and many of the Jews had come to Martha and Mary to console them about their brother. ²⁰When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went and met him, while Mary stayed at home. ²¹Martha said to Jesus, ‘Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. ²²But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask of him.’ ²³Jesus said to her, ‘Your brother will rise again.’ ²⁴Martha said to him, ‘I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.’ ²⁵Jesus said to her, ‘I am the resurrection and the life.^* Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, ²⁶and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?’ ²⁷She said to him, ‘Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Messiah,^* the Son of God, the one coming into the world.’