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Punishment for Israel’s Sin

9Do not rejoice, O Israel!
   Do not exult^* as other nations do;
for you have played the whore, departing from your God.
   You have loved a prostitute’s pay
   on all threshing-floors.
² Threshing-floor and wine vat shall not feed them,
   and the new wine shall fail them.
³ They shall not remain in the land of the Lord;
   but Ephraim shall return to Egypt,
   and in Assyria they shall eat unclean food.

⁴ They shall not pour drink-offerings of wine to the Lord,
   and their sacrifices shall not please him.
Such sacrifices shall be like mourners’ bread;
   all who eat of it shall be defiled;
for their bread shall be for their hunger only;
   it shall not come to the house of the Lord.

⁵ What will you do on the day of appointed festival,
   and on the day of the festival of the Lord?
⁶ For even if they escape destruction,
   Egypt shall gather them,
   Memphis shall bury them.
Nettles shall possess their precious things of silver;^*
   thorns shall be in their tents.

⁷ The days of punishment have come,
   the days of recompense have come;
   Israel cries,^*
‘The prophet is a fool,
   the man of the spirit is mad!’
Because of your great iniquity,
   your hostility is great.
⁸ The prophet is a sentinel for my God over Ephraim,
yet a fowler’s snare is on all his ways,
   and hostility in the house of his God.
⁹ They have deeply corrupted themselves
   as in the days of Gibeah;
he will remember their iniquity,
   he will punish their sins.

¹⁰ Like grapes in the wilderness,
   I found Israel.
Like the first fruit on the fig tree,
   in its first season,
   I saw your ancestors.
But they came to Baal-peor,
   and consecrated themselves to a thing of shame,
   and became detestable like the thing they loved.
¹¹ Ephraim’s glory shall fly away like a bird—
   no birth, no pregnancy, no conception!
¹² Even if they bring up children,
   I will bereave them until no one is left.
Woe to them indeed
   when I depart from them!
¹³ Once I saw Ephraim as a young palm planted in a lovely meadow,^*
   but now Ephraim must lead out his children for slaughter.
¹⁴ Give them, O Lord—
   what will you give?
Give them a miscarrying womb
   and dry breasts.

¹⁵ Every evil of theirs began at Gilgal;
   there I came to hate them.
Because of the wickedness of their deeds
   I will drive them out of my house.
I will love them no more;
   all their officials are rebels.

¹⁶ Ephraim is stricken,
   their root is dried up,
   they shall bear no fruit.
Even though they give birth,
   I will kill the cherished offspring of their womb.
¹⁷ Because they have not listened to him,
   my God will reject them;
   they shall become wanderers among the nations.

Israel’s Sin and Captivity

10Israel is a luxuriant vine
   that yields its fruit.
The more his fruit increased
   the more altars he built;
as his country improved,
   he improved his pillars.
² Their heart is false;
   now they must bear their guilt.
The Lord ^* will break down their altars,
   and destroy their pillars.

³ For now they will say:
   ‘We have no king,
for we do not fear the Lord,
   and a king—what could he do for us?’
⁴ They utter mere words;
   with empty oaths they make covenants;
so litigation springs up like poisonous weeds
   in the furrows of the field.
⁵ The inhabitants of Samaria tremble
   for the calf^* of Beth-aven.
Its people shall mourn for it,
   and its idolatrous priests shall wail^* over it,
   over its glory that has departed from it.
⁶ The thing itself shall be carried to Assyria
   as tribute to the great king.^*
Ephraim shall be put to shame,
   and Israel shall be ashamed of his idol.^*

⁷ Samaria’s king shall perish
   like a splinter on the face of the waters.
⁸ The high places of Aven, the sin of Israel,
   shall be destroyed.
Thorn and thistle shall grow up
   on their altars.
They shall say to the mountains, Cover us,
   and to the hills, Fall on us.

⁹ Since the days of Gibeah you have sinned, O Israel;
   there they have continued.
   Shall not war overtake them in Gibeah?
¹⁰ I will come^* against the wayward people to punish them;
   and nations shall be gathered against them
   when they are punished^* for their double iniquity.

¹¹ Ephraim was a trained heifer
   that loved to thresh,
   and I spared her fair neck;
but I will make Ephraim break the ground;
   Judah must plough;
   Jacob must harrow for himself.
¹² Sow for yourselves righteousness;
   reap steadfast love;
   break up your fallow ground;
for it is time to seek the Lord,
   that he may come and rain righteousness upon you.

¹³ You have ploughed wickedness,
   you have reaped injustice,
   you have eaten the fruit of lies.
Because you have trusted in your power
   and in the multitude of your warriors,
¹⁴ therefore the tumult of war shall rise against your people,
   and all your fortresses shall be destroyed,
as Shalman destroyed Beth-arbel on the day of battle
   when mothers were dashed in pieces with their children.
¹⁵ Thus it shall be done to you, O Bethel,
   because of your great wickedness.
At dawn the king of Israel
   shall be utterly cut off.

Psalm 102

Prayer to the Eternal King for Help

A prayer of one afflicted, when faint and pleading before the Lord.
¹ Hear my prayer, O Lord;
   let my cry come to you.
² Do not hide your face from me
   on the day of my distress.
Incline your ear to me;
   answer me speedily on the day when I call.

³ For my days pass away like smoke,
   and my bones burn like a furnace.
⁴ My heart is stricken and withered like grass;
   I am too wasted to eat my bread.
⁵ Because of my loud groaning
   my bones cling to my skin.
⁶ I am like an owl of the wilderness,
   like a little owl of the waste places.
⁷ I lie awake;
   I am like a lonely bird on the housetop.
⁸ All day long my enemies taunt me;
   those who deride me use my name for a curse.
⁹ For I eat ashes like bread,
   and mingle tears with my drink,
¹⁰ because of your indignation and anger;
   for you have lifted me up and thrown me aside.
¹¹ My days are like an evening shadow;
   I wither away like grass.

¹² But you, O Lord, are enthroned for ever;
   your name endures to all generations.
¹³ You will rise up and have compassion on Zion,
   for it is time to favour it;
   the appointed time has come.
¹⁴ For your servants hold its stones dear,
   and have pity on its dust.
¹⁵ The nations will fear the name of the Lord,
   and all the kings of the earth your glory.
¹⁶ For the Lord will build up Zion;
   he will appear in his glory.
¹⁷ He will regard the prayer of the destitute,
   and will not despise their prayer.

¹⁸ Let this be recorded for a generation to come,
   so that a people yet unborn may praise the Lord:
¹⁹ that he looked down from his holy height,
   from heaven the Lord looked at the earth,
²⁰ to hear the groans of the prisoners,
   to set free those who were doomed to die;
²¹ so that the name of the Lord may be declared in Zion,
   and his praise in Jerusalem,
²² when peoples gather together,
   and kingdoms, to worship the Lord.

²³ He has broken my strength in mid-course;
   he has shortened my days.
²⁴ ‘O my God,’ I say, ‘do not take me away
   at the mid-point of my life,
you whose years endure
   throughout all generations.’

²⁵ Long ago you laid the foundation of the earth,
   and the heavens are the work of your hands.
²⁶ They will perish, but you endure;
   they will all wear out like a garment.
You change them like clothing, and they pass away;
²⁷   but you are the same, and your years have no end.
²⁸ The children of your servants shall live secure;
   their offspring shall be established in your presence.

The Temptation of Jesus

4Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. ²He fasted for forty days and forty nights, and afterwards he was famished. ³The tempter came and said to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’ ⁴But he answered, ‘It is written,
“One does not live by bread alone,
   but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.” ’

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, ⁶saying to him, ‘If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down; for it is written,
“He will command his angels concerning you”,
   and “On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.” ’
⁷Jesus said to him, ‘Again it is written, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test.” ’

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour; ⁹and he said to him, ‘All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.’ ¹⁰Jesus said to him, ‘Away with you, Satan! for it is written,
“Worship the Lord your God,
   and serve only him.” ’
¹¹Then the devil left him, and suddenly angels came and waited on him.

Jesus Begins His Ministry in Galilee

12 Now when Jesus^* heard that John had been arrested, he withdrew to Galilee. ¹³He left Nazareth and made his home in Capernaum by the lake, in the territory of Zebulun and Naphtali, ¹⁴so that what had been spoken through the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled:
¹⁵ ‘Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali,
   on the road by the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—
¹⁶ the people who sat in darkness
   have seen a great light,
and for those who sat in the region and shadow of death
   light has dawned.’
¹⁷From that time Jesus began to proclaim, ‘Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.’^*

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

18 As he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon, who is called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the lake—for they were fishermen. ¹⁹And he said to them, ‘Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.’ ²⁰Immediately they left their nets and followed him. ²¹As he went from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John, in the boat with their father Zebedee, mending their nets, and he called them. ²²Immediately they left the boat and their father, and followed him.

Jesus Ministers to Crowds of People

23 Jesus^* went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news^* of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. ²⁴So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. ²⁵And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.