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3A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk according to Shigionoth.

The Prophet’s Prayer

² O Lord, I have heard of your renown,
   and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.
In our own time revive it;
   in our own time make it known;
   in wrath may you remember mercy.
³ God came from Teman,
   the Holy One from Mount Paran.
          Selah
His glory covered the heavens,
   and the earth was full of his praise.
⁴ The brightness was like the sun;
   rays came forth from his hand,
   where his power lay hidden.
⁵ Before him went pestilence,
   and plague followed close behind.
⁶ He stopped and shook the earth;
   he looked and made the nations tremble.
The eternal mountains were shattered;
   along his ancient pathways
   the everlasting hills sank low.
⁷ I saw the tents of Cushan under affliction;
   the tent-curtains of the land of Midian trembled.
⁸ Was your wrath against the rivers,^* O Lord?
   Or your anger against the rivers,^*
   or your rage against the sea,^*
when you drove your horses,
   your chariots to victory?
⁹ You brandished your naked bow,
   sated^* were the arrows at your command.^*
          Selah
   You split the earth with rivers.
¹⁰ The mountains saw you, and writhed;
   a torrent of water swept by;
the deep gave forth its voice.
   The sun^* raised high its hands;
¹¹ the moon^* stood still in its exalted place,
   at the light of your arrows speeding by,
   at the gleam of your flashing spear.
¹² In fury you trod the earth,
   in anger you trampled nations.
¹³ You came forth to save your people,
   to save your anointed.
You crushed the head of the wicked house,
   laying it bare from foundation to roof.^*
          Selah
¹⁴ You pierced with their^* own arrows the head^* of his warriors,^*
   who came like a whirlwind to scatter us,^*
   gloating as if ready to devour the poor who were in hiding.
¹⁵ You trampled the sea with your horses,
   churning the mighty waters.

¹⁶ I hear, and I tremble within;
   my lips quiver at the sound.
Rottenness enters into my bones,
   and my steps tremble^* beneath me.
I wait quietly for the day of calamity
   to come upon the people who attack us.

Trust and Joy in the Midst of Trouble

¹⁷ Though the fig tree does not blossom,
   and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails
   and the fields yield no food;
though the flock is cut off from the fold
   and there is no herd in the stalls,
¹⁸ yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
   I will exult in the God of my salvation.
¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength;
   he makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
   and makes me tread upon the heights.^*

To the leader: with stringed^* instruments.

Psalm 129

Prayer for the Downfall of Israel’s Enemies

A Song of Ascents.
¹ ‘Often have they attacked me from my youth’
   —let Israel now say—
² ‘often have they attacked me from my youth,
   yet they have not prevailed against me.
³ Those who plough ploughed on my back;
   they made their furrows long.’
⁴ The Lord is righteous;
   he has cut the cords of the wicked.
⁵ May all who hate Zion
   be put to shame and turned back.
⁶ Let them be like the grass on the housetops
   that withers before it grows up,
⁷ with which reapers do not fill their hands
   or binders of sheaves their arms,
⁸ while those who pass by do not say,
   ‘The blessing of the Lord be upon you!
   We bless you in the name of the Lord!’

The Tradition of the Elders

7Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, ²they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. ³(For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands,^* thus observing the tradition of the elders; ⁴and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it;^* and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.^*) ⁵So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live^* according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ ⁶He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips,
   but their hearts are far from me;
⁷ in vain do they worship me,
   teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
⁸You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’

9 Then he said to them, ‘You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition! ¹⁰For Moses said, “Honour your father and your mother”; and, “Whoever speaks evil of father or mother must surely die.” ¹¹But you say that if anyone tells father or mother, “Whatever support you might have had from me is Corban” (that is, an offering to God^*)— ¹²then you no longer permit doing anything for a father or mother, ¹³thus making void the word of God through your tradition that you have handed on. And you do many things like this.’

14 Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: ¹⁵there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’^*

17 When he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about the parable. ¹⁸He said to them, ‘Then do you also fail to understand? Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, ¹⁹since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he declared all foods clean.) ²⁰And he said, ‘It is what comes out of a person that defiles. ²¹For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, ²²adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. ²³All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’

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.

Jesus Cures a Deaf Man

31 Then he returned from the region of Tyre, and went by way of Sidon towards the Sea of Galilee, in the region of the Decapolis. ³²They brought to him a deaf man who had an impediment in his speech; and they begged him to lay his hand on him. ³³He took him aside in private, away from the crowd, and put his fingers into his ears, and he spat and touched his tongue. ³⁴Then looking up to heaven, he sighed and said to him, ‘Ephphatha’, that is, ‘Be opened.’ ³⁵And immediately his ears were opened, his tongue was released, and he spoke plainly. ³⁶Then Jesus^* ordered them to tell no one; but the more he ordered them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. ³⁷They were astounded beyond measure, saying, ‘He has done everything well; he even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak.’