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Psalm 144

1  Blessed be the Lord my rock, ♦︎
   who teaches my hands for war and my fingers for battle;
2  My steadfast help and my fortress,
      my stronghold and my deliverer,
      my shield in whom I trust, ♦︎
   who subdues the peoples under me.
3  O Lord, what are mortals that you should consider them; ♦︎
   mere human beings, that you should take thought for them?
4  They are like a breath of wind; ♦︎
   their days pass away like a shadow.
5  Bow your heavens, O Lord, and come down; ♦︎
   touch the mountains and they shall smoke.
6  Cast down your lightnings and scatter them; ♦︎
   shoot out your arrows and let thunder roar.
7  Reach down your hand from on high; ♦︎
   deliver me and take me out of the great waters,
      from the hand of foreign enemies,
8  Whose mouth speaks wickedness ♦︎
   and their right hand is the hand of falsehood.
9  O God, I will sing to you a new song; ♦︎
   I will play to you on a ten-stringed harp,
10  You that give salvation to kings ♦︎
   and have delivered David your servant.
11  Save me from the peril of the sword ♦︎
   and deliver me from the hand of foreign enemies,
12  Whose mouth speaks wickedness ♦︎
   and whose right hand is the hand of falsehood;
13  So that our sons in their youth
      may be like well-nurtured plants, ♦︎
   and our daughters like pillars
      carved for the corners of the temple;
14  Our barns be filled with all manner of store; ♦︎
   our flocks bearing thousands,
      and ten thousands in our fields;
15  Our cattle be heavy with young: ♦︎
   may there be no miscarriage or untimely birth,
      no cry of distress in our streets.
16  Happy are the people whose blessing this is. ♦︎
   Happy are the people who have the Lord for their God.

Pagan Shrines to Be Destroyed

12These are the statutes and ordinances that you must diligently observe in the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you to occupy all the days that you live on the earth.

2 You must demolish completely all the places where the nations whom you are about to dispossess served their gods, on the mountain heights, on the hills, and under every leafy tree. ³Break down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their sacred poles^* with fire, and hew down the idols of their gods, and thus blot out their name from their places. ⁴You shall not worship the Lord your God in such ways. ⁵But you shall seek the place that the Lord your God will choose out of all your tribes as his habitation to put his name there. You shall go there, ⁶bringing there your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, your votive gifts, your freewill-offerings, and the firstlings of your herds and flocks. ⁷And you shall eat there in the presence of the Lord your God, you and your households together, rejoicing in all the undertakings in which the Lord your God has blessed you.

8 You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, ⁹for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁰When you cross over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is allotting to you, and when he gives you rest from your enemies all around so that you live in safety, ¹¹then you shall bring everything that I command you to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name: your burnt-offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and your donations, and all your choice votive gifts that you vow to the Lord. ¹²And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God, you together with your sons and your daughters, your male and female slaves, and the Levites who reside in your towns (since they have no allotment or inheritance with you).

Jesus Cleanses Ten Lepers

11 On the way to Jerusalem Jesus^* was going through the region between Samaria and Galilee. ¹²As he entered a village, ten lepers^* approached him. Keeping their distance, ¹³they called out, saying, ‘Jesus, Master, have mercy on us!’ ¹⁴When he saw them, he said to them, ‘Go and show yourselves to the priests.’ And as they went, they were made clean. ¹⁵Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice. ¹⁶He prostrated himself at Jesus’^* feet and thanked him. And he was a Samaritan. ¹⁷Then Jesus asked, ‘Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they? ¹⁸Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?’ ¹⁹Then he said to him, ‘Get up and go on your way; your faith has made you well.’