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7  And now shall he lift up my head ♦︎
   above my enemies round about me;
8  Therefore will I offer in his dwelling an oblation
      with great gladness; ♦︎
   I will sing and make music to the Lord.
9  Hear my voice, O Lord, when I call; ♦︎
   have mercy upon me and answer me.
10  My heart tells of your word, ‘Seek my face.’ ♦︎
   Your face, Lord, will I seek.
11  Hide not your face from me, ♦︎
   nor cast your servant away in displeasure.
12  You have been my helper; ♦︎
   leave me not, neither forsake me, O God of my salvation.
13  Though my father and my mother forsake me, ♦︎
   the Lord will take me up.
14  Teach me your way, O Lord; ♦︎
   lead me on a level path,
      because of those who lie in wait for me.

God the Creator and Redeemer

48Hear this, O house of Jacob,
   who are called by the name of Israel,
   and who came forth from the loins^* of Judah;
who swear by the name of the Lord,
   and invoke the God of Israel,
   but not in truth or right.
² For they call themselves after the holy city,
   and lean on the God of Israel;
   the Lord of hosts is his name.

³ The former things I declared long ago,
   they went out from my mouth and I made them known;
   then suddenly I did them and they came to pass.
⁴ Because I know that you are obstinate,
   and your neck is an iron sinew
   and your forehead brass,
⁵ I declared them to you from long ago,
   before they came to pass I announced them to you,
so that you would not say, ‘My idol did them,
   my carved image and my cast image commanded them.’

⁶ You have heard; now see all this;
   and will you not declare it?
From this time forward I make you hear new things,
   hidden things that you have not known.
⁷ They are created now, not long ago;
   before today you have never heard of them,
   so that you could not say, ‘I already knew them.’
⁸ You have never heard, you have never known,
   from of old your ear has not been opened.
For I knew that you would deal very treacherously,
   and that from birth you were called a rebel.

⁹ For my name’s sake I defer my anger,
   for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you,
   so that I may not cut you off.
¹⁰ See, I have refined you, but not like^* silver;
   I have tested you in the furnace of adversity.
¹¹ For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it,
   for why should my name^* be profaned?
   My glory I will not give to another.

¹² Listen to me, O Jacob,
   and Israel, whom I called:
I am He; I am the first,
   and I am the last.
¹³ My hand laid the foundation of the earth,
   and my right hand spread out the heavens;
when I summon them,
   they stand at attention.

¹⁴ Assemble, all of you, and hear!
   Who among them has declared these things?
The Lord loves him;
   he shall perform his purpose on Babylon,
   and his arm shall be against the Chaldeans.
¹⁵ I, even I, have spoken and called him,
   I have brought him, and he will prosper in his way.
¹⁶ Draw near to me, hear this!
   From the beginning I have not spoken in secret,
   from the time it came to be I have been there.
And now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit.

¹⁷ Thus says the Lord,
   your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel:
I am the Lord your God,
   who teaches you for your own good,
   who leads you in the way you should go.
¹⁸ O that you had paid attention to my commandments!
   Then your prosperity would have been like a river,
   and your success like the waves of the sea;
¹⁹ your offspring would have been like the sand,
   and your descendants like its grains;
their name would never be cut off
   or destroyed from before me.

²⁰ Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea,
   declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it,
send it forth to the end of the earth;
   say, ‘The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!’
²¹ They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts;
   he made water flow for them from the rock;
   he split open the rock and the water gushed out.

²² ‘There is no peace’, says the Lord, ‘for the wicked.’

The Rejection of Jesus at Nazareth

6He left that place and came to his home town, and his disciples followed him. ²On the sabbath he began to teach in the synagogue, and many who heard him were astounded. They said, ‘Where did this man get all this? What is this wisdom that has been given to him? What deeds of power are being done by his hands! ³Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary^* and brother of James and Joses and Judas and Simon, and are not his sisters here with us?’ And they took offence^* at him. ⁴Then Jesus said to them, ‘Prophets are not without honour, except in their home town, and among their own kin, and in their own house.’ ⁵And he could do no deed of power there, except that he laid his hands on a few sick people and cured them. ⁶And he was amazed at their unbelief.

The Mission of the Twelve

Then he went about among the villages teaching. ⁷He called the twelve and began to send them out two by two, and gave them authority over the unclean spirits. ⁸He ordered them to take nothing for their journey except a staff; no bread, no bag, no money in their belts; ⁹but to wear sandals and not to put on two tunics. ¹⁰He said to them, ‘Wherever you enter a house, stay there until you leave the place. ¹¹If any place will not welcome you and they refuse to hear you, as you leave, shake off the dust that is on your feet as a testimony against them.’ ¹²So they went out and proclaimed that all should repent. ¹³They cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many who were sick and cured them.