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Psalm 66

1  Be joyful in God, all the earth; ♦︎
   sing the glory of his name;
      sing the glory of his praise.
2  Say to God, ‘How awesome are your deeds! ♦︎
   Because of your great strength
      your enemies shall bow before you.
3  ‘All the earth shall worship you, ♦︎
   sing to you, sing praise to your name.’
4  Come now and behold the works of God, ♦︎
   how wonderful he is in his dealings with humankind.
5  He turned the sea into dry land;
      the river they passed through on foot; ♦︎
   there we rejoiced in him.
6  In his might he rules for ever;
      his eyes keep watch over the nations; ♦︎
   let no rebel rise up against him.
7  Bless our God, O you peoples; ♦︎
   make the voice of his praise to be heard,
8  Who holds our souls in life ♦︎
   and suffers not our feet to slip.
9  For you, O God, have proved us; ♦︎
   you have tried us as silver is tried.
10  You brought us into the snare; ♦︎
   you laid heavy burdens upon our backs.
11  You let enemies ride over our heads;
      we went through fire and water; ♦︎
   but you brought us out into a place of liberty.
12  I will come into your house with burnt offerings
      and will pay you my vows, ♦︎
   which my lips uttered
      and my mouth promised when I was in trouble.
13  I will offer you fat burnt sacrifices
      with the smoke of rams; ♦︎
   I will sacrifice oxen and goats.
14  Come and listen, all you who fear God, ♦︎
   and I will tell you what he has done for my soul.
15  I called out to him with my mouth ♦︎
   and his praise was on my tongue.
16  If I had nursed evil in my heart, ♦︎
   the Lord would not have heard me,
17  But in truth God has heard me; ♦︎
   he has heeded the voice of my prayer.
18  Blessed be God, who has not rejected my prayer, ♦︎
   nor withheld his loving mercy from me.

¹⁰ See, the day! See, it comes!
   Your doom^* has gone out.
The rod has blossomed, pride has budded.
¹¹   Violence has grown into a rod of wickedness.
None of them shall remain,
   not their abundance, not their wealth;
   no pre-eminence among them.^*
12 The time has come, the day draws near;
   let not the buyer rejoice, nor the seller mourn,
   for wrath is upon all their multitude.
¹³For the sellers shall not return to what has been sold as long as they remain alive. For the vision concerns all their multitude; it shall not be revoked. Because of their iniquity, they cannot maintain their lives.^*
14 They have blown the horn and made everything ready;
   but no one goes to battle,
   for my wrath is upon all their multitude.
¹⁵ The sword is outside, pestilence and famine are inside;
   those in the field die by the sword;
   those in the city—famine and pestilence devour them.
¹⁶ If any survivors escape,
   they shall be found on the mountains
   like doves of the valleys,
all of them moaning over their iniquity.
¹⁷ All hands shall grow feeble,
   all knees turn to water.
¹⁸ They shall put on sackcloth,
   horror shall cover them.
Shame shall be on all faces,
   baldness on all their heads.
¹⁹ They shall fling their silver into the streets,
   their gold shall be treated as unclean.
Their silver and gold cannot save them on the day of the wrath of the Lord. They shall not satisfy their hunger or fill their stomachs with it. For it was the stumbling-block of their iniquity. ²⁰From their^* beautiful ornament, in which they took pride, they made their abominable images, their detestable things; therefore I will make of it an unclean thing to them.
²¹ I will hand it over to strangers as booty,
   to the wicked of the earth as plunder;
   they shall profane it.
²² I will avert my face from them,
   so that they may profane my treasured^* place;
the violent shall enter it,
   they shall profane it.
²³ Make a chain!^*
For the land is full of bloody crimes;
   the city is full of violence.
²³ Make a chain!^*
For the land is full of bloody crimes;
   the city is full of violence.
²⁴ I will bring the worst of the nations
   to take possession of their houses.
I will put an end to the arrogance of the strong,
   and their holy places shall be profaned.
²⁵ When anguish comes, they will seek peace,
   but there shall be none.
²⁶ Disaster comes upon disaster,
   rumour follows rumour;
they shall keep seeking a vision from the prophet;
   instruction shall perish from the priest,
   and counsel from the elders.
²⁷ The king shall mourn,
   the prince shall be wrapped in despair,
   and the hands of the people of the land shall tremble.
According to their way I will deal with them;
   according to their own judgements I will judge them.
And they shall know that I am the Lord.

The Mission of the Seventy

10After this the Lord appointed seventy^* others and sent them on ahead of him in pairs to every town and place where he himself intended to go. ²He said to them, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the labourers are few; therefore ask the Lord of the harvest to send out labourers into his harvest. ³Go on your way. See, I am sending you out like lambs into the midst of wolves. ⁴Carry no purse, no bag, no sandals; and greet no one on the road. ⁵Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” ⁶And if anyone is there who shares in peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not, it will return to you. ⁷Remain in the same house, eating and drinking whatever they provide, for the labourer deserves to be paid. Do not move about from house to house. ⁸Whenever you enter a town and its people welcome you, eat what is set before you; ⁹cure the sick who are there, and say to them, “The kingdom of God has come near to you.”^{* 10}But whenever you enter a town and they do not welcome you, go out into its streets and say, ¹¹“Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet, we wipe off in protest against you. Yet know this: the kingdom of God has come near.”^{* 12}I tell you, on that day it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for that town.

Woes to Unrepentant Cities

13 ‘Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the deeds of power done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. ¹⁴But at the judgement it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon than for you. ¹⁵And you, Capernaum,
will you be exalted to heaven?
   No, you will be brought down to Hades.

16 ‘Whoever listens to you listens to me, and whoever rejects you rejects me, and whoever rejects me rejects the one who sent me.’

The Return of the Seventy

17 The seventy^* returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’