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Psalm 56

Trust in God under Persecution

To the leader: according to The Dove on Far-off Terebinths. Of David. A Miktam, when the Philistines seized him in Gath.
1 Be gracious to me, O God, for people trample on me;
   all day long foes oppress me;
2 my enemies trample on me all day long,
   for many fight against me.
O Most High, 3when I am afraid,
   I put my trust in you.
4 In God, whose word I praise,
   in God I trust; I am not afraid;
   what can flesh do to me?


5 All day long they seek to injure my cause;
   all their thoughts are against me for evil.
6 They stir up strife, they lurk,
   they watch my steps.
As they hoped to have my life,
7   so repay* them for their crime;
   in wrath cast down the peoples, O God!


8 You have kept count of my tossings;
   put my tears in your bottle.
   Are they not in your record?
9 Then my enemies will retreat
   on the day when I call.
   This I know, that* God is for me.
10 In God, whose word I praise,
   in the Lord, whose word I praise,
11 in God I trust; I am not afraid.
   What can a mere mortal do to me?


12 My vows to you I must perform, O God;
   I will render thank-offerings to you.
13 For you have delivered my soul from death,
   and my feet from falling,
so that I may walk before God
   in the light of life.

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Psalm 57

Praise and Assurance under Persecution

To the leader: Do Not Destroy. Of David. A Miktam, when he fled from Saul, in the cave.
1 Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me,
   for in you my soul takes refuge;
in the shadow of your wings I will take refuge,
   until the destroying storms pass by.
2 I cry to God Most High,
   to God who fulfils his purpose for me.
3 He will send from heaven and save me,
   he will put to shame those who trample on me.
          Selah
God will send forth his steadfast love and his faithfulness.


4 I lie down among lions
   that greedily devour* human prey;
their teeth are spears and arrows,
   their tongues sharp swords.


5 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
   Let your glory be over all the earth.


6 They set a net for my steps;
   my soul was bowed down.
They dug a pit in my path,
   but they have fallen into it themselves.
          Selah
7 My heart is steadfast, O God,
   my heart is steadfast.
I will sing and make melody.
8   Awake, my soul!
Awake, O harp and lyre!
   I will awake the dawn.
9 I will give thanks to you, O Lord, among the peoples;
   I will sing praises to you among the nations.
10 For your steadfast love is as high as the heavens;
   your faithfulness extends to the clouds.


11 Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
   Let your glory be over all the earth.

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Judith 15

The Assyrians Flee in Panic

15When the men in the tents heard it, they were amazed at what had happened. 2Overcome with fear and trembling, they did not wait for one another, but with one impulse all rushed out and fled by every path across the plain and through the hill country. 3Those who had camped in the hills around Bethulia also took to flight. Then the Israelites, everyone that was a soldier, rushed out upon them. 4Uzziah sent men to Betomasthaim* and Choba and Kola, and to all the frontiers of Israel, to tell what had taken place and to urge all to rush out upon the enemy to destroy them. 5When the Israelites heard it, with one accord they fell upon the enemy,* and cut them down as far as Choba. Those in Jerusalem and all the hill country also came, for they were told what had happened in the camp of the enemy. The men in Gilead and in Galilee outflanked them with great slaughter, even beyond Damascus and its borders. 6The rest of the people of Bethulia fell upon the Assyrian camp and plundered it, acquiring great riches. 7And the Israelites, when they returned from the slaughter, took possession of what remained. Even the villages and towns in the hill country and in the plain got a great amount of booty, since there was a vast quantity of it.

The Israelites Celebrate Their Victory

Then the high priest Joakim and the elders of the Israelites who lived in Jerusalem came to witness the good things that the Lord had done for Israel, and to see Judith and to wish her well. 9When they met her, they all blessed her with one accord and said to her, ‘You are the glory of Jerusalem, you are the great boast of Israel, you are the great pride of our nation! 10You have done all this with your own hand; you have done great good to Israel, and God is well pleased with it. May the Almighty Lord bless you for ever!’ And all the people said, ‘Amen.’

11 All the people plundered the camp for thirty days. They gave Judith the tent of Holofernes and all his silver dinnerware, his beds, his bowls, and all his furniture. She took them and loaded her mules and hitched up her carts and piled the things on them.

12 All the women of Israel gathered to see her, and blessed her, and some of them performed a dance in her honour. She took ivy-wreathed wands in her hands and distributed them to the women who were with her; 13and she and those who were with her crowned themselves with olive wreaths. She went before all the people in the dance, leading all the women, while all the men of Israel followed, bearing their arms and wearing garlands and singing hymns.

Judith Offers Her Hymn of Praise

14 Judith began this thanksgiving before all Israel, and all the people loudly sang this song of praise.

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Acts 19:8-20

He entered the synagogue and for three months spoke out boldly, and argued persuasively about the kingdom of God. 9When some stubbornly refused to believe and spoke evil of the Way before the congregation, he left them, taking the disciples with him, and argued daily in the lecture hall of Tyrannus.* 10This continued for two years, so that all the residents of Asia, both Jews and Greeks, heard the word of the Lord.

The Sons of Sceva

11 God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, 12so that when the handkerchiefs or aprons that had touched his skin were brought to the sick, their diseases left them, and the evil spirits came out of them. 13Then some itinerant Jewish exorcists tried to use the name of the Lord Jesus over those who had evil spirits, saying, ‘I adjure you by the Jesus whom Paul proclaims.’ 14Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this. 15But the evil spirit said to them in reply, ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know; but who are you?’ 16Then the man with the evil spirit leapt on them, mastered them all, and so overpowered them that they fled out of the house naked and wounded. 17When this became known to all residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, everyone was awestruck; and the name of the Lord Jesus was praised. 18Also many of those who became believers confessed and disclosed their practices. 19A number of those who practised magic collected their books and burned them publicly; when the value of these books* was calculated, it was found to come to fifty thousand silver coins. 20So the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

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Psalm 58

Prayer for Vengeance

To the leader: Do Not Destroy. Of David. A Miktam.
1 Do you indeed decree what is right, you gods?*
   Do you judge people fairly?
2 No, in your hearts you devise wrongs;
   your hands deal out violence on earth.


3 The wicked go astray from the womb;
   they err from their birth, speaking lies.
4 They have venom like the venom of a serpent,
   like the deaf adder that stops its ear,
5 so that it does not hear the voice of charmers
   or of the cunning enchanter.


6 O God, break the teeth in their mouths;
   tear out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
7 Let them vanish like water that runs away;
   like grass let them be trodden down* and wither.
8 Let them be like the snail that dissolves into slime;
   like the untimely birth that never sees the sun.
9 Sooner than your pots can feel the heat of thorns,
   whether green or ablaze, may he sweep them away!


10 The righteous will rejoice when they see vengeance done;
   they will bathe their feet in the blood of the wicked.
11 People will say, ‘Surely there is a reward for the righteous;
   surely there is a God who judges on earth.’

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Psalm 60

Prayer for National Victory after Defeat

To the leader: according to The Lily of the Covenant. A Miktam of David; for instruction; when he struggled with Aram-naharaim and with Aram-zobah, and when Joab on his return killed twelve thousand Edomites in the Valley of Salt.
1 O God, you have rejected us, broken our defences;
   you have been angry; now restore us!
2 You have caused the land to quake; you have torn it open;
   repair the cracks in it, for it is tottering.
3 You have made your people suffer hard things;
   you have given us wine to drink that made us reel.


4 You have set up a banner for those who fear you,
   to rally to it out of bowshot.*
          Selah
5 Give victory with your right hand, and answer us,*
   so that those whom you love may be rescued.


6 God has promised in his sanctuary:*
   ‘With exultation I will divide up Shechem,
   and portion out the Vale of Succoth.
7 Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine;
   Ephraim is my helmet;
   Judah is my sceptre.
8 Moab is my wash-basin;
   on Edom I hurl my shoe;
   over Philistia I shout in triumph.’


9 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
   Who will lead me to Edom?
10 Have you not rejected us, O God?
   You do not go out, O God, with our armies.
11 O grant us help against the foe,
   for human help is worthless.
12 With God we shall do valiantly;
   it is he who will tread down our foes.

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Isa 34

Judgement on the Nations

34Draw near, O nations, to hear;
   O peoples, give heed!
Let the earth hear, and all that fills it;
   the world, and all that comes from it.
2 For the Lord is enraged against all the nations,
   and furious against all their hordes;
   he has doomed them, has given them over for slaughter.
3 Their slain shall be cast out,
   and the stench of their corpses shall rise;
   the mountains shall flow with their blood.
4 All the host of heaven shall rot away,
   and the skies roll up like a scroll.
All their host shall wither
   like a leaf withering on a vine,
   or fruit withering on a fig tree.


5 When my sword has drunk its fill in the heavens,
   lo, it will descend upon Edom,
   upon the people I have doomed to judgement.
6 The Lord has a sword; it is sated with blood,
   it is gorged with fat,
   with the blood of lambs and goats,
   with the fat of the kidneys of rams.
For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah,
   a great slaughter in the land of Edom.
7 Wild oxen shall fall with them,
   and young steers with the mighty bulls.
Their land shall be soaked with blood,
   and their soil made rich with fat.


8 For the Lord has a day of vengeance,
   a year of vindication by Zion’s cause.*
9 And the streams of Edom* shall be turned into pitch,
   and her soil into sulphur;
   her land shall become burning pitch.
10 Night and day it shall not be quenched;
   its smoke shall go up for ever.
From generation to generation it shall lie waste;
   no one shall pass through it for ever and ever.
11 But the hawk* and the hedgehog* shall possess it;
   the owl* and the raven shall live in it.
He shall stretch the line of confusion over it,
   and the plummet of chaos over* its nobles.
12 They shall name it No Kingdom There,
   and all its princes shall be nothing.
13 Thorns shall grow over its strongholds,
   nettles and thistles in its fortresses.
It shall be the haunt of jackals,
   an abode for ostriches.
14 Wildcats shall meet with hyenas,
   goat-demons shall call to each other;
there too Lilith shall repose,
   and find a place to rest.
15 There shall the owl nest
   and lay and hatch and brood in its shadow;
there too the buzzards shall gather,
   each one with its mate.
16 Seek and read from the book of the Lord:
   Not one of these shall be missing;
   none shall be without its mate.
For the mouth of the Lord has commanded,
   and his spirit has gathered them.
17 He has cast the lot for them,
   his hand has portioned it out to them with the line;
they shall possess it for ever,
   from generation to generation they shall live in it.

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Luke 5:1-16

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

5Once while Jesus* was standing beside the lake of Gennesaret, and the crowd was pressing in on him to hear the word of God, 2he saw two boats there at the shore of the lake; the fishermen had gone out of them and were washing their nets. 3He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little way from the shore. Then he sat down and taught the crowds from the boat. 4When he had finished speaking, he said to Simon, ‘Put out into the deep water and let down your nets for a catch.’ 5Simon answered, ‘Master, we have worked all night long but have caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets.’ 6When they had done this, they caught so many fish that their nets were beginning to break. 7So they signalled to their partners in the other boat to come and help them. And they came and filled both boats, so that they began to sink. 8But when Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus’ knees, saying, ‘Go away from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man!’ 9For he and all who were with him were amazed at the catch of fish that they had taken; 10and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. Then Jesus said to Simon, ‘Do not be afraid; from now on you will be catching people.’ 11When they had brought their boats to shore, they left everything and followed him.

Jesus Cleanses a Leper

12 Once, when he was in one of the cities, there was a man covered with leprosy.* When he saw Jesus, he bowed with his face to the ground and begged him, ‘Lord, if you choose, you can make me clean.’ 13Then Jesus* stretched out his hand, touched him, and said, ‘I do choose. Be made clean.’ Immediately the leprosy* left him. 14And he ordered him to tell no one. ‘Go’, he said, ‘and show yourself to the priest, and, as Moses commanded, make an offering for your cleansing, for a testimony to them.’ 15But now more than ever the word about Jesus* spread abroad; many crowds would gather to hear him and to be cured of their diseases. 16But he would withdraw to deserted places and pray.

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From the oremus Bible Browser https://bible.oremus.org v2.9.2 30 June 2021.