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Encouragement for Israel

⁵ Take courage, my people,
   who perpetuate Israel’s name!
⁶ It was not for destruction
   that you were sold to the nations,
but you were handed over to your enemies
   because you angered God.
⁷ For you provoked the one who made you
   by sacrificing to demons and not to God.
⁸ You forgot the everlasting God, who brought you up,
   and you grieved Jerusalem, who reared you.
⁹ For she saw the wrath that came upon you from God,
   and she said:
Listen, you neighbours of Zion,
   God has brought great sorrow upon me;
¹⁰ for I have seen the exile of my sons and daughters,
   which the Everlasting brought upon them.
¹¹ With joy I nurtured them,
   but I sent them away with weeping and sorrow.
¹² Let no one rejoice over me, a widow
   and bereaved of many;
I was left desolate because of the sins of my children,
   because they turned away from the law of God.
²⁷ Take courage, my children, and cry to God,
   for you will be remembered by the one who brought this upon you.
²⁸ For just as you were disposed to go astray from God,
   return with tenfold zeal to seek him.
²⁹ For the one who brought these calamities upon you
   will bring you everlasting joy with your salvation.

Psalm 69

Prayer for Deliverance from Persecution

To the leader: according to Lilies. Of David.
¹ Save me, O God,
   for the waters have come up to my neck.
³³ For the Lord hears the needy,
   and does not despise his own that are in bonds.

³⁴ Let heaven and earth praise him,
   the seas and everything that moves in them.
³⁵ For God will save Zion
   and rebuild the cities of Judah;
and his servants shall live^* there and possess it;
³⁶   the children of his servants shall inherit it,
   and those who love his name shall live in it.

The Return of the Seventy

17 The seventy^* returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ ¹⁸He said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. ¹⁹See, I have given you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy; and nothing will hurt you. ²⁰Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.’

Jesus Rejoices

21 At that same hour Jesus^* rejoiced in the Holy Spirit^* and said, ‘I thank^* you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and the intelligent and have revealed them to infants; yes, Father, for such was your gracious will.^{* 22}All things have been handed over to me by my Father; and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.’

23 Then turning to the disciples, Jesus^* said to them privately, ‘Blessed are the eyes that see what you see! ²⁴For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see, but did not see it, and to hear what you hear, but did not hear it.’