Close of the Day

A Psalm. A Song for the Sabbath.
¹ It is good to give thanks to the LORD, to sing praises to your name, O Most High;
² to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night,
³ to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre.
⁴ For you, O LORD, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy.
⁵ How great are your works, O LORD! Your thoughts are very deep!
⁶ The stupid man cannot know; the fool cannot understand this:
⁷ that though the wicked sprout like grass and all evildoers flourish, they are doomed to destruction forever;
⁸ but you, O LORD, are on high forever.
⁹ For behold, your enemies, O LORD, for behold, your enemies shall perish; all evildoers shall be scattered.
¹⁰ But you have exalted my horn like that of the wild ox; you have poured over me fresh oil.
¹¹ My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard the doom of my evil assailants.
¹² The righteous flourish like the palm tree and grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
¹³ They are planted in the house of the LORD; they flourish in the courts of our God.
¹⁴ They still bear fruit in old age; they are ever full of sap and green,
¹⁵ to declare that the LORD is upright; he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him. (ESV)

To the choirmaster. A Maskil of the Sons of Korah.
¹ O God, we have heard with our ears, our fathers have told us, what deeds you performed in their days, in the days of old:
² you with your own hand drove out the nations, but them you planted; you afflicted the peoples, but them you set free;
³ for not by their own sword did they win the land, nor did their own arm save them, but your right hand and your arm, and the light of your face, for you delighted in them.
⁴ You are my King, O God; ordain salvation for Jacob!
⁵ Through you we push down our foes; through your name we tread down those who rise up against us.
⁶ For not in my bow do I trust, nor can my sword save me.
⁷ But you have saved us from our foes and have put to shame those who hate us.
⁸ In God we have boasted continually, and we will give thanks to your name forever. Selah
⁹ But you have rejected us and disgraced us and have not gone out with our armies.
¹⁰ You have made us turn back from the foe, and those who hate us have gotten spoil.
¹¹ You have made us like sheep for slaughter and have scattered us among the nations.
¹² You have sold your people for a trifle, demanding no high price for them.
¹³ You have made us the taunt of our neighbors, the derision and scorn of those around us.
¹⁴ You have made us a byword among the nations, a laughingstock among the peoples.
¹⁵ All day long my disgrace is before me, and shame has covered my face
¹⁶ at the sound of the taunter and reviler, at the sight of the enemy and the avenger.
¹⁷ All this has come upon us, though we have not forgotten you, and we have not been false to your covenant.
¹⁸ Our heart has not turned back, nor have our steps departed from your way;
¹⁹ yet you have broken us in the place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death.
²⁰ If we had forgotten the name of our God or spread out our hands to a foreign god,
²¹ would not God discover this? For he knows the secrets of the heart.
²² Yet for your sake we are killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.
²³ Awake! Why are you sleeping, O Lord? Rouse yourself! Do not reject us forever!
²⁴ Why do you hide your face? Why do you forget our affliction and oppression?
²⁵ For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly clings to the ground.
²⁶ Rise up; come to our help! Redeem us for the sake of your steadfast love! (ESV)

Of David.
¹ Fret not yourself because of evildoers; be not envious of wrongdoers!
² For they will soon fade like the grass and wither like the green herb.
³ Trust in the LORD, and do good; dwell in the land and befriend faithfulness.
⁴ Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart.
⁵ Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him, and he will act.
⁶ He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.
⁷ Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; fret not yourself over the one who prospers in his way, over the man who carries out evil devices!
⁸ Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.
⁹ For the evildoers shall be cut off, but those who wait for the LORD shall inherit the land.
¹⁰ In just a little while, the wicked will be no more; though you look carefully at his place, he will not be there.
¹¹ But the meek shall inherit the land and delight themselves in abundant peace.
¹² The wicked plots against the righteous and gnashes his teeth at him,
¹³ but the Lord laughs at the wicked, for he sees that his day is coming.
¹⁴ The wicked draw the sword and bend their bows to bring down the poor and needy, to slay those whose way is upright;
¹⁵ their sword shall enter their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
¹⁶ Better is the little that the righteous has than the abundance of many wicked.
¹⁷ For the arms of the wicked shall be broken, but the LORD upholds the righteous.
¹⁸ The LORD knows the days of the blameless, and their heritage will remain forever;
¹⁹ they are not put to shame in evil times; in the days of famine they have abundance.
²⁰ But the wicked will perish; the enemies of the LORD are like the glory of the pastures; they vanish—like smoke they vanish away.
²¹ The wicked borrows but does not pay back, but the righteous is generous and gives;
²² for those blessed by the LORD shall inherit the land, but those cursed by him shall be cut off.
²³ The steps of a man are established by the LORD, when he delights in his way;
²⁴ though he fall, he shall not be cast headlong, for the LORD upholds his hand.
²⁵ I have been young, and now am old, yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging for bread.
²⁶ He is ever lending generously, and his children become a blessing.
²⁷ Turn away from evil and do good; so shall you dwell forever.
²⁸ For the LORD loves justice; he will not forsake his saints. They are preserved forever, but the children of the wicked shall be cut off.
²⁹ The righteous shall inherit the land and dwell upon it forever.
³⁰ The mouth of the righteous utters wisdom, and his tongue speaks justice.
³¹ The law of his God is in his heart; his steps do not slip.
³² The wicked watches for the righteous and seeks to put him to death.
³³ The LORD will not abandon him to his power or let him be condemned when he is brought to trial.
³⁴ Wait for the LORD and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land; you will look on when the wicked are cut off.
³⁵ I have seen a wicked, ruthless man, spreading himself like a green laurel tree.
³⁶ But he passed away, and behold, he was no more; though I sought him, he could not be found.
³⁷ Mark the blameless and behold the upright, for there is a future for the man of peace.
³⁸ But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed; the future of the wicked shall be cut off.
³⁹ The salvation of the righteous is from the LORD; he is their stronghold in the time of trouble.
⁴⁰ The LORD helps them and delivers them; he delivers them from the wicked and saves them, because they take refuge in him.

A Psalm of David, for the memorial offering.
¹ O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath!
² For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me.
³ There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin.
⁴ For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
⁵ My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness,
⁶ I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning.
⁷ For my sides are filled with burning, and there is no soundness in my flesh.
⁸ I am feeble and crushed; I groan because of the tumult of my heart.
⁹ O Lord, all my longing is before you; my sighing is not hidden from you.
¹⁰ My heart throbs; my strength fails me, and the light of my eyes—it also has gone from me.
¹¹ My friends and companions stand aloof from my plague, and my nearest kin stand far off.
¹² Those who seek my life lay their snares; those who seek my hurt speak of ruin and meditate treachery all day long.
¹³ But I am like a deaf man; I do not hear, like a mute man who does not open his mouth.
¹⁴ I have become like a man who does not hear, and in whose mouth are no rebukes.
¹⁵ But for you, O LORD, do I wait; it is you, O Lord my God, who will answer.
¹⁶ For I said, “Only let them not rejoice over me, who boast against me when my foot slips!”
¹⁷ For I am ready to fall, and my pain is ever before me.
¹⁸ I confess my iniquity; I am sorry for my sin.
¹⁹ But my foes are vigorous, they are mighty, and many are those who hate me wrongfully.
²⁰ Those who render me evil for good accuse me because I follow after good.
²¹ Do not forsake me, O LORD! O my God, be not far from me!
²² Make haste to help me, O Lord, my salvation!

To the choirmaster: to Jeduthun. A Psalm of David.
¹ I said, “I will guard my ways, that I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth with a muzzle, so long as the wicked are in my presence.”
² I was mute and silent; I held my peace to no avail, and my distress grew worse.
³ My heart became hot within me. As I mused, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:
⁴ “O LORD, make me know my end and what is the measure of my days; let me know how fleeting I am!
⁵ Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah
⁶ Surely a man goes about as a shadow! Surely for nothing they are in turmoil; man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather!
⁷ “And now, O Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in you.
⁸ Deliver me from all my transgressions. Do not make me the scorn of the fool!
⁹ I am mute; I do not open my mouth, for it is you who have done it.
¹⁰ Remove your stroke from me; I am spent by the hostility of your hand.
¹¹ When you discipline a man with rebukes for sin, you consume like a moth what is dear to him; surely all mankind is a mere breath! Selah
¹² “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers.
¹³ Look away from me, that I may smile again, before I depart and am no more!” (ESV)

¹⁶ So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.
¹⁷ For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
¹⁸ as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. (ESV)

¹ Then Job answered and said:
² “Truly I know that it is so: But how can a man be in the right before God?
³ If one wished to contend with him, one could not answer him once in a thousand times.
⁴ He is wise in heart and mighty in strength— who has hardened himself against him, and succeeded?—
⁵ he who removes mountains, and they know it not, when he overturns them in his anger,
⁶ who shakes the earth out of its place, and its pillars tremble;
⁷ who commands the sun, and it does not rise; who seals up the stars;
⁸ who alone stretched out the heavens and trampled the waves of the sea;
⁹ who made the Bear and Orion, the Pleiades and the chambers of the south;
¹⁰ who does great things beyond searching out, and marvelous things beyond number.
¹¹ Behold, he passes by me, and I see him not; he moves on, but I do not perceive him.
¹² Behold, he snatches away; who can turn him back? Who will say to him, ‘What are you doing?’
¹³ “God will not turn back his anger; beneath him bowed the helpers of Rahab.
¹⁴ How then can I answer him, choosing my words with him?
¹⁵ Though I am in the right, I cannot answer him; I must appeal for mercy to my accuser.
¹⁶ If I summoned him and he answered me, I would not believe that he was listening to my voice.
¹⁷ For he crushes me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause;
¹⁸ he will not let me get my breath, but fills me with bitterness.
¹⁹ If it is a contest of strength, behold, he is mighty! If it is a matter of justice, who can summon him?
²⁰ Though I am in the right, my own mouth would condemn me; though I am blameless, he would prove me perverse.
²¹ I am blameless; I regard not myself; I loathe my life.
²² It is all one; therefore I say, ‘He destroys both the blameless and the wicked.’
²³ When disaster brings sudden death, he mocks at the calamity of the innocent.
²⁴ The earth is given into the hand of the wicked; he covers the faces of its judges— if it is not he, who then is it?
²⁵ “My days are swifter than a runner; they flee away; they see no good.
²⁶ They go by like skiffs of reed, like an eagle swooping on the prey.
²⁷ If I say, ‘I will forget my complaint, I will put off my sad face, and be of good cheer,’
²⁸ I become afraid of all my suffering, for I know you will not hold me innocent.
²⁹ I shall be condemned; why then do I labor in vain?
³⁰ If I wash myself with snow and cleanse my hands with lye,
³¹ yet you will plunge me into a pit, and my own clothes will abhor me.
³² For he is not a man, as I am, that I might answer him, that we should come to trial together.
³³ There is no arbiter between us, who might lay his hand on us both.
³⁴ Let him take his rod away from me, and let not dread of him terrify me.
³⁵ Then I would speak without fear of him, for I am not so in myself. (ESV)

⁴⁶ So he came again to Cana in Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And at Capernaum there was an official whose son was ill.
⁴⁷ When this man heard that Jesus had come from Judea to Galilee, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
⁴⁸ So Jesus said to him, “Unless you see signs and wonders you will not believe.”
⁴⁹ The official said to him, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”
⁵⁰ Jesus said to him, “Go; your son will live.” The man believed the word that Jesus spoke to him and went on his way.
⁵¹ As he was going down, his servants met him and told him that his son was recovering.
⁵² So he asked them the hour when he began to get better, and they said to him, “Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.”
⁵³ The father knew that was the hour when Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” And he himself believed, and all his household.
⁵⁴ This was now the second sign that Jesus did when he had come from Judea to Galilee. (ESV)

¹ The LORD said to Moses,
² “Consecrate to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine.”
³ Then Moses said to the people, “Remember this day in which you came out from Egypt, out of the house of slavery, for by a strong hand the LORD brought you out from this place. No leavened bread shall be eaten.
⁴ Today, in the month of Abib, you are going out.
⁵ And when the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, which he swore to your fathers to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey, you shall keep this service in this month.
⁶ Seven days you shall eat unleavened bread, and on the seventh day there shall be a feast to the LORD.
⁷ Unleavened bread shall be eaten for seven days; no leavened bread shall be seen with you, and no leaven shall be seen with you in all your territory.
⁸ You shall tell your son on that day, ‘It is because of what the LORD did for me when I came out of Egypt.’
⁹ And it shall be to you as a sign on your hand and as a memorial between your eyes, that the law of the LORD may be in your mouth. For with a strong hand the LORD has brought you out of Egypt.
¹⁰ You shall therefore keep this statute at its appointed time from year to year.
¹¹ “When the LORD brings you into the land of the Canaanites, as he swore to you and your fathers, and shall give it to you,
¹² you shall set apart to the LORD all that first opens the womb. All the firstborn of your animals that are males shall be the LORD’s.
¹³ Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem.
¹⁴ And when in time to come your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ you shall say to him, ‘By a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt, from the house of slavery.
¹⁵ For when Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the LORD killed all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of animals. Therefore I sacrifice to the LORD all the males that first open the womb, but all the firstborn of my sons I redeem.’
¹⁶ It shall be as a mark on your hand or frontlets between your eyes, for by a strong hand the LORD brought us out of Egypt.”
¹⁷ When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines, although that was near. For God said, “Lest the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt.”
¹⁸ But God led the people around by the way of the wilderness toward the Red Sea. And the people of Israel went up out of the land of Egypt equipped for battle.
¹⁹ Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for Joseph had made the sons of Israel solemnly swear, saying, “God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones with you from here.”
²⁰ And they moved on from Succoth and encamped at Etham, on the edge of the wilderness.
²¹ And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead them along the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light, that they might travel by day and by night.
²² The pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night did not depart from before the people.

¹ Then the LORD said to Moses,
² “Tell the people of Israel to turn back and encamp in front of Pi-hahiroth, between Migdol and the sea, in front of Baal-zephon; you shall encamp facing it, by the sea.
³ For Pharaoh will say of the people of Israel, ‘They are wandering in the land; the wilderness has shut them in.’
⁴ And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will pursue them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, and the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD.” And they did so.
⁵ When the king of Egypt was told that the people had fled, the mind of Pharaoh and his servants was changed toward the people, and they said, “What is this we have done, that we have let Israel go from serving us?”
⁶ So he made ready his chariot and took his army with him,
⁷ and took six hundred chosen chariots and all the other chariots of Egypt with officers over all of them.
⁸ And the LORD hardened the heart of Pharaoh king of Egypt, and he pursued the people of Israel while the people of Israel were going out defiantly.
⁹ The Egyptians pursued them, all Pharaoh’s horses and chariots and his horsemen and his army, and overtook them encamped at the sea, by Pi-hahiroth, in front of Baal-zephon.
¹⁰ When Pharaoh drew near, the people of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold, the Egyptians were marching after them, and they feared greatly. And the people of Israel cried out to the LORD.
¹¹ They said to Moses, “Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt?
¹² Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: ‘Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians’? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness.”
¹³ And Moses said to the people, “Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will work for you today. For the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again.
¹⁴ The LORD will fight for you, and you have only to be silent.”
¹⁵ The LORD said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward.
¹⁶ Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.
¹⁷ And I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they shall go in after them, and I will get glory over Pharaoh and all his host, his chariots, and his horsemen.
¹⁸ And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I have gotten glory over Pharaoh, his chariots, and his horsemen.”
¹⁹ Then the angel of God who was going before the host of Israel moved and went behind them, and the pillar of cloud moved from before them and stood behind them,
²⁰ coming between the host of Egypt and the host of Israel. And there was the cloud and the darkness. And it lit up the night without one coming near the other all night.
²¹ Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the LORD drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.
²² And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
²³ The Egyptians pursued and went in after them into the midst of the sea, all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen.
²⁴ And in the morning watch the LORD in the pillar of fire and of cloud looked down on the Egyptian forces and threw the Egyptian forces into a panic,
²⁵ clogging their chariot wheels so that they drove heavily. And the Egyptians said, “Let us flee from before Israel, for the LORD fights for them against the Egyptians.”
²⁶ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots, and upon their horsemen.”
²⁷ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
²⁸ The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained.
²⁹ But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
³⁰ Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.
³¹ Israel saw the great power that the LORD used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in his servant Moses. (ESV)

⁴⁵ Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour.
⁴⁶ And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”
⁴⁷ And some of the bystanders, hearing it, said, “This man is calling Elijah.”
⁴⁸ And one of them at once ran and took a sponge, filled it with sour wine, and put it on a reed and gave it to him to drink.
⁴⁹ But the others said, “Wait, let us see whether Elijah will come to save him.”
⁵⁰ And Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and yielded up his spirit.
⁵¹ And behold, the curtain of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom. And the earth shook, and the rocks were split.
⁵² The tombs also were opened. And many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised,
⁵³ and coming out of the tombs after his resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many.
⁵⁴ When the centurion and those who were with him, keeping watch over Jesus, saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”
⁵⁵ There were also many women there, looking on from a distance, who had followed Jesus from Galilee, ministering to him,
⁵⁶ among whom were Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph and the mother of the sons of Zebedee.
⁵⁷ When it was evening, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who also was a disciple of Jesus.
⁵⁸ He went to Pilate and asked for the body of Jesus. Then Pilate ordered it to be given to him.
⁵⁹ And Joseph took the body and wrapped it in a clean linen shroud
⁶⁰ and laid it in his own new tomb, which he had cut in the rock. And he rolled a great stone to the entrance of the tomb and went away.
⁶¹ Mary Magdalene and the other Mary were there, sitting opposite the tomb.
⁶² The next day, that is, after the day of Preparation, the chief priests and the Pharisees gathered before Pilate
⁶³ and said, “Sir, we remember how that impostor said, while he was still alive, ‘After three days I will rise.’
⁶⁴ Therefore order the tomb to be made secure until the third day, lest his disciples go and steal him away and tell the people, ‘He has risen from the dead,’ and the last fraud will be worse than the first.”
⁶⁵ Pilate said to them, “You have a guard of soldiers. Go, make it as secure as you can.”
⁶⁶ So they went and made the tomb secure by sealing the stone and setting a guard. (ESV)

²⁰ My son, be attentive to my words; incline your ear to my sayings.
²¹ Let them not escape from your sight; keep them within your heart.
²² For they are life to those who find them, and healing to all their flesh.
²³ Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.
²⁴ Put away from you crooked speech, and put devious talk far from you.
²⁵ Let your eyes look directly forward, and your gaze be straight before you.
²⁶ Ponder the path of your feet; then all your ways will be sure.
²⁷ Do not swerve to the right or to the left; turn your foot away from evil. (ESV)

¹ And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home.
² And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.
³ And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
⁴ And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.
⁵ And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, “Son, your sins are forgiven.”
⁶ Now some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts,
⁷ “Why does this man speak like that? He is blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone?”
⁸ And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they thus questioned within themselves, said to them, “Why do you question these things in your hearts?
⁹ Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Rise, take up your bed and walk’?
¹⁰ But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins”—he said to the paralytic—
¹¹ “I say to you, rise, pick up your bed, and go home.”
¹² And he rose and immediately picked up his bed and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed and glorified God, saying, “We never saw anything like this!”
¹³ He went out again beside the sea, and all the crowd was coming to him, and he was teaching them.
¹⁴ And as he passed by, he saw Levi the son of Alphaeus sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him.
¹⁵ And as he reclined at table in his house, many tax collectors and sinners were reclining with Jesus and his disciples, for there were many who followed him.
¹⁶ And the scribes of the Pharisees, when they saw that he was eating with sinners and tax collectors, said to his disciples, “Why does he eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹⁷ And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
¹⁸ Now John’s disciples and the Pharisees were fasting. And people came and said to him, “Why do John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees fast, but your disciples do not fast?”
¹⁹ And Jesus said to them, “Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them? As long as they have the bridegroom with them, they cannot fast.
²⁰ The days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them, and then they will fast in that day.
²¹ No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. If he does, the patch tears away from it, the new from the old, and a worse tear is made.
²² And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”
²³ One Sabbath he was going through the grainfields, and as they made their way, his disciples began to pluck heads of grain.
²⁴ And the Pharisees were saying to him, “Look, why are they doing what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”
²⁵ And he said to them, “Have you never read what David did, when he was in need and was hungry, he and those who were with him:
²⁶ how he entered the house of God, in the time of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the bread of the Presence, which it is not lawful for any but the priests to eat, and also gave it to those who were with him?”
²⁷ And he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.
²⁸ So the Son of Man is lord even of the Sabbath.”

¹ Again he entered the synagogue, and a man was there with a withered hand.
² And they watched Jesus, to see whether he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they might accuse him.
³ And he said to the man with the withered hand, “Come here.”
⁴ And he said to them, “Is it lawful on the Sabbath to do good or to do harm, to save life or to kill?” But they were silent.
⁵ And he looked around at them with anger, grieved at their hardness of heart, and said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored.
⁶ The Pharisees went out and immediately held counsel with the Herodians against him, how to destroy him.
⁷ Jesus withdrew with his disciples to the sea, and a great crowd followed, from Galilee and Judea
⁸ and Jerusalem and Idumea and from beyond the Jordan and from around Tyre and Sidon. When the great crowd heard all that he was doing, they came to him.
⁹ And he told his disciples to have a boat ready for him because of the crowd, lest they crush him,
¹⁰ for he had healed many, so that all who had diseases pressed around him to touch him.
¹¹ And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.”
¹² And he strictly ordered them not to make him known.
¹³ And he went up on the mountain and called to him those whom he desired, and they came to him.
¹⁴ And he appointed twelve (whom he also named apostles) so that they might be with him and he might send them out to preach
¹⁵ and have authority to cast out demons.
¹⁶ He appointed the twelve: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter);
¹⁷ James the son of Zebedee and John the brother of James (to whom he gave the name Boanerges, that is, Sons of Thunder);
¹⁸ Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas, and James the son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus, and Simon the Zealot,
¹⁹ and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.
²⁰ Then he went home, and the crowd gathered again, so that they could not even eat.
²¹ And when his family heard it, they went out to seize him, for they were saying, “He is out of his mind.”
²² And the scribes who came down from Jerusalem were saying, “He is possessed by Beelzebul,” and “by the prince of demons he casts out the demons.”
²³ And he called them to him and said to them in parables, “How can Satan cast out Satan?
²⁴ If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand.
²⁵ And if a house is divided against itself, that house will not be able to stand.
²⁶ And if Satan has risen up against himself and is divided, he cannot stand, but is coming to an end.
²⁷ But no one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.
²⁸ “Truly, I say to you, all sins will be forgiven the children of man, and whatever blasphemies they utter,
²⁹ but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin”—
³⁰ for they were saying, “He has an unclean spirit.”
³¹ And his mother and his brothers came, and standing outside they sent to him and called him.
³² And a crowd was sitting around him, and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, seeking you.”
³³ And he answered them, “Who are my mother and my brothers?”
³⁴ And looking about at those who sat around him, he said, “Here are my mother and my brothers!
³⁵ For whoever does the will of God, he is my brother and sister and mother.”

¹ Again he began to teach beside the sea. And a very large crowd gathered about him, so that he got into a boat and sat in it on the sea, and the whole crowd was beside the sea on the land.
² And he was teaching them many things in parables, and in his teaching he said to them:
³ “Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.
⁴ And as he sowed, some seed fell along the path, and the birds came and devoured it.
⁵ Other seed fell on rocky ground, where it did not have much soil, and immediately it sprang up, since it had no depth of soil.
⁶ And when the sun rose, it was scorched, and since it had no root, it withered away.
⁷ Other seed fell among thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no grain.
⁸ And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
⁹ And he said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”
¹⁰ And when he was alone, those around him with the twelve asked him about the parables.
¹¹ And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables,
¹² so that “‘they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven.’”
¹³ And he said to them, “Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables?
¹⁴ The sower sows the word.
¹⁵ And these are the ones along the path, where the word is sown: when they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them.
¹⁶ And these are the ones sown on rocky ground: the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy.
¹⁷ And they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while; then, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, immediately they fall away.
¹⁸ And others are the ones sown among thorns. They are those who hear the word,
¹⁹ but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.
²⁰ But those that were sown on the good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit, thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.”
²¹ And he said to them, “Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand?
²² For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light.
²³ If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”
²⁴ And he said to them, “Pay attention to what you hear: with the measure you use, it will be measured to you, and still more will be added to you.
²⁵ For to the one who has, more will be given, and from the one who has not, even what he has will be taken away.”
²⁶ And he said, “The kingdom of God is as if a man should scatter seed on the ground.
²⁷ He sleeps and rises night and day, and the seed sprouts and grows; he knows not how.
²⁸ The earth produces by itself, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear.
²⁹ But when the grain is ripe, at once he puts in the sickle, because the harvest has come.”
³⁰ And he said, “With what can we compare the kingdom of God, or what parable shall we use for it?
³¹ It is like a grain of mustard seed, which, when sown on the ground, is the smallest of all the seeds on earth,
³² yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes larger than all the garden plants and puts out large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.”
³³ With many such parables he spoke the word to them, as they were able to hear it.
³⁴ He did not speak to them without a parable, but privately to his own disciples he explained everything.
³⁵ On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.”
³⁶ And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him.
³⁷ And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling.
³⁸ But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
³⁹ And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm.
⁴⁰ He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?”
⁴¹ And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”

¹ They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes.
² And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit.
³ He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain,
⁴ for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him.
⁵ Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones.
⁶ And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him.
⁷ And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.”
⁸ For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!”
⁹ And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.”
¹⁰ And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country.
¹¹ Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside,
¹² and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.”
¹³ So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea.
¹⁴ The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened.
¹⁵ And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed man, the one who had had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid.
¹⁶ And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs.
¹⁷ And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.
¹⁸ As he was getting into the boat, the man who had been possessed with demons begged him that he might be with him.
¹⁹ And he did not permit him but said to him, “Go home to your friends and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you.”
²⁰ And he went away and began to proclaim in the Decapolis how much Jesus had done for him, and everyone marveled.
²¹ And when Jesus had crossed again in the boat to the other side, a great crowd gathered about him, and he was beside the sea.
²² Then came one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name, and seeing him, he fell at his feet
²³ and implored him earnestly, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that she may be made well and live.”
²⁴ And he went with him. And a great crowd followed him and thronged about him.
²⁵ And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years,
²⁶ and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse.
²⁷ She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.
²⁸ For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.”
²⁹ And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease.
³⁰ And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?”
³¹ And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’”
³² And he looked around to see who had done it.
³³ But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.
³⁴ And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.”
³⁵ While he was still speaking, there came from the ruler’s house some who said, “Your daughter is dead. Why trouble the Teacher any further?”
³⁶ But overhearing what they said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, “Do not fear, only believe.”
³⁷ And he allowed no one to follow him except Peter and James and John the brother of James.
³⁸ They came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, and Jesus saw a commotion, people weeping and wailing loudly.
³⁹ And when he had entered, he said to them, “Why are you making a commotion and weeping? The child is not dead but sleeping.”
⁴⁰ And they laughed at him. But he put them all outside and took the child’s father and mother and those who were with him and went in where the child was.
⁴¹ Taking her by the hand he said to her, “Talitha cumi,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.”
⁴² And immediately the girl got up and began walking (for she was twelve years of age), and they were immediately overcome with amazement.
⁴³ And he strictly charged them that no one should know this, and told them to give her something to eat. (ESV)