Judgment and Salvation
1 yI was ready to be sought by those who did not ask for me;
I was ready to be found by those who did not seek me.
I said, “Here I am, here I am,”
to a nation that was not called by1 my name.
2 zI spread out my hands all the day
to a arebellious people,
who walk in a way that is not good,
following their own devices;
3 a people who provoke me
to my face continually,
sacrificing in bgardens
and making offerings on bricks;
4 who sit in tombs,
and spend the night in secret places;
who eat cpig’s flesh,
and broth of dtainted meat is in their vessels;
5 who say, “Keep to yourself,
do not come near me, for I am too holy for you.”
These are a smoke in my nostrils,
a fire that burns all the day.
6 Behold, it is written before me:
“I will not ekeep silent, but I will repay;
I will indeed repay into their lap
7 both your iniquities and your fathers’ iniquities together,
says the Lord;
because they made offerings fon the mountains
and insulted me on the hills,
I will measure into their lap
payment for their former deeds.”2
8 Thus says the Lord:
“As the new wine is found in the cluster,
and they say, ‘Do not destroy it,
for there is a blessing in it,’
so I will do for my servants’ sake,
and not destroy them all.
9 I will bring forth offspring from Jacob,
and from Judah possessors of my mountains;
my chosen shall possess it,
and my servants shall dwell there.
Save Me, O My God
A Psalm of David, twhen he fled from Absalom his son.
1 O Lord, how many are my foes!
Many are rising against me;
2 many are usaying of my soul,
“There is no salvation for him in God.” Selah1
3 But you, O Lord, are a vshield about me,
my glory, and the wlifter of my head.
4 xI cried yaloud to the Lord,
and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah
5 I zlay down and slept;
I woke again, for the Lord sustained me.
6 I will not be afraid aof many thousands of people
who have set themselves against me all around.
7 Arise, O Lord!
Save me, O my God!
For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;
you break the teeth of the wicked.
8 bSalvation belongs to the Lord;
your blessing be on your people! Selah
23 Now before faith came, we were held captive munder the law, imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed. 24 So then, the law was our guardian nuntil Christ came, in order that we might be ojustified by faith. 25 But now that faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian, 26 for in Christ Jesus you are all sons of God, through faith. 27 For as many of you as were pbaptized into Christ have qput on Christ. 28 There is rneither Jew nor Greek, there is sneither slave1 nor free, there is tno male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And uif you are vChrist’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise.
Sons and Heirs
1 I mean that the heir, as long as he is a child, is no different from a slave,2 though he is the owner of everything, 2 but he is wunder guardians and managers until the date set by his father. 3 In the same way we also, when we were children, were xenslaved to the yelementary principles3 of the world. 4 But when the zfullness of time had come, God asent forth his Son, bborn cof woman, born dunder the law, 5 to eredeem those who were funder the law, so that we might receive gadoption as sons. 6 And hbecause you are sons, God has sent the iSpirit of his Son jinto our hearts, crying, k“Abba! Father!” 7 So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and lif a son, then an mheir through God.
Jesus Heals a Man with a Demon
26 qThen they sailed to the country of the Gerasenes,1 which is opposite Galilee. 27 When Jesus2 had stepped out on land, there met him a man from the city who had demons. For a long time he had worn no clothes, and he had not lived in a house but among the tombs. 28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell down before him and said with a loud voice, “What have you to do with me, rJesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, do not torment me.” 29 For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. (For many a time it had seized him. He was kept under guard and bound with chains and shackles, but he would break the bonds and be driven by the demon into the desert.) 30 Jesus then asked him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Legion,” for many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged him not to command them to depart into the abyss. 32 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him to let them enter these. So he gave them permission. 33 Then the demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned.
34 When the herdsmen saw what had happened, they fled and told it in the city and in the country. 35 Then people went out to see what had happened, and they came to Jesus and found the man from whom the demons had gone, ssitting at the feet of Jesus, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. 36 And those who had seen it told them how the demon-possessed3 man had been healed. 37 Then all the people of the surrounding country of the Gerasenes asked him to tdepart from them, for they were seized with great ufear. So he got into the boat and returned. 38 The man from whom the demons had gone begged that he might be with him, but Jesus sent him away, saying, 39 “Return to your home, and declare how much God has done for you.” And he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city how much Jesus had done for him.
