Friday 13 October 2023

13Put on sackcloth and mourn, you priests!Wail, you ministers of the altar.Come, lie all night in sackcloth, you ministers of my God,for the meal offering and the drink offering are withheld from your God’s house.14Sanctify a fast.Call a solemn assembly.Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the Lord, your God,and cry to the Lord.15Alas for the day!For the day of the Lord is at hand,and it will come as destruction from the Almighty.· · · some verses are not read1Blow the trumpet in Zion,and sound an alarm in my holy mountain!Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble,for the day of the Lord comes,for it is close at hand:2A day of darkness and gloominess,a day of clouds and thick darkness.As the dawn spreading on the mountains,a great and strong people;there has never been the like,neither will there be any more after them,even to the years of many generations.

2I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.I will tell of all your marvelous works.3I will be glad and rejoice in you.I will sing praise to your name, O Most High.

6You have rebuked the nations.You have destroyed the wicked.You have blotted out their name forever and ever.16The nations have sunk down in the pit that they made.In the net which they hid, their own foot is taken.

8But the Lord reigns forever.He has prepared his throne for judgment.9He will judge the world in righteousness.He will administer judgment to the peoples in uprightness.

15But some of them said,“He casts out demons by Beelzebul,the prince of the demons.”16Others, testing him, sought from him a sign from heaven.17But he, knowing their thoughts,said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.A house divided against itself falls.18If Satan also is divided against himself,how will his kingdom stand?For you say that I cast out demons by Beelzebul.19But if I cast out demons by Beelzebul,by whom do your children cast them out?Therefore they will be your judges.20But if I by God’s finger cast out demons,then God’s Kingdom has come to you.

21“When the strong man,fully armed, guards his own dwelling,his goods are safe.22But when someone stronger attacks him and overcomes him,he takes from him his whole armor in which he trusted,and divides his plunder.

23“He who is not with me is against me.He who doesn’t gather with me scatters.

24The unclean spirit,when he has gone out of the man,passes through dry places, seeking rest;and finding none, he says,‘I will turn back to my house from which I came out.’25When he returns, he finds it swept and put in order.26Then he goesand takes seven other spirits more evil than himself,and they enter in and dwell there.The last state of that man becomes worse than the first.”