Amos 5:16–27

5:16 Because of Israel’s sins this is what the Lord, the Lord God of Heaven’s Armies, says:

“In all the squares there will be wailing;

in all the streets they will mourn the dead.

They will tell the field workers to lament

and the professional mourners to wail.

17In all the vineyards there will be wailing,

for I will pass through your midst,” says the Lord.

18Woe to those who wish for the day of the Lord!

Why do you want the Lord’s day of judgment to come?

It will bring darkness, not light.

19Disaster will be inescapable,

as if a man ran from a lion only to meet a bear,

then escaped into a house,

leaned his hand against the wall,

and was bitten by a poisonous snake.

20Don’t you realize the Lord’s day of judgment will bring darkness, not light—

gloomy blackness, not bright light?

21“I absolutely despise your festivals!

I get no pleasure from your religious assemblies.

22Even if you offer me burnt and grain offerings, I will not be satisfied;

I will not look with favor on your peace offerings of fattened calves.

23Take away from me your noisy songs;

I don’t want to hear the music of your stringed instruments.

24Justice must flow like torrents of water,

righteous actions like a stream that never dries up.

25You did not bring me sacrifices and grain offerings during the 40 years you spent in the wilderness, family of Israel.

26You will pick up your images of Sikkuth, your king,

and Kiyyun, your star god, which you made for yourselves,

27and I will drive you into exile beyond Damascus,” says the Lord.

He is called the God of Heaven’s Armies.

Ps. 94

94:1 O Lord, the God who avenges!

O God who avenges, reveal your splendor.

2Rise up, O judge of the earth.

Pay back the proud.

3O Lord, how long will the wicked,

how long will the wicked celebrate?

4They spew out threats and speak defiantly;

all the evildoers boast.

5O Lord, they crush your people;

they oppress the nation that belongs to you.

6They kill the widow and the resident foreigner,

and they murder the fatherless.

7Then they say, “The Lord does not see this;

the God of Jacob does not take notice of it.”

8Take notice of this, you ignorant people.

You fools, when will you ever understand?

9Does the one who makes the human ear not hear?

Does the one who forms the human eye not see?

10Does the one who disciplines the nations not punish?

He is the one who imparts knowledge to human beings!

11The Lord knows that peoples’ thoughts

are morally bankrupt.

12How blessed is the one whom you instruct, O Lord,

the one whom you teach from your law

13in order to protect him from times of trouble,

until the wicked are destroyed.

14Certainly the Lord does not forsake his people;

he does not abandon the nation that belongs to him.

15For justice will prevail,

and all the morally upright will be vindicated.

16Who will rise up to defend me against the wicked?

Who will stand up for me against the evildoers?

17If the Lord had not helped me,

I would soon have dwelt in the silence of death.

18If I say, “My foot is slipping,”

your loyal love, O Lord, supports me.

19When worries threaten to overwhelm me,

your soothing touch makes me happy.

20Cruel rulers are not your allies,

those who make oppressive laws.

21They conspire against the blameless

and condemn to death the innocent.

22But the Lord will protect me,

and my God will shelter me.

23He will pay them back for their sin.

He will destroy them because of their evil;

the Lord our God will destroy them.

Mark 3:1–21

3:1 Then Jesus entered the synagogue again, and a man was there who had a withered hand. 2They watched Jesus closely to see if he would heal him on the Sabbath, so that they could accuse him. 3So he said to the man who had the withered hand, “Stand up among all these people.” 4Then he said to them, “Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath, or evil, to save a life or destroy it?” But they were silent. 5After looking around at them in anger, grieved by the hardness of their hearts, he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out, and his hand was restored. 6So the Pharisees went out immediately and began plotting with the Herodians, as to how they could assassinate him.

7Then Jesus went away with his disciples to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed him. And from Judea, 8Jerusalem, Idumea, beyond the Jordan River, and around Tyre and Sidon a great multitude came to him when they heard about the things he had done. 9Because of the crowd, he told his disciples to have a small boat ready for him so the crowd would not press toward him. 10For he had healed many, so that all who were afflicted with diseases pressed toward him in order to touch him. 11And whenever the unclean spirits saw him, they fell down before him and cried out, “You are the Son of God.” 12But he sternly ordered them not to make him known.

13Now Jesus went up the mountain and called for those he wanted, and they came to him. 14He appointed 12 so that they would be with him and he could send them to preach 15and to have authority to cast out demons. 16 To Simon he gave the name Peter; 17to James and his brother John, the sons of Zebedee, he gave the name Boanerges (that is, “sons of thunder”); 18and Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot, 19and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

20Now Jesus went home, and a crowd gathered so that they were not able to eat. 21When his family heard this they went out to restrain him, for they said, “He is out of his mind.” (NET Bible)