Wednesday, July 1, 2026

¹⁴Seek good, and not evil, that you may live; and so the LORD, the God of Armies, will be with you, as you say.

¹⁵Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts. It may be that the LORD, the God of Armies, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph."

²¹I hate, I despise your feasts, and I can't stand your solemn assemblies.

²²Yes, though you offer me your burnt offerings and meal offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace offerings of your fat animals.

²³Take away from me the noise of your songs! I will not listen to the music of your harps.

²⁴But let justice roll on like rivers, and righteousness like a mighty stream.

⁷"Hear, my people, and I will speak. Israel, I will testify against you. I am God, your God.

⁸I don't rebuke you for your sacrifices. Your burnt offerings are continually before me.

⁹I have no need for a bull from your stall, nor male goats from your pens.

¹⁰For every animal of the forest is mine, and the livestock on a thousand hills.

¹¹I know all the birds of the mountains. The wild animals of the field are mine.

¹²If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it.

¹³Will I eat the meat of bulls, or drink the blood of goats?

¹⁶But to the wicked God says, "What right do you have to declare my statutes, that you have taken my covenant on your lips,

¹⁷since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?

²⁸When he came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way.

²⁹Behold, they cried out, saying, "What do we have to do with you, Jesus, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?"

³⁰Now there was a herd of many pigs feeding far away from them.

³¹The demons begged him, saying, "If you cast us out, permit us to go away into the herd of pigs."

³²He said to them, "Go!" They came out and went into the herd of pigs; and behold, the whole herd of pigs rushed down the cliff into the sea and died in the water.

³³Those who fed them fled and went away into the city and told everything, including what happened to those who were possessed with demons.

³⁴Behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. When they saw him, they begged that he would depart from their borders.