Open Word

FIRST READING

Jonah 2:1-10

Verse 1. From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the LORD his God, Verse 2. saying: “In my distress I called to the LORD, and He answered me. From the belly of Sheol I called for help, and You heard my voice. Verse 3. For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me. Verse 4. At this, I said, ‘I have been banished from Your sight; yet I will look once more toward Your holy temple.’ Verse 5. The waters engulfed me to take my life; the watery depths closed around me; the seaweed wrapped around my head. Verse 6. To the roots of the mountains I descended; the earth beneath me barred me in forever! But You raised my life from the pit, O LORD my God! Verse 7. As my life was fading away, I remembered the LORD. My prayer went up to You, to Your holy temple. Verse 8. Those who cling to worthless idols forsake His loving devotion. Verse 9. But I, with the voice of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to You. I will fulfill what I have vowed. Salvation is from the LORD!” Verse 10. And the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.

PSALM

Psalm 114

When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel His dominion.

The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;

the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.

Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,

O mountains, that you skipped like rams, O hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a fountain of water!

SECOND READING

Matthew 12:38-42

Verse 38. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees said to Him, “Teacher, we want to see a sign from You.” Verse 39. Jesus replied, “A wicked and adulterous generation demands a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. Verse 40. For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Verse 41. The men of Nineveh will stand at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now One greater than Jonah is here. Verse 42. The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and now One greater than Solomon is here.