Book of Common Prayer
78 Hear my doctrine, O my people. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable. I will declare high sentences of old
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children; but to the generation to come we will show the praise of the LORD, His power also, and His wonderful works that He has done.
5 How He established a testimony in Jacob and ordained a Law in Israel. Which He commanded our fathers that they should teach their children,
6 so that the posterity might know it and the children which should be born should stand up and declare it to their children.
7 So that they might set their hope on God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His Commandments.
8 So that they not be as their fathers (a disobedient and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright, and whose spirit was not faithful to God).
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and shooting with the bow, turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the Covenant of God, but refused to walk in His Law,
11 and forgot His acts and His wonderful works that He had shown them.
12 He did marvelous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt (in the field of Zoan).
13 He divided the sea and led them through. He also made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 Also, in the daytime, He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He split the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink, as with the great depths.
16 He also brought floods out of the stony rock, making the waters descend like the rivers.
17 But, they still sinned against Him and provoked the Highest in the wilderness
18 and tempted God in their hearts, requiring food for their lust.
19 They also spoke against God, saying, “Can God prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 “Behold, He struck the rock so that the water gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can He also give bread, or prepare flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore, the LORD heard and was angry, and the fire was kindled in Jacob; and wrath also came upon Israel
22 because they did not believe in God and did not trust in His help.
23 Still, He had commanded the clouds above, and had opened the doors of Heaven,
24 and had rained down manna upon them to eat and had given them of the wheat of Heaven.
25 Man ate the bread of angels. He sent them food enough.
26 He caused the east wind to pass in the sky; and through His power He brought in the south wind.
27 He also rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the sea.
28 And He made it fall in the midst of their camp, all around their habitations.
29 So they ate and were well-filled; for He gave them their desire.
30 They were not turned from their lusts. The food was still in their mouths
31 when the wrath of God came upon them and slew the strongest of them and struck down the chosen men of Israel.
32 In spite of all this, they still sinned and did not believe His wondrous works.
33 Therefore, He ended their days in futility, and their years in dismay.
34 And when He slew them, they sought Him; and they returned and sought God earnestly.
35 And they remembered that God was their strength, and the Most High God their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth and lied to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not upright with Him; nor were they faithful in His Covenant.
38 Yet, He, being merciful, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; but oftentimes called back His anger and did not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they were flesh, a wind that passes and does not come again.
40 How often did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert?
41 Indeed, they turned back and tempted God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered neither His hand nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy
43 nor Him Who set His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan.
44 Who turned their rivers into blood, and their floods, so that they could not drink.
45 He sent a swarm of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He also gave their fruits to the caterpillar, and their labor to the grasshopper.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their wild fig trees with the hailstone.
48 He also gave their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to the thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, indignation and wrath, and troubled them by sending out evil angels.
50 He made a path for His anger. He did not spare their soul from death but gave their life to the pestilence.
51 He struck all the firstborn in Egypt, even the beginning of their strength, in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But, He made His people go out like sheep and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 Indeed, He carried them out safely, and they did not fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And He brought them to the borders of His Sanctuary, to this Mountain which His right hand purchased.
55 He also cast out the heathen before them and caused them to fall to the lot of His inheritance; and made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tabernacles.
56 Yet, they tempted and provoked the Most High God and did not keep His testimonies.
57 But they turned back and dealt falsely, like their fathers. They turned like a deceitful bow.
58 And they provoked Him to anger with their high places and moved Him to wrath with their graven images.
59 God heard this and was angry, and greatly abhorred Israel;
60 so that He abandoned the habitation of Shiloh, the Tabernacle where He dwelt among men,
61 and delivered His power into captivity, and His beauty into the enemy’s hand.
62 And He gave up His people to the sword and was angry with His inheritance.
63 The fire devoured their chosen men, and their maids were not praised.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows did not lament.
65 But the LORD awakened, as one out of sleep, as a strong man who cries out after wine,
66 and drove His enemies backwards and put them to a perpetual shame.
67 Yet, He refused the tabernacle of Joseph, and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim.
68 But He chose the tribe of Judah, and Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 And He built His Sanctuary as a high palace, like the Earth, which He established forever.
70 He also chose David, His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 Even from behind the ewes with young. He brought him to feed His people in Jacob, and His inheritance in Israel.
72 So, he fed them according to the simplicity of his heart and guided them by the discretion of his hands. A Psalm committed to Asaph
21 So, the man Elkanah, and all his house, went up to offer to the LORD the yearly sacrifice and his vow.
22 But Hannah did not go up; for she said to her husband, “I will wait until the child is weaned; then I will bring him, so that he may appear before the LORD and stay there forever.
23 And Elkanah, her husband, said to her, “Do what seems best to you. Wait until you have weaned him. Only, may the LORD accomplish His Word.” So, the woman waited and nursed her son until she had weaned him.
24 And when she had weaned him, she took him with her with three bullocks and an ephah of flour and a bottle of wine and brought him to the House of the LORD in Shiloh. And the child was young.
25 And they killed a bull and brought the child to Eli.
26 And she said, “Oh, my lord! As your soul lives, my lord, I am the woman who stood with you here praying to the LORD!
27 “I prayed for this child; and the LORD has given me my desire which I asked of Him.
28 “Therefore, I also have given him to the LORD. As long as he lives, he shall be given to the LORD.” And he worshipped the LORD there.
2 And Hannah prayed, and said, “My heart rejoices in the LORD. My horn is exalted in the LORD. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies because I rejoice in Your salvation.
2 “There is none as Holy as the LORD. Yea, there is none besides You; and there is no god like our God.
3 “No longer speak so exceedingly proudly. Do let not arrogancy come out of your mouth. For the LORD is a God of knowledge; and by Him enterprises are established.
4 “The bow and the mighty men are broken; and the weak have girded themselves with strength.
5 “Those who were full are now hired for bread, yet the hungry are no more. Even the barren has borne seven; and she who had many children is now feeble.
6 “The LORD kills and makes alive, brings down to the grave and raises up.
7 “The LORD makes poor and makes rich, brings low and exalts.
8 “He raises up the poor from the dust and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill, to set among princes and to make them inherit the seat of glory. For the pillars of the Earth are the LORD’s, and he has set the world upon them.
9 “He will keep the feet of His saints; and the wicked shall keep silence in darkness. For in might shall no man be strong.
10 “The LORD’s adversaries shall be destroyed, and out of Heaven shall He thunder upon them. The LORD shall judge the ends of the world, and shall give power to His King, and exalt the horn of His Anointed.”
11 And Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house, and the child ministered to the LORD before Eli the Priest.
15 And in those days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples, and said (now the number of names that were in one place were about a hundred and twenty).
16 “You men and brothers, this Scripture, which the Holy Ghost, through David, spoke of Judas (guide to those who took Jesus), must have been fulfilled.
17 “For he was numbered with us and had obtained fellowship in this ministry.
18 “Therefore, he has purchased a field with the reward of iniquity. And when he had thrown himself down headlong, he burst asunder in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out.
19 “And it is known to all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, insomuch that that field is called, in their own language, ‘Akel Dama’, which means, ‘Field of Blood’.
20 “For it is written in the Book of Psalms, ‘Let his house be empty, and let no one dwell therein.’ Also, ‘Let another take his position.’
21 “Therefore, of these men who have been with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 “beginning from the baptism of John until the day that He was taken up from us, one of them must be made a fellow witness of His resurrection.”
23 And they presented two: Joseph, called Barsabas (whose surname was Justus) and Matthias.
24 And they prayed, saying, “You Lord, Who knows the hearts of all, show us which of these two You have chosen,
25 “so that he may take the part of this ministry and Apostleship from which Judas has gone astray to go to his own place.”
26 Then they cast their lots. And the lot fell on Matthias. And he was counted with the eleven Apostles.
19 Then that same hour, the chief priests and the scribes sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people. For they perceived that He had spoken this parable against them.
20 And they watched Him and sent forth spies to act like righteous men and take Him in His talk (and deliver Him to the power and authority of the governor).
21 And they asked Him, saying, “Master, we know that You say and teach right, without partiality. And You teach the way of God truly.
22 “Is it lawful for us to give Caesar tribute or not?”
23 But He perceived their craftiness, and said to them, “Why do you tempt Me?
24 “Show me a penny. Whose image and superscription does it have?” They answered, “Caesar’s.”
25 Then He said to them, “Then, give to Caesar those things which are Caesar’s, and to God those which are God’s.”
26 And they could not catch Him in His words before the people. But they marveled at His answer and were silent.
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