Book of Common Prayer
Maschil of Asaph.
1 ¶ Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter enigmas of old,
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their sons, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD and his strength and his wonderful works that he has done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their sons:
6 That the generation to come might know them, even the sons which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their sons
7 that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God but keep his commandments
8 and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that did not set their heart aright and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9 ¶ The sons of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God and refused to walk in his law
11 and forgot his works and his wonders that he had showed them.
12 He did marvellous things in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through, and he made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime also he led them with a cloud and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He clave the rocks in the wilderness and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against him by provoking the most High in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking for food according to the desires of their soul.
19 And they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can he give bread also? can he provide flesh for his people?
21 Therefore the LORD heard this and was wroth, so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also came up against Israel
22 because they had not believed God, nor had they trusted in his saving health;
23 and he commanded the clouds of above and opened the doors of the heavens
24 and caused manna to rain upon them to eat and gave them wheat of the heavens.
25 Man did eat the food of the strong; he sent them food to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by his power he brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust and feathered fowls like as the sand of the sea:
28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29 So they did eat and were well filled; for he gave them their own desire;
30 they were not estranged from their lust. But while their food was yet in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen of Israel.
32 For all this they sinned still and did not give him credit for his wondrous works.
33 Therefore he consumed their days in vanity and their years in tribulation.
34 When he slew them, then they sought him, and they returned and enquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock and the high God their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered him with their mouth, and they lied unto him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with him, neither were they steadfast in his covenant.
38 But he, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; many a time turned he his anger away and did not stir up all his wrath.
39 For he remembered that they were but flesh: a wind that passes away and does not come again.
40 ¶ How often did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert!
41 And they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember his hand, nor the day when he ransomed them from anguish.
43 How he had wrought his signs in Egypt and his wonders in the field of Zoan
44 and had turned their rivers into blood and their floods, that they could not drink.
45 He sent swarms of flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their fruits unto the caterpillar and their works unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail and their wild fig trees with stones.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail and their flocks to thunderbolts of fire.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation and trouble by sending evil angels among them.
50 He made a way to his anger; he did not spare their soul from death but gave their life over to the pestilence
51 and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham:
52 But made his own people to go forth like sheep and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And he led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And he brought them into the borders of his holiness, into this mountain, which his right hand had purchased.
55 He cast out the Gentiles also before them and divided them an inheritance by line and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their habitations.
56 Yet they tempted and provoked the most high God and did not keep his testimonies:
57 But turned back and rebelled like their fathers; they became like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 God heard this and was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel:
60 For this reason he forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent in which he dwelt among men
61 and delivered his strength into captivity and his glory into the enemy’s hand.
62 He gave his people over also unto the sword and was wroth with his inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men; and their virgins were not honored in marriage songs.
64 Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awaked as one out of sleep and like a mighty man that shouts by reason of wine.
66 And he smote his enemies in the hinder parts; he put them to a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover he refused the tent of Joseph and did not choose the tribe of Ephraim:
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary in preeminence like the earth which he has established for ever.
70 He chose David also his slave and took him from the sheepfolds,
71 from following the ewes great with young, he brought him to feed Jacob his people and Israel his inheritance.
72 So he fed them out of the integrity of his heart and guided them by the intelligence of his hands.
18 ¶ Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and he said, O Lord GOD, Who am I and what is my house that thou hast brought me thus far?
19 And this was yet a small thing in thy sight, O Lord GOD; but thou hast spoken also of thy slave’s house for a great while to come and that this shall be the condition of a man, O Lord GOD.
20 And what more can David say unto thee? For thou, Lord GOD, knowest thy slave.
21 For thou hast done all these great things by thy word and according to thine own heart to make thy slave know them.
22 Therefore, thou art great, O LORD God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any God beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23 And who in the earth is like thy people, like Israel? A Gentile for the love of whom God went to ransom as a people to himself and to give him a name and to do with you great and terrible things in thy land because of thy people whom thou didst redeem unto thee from Egypt, from the Gentiles and their gods?
24 For thou hast confirmed to thyself thy people Israel to be thy people for ever, and thou, LORD, have become their God.
25 And now, O LORD God, the word that thou hast spoken concerning thy slave and concerning his house, raise it up for ever and do as thou hast said.
26 For thus shall thy name be magnified for ever that it may be said, The LORD of the hosts is God over Israel and that the house of thy slave David be established before thee.
27 For thou, O LORD of the hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to thy slave, saying, I will build thee a house. Therefore, thy slave has found it in his heart to pray this prayer in thy presence.
28 And now, O Lord GOD, thou art God, and thy words shall be firm, and thou hast spoken this goodness unto thy slave.
29 Therefore, now let it please thee to bless the house of thy slave that it may continue for ever before thee, for thou, O Lord GOD, hast spoken it, and with thy blessing the house of thy slave shall be blessed for ever.
12 ¶ And when Gallio was the proconsul of Achaia, the Jews rose up with one accord against Paul and brought him to the judgment seat,
13 saying, This fellow persuades men to honor God contrary to the law.
14 And when Paul was now about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would that I should bear with you;
15 but if it is a question of words and names and of your law, look ye to it, for I will be no judge of such matters.
16 And he drove them from the judgment seat.
17 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him before the judgment seat. And Gallio cared for none of those things.
18 ¶ And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed from there into Syria and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head in Cenchrea, for he had a vow.
19 And he came to Ephesus and left them there, but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
20 When they desired him to tarry longer time with them, he consented not,
21 but bade them farewell, saying, I must by all means keep this feast that comes in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God wills. And he sailed from Ephesus.
22 And when he had landed at Caesarea and gone up to Jerusalem and after greeting the congregation, {Gr. ekklesia – called out ones} he went down to Antioch.
23 And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went over all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, confirming all the disciples.
24 ¶ And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
25 This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord, teaching only in the baptism of John.
26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue, but when Aquila and Priscilla had heard him, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.
27 And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the exhorted brethren wrote the disciples to receive him, who, when he was come, was very helpful through grace unto those who had believed;
28 for he mightily convinced the Jews in public, showing by the scriptures that Jesus was the Christ.
22 ¶ And he came to Bethsaida, and they bring a blind man unto him and beseech him to touch him.
23 So, taking the blind man by the hand, he led him out of the town; and spitting into his eyes and putting his hands upon them, he asked him if he saw anything.
24 And looking, he said, I see men; I see that they walk as trees.
25 After that, he put his hands again upon his eyes and caused him to see; and he was whole and saw everyone, far away and clearly.
26 And he sent him away to his house, saying, Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.
27 ¶ And Jesus and his disciples went out into the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and by the way he asked his disciples, saying unto them, Who do men say that I am?
28 And they answered, John the Baptist; but some say, Elijah; and others, One of the prophets.
29 Then he said unto them, But who say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said unto him, Thou art the Christ!
30 And he commanded them that they should tell no one of this regarding him.
31 And he began to teach them that it was convenient that the Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the princes of the priests and of the scribes, and be killed and after three days rise again.
32 And he spoke this word clearly. Then Peter took him and began to rebuke him.
33 And he, turning about and looking at his disciples, rebuked Peter, saying, Get thyself from me, Satan, for thou knowest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.
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