Book of Common Prayer
Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
1 ¶ I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever in the heavens; in them thou shalt establish thy truth.
3 I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my slave, saying,
4 Thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.
5 ¶ And the heavens shall praise thy wonder, O LORD, thy truth also in the congregation of the saints.
6 For who in the heavens can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?
7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all those that are about him.
8 O LORD God of the hosts, who is like unto thee? Strong JAH, compassed about with thy truth.
9 Thou dost rule the raging of the sea: when its waves arise, thou dost still them.
10 Thou hast broken Egypt in pieces as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: the world and its fullness, thou didst found.
12 Thou hast created the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon shall sing in thy name.
13 The mighty arm is thine; strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
14 Thy throne is composed of righteousness and judgment; mercy and truth go before thy face.
15 ¶ Happy are the people that know how to enter into joy; they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
16 In thy name shall they rejoice each day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength, and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
18 For the LORD is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
19 ¶ Then thou didst speak in vision to thy holy one and didst say, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of my people.
20 I have found David my slave; I anointed him with the oil of my holiness,
21 with whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not overcome him, nor the son of iniquity break him down.
23 But I will break down his foes before his face and smite those that hate him.
24 But my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 In the same manner I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers.
26 He shall call me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my saving health.
27 Also I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth.
28 I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
29 I will also make his seed to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of the heavens.
30 If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments,
31 if they profane my statutes and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will visit their rebellion with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless I will not take my mercy from him, neither will I falsify my truth.
34 I will not profane my covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
36 His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the sun before me.
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
38 ¶ But thou hast cast off and abhorred thine anointed; thou hast been wroth with him.
39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy slave; thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way spoil him; he is a reproach to his neighbours.
42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
43 Thou hast also blunted the edge of his sword and hast not made him to stand in the battle.
44 Thou hast made his clarity to cease and cast his throne down to the ground.
45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened; thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, O LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember how short my time is; why hast thou made all men subject to vanity?
48 What man is he that lives and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol? Selah.
49 Lord, where are thy former mercies, which thou didst sware unto David in thy truth?
50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy slaves; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of many peoples,
51 because thine enemies have dishonoured, O LORD; they have dishonoured the footsteps of thine anointed.
52 Blessed be the LORD for ever. Amen and Amen.
24 ¶ And the king of Assyria brought Gentiles from Babylon and from Cuthah and from Ava and from Hamath and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the sons of Israel; and they possessed Samaria and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And so it was at the beginning of their dwelling there that they did not fear the LORD; therefore, the LORD sent lions against them, which slew some of them.
26 Therefore, they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, The Gentiles, which thou hast removed and placed in the cities of Samaria, do not know the judgment of the God of that land; therefore, he has sent lions among them, and, behold, they slay them because they do not know the judgment of the God of the land.
27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, Carry there one of the priests whom ye brought from there; and let them go and dwell there and teach them the judgment of the God of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel and taught them how they should fear the LORD.
29 However each nation made gods of their own and put them in the houses of the high places which those of Samaria had made, each nation in their city in which they dwelt.
30 And the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth, and the men of Cuth made Nergal, and the men of Hamath made Ashima,
31 and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burnt their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared the LORD and made unto themselves of the lowest of them priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared the LORD and served their own gods after the manner of the gentiles whom they carried away from there.
34 Unto this day they do after the former manners; they do not fear the LORD, neither do they keep his statutes nor his ordinances nor the law and the commandments which the LORD commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel,
35 with whom the LORD had made a covenant and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor worship them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them,
36 but only the LORD your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
37 And the statutes and rights and the law and the commandments, which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do every day; and ye shall not fear other gods.
38 And the covenant that I have made with you ye shall not forget; neither shall ye fear other gods.
39 But the LORD your God ye shall fear; and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40 Howbeit they did not hearken; to the contrary they did after their former manner.
41 So these Gentiles feared the LORD and served their graven images, and likewise their sons and their grandsons; as did their fathers, so do they unto this day.
25 ¶ Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord, yet I give my advice, as one that has obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
26 I hold, therefore, this to be good because of the present distress, that it is good for a man to be thus:
27 Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife.
28 But and if thou marry, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have affliction in the flesh, but I forbear you.
29 But this I say, brothers, the time is short; for the rest, let those that have wives be as though they had none;
30 and those that weep, as though they wept not; and those that rejoice, as though they rejoiced not; and those that buy, as though they possessed not;
31 and those that use this world, as not using it as their own, for the fashion of this world passes away.
25 ¶ Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air, for they sow not, neither do they reap nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin;
29 and yet I say unto you, That even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Therefore, if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, With what shall we be clothed?
32 (For the Gentiles seek after all these things.) For your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the affliction thereof.
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