Book of Common Prayer
106 Praise the LORD because He is good; for His mercy endures forever!
2 Who can express the noble acts of the LORD, or proclaim all His praise?
3 Blessed are those who guard justice and do righteousness at all times.
4 Remember me, O LORD, with the favor of Your people. Visit me with Your salvation,
5 so that I may see the good things of Your chosen and rejoice in the joy of Your people, and glory with Your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our Fathers. We have committed iniquity and done wickedly.
7 Our Fathers did not understand Your wonders in Egypt, nor did they remember the multitude of Your mercies; but they rebelled at the sea, even at the Red Sea.
8 Nevertheless, He saved them for His Name’s sake, so that He might make His power known.
9 And He rebuked the Red Sea, and it was dried up; and He led them through the deep, as through the wilderness.
10 And He saved them from the adversary’s hand and delivered them from the hand of the enemy.
11 And the waters covered their oppressors. Not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed His words and sang praise to Him.
13 But they soon forgot His works. They did not wait for His counsel,
14 but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert.
15 Then He gave them their desire. But He sent leanness into their soul.
16 They also envied Moses in the tents, and Aaron, the saint of the LORD.
17 The Earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and covered the company of Abiram.
18 And the fire was kindled in their assembly; the flame burnt up the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb and worshipped the molten image.
20 Thus, they turned their glory into the likeness of a bullock that eats grass.
21 They forgot God their Savior, Who had done great things in Egypt,
22 wondrous works in the land of Ham, and fearful things by the Red Sea.
23 Therefore, He intended to destroy them had not Moses, His chosen, stood in the breach before Him, to turn away His wrath lest He should destroy them.
24 Also, they despised that pleasant land and did not believe His word,
25 but murmured in their tents and did not listen to the voice of the LORD.
26 Therefore, He lifted up His hand against them to destroy them in the wilderness,
27 and to destroy their seed among the nations, and to scatter them throughout the countries.
28 They also joined themselves to Baal of Peor and ate the offerings of the dead.
29 Thus, they provoked Him to anger with their own inventions; and the plague broke in upon them.
30 But, Phinehas stood up and executed judgment, and the plague was stopped.
31 And it was counted to him for righteousness, from generation to generation, forever.
32 They also angered Him at the waters of Meribah, so that Moses was punished for their sakes
33 (because they troubled his spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips).
34 Nor did they destroy the people, as the LORD had commanded them,
35 but mingled among the heathen and learned their works
36 and served their idols, which was their ruin.
37 Indeed, they offered their sons and their daughters to demons,
38 and shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and of their daughters whom they offered to the idols of Canaan—and the land was defiled with blood.
39 Thus, they were stained with their own works and went a-whoring with their own inventions.
40 Therefore, the wrath of the LORD was kindled against His people; and He abhorred His own inheritance.
41 And He gave them into the hand of the heathen; and those who hated them were lords over them.
42 Also, their enemies oppressed them; and they were humbled under their hand.
43 Many a time did He deliver them, but they provoked Him by their counsel. Therefore, they were brought down by their iniquity.
44 Yet, He saw when they were in affliction and He heard their cry.
45 And He remembered His Covenant toward them and repented, according to the multitude of His mercies,
46 and gave them favor in the sight of all those who had carried them away captive.
47 Save us, O LORD our God, and gather us from among the heathen, so that we may praise Your Holy Name and glory in Your praise.
48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, forever and ever; and let all the people say, “So be it! Praise the LORD!”
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign and reigned for fifty-five years in Jerusalem. Also, his mother’s name was Hephzibah.
2 And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, after the abominations of the heathen whom the LORD had cast out before the children of Israel.
3 For he went back and built the high places which Hezekiah, his father, had destroyed. And he erected altars for Baal and made a grove (as did Ahab, king of Israel) and worshipped all the host of heaven and served them.
4 Also, he built altars in the House of the LORD, of the which the LORD said, “In Jerusalem will I put My Name.”
5 And he built altars for all the host of the heaven in the two courts of the House of the LORD.
6 And he made his sons pass through the fire and gave himself to witchcraft and sorcery. And he used mediums and those who were soothsayers and did much evil in the sight of the LORD, to anger Him.
7 And he set the image of the grove that he had made in the House (of which the LORD had said to David and to Solomon, his son, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, will I put My Name forever.
8 “And I will never again make the feet of Israel move out of the land which I gave their fathers, so that they will observe and do all that I have Commanded them, according to all the Law that My servant Moses commanded them.”).
9 Yet they did not obey. But Manasseh led them out of the way, to do more wickedly than the heathen did (whom the LORD destroyed before the children of Israel).
10 Therefore, the LORD spoke by His servants, the Prophets, saying,
11 “Because Manasseh, king of Judah, has done such abominations, and has worked more wickedly than all that the Amorites who were before him did, and has also made Judah sin with his idols,
12 “therefore thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘Behold, I will bring a misery upon Jerusalem and Judah, so that whoever hears of it, both his ears shall tingle.
13 ‘And I will stretch the line of Samaria and the plummet of the House of Ahab over Jerusalem. And I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, which he wipes and turns upside down.
14 ‘And I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies. And they shall be robbed and plundered by all their adversaries,
15 ‘because they have done evil in My sight and have provoked Me to anger since the time their fathers came out of Egypt until this day.’”
16 Moreover, Manasseh shed exceedingly much innocent blood, until he filled Jerusalem from end to end (besides his sin with which he had made Judah sin and do evil in the sight of the LORD).
17 Concerning the rest of the acts of Manasseh, and all that he did, and his sin that he sinned, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
18 And Manasseh slept with his fathers and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. And Amon, his son, reigned in his place.
14 Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
15 I speak as to those who have understanding. Judge what I say.
16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?
17 For we who are many, are one bread and one body, because we are all partakers of one bread.
18 Behold Israel according to the flesh. Are not those who eat of the sacrifices partakers of the Altar?
19 What do I say, then? That the idol is anything? Or that that which is sacrificed to idols is anything?
20 Rather that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons, and not to God. And I do not wish that you should have fellowship with demons.
21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord, and the cup of the demons. You cannot be partakers of the Lord’s table, and of the table of demons.
22 Do we provoke the Lord to anger? Are we stronger than He?
23 All things are lawful for me, but all things are not profitable. All things are lawful for me, but all things do not edify.
24 Let no one seek his own, but everyone another’s wealth.
25 Whatever is sold in the meat market, eat, and ask no question for conscience’ sake.
26 For the Earth is the Lord’s, and all that therein is.
27 If any unbelievers call you to a feast, and you are willing to go, whatever is set before you, eat, asking no question for conscience’ sake.
28 But if anyone says to you, ‘This is sacrificed to idols’, do not eat it, because of him who showed it, and for conscience’ sake (for the Earth is the Lord’s, and all that therein is),
29 and the conscience, I say, not of your own, but of the other. For why should my freedom be judged by another man’s conscience?
30 For if I, with gratitude, be a partaker, why am I maligned for that which I give thanks?
31 Therefore, whether you eat, or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.
32 Give no offense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Greeks, nor to the Church of God.
33 Just as I please all mankind in all things, not seeking my own profit, but the profit of many, that they might be saved.
11 Be followers of me, just as I am of Christ.
28 And when He had come to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two possessed with demons met Him there, who came very fiercely out of the graves, so that no one could go near there.
29 And behold, they cried out, saying, “Jesus, the Son of God! What have we to do with You!? Have you come here to torment us before the time!?”
30 Now, there was a great herd of swine, feeding far away from them.
31 And the demons begged Him, saying, “If You cast us out, let us to go into the herd of swine!”
32 And He said to them, “Go!” So, they went out and departed into the herd of swine. And behold, the whole herd of swine ran headlong into the sea and died in the water.
33 Then the herdsmen fled. And when they had come into the city, they told all things, and what had become of those who were possessed with the demons.
34 And behold, all the city came out to meet Jesus. And when they saw Him, they begged Him to depart from that region.
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