Book of Common Prayer
This is a song that David wrote.
It is for the music leader.
Please help me, Lord
140 Lord, please save me from evil people.
Keep me safe from people who like to attack others.
2 They think of evil ideas to hurt people.
They only want to cause trouble!
3 Their words hurt people,
like the tongue of a snake.
They bite with poison,
like a dangerous snake.
Selah
4 Lord, keep me safe from the power of wicked people.
Keep me safe from violent people who want to attack me.
5 Proud people have prepared a trap to catch me.
They have put their nets across my path.[a]
Selah.
6 Lord, I say to you, ‘You are my God.’
Lord, hear my prayer for help!
7 Lord, my Lord, you are my strong helper.
You keep me safe when I fight in a battle.
8 Lord, do not let wicked people do what they want to do.
Stop them when they prepare to attack.
Selah.
9 Give trouble to the people who come round me to attack!
Let the bad things that they say against me
happen to them instead![b]
10 Drop burning coals on them like rain!
Throw those people into the fire!
Let them fall into deep holes that they cannot get out of!
11 People who tell cruel lies should not live in our land.
Trouble will happen to people who like to fight.
Bad trouble will knock them down!
12 I know that the Lord helps poor people.
He makes sure that they receive justice.
13 Your righteous people will always praise you.
Good, honest people will live near to you.
This is a special song that David wrote.
He prayed this when he was in the cave.[a]
Please help me, Lord!
142 I am calling to the Lord to help me.
I ask him to be kind to me.
2 I tell him about all my problems.
I tell him about all my troubles.
3 When I do not feel brave,
you are still my guide, Lord.
In the path where I walk,
my enemies have prepared a trap to catch me.
4 Look at me!
I have no friend to help me.
There is no safe place where I can go.
Nobody thinks about me.
5 Yes Lord, I am calling to you to help me.
You are my safe place where I can hide.
You are all that I need in this world where I live.
6 Please listen to me as I cry to you.
I am very upset!
My enemies are trying to catch me.
Save me from their power!
They are stronger than I am.
7 Please take me out of this prison.[b]
Then I will praise your name.
Your own good people will see how you have helped me.
They will meet round me to praise you.
David wrote this song.
An evening prayer[a]
141 Lord, I am calling to you for help.
Come to me quickly!
Please listen to what I am saying.
2 I offer my prayer to you like incense.
Please accept it when I raise my hands to you.
Accept it like a gift that I offer to you in the evening.
3 Lord, keep my mouth safe,
so that I do not speak bad things.
4 Do not let my mind want evil things.
Do not let me join with wicked people,
to do the same bad things that they do.
I do not even want to eat their good food.
5 If a good man hits me because he loves me,
he is being kind to me.
If he shows me that I have done a wrong thing,
that it is like special oil on my head.[b]
I would not refuse it.
I continue to pray against what wicked people do.
6 They will throw their rulers down
from high rocks.
Then they will agree that my words were true.
7 It will be like a farmer who ploughs his field,
and breaks the earth into pieces.
Just like that, they will break the bones of wicked people.
They will throw their bones on the ground
at the entrance to Sheol.
8 But I look to you for help, Almighty Lord.
I need you to keep me safe.
Do not let wicked people kill me.
9 They have prepared traps to catch me.
Do not let me fall into the traps of those evil people.
10 May those bad people fall into their own traps!
Then I will be free from their power.
This is a song that David wrote.
Please help me, Lord![a]
143 Lord, I pray to you for help.
Please listen to me.
Answer me, because you do what is right,
and I know that I can trust you.
2 Do not judge me, your servant.
Nobody is righteous when they stand in front of you.
3 My enemies are chasing me.
They knock me down to the ground.
They make me live in dark places,
like people who have been dead for a long time.
4 My strength is leaving me,
and I feel very upset.
5 I remember what happened many years ago.
I think carefully about all the good things that you have done.
6 I raise my hands to pray to you.
I need you to help me,
like dry ground needs rain.
Selah
7 Please answer me soon, Lord.
I am losing my strength.
Do not turn away from me.
If you do, I will join those people who are going down
into the deep hole of death.
8 Every morning, help me to remember your faithful love,
because I am trusting in you.
Show me how I should live to please you,
because I know that I belong to you.
9 Lord, save me from my enemies.
I run to you to keep me safe.
10 Teach me to do what pleases you,
because you are my God.
Let your kind Spirit lead me,
so that I can walk in a safe place.
11 Your name is great, Lord,
so please keep my life safe.
You do what is right,
so bring me out of my troubles.
12 I am your servant and you always love me.
Please show how much you love me,
and destroy my enemies.
Yes, kill all those who want to kill me!
36 Jehoiakim was 25 years old when he became king. He ruled for 11 years as king in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Zebidah. She was the daughter of Pedaiah, who came from Rumah. 37 Jehoiakim did things that the Lord said were evil, as his ancestors had done.
King Nebuchadnezzar attacks Judah
24 While Jehoiakim was king, King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon attacked Judah. Jehoiakim was under Nebuchadnezzar's authority for three years. But then Jehoiakim turned against Nebuchadnezzar. 2 The Lord sent groups of soldiers to attack towns in Judah. The soldiers came from Babylon, Syria, Moab and Ammon. The Lord sent them to destroy Judah. He had already sent his servants, the prophets, to warn the people of Judah about this. 3 The Lord had said that these things must happen. He had decided to send Judah away from himself because of the sins that King Manasseh had done. 4 Manasseh had murdered people who had not done anything wrong. Their blood was in the streets of Jerusalem. The Lord would not agree to forgive Manasseh for his sins.
5 The other things that happened while Jehoiakim was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about the things that Jehoiakim did. 6 Jehoiakim died and they buried him beside his ancestors. His son Jehoiachin became king after him.
7 The king of Egypt did not take his army out of his own country again. That was because the king of Babylon had taken a lot of Egypt's land for himself. He had taken all the land between the Stream of Egypt and the River Euphrates. Before that, the king of Egypt had authority over that land.
8 Jehoiachin was 18 years old when he became king. He ruled as king in Jerusalem for three months. His mother's name was Nehushta. She was the daughter of Elnathan, who came from Jerusalem. 9 Jehoiachin did things that the Lord said were evil, as his father had done.
10 King Nebuchadnezzar's officers took their army to attack Jerusalem. They made their camp all around the city. 11 Then King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon came up to Jerusalem himself while his officers were there.
12 Jehoiachin, the king of Judah, went out of the city to put himself under King Nebuchadnezzar's authority. He went with his mother, his servants, his leaders and his palace officers. In the eighth year that King Nebuchadnezzar ruled as king, he made Jehoiachin his prisoner.
13 King Nebuchadnezzar took all the valuable things from the Lord's temple and from the king's palace. He cut away all the gold things that King Solomon had made for the Lord's temple. The Lord had already warned that this would happen. 14 Nebuchadnezzar took away as his prisoners all the people who lived in Jerusalem. There were 10,000 people. They included all the officers and all the soldiers. He also took away the people who had special skills to work with wood and metal. The only people who remained in Judah were the very poor people.
15 Nebuchadnezzar took Jehoiachin away from Jerusalem as his prisoner to Babylon. He also took the king's mother, his wives, his officers and the important leaders of Judah. 16 The king of Babylon also took away to Babylon all the soldiers of Judah's army. There were 7,000 soldiers. They included the best fighters. He also took 1,000 workers who had special skills to make things with wood and metal. 17 Nebuchadnezzar chose Jehoiachin's uncle, Mattaniah, to be king instead of Jehoiachin. Nebuchadnezzar changed Mattaniah's name to Zedekiah.
One body with many parts
12 Each person has only one body, but that body has many parts. All those different parts make only one body. It is like that with Christ too. 13 When they baptized us, we all became parts of one body. It was the one Spirit who brought us together. It made no difference whether we were Jews or Gentiles. It made no difference whether we were slaves or free people. God poured his one Spirit into all of us.
14 A person's body does not have only one part. It has many parts. 15 If the foot could speak, it might say, ‘I am not a hand, so I do not belong to this body.’ But what it says makes no difference. It is still a part of the body. 16 If the ear could speak, it might say, ‘I am not an eye, so I do not belong to this body.’ But what it says makes no difference. It still belongs to the body. 17 If the whole body was an eye, the body would not hear anything. If the whole body was an ear, it would not recognize different smells. 18 But God has decided where each different part of our body should be.
19 If our body was all the same part, it would not be a proper body. 20 But as it is, a body has many parts. It is still only one whole body. 21 For that reason, the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I do not need you.’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I do not need you.’ 22 No. Even the parts of a body that seem to be weaker are very necessary. 23 Think about the parts of our body that are not very special. We dress them carefully! And we take special care of those parts that we do not want people to see. 24 But we do not need to do this with the beautiful parts of our body.
God has put all these parts together in one body. Some parts seem to be not very special. But God has shown that those parts are very valuable. 25 He has done that to bring all the parts together as one body. All the parts work together to help each other. 26 Then if one part of the body hurts, every other part also hurts. If people praise one part, every part of the body is also happy.
Jesus causes two blind men to see again
27 Jesus left the house. While he walked along, two blind men began to follow him. They were shouting out to him, ‘Son of David! Please be kind to us and help us!’[a]
28 Jesus went into a house and the blind men came to him there. Jesus asked them, ‘Do you believe that I can make your eyes become well?’ The men replied, ‘Yes, Master, we believe that you can do this.’
29 So Jesus touched the men's eyes. He said to them, ‘Because you believed in me, you will now see again.’ 30 Then immediately the men could see again. Jesus said strongly to them, ‘You must not tell anyone about this.’ 31 So the men went away. But they told everybody in that part of the country all about what Jesus had done for them.
Jesus causes a man to speak again
32 While those two men were leaving, some people brought another man to Jesus. This man could not speak because of a bad spirit in him. 33 Jesus made the bad spirit go out of the man and leave him. Then the man began to speak again. Everybody there was very surprised. They said, ‘Nobody has seen anything like this happen in Israel before.’
34 But the Pharisees said, ‘This man can send bad spirits out of people because Satan gives him authority. Satan is the one who rules the bad spirits.’
EasyEnglish Bible Copyright © MissionAssist 2019 - Charitable Incorporated Organisation 1162807. Used by permission. All rights reserved.