Book of Common Prayer
ZAIN
49 Remember the Promise made to Your servant, wherein You have caused me to trust.
50 It is my comfort in my trouble. Your Promise has quickened me.
51 The proud deride me exceedingly, yet have I not turned away from Your Law.
52 I remembered Your Judgments of old, O LORD, and have been comforted.
53 Burning indignation has come upon me because of the wicked, who forsake Your Law.
54 Your Statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage.
55 I have remembered Your Name, O LORD, in the night, and have kept Your Law.
56 This is because I kept Your Precepts.
CHETH
57 O LORD, Who are my portion, I have determined to keep Your Words.
58 I made my supplication in Your presence with my whole heart. Be merciful to me according to Your Promise.
59 I have considered my ways and turned my feet to Your Testimonies.
60 I moved quickly and did not delay in keeping Your Commandments.
61 Bands of the wicked have robbed me, but I have not forgotten Your Law.
62 At midnight will I rise and give thanks to You because of Your righteous Judgments.
63 I am companion of all those who fear You and keep Your Precepts.
64 O LORD, the Earth is full of Your mercy, teach me Your Statutes.
TETH
65 O LORD, You have dealt graciously with Your servant, according to Your Word.
66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge, for I have believed Your Commandments.
67 Before I was afflicted, I went astray; but now I keep Your Word.
68 You are good and gracious; teach me Your Statutes.
69 The proud have imagined a lie against me, but I will keep Your Precepts with my whole heart.
70 Their heart is fat as grease; but my delight is in Your Law.
71 It is good for me that I have been afflicted, that I may learn Your Statutes.
72 The Law of Your Mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver.
49 Hear this, all you people! Give ear, all you who dwell in the world,
2 low as well as high, both rich and poor!
3 My mouth shall speak of wisdom; and the meditation of my heart is of knowledge.
4 I will incline my ear to a parable and utter my high saying upon the harp.
5 Why should I fear in the evil days, when the iniquity at my heels shall surround me?
6 They trust in their goods and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.
7 Yet a man can by no means redeem his brother. He cannot give his ransom to God,
8 (so precious is the redemption of their souls, and ceases forever)
9 so that he may yet live forever and not see the grave.
10 For he sees that wise men die; and also that the ignorant and foolish perish and leave their riches for others.
11 They think their houses and their habitations shall continue forever, from generation to generation. And they call their lands by their names.
12 But man shall not continue in honor. He is like the beasts that die.
13 This is the way of those who utter foolishness. Their posterity delights in their talk. Selah.
14 Like sheep they lie in the grave. Death devours them. And the righteous shall have domination over them in the morning. For their beauty shall be consumed, from their house to grave.
15 But God shall deliver my soul from the power of the grave; for He will receive me. Selah.
16 Do not be afraid when one is made rich, when the glory of his House is increased.
17 For he shall take nothing away when he dies, nor shall his pomp descend after him.
18 For while he lived, he rejoiced over himself (and men will praise you when you make much of yourself).
19 He shall enter into the generation of his fathers. They shall not live forever.
20 An honored man who does not understand; he is like beasts that perish. A Psalm of Asaph.
53 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They have corrupted and done abominable wickedness. There is no one that does good.
2 God looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any who would understand and seek God.
3 Everyone has gone back. They are altogether corrupt. There is no one who does good; no, not one.
4 Do not the workers of iniquity know that they eat up my people as they eat bread? They do not call upon God.
5 There they were in fear where no fear was. For God has scattered the bones of him who besieged you. You have put them to confusion because God has cast them off.
6 Oh, give salvation to Israel out of Zion! When God turns the captivity of His people, Jacob shall rejoice; and Israel shall be glad. To him who excels on Neginoth: A Psalm of David, to give instruction, when the Ziphims came and said to Saul, “Is not David hidden among us?”
6 Then King Darius gave commandment. And they searched in the library of the treasures which were laid up there in Babel.
2 And a volume was found in a coffer (in the palace that was in the province of the Medes). And a memorial was written in it:
3 “IN THE FIRST year of King Cyrus, King Cyrus made a decree for the House of God in Jerusalem: ‘Let the House be built, the place where they offered Sacrifices. And let its walls be joined together. Let its height be sixty cubits, and its width sixty cubits,
4 ‘with three rows of great stones, and one row of timber. And let the expenses be given from the king’s house.
5 ‘And also let them render the vessels of the House of God (from gold and silver which Nebuchadnezzar took out of the Temple which was in Jerusalem and brought to Babel). And let each go to the Temple in Jerusalem to its place and put it in the House of God.’
6 “Therefore Tattenai, captain beyond the river, and Shethar-Boznai, (and their companions, Apharsecai, who are beyond the River) stay far from there.
7 “Allow the work of this House of God, so that the captain of the Jews and the elders of the Jews may build this House of God in its place.
8 “For I have given a commandment as to what you shall do for the elders of these Jews for the building of this House of God: that the revenue of the king which is from the tribute beyond the River shall immediately be given for these men’s expenses, so that they do not cease.
9 “And that which they shall have need of, let it be given to them day by day, whether it be young bulls, or rams, or lambs for the Burnt Offerings of the God of Heaven, or wheat, salt, wine and oil, according to the appointment of the priests who are in Jerusalem, without fail,
10 “so that they may have sweet odors to offer to the God of Heaven, and pray for the king’s life and for his sons.
11 “And I have made a decree that whoever shall alter this edict shall have the wood pulled down from his house. And it shall be set up, and he shall be hanged on it. And his house shall be made a dunghill for this.
12 “And may the God Who has caused His Name to dwell there destroy all kings and people who make it their intention to alter and to destroy this House of God, which is in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have made a decree. Let it be done with speed.”
13 Then Tattenai, the captain beyond the River, and Shethar-Boznai and their companions, did according to that which Darius had sent, speedily.
14 So the elders of the Jews built. And they prospered by the prophesying of Haggai the Prophet, and Zechariah, the son of Iddo. And they built and finished it, by the appointment of the God of Israel, and by the commandment of Cyrus and Darius and Artaxerxes, king of Persia.
15 And this House was finished on the third day of the month Adar, which was the sixth year of the reign of King Darius.
16 And the children of Israel, the priests and the Levites, and the rest of the children of the captivity kept the dedication of this House of God with joy,
17 and offered one hundred bulls at the dedication of this House of God, two hundred rams, four hundred lambs, and twelve goats, for the sin of all Israel, according to the number of the tribes of Israel.
18 And they set the priests in their order, and the Levites in their divisions, over the service of God in Jerusalem, as it is written in the Book of Moses.
19 And the children of the captivity kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the first month,
20 for the priests and the Levites were purified altogether. And they killed the Passover for all the children of the captivity, and for their brethren, the priests, and for themselves.
21 So, the children of Israel who had come back out of captivity, and all such as had separated themselves to them from the filthiness of the heathen of the land to seek the LORD God of Israel, ate.
22 And they kept the Feast of Unleavened Bread for seven days with joy. For the LORD had made them glad and turned the heart of the king of Assyria to them, to encourage them in the work of the House of God, the God of Israel.
5 And I saw in the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne, a Book; written within and sealed on the backside with seven seals.
2 And I saw a strong angel who preached with a loud voice, “Who is worthy to open the Book and to loosen the seals thereof?”
3 And no one in Heaven or on Earth, or under the Earth, was able to open the Book or to look at it.
4 Then I wept much, because no one was found worthy to open and read the Book or to look at it.
5 And one of the elders said to me, “Do not weep. Behold, the Lion Which is of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered and can open the Book and loosen the seven seals thereof.”
6 Then I beheld. And lo, in the midst of the throne - and of the four beasts - and in the midst of the elders stood a Lamb, as though He had been killed; Which had seven horns and seven eyes (which are the seven spirits of God, sent into all the world).
7 And He came and took the Book out of the right hand of Him who sat upon the throne.
8 And when He had taken the Book, the four beasts and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, everyone having harps and golden vials full of odors (which are the prayers of the saints).
9 And they sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the Book and to open the seals thereof! Because You were killed and have redeemed us to God by Your blood, out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation,
10 and have made us kings and priests to our God! And we shall reign on the Earth!”
10 Then the disciples came, and said to Him, “Why did You speak to them in parables?”
11 And He answered and said to them, “Because it has been given to you to know the secrets of the Kingdom of Heaven. But to them it is not given.
12 “For whoever has, to him shall be given. And he shall have abundance. But whoever does not have, even that which he has shall be taken away from him.
13 “Therefore, I speak to them in parables. Because they, seeing, do not see. And hearing, they do not hear, nor understand.
14 “So in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says, ‘By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing, you shall see and shall not perceive.
15 “‘For this people’s heart has grown fat and their ears barely hear and they have closed their eyes, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their hearts and should return, that I might heal them.’
16 “But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.
17 “For truly I say to you that many Prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which you see and have not seen them; and to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them.
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