Book of Common Prayer
97 Oh, how love I Your law! It is my meditation all the day.(A)
98 You, through Your commandments, make me wiser than my enemies, for [Your words] are ever before me.
99 I have better understanding and deeper insight than all my teachers, because Your testimonies are my meditation.(B)
100 I understand more than the aged, because I keep Your precepts [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].
101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, that I might keep Your word [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying it].(C)
102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, for You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!(D)
104 Through Your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way.
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.(E)
106 I have sworn [an oath] and have confirmed it, that I will keep Your righteous ordinances [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].(F)
107 I am sorely afflicted; renew and quicken me [give me life], O Lord, according to Your word!
108 Accept, I beseech You, the freewill offerings of my mouth, O Lord, and teach me Your ordinances.(G)
109 My life is continually in my hand, yet I do not forget Your law.
110 The wicked have laid a snare for me, yet I do not stray from Your precepts.
111 Your testimonies have I taken as a heritage forever, for they are the rejoicing of my heart.(H)
112 I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever, even to the end.
113 I hate the thoughts of undecided [in religion], double-minded people, but Your law do I love.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield; I hope in Your word.(I)
115 Depart from me, you evildoers, that I may keep the commandments of my God [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them].(J)
116 Uphold me according to Your promise, that I may live; and let me not be put to shame in my hope!(K)
117 Hold me up, that I may be safe and have regard for Your statutes continually!
118 You spurn and set at nought all those who stray from Your statutes, for their own lying deceives them and their tricks are in vain.
119 You put away and count as dross all the wicked of the earth [for there is no true metal in them]; therefore I love Your testimonies.
120 My flesh trembles and shudders for fear and reverential, worshipful awe of You, and I am afraid and in dread of Your judgments.
Psalm 81
To the Chief Musician; set to Philistine lute, or [possibly] a particular Gittite tune. [A Psalm] of Asaph.
1 Sing aloud to God our Strength! Shout for joy to the God of Jacob!
2 Raise a song, sound the timbrel, the sweet lyre with the harp.
3 Blow the trumpet at the New Moon, at the full moon, on our feast day.
4 For this is a statute for Israel, an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
5 This He ordained in Joseph [the [a]savior] for a testimony when He went out over the land of Egypt. The speech of One Whom I knew not did I hear [saying],
6 I removed his shoulder from the burden; his hands were freed from the basket.
7 You called in distress and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder; I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!(A)
8 Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you—O Israel, if you would listen to Me!
9 There shall no strange god be among you, neither shall you worship any alien god.
10 I am the Lord your God, Who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
11 But My people would not hearken to My voice, and Israel would have none of Me.
12 So I gave them up to their own hearts’ lust and let them go after their own stubborn will, that they might follow their own counsels.(B)
13 Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!
14 Speedily then I would subdue their enemies and turn My hand against their adversaries.
15 [Had Israel listened to Me in Egypt, then] those who hated the Lord would have come cringing before Him, and their defeat would have lasted forever.
16 [God] would feed [Israel now] also with the finest of the wheat; and with honey out of the rock would I satisfy you.
Psalm 82
A Psalm of Asaph.
1 God stands in the assembly [of the representatives] of God; in the midst of the magistrates or judges He gives judgment [as] among the gods.
2 How long will you [magistrates or judges] judge unjustly and show partiality to the wicked? Selah [pause, and calmly think of that]!
3 Do justice to the weak (poor) and fatherless; maintain the rights of the afflicted and needy.
4 Deliver the poor and needy; rescue them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 [The magistrates and judges] know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in the darkness [of complacent satisfaction]; all the foundations of the earth [the fundamental principles upon which rests the administration of justice] are shaking.
6 I said, You are gods [since you judge on My behalf, as My representatives]; indeed, all of you are children of the Most High.(C)
7 But you shall die as men and fall as one of the princes.
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth! For to You belong all the nations.(D)
73 So the priests, the Levites, the gatekeepers, the singers, some of the people, the Nethinim [the temple servants], along with all Israel, dwelt in their towns, and were in them when the seventh month came.
8 Then all the people gathered together as one man in the broad place before the Water Gate; and they asked Ezra the scribe to bring the Book of the Law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel.
2 And Ezra the priest brought the Law before the assembly of both men and women and all who could hear with understanding, on the first of the seventh month.
3 He read from it, facing the broad place before the Water Gate, from early morning until noon, in the presence of the men and women and those who could understand; and all the people were attentive to the Book of the Law.
5 Ezra opened the book in sight of all the people, for he was standing above them; and when he opened it, all the people stood up.
6 And Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God. And all the people answered, Amen, Amen, lifting up their hands; and they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with faces to the ground.
7 Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah—the Levites—helped the people to understand the Law, and the people [remained] in their place.
8 So they read from the Book of the Law of God distinctly, faithfully amplifying and giving the sense so that [the people] understood the reading.
9 And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all of them, This day is holy to the Lord your God; mourn not nor weep. For all the people wept when they heard the words of the Law.
10 Then [Ezra] told them, Go your way, eat the fat, drink the sweet drink, and send portions to him for whom nothing is prepared; for this day is holy to our Lord. And be not grieved and depressed, for the joy of the Lord is your strength and stronghold.
11 So the Levites quieted all the people, saying, Be still, for the day is holy. And do not be grieved and sad.
12 And all the people went their way to eat, drink, send portions, and make great rejoicing, for they had understood the words that were declared to them.
13 On the second day, all the heads of fathers’ houses, with the priests and Levites, gathered to Ezra the scribe to study and understand the words of [a]divine instruction.
14 And they found written in the law, which the Lord had commanded through Moses, that the Israelites should dwell in booths during the feast of the seventh month
15 And that they should publish and proclaim in all their towns and in Jerusalem, saying, Go out to the hills and bring branches of olive, wild olive, myrtle, palm, and other leafy trees to make booths, as it is written.(A)
16 So the people went out and brought them and made themselves booths, each on the roof of his house and in their courts and the courts of God’s house and in the squares of the Water Gate and the Gate of Ephraim.
17 All the assembly of returned exiles made booths and dwelt in them; for since the days of Jeshua (Joshua) son of Nun up to that day, the Israelites had not done so. And there was very great rejoicing.
18 Also day by day, from the first day to the last, Ezra read from the Book of the Law of God. They kept the feast for seven days; the eighth day was a [closing] solemn assembly, according to the ordinance.
21 Then a single powerful angel took up a boulder like a great millstone and flung it into the sea, crying, With such violence shall Babylon the great city be hurled down to destruction and shall never again be found.(A)
22 And the sound of harpists and minstrels and flute players and trumpeters shall never again be heard in you, and no skilled artisan of any craft shall ever again be found in you, and the sound of the millstone shall never again be heard in you.(B)
23 And never again shall the light of a lamp shine in you, and the voice of bridegroom and bride shall never be heard in you again; for your businessmen were the great and prominent men of the earth, and by your magic spells and poisonous charm all nations were led astray (seduced and deluded).
24 And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all those who have been slain (slaughtered) on earth.(C)
29 And Jesus went on from there and passed along the shore of the Sea of Galilee. Then He went up into the hills and kept sitting there.
30 And a great multitude came to Him, bringing with them the lame, the maimed, the blind, the dumb, and many others, and they put them down at His feet; and He cured them,
31 So that the crowd was amazed when they saw the dumb speaking, the maimed made whole, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and they [a]recognized and praised and thanked and glorified the God of Israel.
32 Then Jesus called His disciples to Him and said, I have pity and sympathy and am deeply moved for the crowd, because they have been with Me now three days and they have nothing [at all left] to eat; and I am not willing to send them away hungry, lest they faint or become exhausted on the way.
33 And the disciples said to Him, Where are we to get bread sufficient to feed so great a crowd in this isolated and desert place?
34 And Jesus asked them, How many loaves of bread do you have? They replied, Seven, and a few small fish.
35 And ordering the crowd to recline on the ground,
36 He took the seven loaves and the fish, and when He had given thanks, He broke them and gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people.
37 And they all ate and were satisfied. And they gathered up seven [[b]large provision] baskets full of the broken pieces that were left over.
38 Those who ate were 4,000 men, not including the women and the children.
39 Then He dismissed the crowds, got into the boat, and went to the district of Magadan.
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