Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 105

¹ O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His doings among the peoples!

² Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His marvelous deeds and devoutly praise them.

³ Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek and require the Lord [as their indispensable necessity].

⁴ Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and His strength (His might and inflexibility to temptation); seek and require His face and His presence [continually] evermore.

⁵ [Earnestly] remember the marvelous deeds that He has done, His miracles and wonders, the judgments and sentences which He pronounced [upon His enemies, as in Egypt].^(A)

⁶ O you offspring of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones,

⁷ He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.

⁸ He is [earnestly] mindful of His covenant and forever it is imprinted on His heart, the word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations,

⁹ The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His sworn promise to Isaac,^(B)

¹⁰ Which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,

¹¹ Saying, Unto you will I give the land of Canaan as your measured portion, possession, and inheritance.

¹² When they were but a few men in number, in fact, very few, and were temporary residents and strangers in it,

¹³ When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people,

¹⁴ He allowed no man to do them wrong; in fact, He reproved kings for their sakes,^(C)

¹⁵ Saying, Touch not My anointed, and do My prophets no harm.^(D)

¹⁶ Moreover, He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt]; He cut off every source of bread.^(E)

¹⁷ He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a servant.^(F)

¹⁸ His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron,

¹⁹ Until his word [to his cruel brothers] came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him.

²⁰ The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the peoples, and let him go free.

²¹ He made Joseph lord of his house and ruler of all his substance,^(G)

²² To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom.

²³ Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.^(H)

²⁴ There [the Lord] greatly increased His people and made them stronger than their oppressors.

²⁵ He turned the hearts [of the Egyptians] to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants.

²⁶ He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen.

²⁷ They showed His signs among them, wonders and miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).

²⁸ He sent [thick] darkness and made the land dark, and they [God’s two servants] rebelled not against His word.^(I)

²⁹ He turned [Egypt’s] waters into blood and caused their fish to die.^(J)

³⁰ Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, even in the chambers of their kings.^(K)

³¹ He spoke, and there came swarms of beetles and flies and mosquitoes and lice in all their borders.^(L)

³² He gave them hail for rain, with lightning like flaming fire in their land.^(M)

³³ He smote their vines also and their fig trees and broke the [ice-laden] trees of their borders.^(N)

³⁴ He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, and that without number,^(O)

³⁵ And ate up all the vegetation in their land and devoured the fruit of their ground.

³⁶ He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the beginning and chief substance of all their strength.^(P)

³⁷ He brought [Israel] forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.^(Q)

³⁸ Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen upon the people.^(R)

³⁹ The Lord spread a cloud for a covering [by day], and a fire to give light in the night.^(S)

⁴⁰ [The Israelites] asked, and He brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.^(T)

⁴¹ He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it ran in the dry places like a river.^(U)

⁴² For He [earnestly] remembered His holy word and promise to Abraham His servant.^(V)

⁴³ And He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen ones with gladness and singing,

⁴⁴ And gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan], and they reaped the fruits of those peoples’ labor,^(W)

⁴⁵ That they might observe His statutes and keep His laws [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)

²² I saw no temple in the city, for the Lord God Omnipotent [Himself] and the Lamb [Himself] are its temple.

²³ And the city has no need of the sun nor of the moon to give light to it, for the splendor and radiance (glory) of God illuminate it, and the Lamb is its lamp.^(A)

²⁴ The nations shall walk by its light and the rulers and leaders of the earth shall bring into it their glory.

²⁵ And its gates shall never be closed by day, and there shall be no night there.^(B)

²⁶ They shall bring the glory (the splendor and majesty) and the honor of the nations into it.

²⁷ But nothing that defiles or profanes or is ^[a]unwashed shall ever enter it, nor anyone who commits abominations (unclean, detestable, morally repugnant things) or practices falsehood, but only those whose names are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

22 Then he showed me the river whose waters give life, sparkling like crystal, flowing out from the throne of God and of the Lamb

² Through the middle of the broadway of the city; also, on either side of the river was the tree of life with its twelve varieties of fruit, yielding each month its fresh crop; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing and the restoration of the nations.^(C)

³ There shall no longer exist there anything that is accursed (detestable, foul, offensive, impure, hateful, or horrible). But the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall worship Him [pay divine honors to Him and do Him holy service].^(D)

⁴ They shall see His face, and His name shall be on their foreheads.^(E)

⁵ And there shall be no more night; they have no need for lamplight or sunlight, for the Lord God will illuminate them and be their light, and they shall reign [as kings] forever and ever (through the eternities of the eternities).

18 At that time the disciples came up and asked Jesus, Who then is [really] the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?

² And He called a little child to Himself and put him in the midst of them,

³ And said, Truly I say to you, unless you repent (change, turn about) and become like little children [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving], you can never enter the kingdom of heaven [at all].

⁴ Whoever will humble himself therefore and become like this little child [trusting, lowly, loving, forgiving] is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

⁵ And whoever receives and accepts and welcomes one little child like this for My sake and in My name receives and accepts and welcomes Me.

⁶ But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in and ^[a]acknowledge and cleave to Me to stumble and sin [that is, who entices him or hinders him in right conduct or thought], it would be better (^[b]more expedient and profitable or advantageous) for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be sunk in the depth of the sea.

⁷ Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!

⁸ And if your hand or your foot causes you to stumble and sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; it is better (more profitable and wholesome) for you to enter life maimed or lame than to have two hands or two feet and be thrown into everlasting fire.

⁹ And if your eye causes you to stumble and sin, pluck it out and throw it away from you; it is better (more profitable and wholesome) for you to enter life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the hell (Gehenna) of fire.