Book of Common Prayer

Psalm 106

¹ Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!) O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!^(A)

² Who can put into words and tell the mighty deeds of the Lord? Or who can show forth all the praise [that is due Him]?

³ Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are those who observe justice [treating others fairly] and who do right and are in right standing with God at all times.

⁴ [Earnestly] remember me, O Lord, when You favor Your people! O visit me also when You deliver them, and grant me Your salvation!—

⁵ That I may see and share the welfare of Your chosen ones, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with Your heritage.

⁶ We have sinned, as did also our fathers; we have committed iniquity, we have done wickedly.^(B)

⁷ Our fathers in Egypt understood not nor appreciated Your miracles; they did not [earnestly] remember the multitude of Your mercies nor imprint Your loving-kindness [on their hearts], but they were rebellious and provoked the Lord at the sea, even at the Red Sea.^(C)

⁸ Nevertheless He saved them for His name’s sake [to prove the righteousness of the divine character], that He might make His mighty power known.

⁹ He rebuked the Red Sea also, and it dried up; so He led them through the depths as through a pastureland.^(D)

¹⁰ And He saved them from the hand of him that hated them, and redeemed them from the hand of the [Egyptian] enemy.^(E)

¹¹ And the waters covered their adversaries; not one of them was left.^(F)

¹² Then [Israel] believed His words [trusting in, relying on them]; they sang His praise.

¹³ But they hastily forgot His works; they did not [earnestly] wait for His plans [to develop] regarding them,

¹⁴ But lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted and tried to restrain God [with their insistent desires] in the desert.^(G)

¹⁵ And He gave them their request, but sent leanness into their souls and [thinned their numbers by] disease and death.^(H)

¹⁶ They envied Moses also in the camp, and Aaron [the high priest], the holy one of the Lord.^(I)

¹⁷ Therefore the earth opened and swallowed up Dathan and closed over the company of Abiram.^(J)

¹⁸ And a fire broke out in their company; the flame burned up the wicked.^(K)

¹⁹ They made a calf in Horeb and worshiped a molten image.^(L)

²⁰ Thus they exchanged Him Who was their Glory for the image of an ox that eats grass [they traded their Honor for the image of a calf]!

²¹ They forgot God their Savior, Who had done such great things in Egypt,

²² Wonders and miracles in the land of Ham, dreadful and awesome things at the Red Sea.

²³ Therefore He said He would destroy them. [And He would have done so] had not Moses, His chosen one, stepped into the breach before Him to turn away His threatening wrath.^(M)

²⁴ Then they spurned and despised the pleasant and desirable land [Canaan]; they believed not His word [neither trusting in, relying on, nor holding to it];

²⁵ But they murmured in their tents and hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.

²⁶ Therefore He lifted up His hand [as if taking an oath] against them, that He would cause them to fall in the wilderness,

²⁷ Cast out their descendants among the nations, and scatter them in the lands [of the earth].

²⁸ They joined themselves also to the [idol] Baal of Peor and ate sacrifices [offered] to the lifeless [gods].

²⁹ Thus they provoked the Lord to anger with their practices, and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰ Then stood up Phinehas [the priest] and executed judgment, and so the plague was stayed.^(N)

³¹ And that was credited to him for righteousness (right doing and right standing with God) to all generations forever.

³² They angered the Lord also at the waters of Meribah, so that it went ill with Moses for their sakes;^(O)

³³ For they provoked [Moses’] spirit, so that he spoke unadvisedly with his lips.

³⁴ They did not destroy the [heathen] nations as the Lord commanded them,

³⁵ But mingled themselves with the [idolatrous] nations and learned their ways and works

³⁶ And served their idols, which were a snare to them.

³⁷ Yes, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters to demons^(P)

³⁸ And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; and the land was polluted with their blood.

³⁹ Thus were they defiled by their own works, and they played the harlot and practiced idolatry with their own deeds [of idolatrous rites].

⁴⁰ Therefore was the wrath of the Lord kindled against His people, insomuch that He abhorred and rejected His own heritage.^(Q)

⁴¹ And He gave them into the hands of the [heathen] nations, and they that hated them ruled over them.

⁴² Their enemies also oppressed them, and they were brought into subjection under the hand of their foes.

⁴³ Many times did [God] deliver them, but they were rebellious in their counsel and sank low through their iniquity.

⁴⁴ Nevertheless He regarded their distress when He heard their cry;

⁴⁵ And He [earnestly] remembered for their sake His covenant and relented their sentence of evil [comforting and easing Himself] according to the abundance of His mercy and loving-kindness [when they cried out to Him].

⁴⁶ He also caused [Israel] to find sympathy among those who had carried them away captive.

⁴⁷ Deliver us, O Lord our God, and gather us from among the nations, that we may give thanks to Your holy name and glory in praising You.

⁴⁸ Blessed (affectionately and gratefully praised) be the Lord, the God of Israel, from everlasting to everlasting! And let all the people say, Amen! Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)^(R)

3 For behold, in those days and at that time when I shall reverse the captivity and restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

² I will gather all nations and will bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and there will I deal with and execute judgment upon them for [their treatment of] My people and of My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and [because] they have divided My land.

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war! Stir up the mighty men! Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.

¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, I am strong [a warrior]!^(A)

¹¹ Hasten and come, all you nations round about, and assemble yourselves; there You, O Lord, will bring down Your mighty ones (Your warriors).

¹² Let the nations bestir themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.

¹³ Put in the sickle, for the [vintage] harvest is ripe; come, get down and tread the grapes, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for the wickedness [of the peoples] is great.^(B)

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.^(C)

¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶ The Lord will thunder and roar from Zion and utter His voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake; but the Lord will be a refuge for His people and a stronghold to the children of Israel.^(D)

¹⁷ So shall you know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then shall Jerusalem be holy, and strangers and foreigners [not born into the family of God] shall no more pass through it.

1 Peter, an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ, [writing] to the elect exiles of the dispersion scattered (sowed) abroad in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,

² Who were chosen and foreknown by God the Father and consecrated (sanctified, made holy) by the Spirit to be obedient to Jesus Christ (the Messiah) and to be sprinkled with [His] blood: May grace (spiritual blessing) and peace be given you in increasing abundance [that spiritual peace to be ^[a]realized in and through Christ, ^[b]freedom from fears, agitating passions, and moral conflicts].

³ Praised (honored, blessed) be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah)! By His boundless mercy we have been born again to an ever-living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

⁴ [Born anew] into an inheritance which is beyond the reach of change and decay [imperishable], unsullied and unfading, reserved in heaven for you,

⁵ Who are being guarded (garrisoned) by God’s power through [your] faith [till you fully inherit that ^[c]final] salvation that is ready to be revealed [for you] in the last time.

⁶ [You should] be exceedingly glad on this account, though now for a little while you may be distressed by trials and suffer temptations,

⁷ So that [the genuineness] of your faith may be tested, [your faith] which is infinitely more precious than the perishable gold which is tested and purified by fire. [This proving of your faith is intended] to redound to [your] praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) is revealed.

⁸ Without having seen Him, you love Him; though you do not [even] now see Him, you believe in Him and exult and thrill with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy.

⁹ [At the same time] you receive the result (outcome, consummation) of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

¹⁰ The prophets, who prophesied of the grace (divine blessing) which was intended for you, searched and inquired earnestly about this salvation.

¹¹ They sought [to find out] to whom or when this was to come which the Spirit of Christ working within them was indicating when He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that should follow [them].

¹² It was then disclosed to them that the services they were rendering were not meant for themselves and their period of time, but for you. [It is these very] things which have now already been made known plainly to you by those who preached the good news (the Gospel) to you by the [same] Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Into these things [the very] angels long to look!

19 Now when Jesus had finished saying these things, He left Galilee and went into the part of Judea that is beyond the Jordan;

² And great throngs accompanied Him, and He cured them there.

³ And Pharisees came to Him and put Him to the test by asking, Is it lawful and right to dismiss and repudiate and divorce one’s wife for any and ^[a]every cause?

⁴ He replied, Have you never read that He Who made them from the beginning made them male and female,

⁵ And said, For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be united firmly (joined inseparably) to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh?^(A)

⁶ So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man put asunder (separate).

⁷ They said to Him, Why then did Moses command [us] to give a certificate of divorce and thus to dismiss and repudiate a wife?^(B)

⁸ He said to them, Because of the hardness (stubbornness and perversity) of your hearts Moses permitted you to dismiss and repudiate and divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been ^[b]so [ordained].

⁹ I say to you: whoever dismisses (repudiates, divorces) his wife, except for unchastity, and marries another commits adultery, ^[c]and he who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.

¹⁰ The disciples said to Him, If the case of a man with his wife is like this, it is neither profitable nor advisable to marry.

¹¹ But He said to them, Not all men can accept this saying, but it is for those to whom [the capacity to receive] it has been given.

¹² For there are eunuchs who have been born incapable of marriage; and there are eunuchs who have been made so by men; and there are eunuchs who have made themselves incapable of marriage for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let him who is able to accept this accept it.