Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 16
A Poem of David; [probably] intended to record memorable thoughts.
1 Keep and protect me, O God, for in You I have found refuge, and in You do I put my trust and hide myself.
2 I say to the Lord, You are my Lord; I have no good beside or beyond You.
3 As for the godly (the saints) who are in the land, they are the excellent, the noble, and the glorious, in whom is all my delight.
4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied who choose another god; their drink offerings of blood will I not offer or take their names upon my lips.
5 The Lord is my chosen and assigned portion, my cup; You hold and maintain my lot.
6 The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; yes, I have a good heritage.
7 I will bless the Lord, Who has given me counsel; yes, my heart instructs me in the night seasons.
8 I have set the Lord continually before me; because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
9 Therefore my heart is glad and my glory [my inner self] rejoices; my body too shall rest and confidently dwell in safety,
10 For You will not abandon me to Sheol (the place of the dead), neither will You suffer Your holy one [Holy One] to see corruption.(A)
11 You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore.(B)
Psalm 17
A Prayer of David.
1 Hear the right (my righteous cause), O Lord; listen to my shrill, piercing cry! Give ear to my prayer, that comes from unfeigned and guileless lips.
2 Let my sentence of vindication come from You! May Your eyes behold the things that are just and upright.
3 You have proved my heart; You have visited me in the night; You have tried me and find nothing [no evil purpose in me]; I have purposed that my mouth shall not transgress.
4 Concerning the works of men, by the word of Your lips I have avoided the ways of the violent (the paths of the destroyer).
5 My steps have held closely to Your paths [to the tracks of the One Who has gone on before]; my feet have not slipped.
6 I have called upon You, O God, for You will hear me; incline Your ear to me and hear my speech.
7 Show Your marvelous loving-kindness, O You Who save by Your right hand those who trust and take refuge in You from those who rise up against them.
8 Keep and guard me as the pupil of Your eye; hide me in the shadow of Your wings
9 From the wicked who despoil and oppress me, my deadly adversaries who surround me.
10 They are enclosed in their own prosperity and have shut up their hearts to pity; with their mouths they make exorbitant claims and proudly and arrogantly speak.
11 They track us down in each step we take; now they surround us; they set their eyes to cast us to the ground,
12 Like a lion greedy and eager to tear his prey, and as a young lion lurking in hidden places.
13 Arise, O Lord! Confront and forestall them, cast them down! Deliver my life from the wicked by Your sword,
14 From men by Your hand, O Lord, from men of this world [these poor moths of the night] whose portion in life is idle and vain. Their bellies are filled with Your hidden treasure [what You have stored up]; their children are satiated, and they leave the rest [of their] wealth to their babes.
15 As for me, I will continue beholding Your face in righteousness (rightness, justice, and right standing with You); I shall be fully satisfied, when I awake [to find myself] beholding Your form [and having sweet communion with You].
Psalm 22[a]
To the Chief Musician; set to [the tune of] Aijeleth Hashshahar [the hind of the morning dawn]. A Psalm of David.
1 My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning?(A)
2 O my God, I cry in the daytime, but You answer not; and by night I am not silent or find no rest.
3 But You are holy, O You Who dwell in [the holy place where] the praises of Israel [are offered].
4 Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted (leaned on, relied on You, and were confident) and You delivered them.
5 They cried to You and were delivered; they trusted in, leaned on, and confidently relied on You, and were not ashamed or confounded or disappointed.
6 But I am a worm, and no man; I am the scorn of men, and despised by the people.(B)
7 All who see me laugh at me and mock me; they shoot out the lip, they shake the head, saying,(C)
8 He trusted and rolled himself on the Lord, that He would deliver him. Let Him deliver him, seeing that He delights in him!(D)
9 Yet You are He Who took me out of the womb; You made me hope and trust when I was on my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon You from my very birth; from my mother’s womb You have been my God.
11 Be not far from me, for trouble is near and there is none to help.
12 Many [foes like] bulls have surrounded me; strong bulls of Bashan have hedged me in.(E)
13 Against me they opened their mouths wide, like a ravening and roaring lion.
14 I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart is like wax; it is softened [with anguish] and melted down within me.
15 My strength is dried up like a fragment of clay pottery; [with thirst] my tongue cleaves to my jaws; and You have brought me into the dust of death.(F)
16 For [like a pack of] dogs they have encompassed me; a company of evildoers has encircled me, they pierced my hands and my feet.(G)
17 I can count all my bones; [the evildoers] gaze at me.(H)
18 They part my clothing among them and cast lots for my raiment (a long, shirtlike garment, a seamless undertunic). (I))
19 But be not far from me, O Lord; O my Help, hasten to aid me!
20 Deliver my life from the sword, my dear life [my only one] from the power of the dog [the agent of execution].
21 Save me from the lion’s mouth; for You have answered me [kindly] from the horns of the wild oxen.
22 I will declare Your name to my brethren; in the midst of the congregation will I praise You.(J)
23 You who fear (revere and worship) the Lord, praise Him! All you offspring of Jacob, glorify Him. Fear (revere and worship) Him, all you offspring of Israel.
24 For He has not despised or abhorred the affliction of the afflicted; neither has He hidden His face from him, but when he cried to Him, He heard.
25 My praise shall be of You in the great congregation. I will pay to Him my vows [made in the time of trouble] before them who fear (revere and worship) Him.
26 The poor and afflicted shall eat and be satisfied; they shall praise the Lord—they who [diligently] seek for, inquire of and for Him, and require Him [as their greatest need]. May your hearts be quickened now and forever!
27 All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall bow down and worship before You,
28 For the kingship and the kingdom are the Lord’s, and He is the ruler over the nations.
29 All the mighty ones upon earth shall eat [in thanksgiving] and worship; all they that go down to the dust shall bow before Him, even he who cannot keep himself alive.
30 Posterity shall serve Him; they shall tell of the Lord to the next generation.
31 They shall come and shall declare His righteousness to a people yet to be born—that He has done it [that it is finished]!(K)
5 Hear this word which I take up concerning you in lamentation, O house of Israel:
2 The Virgin of Israel has fallen; she shall no more rise; she lies cast down and forsaken on her land; there is no one to raise her up.
3 For thus says the Lord God: The city that went forth a thousand shall have a hundred left, and that which went forth a hundred shall have ten left to the house of Israel.
4 For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel: Seek Me [inquire for and of Me and require Me as you require food] and you shall live!(A)
5 But seek not [the golden calf at] Bethel nor enter into [idolatrous] Gilgal, and pass not over to [the idols of] Beersheba; for Gilgal shall surely go into captivity and exile, and Bethel [house of God] shall become Beth-aven [house of vanity, emptiness, falsity, and futility] and come to nothing.
6 Seek the Lord [inquire for and of Him and require Him] and you shall live, lest He rush down like fire upon the house of Joseph [representing the ten tribes] and devour it, and there be none to quench it in Bethel [the center of their idol hopes].
7 You who turn justice into [the bitterness of] wormwood and cast righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God) down to the ground,
8 Seek Him Who made the [cluster of stars called] Pleiades and [the constellation] Orion, Who turns the shadow of death or deep darkness into the morning and darkens the day into night, Who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth—the Lord is His name—
9 Who causes sudden destruction to flash forth upon the strong so that destruction comes upon the fortress.
10 They hate him who reproves in the [city] gate [holding him as an abomination and rejecting his rebuke], and they abhor him who speaks uprightly.
11 Therefore because you tread upon the poor and take from him exactions of wheat, you have built houses of hewn stone, but you shall not dwell in them; you have planted pleasant vineyards, but you shall not drink their wine.
12 For I know how manifold are your transgressions and how mighty are your sins—you who afflict the [uncompromisingly] righteous, who take a bribe, and who turn aside the needy in the [court of the city] gate from their right.
13 Therefore he who is prudent will keep silence in such a time, for it is an evil time.
14 Seek (inquire for and require) good and not evil that you may live, and so the Lord, the God of hosts, will be with you, as you have said.
15 Hate the evil and love the good and establish justice in the [court of the city’s] gate. It may be that the Lord, the God of hosts, will be gracious to the remnant of Joseph [the northern kingdom].
16 Therefore thus says the Lord, the God of hosts, the Lord: There shall be wailing in all the broad ways, and in all the streets they shall say, Alas! Alas! And they shall call the farmers to mourning and such as are skilled in lamentation to wailing.
17 And in all vineyards there shall be wailing, for I will pass through the midst of you, says the Lord.
1 Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ (the Messiah), and brother of James, [writes this letter] to those who are called (chosen), dearly loved by God the Father and separated (set apart) and kept for Jesus Christ:
2 May mercy, [soul] peace, and love be multiplied to you.
3 Beloved, my whole concern was to write to you in regard to our common salvation. [But] I found it necessary and was impelled to write you and urgently appeal to and exhort [you] to contend for the faith which was once for all [a]handed down to the saints [the faith which is that sum of Christian belief which was delivered [b]verbally to the holy people of God].
4 For certain men have crept in stealthily [[c]gaining entrance secretly by a side door]. Their doom was predicted long ago, ungodly (impious, profane) persons who pervert the grace (the spiritual blessing and favor) of our God into lawlessness and wantonness and immorality, and disown and deny our sole Master and Lord, Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One).
5 Now I want to remind you, though you were fully informed once for all, that though the Lord [at one time] delivered a people out of the land of Egypt, He subsequently destroyed those [of them] who did not believe [who refused to adhere to, trust in, and rely upon Him].
6 And angels who did not keep (care for, guard, and hold to) their own first place of power but abandoned their proper dwelling place—these He has reserved in custody in eternal chains (bonds) under the thick gloom of utter darkness until the judgment and doom of the great day.
7 [The wicked are sentenced to suffer] just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the adjacent towns—which likewise gave themselves over to impurity and indulged in unnatural vice and sensual perversity—are laid out [in plain sight] as an exhibit of perpetual punishment [to warn] of everlasting fire.(A)
8 Nevertheless in like manner, these dreamers also corrupt the body, scorn and reject authority and government, and revile and libel and scoff at [heavenly] glories (the glorious ones).
9 But when [even] the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, judicially argued (disputed) about the body of Moses, he dared not [presume to] bring an abusive condemnation against him, but [simply] said, The Lord rebuke you!(B)
10 But these men revile (scoff and sneer at) anything they do not happen to be acquainted with and do not understand; and whatever they do understand physically [that which they know by mere instinct], like irrational beasts—by these they corrupt themselves and are destroyed (perish).
11 Woe to them! For they have run riotously in the way of Cain, and have abandoned themselves for the sake of gain [it offers them, following] the error of Balaam, and have perished in rebellion [like that] of Korah!(C)
12 These are hidden reefs (elements of danger) in your love feasts, where they boldly feast sumptuously [carousing together in your midst], without scruples providing for themselves [alone]. They are clouds without water, swept along by the winds; trees, without fruit at the late autumn gathering time—twice (doubly) dead, [lifeless and] plucked up by the roots;
13 Wild waves of the sea, flinging up the foam of their own shame and disgrace; wandering stars, for whom the gloom of eternal darkness has been reserved forever.
14 It was of these people, moreover, that Enoch in the seventh [generation] from Adam prophesied when he said, Behold, the Lord comes with His myriads of holy ones (ten thousands of His saints)
15 To execute judgment upon all and to convict all the impious (unholy ones) of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed [in such an] ungodly [way], and of all the severe (abusive, jarring) things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.
16 These are inveterate murmurers (grumblers) who complain [of their lot in life], going after their own desires [controlled by their passions]; their talk is boastful and arrogant, [and they claim to] admire men’s persons and pay people flattering compliments to gain advantage.
22 And again Jesus spoke to them in parables (comparisons, stories used to illustrate and explain), saying,
2 The kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding banquet for his son
3 And sent his servants to summon those who had been invited to the wedding banquet, but they refused to come.
4 Again he sent other servants, saying, Tell those who are invited, Behold, I have prepared my banquet; my bullocks and my fat calves are killed, and everything is prepared; come to the wedding feast.
5 But they were not concerned and paid no attention [they ignored and made light of the summons, treating it with contempt] and they went away—one to his farm, another to his business,
6 While the others seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and put them to death.
7 [Hearing this] the king was infuriated; and he sent his soldiers and put those murderers to death and burned their city.
8 Then he said to his servants, The wedding [feast] is prepared, but those invited were not worthy.
9 So go to the thoroughfares where they leave the city [where the main roads and those from the country end] and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.
10 And those servants went out on the crossroads and got together as many as they found, both bad and good, so [the room in which] the wedding feast [was held] was filled with guests.
11 But when the king came in to view the guests, he looked intently at a man there who had on no wedding garment.
12 And he said, Friend, how did you come in here without putting on the [appropriate] wedding garment? And he was speechless ([a]muzzled, gagged).
13 Then the king said to the attendants, Tie him hand and foot, and throw him into the darkness outside; there will be weeping and grinding of teeth.
14 For many are called (invited and summoned), but few are chosen.
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