Book of Common Prayer

¹⁸ Then David went in, sat before Adonai and said, “Who am I, Adonai Elohim; and what is my family, that has caused you to bring me this far? ¹⁹ Yet in your view, Adonai Elohim, even this was too small a thing; so you have even said that your servant’s dynasty will continue on into the distant future. This is [indeed] a teaching for a man, Adonai Elohim — ²⁰ what more can David say to you? For you know your servant intimately, Adonai Elohim. ²¹ It is for the sake of your word and in accordance with your own heart that you have done all this greatness and revealed it to your servant. ²² Therefore, you are great, Adonai, God; for there is no one like you, and there is no God besides you — everything we have heard confirms that. ²³ Who can be compared with your people, with Isra’el? What other nation on earth did God set out to redeem and make into a people for himself? You made yourself a reputation by doing for your land things that even for you are great and terrifying, for the sake of your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt and from other nations and from their gods. ²⁴ You set up your people for yourself as your people forever; and you, Adonai, became their God. ²⁵ So now, Adonai, God, establish forever the word you have spoken to your servant and his house; do what you have promised. ²⁶ May your name be magnified forever, so that it will be said, ‘Adonai-Tzva’ot is God over Isra’el, and the dynasty of your servant David will be set up in your presence.’ ²⁷ You, Adonai-Tzva’ot, God of Isra’el, have disclosed to your servant, ‘I will build you a house.’ This is why your servant has the courage to pray this prayer to you. ²⁸ Now, Adonai Elohim, you alone are God; your words are truth; and you have made this wonderful promise to your servant. ²⁹ So may it please you to bless the family of your servant and thereby cause it to continue forever in your presence. For you, Adonai Elohim, have said it. May your servant’s family be blessed forever by your blessing.”

3 You stupid Galatians! Who has put you under a spell? Before your very eyes Yeshua the Messiah was clearly portrayed as having been put to death as a criminal! ² I want to know from you just this one thing: did you receive the Spirit by legalistic observance of Torah commands or by trusting in what you heard and being faithful to it? ³ Are you that stupid? Having begun with the Spirit’s power, do you think you can reach the goal under your own power? ⁴ Have you suffered so much for nothing? If that’s the way you think, your suffering certainly will have been for nothing! ⁵ What about God, who supplies you with the Spirit and works miracles among you — does he do it because of your legalistic observance of Torah commands or because you trust in what you heard and are faithful to it?

⁶ It was the same with Avraham: “He trusted in God and was faithful to him, and that was credited to his account as righteousness.”^{[a] 7} Be assured, then, that it is those who live by trusting and being faithful who are really children of Avraham. ⁸ Also the Tanakh, foreseeing that God would consider the Gentiles righteous when they live by trusting and being faithful, told the Good News to Avraham in advance by saying, “In connection with you, all the Goyim will be blessed.”^{[b] 9} So then, those who rely on trusting and being faithful are blessed along with Avraham, who trusted and was faithful.

¹⁰ For everyone who depends on legalistic observance of Torah commands lives under a curse, since it is written, “Cursed is everyone who does not keep on doing everything written in the Scroll of the Torah.”^{[c] 11} Now it is evident that no one comes to be declared righteous by God through legalism, since “The person who is righteous will attain life by trusting and being faithful.”^{[d] 12} Furthermore, legalism is not based on trusting and being faithful, but on [a misuse of] the text that says, “Anyone who does these things will attain life through them.”^{[e] 13} The Messiah redeemed us from the curse pronounced in the Torah by becoming cursed on our behalf; for the Tanakh says, “Everyone who hangs from a stake comes under a curse.”^{[f] 14} Yeshua the Messiah did this so that in union with him the Gentiles might receive the blessing announced to Avraham, so that through trusting and being faithful, we might receive what was promised, namely, the Spirit.

⁵⁷ The time arrived for Elisheva to have her baby, and she gave birth to a son. ⁵⁸ Her neighbors and relatives heard how good Adonai had been to her, and they rejoiced with her.

⁵⁹ On the eighth day, they came to do the child’s b’rit-milah. They were about to name him Z’kharyah, after his father, ⁶⁰ when his mother spoke up and said, “No, he is to be called Yochanan.” ⁶¹ They said to her, “None of your relatives has that name,” ⁶² and they made signs to his father to find out what he wanted him called. ⁶³ He motioned for a writing tablet, and to everyone’s surprise he wrote, “His name is Yochanan.” ⁶⁴ At that moment, his power of speech returned, and his first words were a b’rakhah to God. ⁶⁵ All their neighbors were awestruck; and throughout the hill country of Y’hudah, people talked about all these things. ⁶⁶ Everyone who heard of them said to himself, “What is this child going to be?” For clearly the hand of Adonai was with him.