Book of Common Prayer
41 God blesses those who are kind to the poor. He helps them out of their troubles. 2 He protects them and keeps them alive; he publicly honors them and destroys the power of their enemies. 3 He nurses them when they are sick and soothes their pains and worries.[a]
4 “O Lord,” I prayed, “be kind and heal me, for I have confessed my sins.” 5 But my enemies say, “May he soon die and be forgotten!” 6 They act so friendly when they come to visit me while I am sick; but all the time they hate me and are glad that I am lying there upon my bed of pain. And when they leave, they laugh and mock. 7 They whisper together about what they will do when I am dead. 8 “It’s fatal, whatever it is,” they say. “He’ll never get out of that bed!”
9 Even my best friend has turned against me—a man I completely trusted; how often we ate together. 10 Lord, don’t you desert me! Be gracious, Lord, and make me well again so I can pay them back! 11 I know you are pleased with me because you haven’t let my enemies triumph over me. 12 You have preserved me because I was honest; you have admitted me forever to your presence.
13 Bless the Lord, the God of Israel, who exists from everlasting ages past—and on into everlasting eternity ahead. Amen and amen!
52 Written by David to protest against his enemy Doeg (1 Samuel 22), who later slaughtered eighty-five priests and their families.
You call yourself a hero, do you? You boast about this evil deed of yours against God’s people. 2 You are sharp as a tack in plotting your evil tricks. 3 How you love wickedness—far more than good! And lying more than truth! 4 You love to slander—you love to say anything that will do harm, O man with the lying tongue.
5 But God will strike you down, pull you from your home, and drag you away from the land of the living. 6 The followers of God will see it happen. They will watch in awe. Then they will laugh and say, 7 “See what happens to those who despise God and trust in their wealth, and become ever more bold in their wickedness.”[a]
8 But I am like a sheltered olive tree protected by the Lord himself. I trust in the mercy of God forever and ever. 9 O Lord, I will praise you forever and ever for your punishment.[b] And I will wait for your mercies—for everyone knows what a merciful God you are.
44 1-2 O God, we have heard of the glorious miracles you did in the days of long ago. Our forefathers have told us how you drove the heathen nations from this land and gave it all to us, spreading Israel from one end of the country to the other. 3 They did not conquer by their own strength and skill, but by your mighty power and because you smiled upon them and favored them.
4 You are my King and my God. Decree victories for your people. 5 For it is only by your power and through your name that we tread down our enemies; 6 I do not trust my weapons. They could never save me. 7 Only you can give us the victory over those who hate us.
8 My constant boast is God. I can never thank you enough! 9 And yet for a time, O Lord, you have tossed us aside in dishonor and have not helped us in our battles. 10 You have actually fought against us and defeated us before our foes. Our enemies have invaded our land and pillaged the countryside. 11 You have treated us like sheep in a slaughter pen and scattered us among the nations. 12 You sold us for a pittance. You valued us at nothing at all. 13 The neighboring nations mock and laugh at us because of all the evil you have sent. 14 You have made the word Jew a byword of contempt and shame among the nations, disliked by all. 15-16 I am constantly despised, mocked, taunted, and cursed by my vengeful enemies.
17 And all this has happened, Lord, despite our loyalty to you. We have not violated your covenant. 18 Our hearts have not deserted you! We have not left your path by a single step. 19 If we had, we could understand your punishing us in the barren wilderness and sending us into darkness and death. 20 If we had turned away from worshiping our God and were worshiping idols, 21 would God not know it? Yes, he knows the secrets of every heart. 22 But that is not our case. For we are facing death threats constantly because of serving you! We are like sheep awaiting slaughter.
23 Waken! Rouse yourself! Don’t sleep, O Lord! Are we cast off forever? 24 Why do you look the other way? Why do you ignore our sorrows and oppression? 25 We lie face downward in the dust. 26 Rise up, O Lord, and come and help us. Save us by your constant love.
14 Now war filled the land—Amraphel, king of Shinar, Arioch, king of Ellasar, Chedorlaomer, king of Elam, and Tidal, king of Goiim 2 fought against: Bera, king of Sodom, Birsha, king of Gomorrah, Shinab, king of Admah, Shemeber, king of Zeboiim, and the king of Bela (later called Zoar).
3 These kings (of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela) mobilized their armies in Siddim Valley (that is, the valley of the Dead Sea). 4 For twelve years they had all been subject to King Chedorlaomer, but now in the thirteenth year, they rebelled.
5-6 One year later, Chedorlaomer and his allies arrived and the slaughter began. For they were victorious over the following tribes at the places indicated: the Rephaim in Ashteroth-karnaim; the Zuzim in Ham; the Emim in the plain of Kiriathaim; the Horites in Mount Seir, as far as El-paran at the edge of the desert.
7 Then they swung around to Enmishpat (later called Kadesh) and destroyed the Amalekites, and also the Amorites living in Hazazan-tamar.
8-9 But now the other army, that of the kings of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, Zeboiim, and Bela (Zoar), unsuccessfully[a] attacked Chedorlaomer and his allies as they were in the Dead Sea Valley (four kings against five). 10 As it happened, the valley was full of asphalt pits. And as the army of the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, some slipped into the pits, and the remainder fled to the mountains. 11 Then the victors plundered[b] Sodom and Gomorrah and carried off all their wealth and food, and went on their homeward way, 12 taking with them Lot—Abram’s nephew[c] who lived in Sodom—and all he owned. 13 One of the men who escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew, who was camping among the oaks belonging to Mamre the Amorite (brother of Eshcol and Aner, Abram’s allies).
14 When Abram learned that Lot had been captured, he called together the men born into his household, 318 of them in all, and chased after the retiring army as far as Dan. 15 He divided his men and attacked during the night from several directions, and pursued the fleeing army to Hobah, north of Damascus, 16 and recovered everything—the loot that had been taken, his relative Lot, and all of Lot’s possessions, including the women and other captives.
17 As Abram returned from his strike against Chedorlaomer and the other kings at the valley of Shaveh (later called King’s Valley), the king of Sodom came out to meet him, 18 and Melchizedek, the king of Salem (Jerusalem), who was a priest of the God of Highest Heaven, brought him bread and wine. 19-20 Then Melchizedek blessed Abram with this blessing:
“The blessing of the supreme God, Creator of heaven and earth, be upon you, Abram; and blessed be God, who has delivered your enemies over to you.”
Then Abram gave Melchizedek a tenth of all the loot.
21 The king of Sodom told him, “Just give me back my people who were captured; keep for yourself the booty stolen from my city.”
22 But Abram replied, “I have solemnly promised Jehovah, the supreme God, Creator of heaven and earth, 23 that I will not take so much as a single thread from you, lest you say, ‘Abram is rich because of what I gave him!’ 24 All I’ll accept is what these young men of mine have eaten; but give a share of the loot to Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre, my allies.”
8 What we are saying is this: Christ, whose priesthood we have just described, is our High Priest and is in heaven at the place of greatest honor next to God himself. 2 He ministers in the temple in heaven, the true place of worship built by the Lord and not by human hands.
3 And since every high priest is appointed to offer gifts and sacrifices, Christ must make an offering too. 4 The sacrifice he offers is far better than those offered by the earthly priests. (But even so, if he were here on earth he wouldn’t even be permitted to be a priest because down here the priests still follow the old Jewish system of sacrifices.) 5 Their work is connected with a mere earthly model of the real tabernacle in heaven; for when Moses was getting ready to build the tabernacle, God warned him to follow exactly the pattern of the heavenly tabernacle as shown to him on Mount Sinai. 6 But Christ, as a Minister in heaven, has been rewarded with a far more important work than those who serve under the old laws because the new agreement that he passes on to us from God contains far more wonderful promises.
7 The old agreement didn’t even work. If it had, there would have been no need for another to replace it. 8 But God himself found fault with the old one, for he said, “The day will come when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and the people of Judah. 9 This new agreement will not be like the old one I gave to their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; they did not keep their part in that agreement, so I had to cancel it. 10 But this is the new agreement I will make with the people of Israel, says the Lord: I will write my laws in their minds so that they will know what I want them to do without my even telling them, and these laws will be in their hearts so that they will want to obey them, and I will be their God and they shall be my people. 11 And no one then will need to speak to his friend or neighbor or brother, saying, ‘You, too, should know the Lord,’ because everyone, great and small, will know me already. 12 And I will be merciful to them in their wrongdoings, and I will remember their sins no more.”
13 God speaks of these new promises, of this new agreement, as taking the place of the old one; for the old one is out of date now and has been put aside forever.
43-44 At the end of the two days’ stay he went on into Galilee. Jesus used to say, “A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own country!” 45 But the Galileans welcomed him with open arms, for they had been in Jerusalem at the Passover celebration and had seen some of his miracles.[a]
46-47 In the course of his journey through Galilee he arrived at the town of Cana, where he had turned the water into wine. While he was there, a man in the city of Capernaum, a government official, whose son was very sick, heard that Jesus had come from Judea and was traveling in Galilee. This man went over to Cana, found Jesus, and begged him to come to Capernaum with him and heal his son, who was now at death’s door.
48 Jesus asked, “Won’t any of you believe in me unless I do more and more miracles?”
49 The official pled, “Sir, please come now before my child dies.”
50 Then Jesus told him, “Go back home. Your son is healed!” And the man believed Jesus and started home. 51 While he was on his way, some of his servants met him with the news that all was well—his son had recovered. 52 He asked them when the lad had begun to feel better, and they replied, “Yesterday afternoon at about one o’clock his fever suddenly disappeared!” 53 Then the father realized it was the same moment that Jesus had told him, “Your son is healed.” And the officer and his entire household believed that Jesus was the Messiah.
54 This was Jesus’ second miracle in Galilee after coming from Judea.
The Living Bible copyright © 1971 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.