Book of Common Prayer
To the Overcomer upon Shoshannim (lilies), A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.
2 I sink in deep mire where there is no standing; I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
3 I am weary of my crying; my throat is dried; my eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 Those that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; those that would destroy me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty; then I restored that which I did not take away.
5 O God, thou knowest my foolishness, and my guiltiness is not hid from thee.
6 Do not let those that wait on thee, O Lord GOD of the hosts, be ashamed for my sake; do not let those that seek thee be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren and an alien unto my mother’s sons.
9 For the zeal of thy house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those that reproached thee are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept with fasting of my soul, thou hast been a reproach unto me.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment, and I became a proverb to them.
12 They that sat in the gate spoke against me, and I was the song of the drunkards.
13 ¶ But I corrected my prayer unto thee, O LORD, in the time of thy good pleasure; O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy saving health.
14 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not drown; let me be delivered from those that hate me and out of the deep waters.
15 Let not the violent force of the waters overcome me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.
16 Hear me, O LORD, for thy mercy is perceptible, look upon me according to the multitude of thy acts of compassion
17 And hide not thy face from thy slave, for I am in trouble; hear me speedily.
18 Draw near unto my soul and redeem it; deliver me because of my enemies.
19 Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonour; my adversaries are all before thee.
20 Reproach has broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness, and I looked for some to take pity, but there was no one, and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They also gave me gall for my food; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 ¶ Let their table become a snare before them, and that which should have been for their prosperity, let it become a stumbling block.
23 Let their eyes be darkened that they see not and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let thy wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their palace be desolate, and let no one dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and they boast that thou hast slain their enemies.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful; let thy saving health, O God, set me up on high.
30 ¶ I will praise the name of God with a song and will magnify him with praises.
31 This also shall please the LORD better than the sacrifice of an ox or bullock that struggles with horns and hoofs.
32 The humble shall see this and be glad; seek God and thy heart shall live.
33 For the LORD hears the destitute and does not despise his prisoners.
34 Let the heavens and the earth praise him, the seas, and every thing that moves in them.
35 For God will protect Zion and will rebuild the cities of Judah; they shall dwell there and inherit it.
36 The seed of his slaves shall inherit it, and those that love his name shall dwell therein.
1 ¶ Truly God is good to Israel, even to such as are pure in heart.
2 But as for me, my feet almost departed from the way; my steps had almost slipped.
3 For I became angry against the foolish when I saw the peace of the wicked.
4 Because there is no restraint that would bring about their death, but their strength is firm.
5 They are not in trouble as other men; neither are they plagued like other men.
6 Therefore they are crowned with pride; they cover themselves with violence as a garment.
7 Their eyes stand out with fatness; they easily obtain the desires of their heart.
8 They are lawless and speak wickedly of doing violence; they speak loftily.
9 They set their mouth against heaven, and their tongue walks through the earth.
10 Therefore his people shall return here; and waters of a full cup are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, How does God know? and is there knowledge in the most High?
12 Behold, these ungodly men, without being troubled by the world obtain riches.
13 Verily, in vain have I cleansed my heart and washed my hands in innocency
14 and been plagued all day long and chastened every morning:
15 ¶ If I should say, I will speak as they do; behold, I should deny the generation of thy sons.
16 I shall meditate that I might understand this; it is very hard for me to see.
17 When I come into the sanctuary of God, then I shall understand their end.
18 Surely thou didst set them in slippery places; in desolation thou shalt cause them to fall.
19 How they are brought into desolation, as in a moment! They have come to an end; they are utterly consumed with terrors.
20 As the dream of one who awakes; so, O Lord, when thou shalt rise up, thou shalt despise their appearances.
21 ¶ Truly my heart was grieved, and I was pricked in my kidneys.
22 But I was ignorant and did not understand; I was as a beast before thee.
23 Nevertheless I was continually with thee; thou hast apprehended me by my right hand.
24 Thou hast guided me with thy counsel, and afterward thou shalt receive me unto glory.
25 Whom have I in heaven but thee? And apart from thee there is nothing upon the earth that I desire.
26 My flesh and my heart fail; the strength of my heart is that God is my portion for ever.
27 For, behold, those that stray from thee shall perish; thou dost cut off all those that go a whoring from thee.
28 But as for me, to draw near to God is good; I have put my hope in the Lord GOD, that I may declare all thy works.
24 ¶ And Abraham was old and well stricken in age, and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.
2 And Abraham said unto his eldest slave of his house, who ruled over all that he had, Put, I pray thee, thy hand under my thigh,
3 and I will make thee swear by the LORD, the God of the heavens and the God of the earth, that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the Canaanites, among whom I dwell;
4 but thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son Isaac.
5 And the slave said unto him, Peradventure the woman will not be willing to follow me unto this land, must I therefore bring thy son again unto the land from which thou didst come?
6 And Abraham said unto him, Beware that thou not bring my son there again.
7 The LORD God of heaven, who took me from my father’s house and from the land of my kindred and who spoke unto me and swore unto me, saying, Unto thy seed will I give this land; he shall send his angel before thee, and thou shalt take a wife unto my son from there.
8 And if the woman will not be willing to follow thee, then thou shalt be free from this my oath; only do not bring my son there again.
9 Then the slave put his hand under the thigh of Abraham his master and swore to him concerning that matter.
10 ¶ And the slave took ten camels of the camels of his master and departed with the best of what his master had in his hand; and he arose and went to Aram-naharaim, unto the city of Nahor.
11 And he made his camels kneel down outside the city by a well of water at the time of the evening, even the time that women go out to draw water.
12 And he said, O LORD, God of my master Abraham, I pray thee, to have a good encounter this day and show mercy unto my master Abraham.
13 Behold, I stand here by the fountain of water, and the daughters of the men of the city come out for water:
14 And let it come to pass that the damsel to whom I shall say, Let down thy pitcher, I pray thee, that I may drink; and she shall say, Drink, and I will give thy camels to drink also; let the same be she that thou hast appointed for thy slave Isaac; and thereby shall I know that thou hast shown mercy unto my master.
15 And it came to pass before he had done speaking that, behold, Rebekah came out (who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother) with her pitcher upon her shoulder.
16 And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, whom no man had known; and she went down to the fountain and filled her pitcher and was coming back up.
17 Then the slave ran to meet her and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.
18 And she said, Drink, my lord, and she hastened to let down her pitcher upon her hand and gave him drink.
19 And when she had finished giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also until they have finished drinking.
20 And she hastened and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water and drew for all his camels.
21 And the man marveled at her in silence, to see whether the LORD had prospered his journey or not.
22 And it came to pass as the camels had finished drinking that the man took a golden pendant of half a shekel weight and two bracelets for her hands of ten shekels weight of gold
23 and said, Whose daughter art thou? Tell me, I pray thee; is there room in thy father’s house for us to lodge in?
24 And she said unto him, I am the daughter of Bethuel the son of Milcah, whom she gave birth unto Nahor.
25 She said moreover unto him, We have both straw and fodder enough and room to lodge in.
26 Then the man bowed down his head and worshipped the LORD.
27 And he said, Blessed be the LORD, God of my master Abraham, who has not lifted his mercy and his truth from my master, the LORD leading me in the way to the house of my master’s brethren.
3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself lest ye be wearied in your souls and faint.
4 ¶ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, fighting against sin.
5 And ye have quite forgotten the consolation which speaks unto you as unto sons, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art reproved of him:
6 for whom the Lord loves, he chastens and scourges everyone whom he receives as a son.
7 If ye endure chastening, God deals with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father does not chasten?
8 But if ye are without chastisement, of which all the sons are partakers, then ye are bastards, and not sons.
9 Furthermore, we have had fathers of our flesh who corrected us, and we gave them reverence; is it not much better to be in subjection to the Father of spirits, and we shall live?
10 For they verily for a few days chastened us as it seemed good unto them, but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness.
11 It is true that no chastening at present seems to be cause for joy, but rather for grief; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto those who are exercised by it.
7 ¶ After these things Jesus walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judea because the Jews sought to kill him.
2 Now the feast of the Jews, of the tabernacles, was at hand.
3 His brethren therefore said unto him, Depart from this place and go into Judea that thy disciples also may see the works that thou doest.
4 For no one who seeks to be clearly known does anything in secret. If thou doest these things, show thyself to the world.
5 For not even his brethren believed in him.
6 Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.
7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
8 Go ye up unto this feast; I go not up yet unto this feast, for my time is not yet fulfilled.
9 And having said these things unto them, he abode still in Galilee.
10 But when his brethren were gone up, then he also went up unto the feast, not openly, but as it were in secret.
11 Then the Jews sought him at the feast and said, Where is he?
12 And there was much murmuring among the people concerning him, for some said, He is a good man; others said, No, but he deceives the people.
13 But no one spoke openly of him for fear of the Jews.
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