Book of Common Prayer
78 Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.
5 For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded to our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
6 that the generation to come might know them, even the children who should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children,
7 that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;
8 and so might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;
11 they forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He cleaved the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking for meat for their lust.
19 Yea, they spoke against God: they said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also rose up against Israel,
22 because they believed not in God and trusted not in His salvation,
23 though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man ate angels’ food; He sent them meat to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by His power He brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea.
28 And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29 So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire.
30 But they were not estranged from their lust; but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32 For all this, they sinned still and believed not in His wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34 When He slew them, then they sought Him; and they returned and inquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God, their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant.
38 But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath;
39 for He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tested God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy,
43 how He had wrought His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan,
44 and had turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink.
45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their harvest unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50 He made a path to His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
51 and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And He led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased.
55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and apportioned them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God and kept not His testimonies,
57 but turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and loved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, He was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel,
60 so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had placed among men,
61 and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand.
62 He gave His people over also unto the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66 And He smote His enemies in the hinder parts, and laid upon them a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover He refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved.
69 And He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He hath established for ever.
70 He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
26 And there was a famine in the land, besides the first famine that was in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went unto Abimelech king of the Philistines, unto Gerar.
2 And the Lord appeared unto him, and said, “Go not down into Egypt; dwell in the land which I shall tell thee of.
3 Sojourn in this land, and I will be with thee and will bless thee. For unto thee and unto thy seed I will give all these countries, and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father.
4 And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,
5 because Abraham obeyed My voice, and kept My charge, My commandments, My statutes, and My laws.”
6 And Isaac dwelt in Gerar.
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold; and the Lord blessed him.
13 And the man waxed great, and went forward, and grew until he became very great.
14 For he had possession of flocks and possession of herds, and great store of servants; and the Philistines envied him.
15 For all the wells which his father’s servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines had stopped them and filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said unto Isaac, “Go from us, for thou art much mightier than we.”
17 And Isaac departed from thence, and pitched his tent in the Valley of Gerar and dwelt there.
18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water which they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19 And Isaac’s servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
20 And the herdsmen of Gerar strove with Isaac’s herdsmen, saying, “The water is ours.” And he called the name of the well Esek [that is, Contention], because they strove with him.
21 And they dug another well, and strove for that also; and he called the name of it Sitnah [that is, Hatred].
22 And he removed from thence, and dug another well, and for that they strove not; and he called the name of it Rehoboth [that is, Room]. And he said, “For now the Lord hath made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”
23 And he went up from thence to Beersheba.
24 And the Lord appeared unto him the same night and said, “I am the God of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for My servant Abraham’s sake.”
25 And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of the Lord, and pitched his tent there; and there Isaac’s servants dug a well.
26 Then Abimelech went to him from Gerar with Ahuzzath one of his friends and Phichol the chief captain of his army.
27 And Isaac said unto them, “Why come ye to me, seeing ye hate me and have sent me away from you?”
28 And they said, “We saw certainly that the Lord was with thee; and we said, ‘Let there be now an oath between us, even between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee,
29 that thou wilt do us no hurt, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done unto thee nothing but good, and have sent thee away in peace. Thou art now the blessed of the Lord.’”
30 And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31 And they rose up early in the morning and swore one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac’s servants came and told him concerning the well which they had dug, and said unto him, “We have found water.”
33 And he called it Shebah [that is, An oath]; therefore the name of the city is Beersheba [that is, The well of the oath] unto this day.
17 Obey those who have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they keep watch over your souls as ones who must give an account, that they may do it with joy and not with grief, for that is unprofitable for you.
18 Pray for us, for we trust we have a good conscience in all things, willing to live honestly.
19 But I beseech you the more earnestly to do this, that I may be restored to you the sooner.
20 Now the God of peace, who brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
21 make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working in you that which is well pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
22 And I beseech you, brethren, suffer the word of exhortation, for I have written this letter unto you with few words.
23 Know ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty, with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you.
24 Salute all those who have the rule over you, and all the saints. Those from Italy salute you.
25 Grace be with you all. Amen.
53 And every man went unto his own house.
8 Jesus went unto the Mount of Olives.
2 And early in the morning He came again into the temple, and all the people came unto Him; and He sat down and taught them.
3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto Him a woman taken in adultery. And when they had set her in the midst,
4 they said unto Him, “Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.
5 Now Moses in the law commanded us that such should be stoned but what sayest thou?”
6 This they said testing Him, that they might have cause to accuse Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not.
7 So when they continued asking Him, He lifted Himself up and said unto them, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.”
8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground.
9 And they who heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning with the eldest even unto the last, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing in the midst.
10 When Jesus had lifted Himself up and saw none but the woman, He said unto her, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Hath no man condemned thee?”
11 She said, “No man, Lord.” And Jesus said unto her, “Neither do I condemn thee; go, and sin no more.”
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.