Book of Common Prayer
33 He turns rivers into a wilderness
and springs of water into thirsty ground,
34 a fruitful land into a salty place,
because of the evil of its inhabitants.
35 He turns a wilderness into a pool of water
and a dry land into springs of water.
36 And he settles the hungry there,
so that they may establish a city to inhabit,
37 and sow fields and plant vineyards,
that they may yield fruit at harvest.[a]
38 And he blesses them and they multiply greatly,
and he does not let their cattle become few.
39 When they become few and they are bent down
from the oppression of calamity and grief,
40 he pours contempt on princes
and causes them to wander in a trackless waste.
41 But he protects[b] the needy from misery,
and he makes their families like a flock.
42 The upright see it and are glad,
and all wickedness shuts its mouth.
43 Whoever is wise, then let him observe these things,
and let them consider Yahweh’s acts of loyal love.
Prayer to Yahweh for Victory over Enemies
A song. A psalm of David.[c]
108 My heart is steadfast, O God.
I will sing and give praise, even with my glory.
2 Awake, harp and lyre.
I will awake the dawn.[d]
3 I will give you thanks among the peoples, O Yahweh;
I will give you praise among the nations,
4 because your loyal love is great above the heavens,
and your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
5 Be exalted above the heavens, O God,
and let your glory be above all the earth,
6 so that your beloved ones may be rescued.
Save by your right hand and answer me.
7 God has spoken in his holiness,
“I will exult, I will divide up Shechem,
and portion out the valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead is mine. Manasseh is mine.
And Ephraim is the helmet for[e] my head.
Judah is my scepter;[f]
9 Moab is my washing pot.
Over Edom I will cast my sandal;
Over Philistia I will shout in triumph.”
10 Who will bring me to the fortified city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 Have you not rejected us, O God,
and not gone out with our armies, O God?
12 Give us help against the enemy,
for the help of humankind is futile.
13 Through God we will do valiantly,[g]
and it is he who will tread down our enemies.
Praise to Yahweh for His Character and Creation
33 Exult in Yahweh, O you righteous,
for praise is fitting for the upright.
2 Give thanks to Yahweh with the lyre;
with a harp of ten strings play to him.
3 Sing to him a new song;
play skillfully with jubilant shout.
4 For the word of Yahweh is upright,
and all his work is done in faithfulness.
5 He loves righteousness and justice.
The earth is full of the loyal love of Yahweh.
6 By the word of Yahweh the heavens were made,
and by the breath of his mouth all their host.
7 He gathered the waters of the sea like a heap.
He put the deeps in storehouses.
8 Let all the earth fear Yahweh.
Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he himself spoke[a] and it came to pass.
He himself commanded[b] and it stood firm.
10 Yahweh brings to nothing[c] the plan of nations;
he frustrates[d] the intents of peoples.
11 The plan of Yahweh stands firm forever,
the intents of his heart from one generation to the next.[e]
12 Blessed is the nation whose God is Yahweh,
the people he has chosen for his inheritance.
13 From heaven Yahweh looks;
he sees all the children of humankind.
14 From his dwelling place[f] he gazes
on all the inhabitants of the earth,
15 he who fashions altogether their heart,
he who understands all their works.
16 The king is not saved by the greatness of an army.
The warrior is not delivered by the greatness of strength.
17 The horse is a false hope for victory,
nor can it save by the greatness of its power.
18 Behold, the eye of Yahweh is on those who fear him,
on those who hope[g] for his loyal love
19 to deliver their soul from death
and to keep them alive in famine.
20 Our soul waits for Yahweh;
he is our help and our shield.
21 For in him our heart rejoices
because in his holy name we trust.
22 Let your loyal love, O Yahweh, be upon us,
even as[h] we hope in you.
Jacob Goes Back to Bethel
35 And God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel and dwell there, and make an altar to the God who appeared to you when you fled from before Esau your brother.” 2 Then Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, “Get rid of the foreign gods that are in your midst and purify yourselves and change your garments. 3 Then let us make ready and let us go up to Bethel, so that I can make an altar there to the God who answered me in the day of my trouble, and who has been with me on the way that I have gone.” 4 So they gave to Jacob all the foreign gods that were in their hands, and the ornamental rings that were in their ears. And Jacob buried them under the oak which was near Shechem. 5 Then they set out on their journey, and the terror of God was upon the cities that were all around them, so that they did not pursue after the sons of Jacob. 6 And Jacob came to Luz which was in the land of Canaan (that is Bethel), he and all the people that were with him. 7 And he built an altar there and called the place El-Bethel, for there God had appeared to him when he fled before his brother. 8 And Deborah, the nurse of Rebekah, died. And she was buried below Bethel, under the oak. And its name was called Allon-Bacuth.[a] 9 And God appeared to Jacob again when he came from Paddan-Aram, and he blessed him. 10 And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” Then his name was called Israel. 11 And God said to him, “I am El-Shaddai.[b] Be fruitful and multiply. A nation and an assemblage of nations shall be from you, and kings shall go out from your loins. 12 And as for the land that I gave to Abraham and to Isaac, I will give it to you. And to your descendants after you I will give the land. 13 And God went up from him at the place where he spoke with him. 14 And Jacob set up a pillar at the place where God had spoken with him, a pillar of stone. And he poured out a drink offering upon it, and poured oil on it. 15 And Jacob called the name of the place where God had spoken with him Bethel.
The Death of Rachel
16 Then they journeyed from Bethel. And when they were still some distance[c] from Ephrath, Rachel went into labor. And she had hard labor. 17 And when her labor was the most difficult[d] the midwife said to her, “Do not be afraid for you have another son.”[e] 18 And it happened that when her life was departing (for she was dying), she called his name Ben-Oni.[f] But his father called him Benjamin.[g] 19 And Rachel died and she was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 And Jacob erected a pillar at her burial site. That is the pillar of the burial site of Rachel unto this day.
God is Love, so Love One Another
11 For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning: that we should love one another, 12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one and violently murdered his brother. And for what reason[a] did he violently murder him? Because his deeds were evil and the deeds of his brother were righteous.
13 Do not marvel,[b] brothers, if the world hates you. 14 We know that we have passed over from death to life because we love the brothers. The one who does not love remains in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that every murderer does not have eternal life residing in him. 16 We have come to know love by this: that he[c] laid down his life on behalf of us, and we ought to lay down our lives on behalf of the brothers. 17 But whoever has the world’s material possessions and observes his brother in need[d] and shuts his heart against him, how does the love of God reside in him?
18 Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.
Lazarus Dies
11 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus from Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 (Now it was Mary who anointed the Lord with perfumed oil and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) 3 So the sisters sent word[a] to him, saying, “Lord, behold, the one whom you love is sick.” 4 And when he[b] heard it,[c] Jesus said, “This sickness is not to death, but for the glory of God, in order that the Son of God may be glorified through it.” 5 (Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.) 6 So when he heard that he was sick, then he remained in the place where[d] he was two days.
7 Then after this he said to the disciples, “Let us go to Judea again.” 8 The disciples said to him, “Rabbi, the Jews were seeking just now to stone you, and are you going there again?” 9 Jesus replied, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If anyone walks around in the daylight, he does not stumble, because he sees the light of this world. 10 But if anyone walks around in the night, he stumbles, because the light is not in him. 11 He said these things, and after this he said to them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going so that I can awaken him.” 12 So the disciples said to him, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will get well.” 13 (Now Jesus had been speaking about his death, but they thought that he was speaking about real sleep.[e]) 14 So Jesus then said to them plainly, “Lazarus has died, 15 and I am glad for your sake[f] that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” 16 Then Thomas (the one who is called Didymus)[g] said to his fellow disciples, “Let us go also, so that we may die with him.”
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