Book of Common Prayer
33 He changed rivers into a desert,
and springs of water into dry ground.
34 He made fertile land salty
because the people there did evil.
35 He changed the desert into pools of water
and dry ground into springs of water.
36 He had the hungry settle there.
They built a city to live in.
37 They planted seeds in the fields and vineyards.
And they had a good harvest.
38 God blessed them, and they grew in number.
Their cattle did not become fewer.
39 Because of disaster, troubles and sadness,
their families grew smaller and weaker.
40 He showed he was displeased with their important men.
He made them wander in a pathless desert.
41 But he lifted the poor out of their suffering.
And he made their families grow like flocks of sheep.
42 Good people see this and are happy.
But the wicked say nothing.
43 Whoever is wise will remember these things.
He will think about the love of the Lord.
A Prayer for Victory
A song of David.
108 God, my heart is right.
I will sing and praise you with all my being.
2 Wake up, harp and lyre!
I will wake up the dawn.
3 Lord, I will praise you among the nations.
I will sing songs of praise about you to all the nations.
4 Your love is so great that it is higher than the skies.
Your truth reaches to the clouds.
5 God, you are supreme over the skies.
Let your glory be over all the earth.
6 Answer us and save us by your power.
Then the people you love will be rescued.
7 God has said from his Temple,
“When I win, I will divide Shechem
and cut up the Valley of Succoth.
8 Gilead and Manasseh are mine.
Ephraim is like my helmet.
Judah holds my royal scepter.
9 Moab is like my washbowl.
I throw my sandals at Edom.
I shout at Philistia.”
10 Who will bring me to the strong, walled city?
Who will lead me to Edom?
11 God, surely you have rejected us.
You do not go out with our armies.
12 Help us fight the enemy.
Human help is useless.
13 But we can win with God’s help.
He will defeat our enemies.
Praise God Who Creates and Saves
33 Sing to the Lord, you who do what is right.
Honest people should praise him.
2 Praise the Lord on the harp.
Make music for him on the ten-stringed lyre.
3 Sing a new song to him.
Play well and joyfully.
4 God’s word is true.
Everything he does is right.
5 He loves what is right and fair.
The Lord’s love fills the earth.
6 The sky was made at the Lord’s command.
By the breath from his mouth, he made all the stars.
7 He gathered the water in the sea into a heap.
He made the great ocean stay in its place.
8 All the earth should worship the Lord.
The whole world should fear him.
9 He spoke, and it happened.
He commanded, and it appeared.
10 The Lord upsets the plans of nations.
He ruins all their plans.
11 But the Lord’s plans will stand forever.
His ideas will last from now on.
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord.
Happy are the people he chose for his very own.
13 The Lord looks down from heaven.
He sees every person.
14 From his throne he watches
everyone who lives on earth.
15 He made their hearts.
He understands everything they do.
16 No king is saved by his great army.
No warrior escapes by his great strength.
17 Horses can’t bring victory.
They can’t save by their strength.
18 But the Lord looks after those who fear him.
He watches over those who put their hope in his love.
19 He saves them from death.
He spares their lives in times of hunger.
20 So our hope is in the Lord.
He is our help, our shield to protect us.
21 We rejoice in him.
We trust his holy name.
22 Lord, show your love to us
as we put our hope in you.
Jacob in Bethel
35 God said to Jacob, “Go to the city of Bethel and live there. Make an altar to the God who appeared to you there. This was when you were running away from your brother Esau.”
2 So Jacob said to his family and to all who were with him, “Put away the foreign gods you have. Make yourselves clean, and change your clothes. 3 We will leave here and go to Bethel. There I will build an altar to God. He has helped me during my time of trouble. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.” 4 So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had. And they gave him the earrings they were wearing. He hid them under the great tree near the town of Shechem. 5 Then Jacob and his sons left there. But God caused the people in the nearby cities to be afraid. So they did not follow the sons of Jacob. 6 And Jacob and all the people who were with him went to Luz. It is now called Bethel. It is in the land of Canaan. 7 There Jacob built an altar. He named the place Bethel, after God, because God had appeared to him there. That was when he was running from his brother.
8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died and was buried under the oak tree at Bethel. They named that place Oak of Crying.
Jacob’s New Name
9 When Jacob came back from Northwest Mesopotamia, God appeared to him again. And God blessed him. 10 God said to him, “Your name is Jacob. But you will not be called Jacob any longer. Your new name will be Israel.” So he called him Israel. 11 God said to him, “I am God All-Powerful. Have many children and grow in number as a nation. You will be the ancestor of many nations and kings. 12 I gave Abraham and Isaac land. I will give that same land to you and your descendants.” 13 Then God left him. 14 Jacob set up a stone on edge in that place where God had talked to him. And he poured a drink offering and olive oil on it to make it special for God. 15 And Jacob named the place Bethel.
Rachel Dies Giving Birth
16 Jacob and his group left Bethel. Before they came to Ephrath, Rachel began giving birth to her baby. 17 But she was having much trouble with this birth. When Rachel’s nurse saw this, she said, “Don’t be afraid, Rachel. You are giving birth to another son.” 18 Rachel gave birth to the son, but she died. As she lay dying, she named the boy Son of My Suffering. But Jacob called him Benjamin.[a]
19 Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath, a district of Bethlehem. 20 And Jacob set up a rock on her grave to honor her. That rock is still there today.
We Must Love Each Other
11 This is the teaching you have heard from the beginning: We must love each other. 12 Do not be like Cain who belonged to the Evil One. Cain killed his brother. He killed his brother because the things Cain did were evil, and the things his brother did were good.
13 Brothers, do not be surprised when the people of this world hate you. 14 We know that we have left death and have come into life. We know this because we love our brothers in Christ. Whoever does not love is still in death. 15 Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer.[a] And you know that no murderer has eternal life in him. 16 This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for our brothers. 17 Suppose a believer is rich enough to have all that he needs. He sees his brother in Christ who is poor and does not have what he needs. What if the believer does not help the poor brother? Then the believer does not have God’s love in his heart. 18 My children, our love should not be only words and talk. Our love must be true love. And we should show that love by what we do.
The Death of Lazarus
11 There was a man named Lazarus who was sick. He lived in the town of Bethany, where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2 Mary is the woman who later put perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair. Mary’s brother was Lazarus, the man who was now sick. 3 So Mary and Martha sent someone to tell Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
4 When Jesus heard this he said, “This sickness will not end in death. It is for the glory of God. This has happened to bring glory to the Son of God.” 5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 But when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was for two more days. 7 Then Jesus said to his followers, “Let us go back to Judea.”
8 The followers said, “But Teacher, the Jews there tried to kill you with stones. That was only a short time ago. Now you want to go back there?”
9 Jesus answered, “Are there not 12 hours in the day? If anyone walks in the daylight, he will not stumble because he can see by this world’s light. 10 But if anyone walks at night he stumbles because there is no light to help him see.”
11 After Jesus said this, he added, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep. But I am going there to wake him.”
12 The followers said, “But Lord, if he can sleep, he will get well.”
13 Jesus meant that Lazarus was dead. But Jesus’ followers thought that he meant Lazarus was really sleeping. 14 So then Jesus said plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe. But let us go to him now.”
16 Then Thomas (the one called Didymus) said to the other followers, “Let us go, too. We will die with him.”
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.