Book of Common Prayer

78 The learning of Asaph. My people, perceive ye my law; bow your ear into the words of my mouth. (The teaching of Asaph. My people, listen ye to my teaching; bow down your ear to the words of my mouth.)

² I shall open my mouth in parables; I shall speak perfect reasons from the beginning (I shall speak perfect reasoning from the old days).

³ How great things have we heard, and we have known those; and our fathers told to us. (What great things we have heard, and we have known; and our fathers told us.)

⁴ Those be not hid from the sons of them; in another generation. And they told the praisings of the Lord, and the virtues of him; and his marvels, which he did. (We will not hide these things from their sons and daughters; yea, from the generations to come. We shall tell out the praises of the Lord, and his strength, or his power; and the marvellous deeds which he did.)

⁵ And he raised witnessing in Jacob; and he setted law in Israel. How great things commanded he to our fathers, to make those known to their sons; (And he raised up a testimony in Jacob; and he set a law in Israel. He commanded to our fathers to make these things known to their sons and daughters;)

⁶ that another generation know. Sons, that shall be born, and shall rise up; shall tell out to their sons. (so that another generation would know them. And so that the sons and daughters who shall be born, shall rise up; and shall tell these things to their sons and daughters.)

⁷ That they set their hope in God, and forget not the works of God; and that they seek his commandments/and that they search his commandments. (So that they put their trust in God, and forget not the works of God; and that they obey his commandments.)

⁸ Lest they be made a shrewd generation; and (one) stirring to wrath, as the fathers of them. A generation that (ad)dressed not his heart; and his spirit was not believed with God. (Lest they be made a depraved, and a rebellious generation; like their fathers. For they were a generation who did not direct their hearts towards him; and their spirits were not steadfast with God, or firmly fixed on God.)

⁹ The sons of Ephraim, bending a bow, and sending arrows; were turned (aback) in the day of battle. (The sons of Ephraim, bending a bow, and sending arrows; turned and ran away on the day of battle.)

¹⁰ They kept not the testament of God; and they would not go in his law. (They kept not the covenant of God; and they would not follow, or obey, his Law.)

¹¹ And they forgat his benificences; and his marvels, which he showed to them. (And they forgot his good gifts; and his marvellous deeds, which he showed to them.)

¹² He did marvels before the fathers of them, in the land of Egypt; in the field of Tanis. (Yea, he did marvellous deeds before their forefathers, in the land of Egypt; on the plain of Zoan.)

¹³ He brake the sea, and led them through it; and he ordained the waters as in a bouget, (or a bottle). (He broke the sea apart, and led them through it; he made the waters to stand up like walls.)

¹⁴ And he led them forth in a cloud of the day; and all night in the lightening of fire. (And he led them forth by a cloud during the day; and all night long by the light of a fire.)

¹⁵ He brake a stone in desert; and he gave water to them as in a much depth. (He broke open a rock in the wilderness; and he gave water to them as if out of the great depths of the ocean.)

¹⁶ And he led water out of the stone; and he led forth waters as floods. (Yea, he brought forth water out of that rock; and it came forth like a river.)

¹⁷ And they putted yet to do sin against him; they excited the high God into ire, in a place without water. (And still they sinned against him; they incited the Most High God to anger, in a place without water.)

¹⁸ And they tempted God in their hearts; that they asked meats to their lives. (And they tempted God in their hearts; by demanding food for their hunger.)

¹⁹ And they spake evil of God; they said, Whether God may make ready a board in desert? (And they spoke evil against God; they said, Can God truly prepare a table for us here in the wilderness?)

²⁰ For he smote a stone, and waters flowed; and streams went out in abundance. Whether also he may give bread; either make ready a board to his people? (For he struck a stone, and waters flowed; yea, streams went out in abundance. But can he also give bread, or food, to us? can he also prepare a table here in the wilderness for his people?)

²¹ Therefore the Lord heard, and delayed; and fire was kindled in Jacob, and the ire of God ascended on Israel. (And so the Lord heard them, and was angry; and fire was kindled against the people of Jacob, yea, God’s anger descended upon the people of Israel.)

²² For they believed not in God; neither hoped in his health. (For they did not believe in God; nor trusted in his salvation, or his deliverance.)

²³ And he commanded to the clouds above; and he opened the gates of heaven. (But then he commanded to the clouds above; and he opened the gates of the heavens.)

²⁴ And he rained to them manna for to eat; and he gave to them bread of heaven. (And he rained down manna for them to eat; yea, he gave them the bread of heaven.)

²⁵ Man ate the bread of angels; he sent to them meats in abundance (he sent them an abundance of food).

²⁶ He turned over the south wind from heaven; and he brought in by his virtue the west wind. (He sent the south wind down from the heavens; and he brought in the west wind by his strength, or his power.)

²⁷ And he rained fleshes as dust on them; and also volatiles feathered, as the gravel of the sea. (And he rained down flesh upon them, like a dust storm; yea, as many feathered fowls as the sand of the sea.)

²⁸ And those felled in the midst of their castles; about the tabernacles of them. (And they fell in the midst of their camp; all about their tents.)

²⁹ And they ate, and were filled greatly, and he brought their desire to them; (And so they ate, and were greatly filled, for he had brought them the desire of their hearts;)

³⁰ they were not defrauded of their desire. Yet their meats were in their mouth; (but their desire, or their yearning, was not yet quenched. And so while the food were yet in their mouths;)

³¹ and the wrath of God ascended on them. And he killed the fat men of them; and he hindered the chosen men of Israel. (God’s anger descended upon them. And he killed their most stout-hearted men; yea, he struck down Israel’s chosen men.)

³² In all these things they sinned yet; and believed not in the marvels of God. (Yet in spite of all these things, they still sinned; and did not believe/and had no faith in God’s marvellous deeds.)

³³ And the days of them failed in vanity; and the years of them failed with haste. (And so he ended their days like a breath; and their years with sudden disaster.)

³⁴ When he killed them, they sought him; and they turned again, and early they came to him. (And after he killed some of them, then they sought him again; and they returned, and they came eagerly to him.)

³⁵ And they bethought (again), that God is the helper of them; and the high God is the again-buyer of them. (And they remembered that God is their helper; and that the Most High God is their redeemer.)

³⁶ And they loved him in their mouth; and with their tongue they lied to him. (And they loved him with their mouths; but with their tongues they still lied to him.)

³⁷ Forsooth the heart of them was not rightful with him; neither they were had faithful in his testament. (And they were not loyal to him in their hearts; nor were they steadfast, or faithful, to obey his covenant.)

³⁸ But he is merciful, and he shall be made merciful to the sins of them; and he shall not destroy them. And he did greatly, to turn away his ire; and he kindled not all his ire. (But he was merciful, and he forgave their sins; and so he did not destroy them. And he had great restraint, and turned away his anger; and he did not kindle, or release, all of his wrath.)

³⁹ And he bethought, that they be flesh; a spirit going, and not turning again. (And he remembered, that they be but flesh; like the wind passing by, and never returning.)

⁴⁰ How oft made they him wroth in desert; they stirred him into ire in a place without water. (How often they made him angry in the wilderness; yea, they stirred him to anger in a place without water.)

⁴¹ And they were turned, and tempted God; and they wrathed the holy of Israel. (Again and again they tempted God; and they angered the Holy One of Israel.)

⁴² They bethought not on his hand; in the day in which he again-bought them from the hand of the troubler. (They did not remember his power; yea, the day when he saved them from the hand of the troubler.)

⁴³ As he setted his signs in Egypt; and his great wonders in the field of Tanis. (How he showed his signs, or his miracles, in Egypt; yea, his great wonders on the plain of Zoan.)

⁴⁴ And he turned the floods of them, and the rains of them, into blood; that they should not drink. (And he turned their rivers, and their rains, into blood; so that they could not drink them.)

⁴⁵ He sent a flesh fly into them, and it ate them; and he sent a paddock, and it lost them. (He sent swarms of flies into them, and they bit them all over; and he sent frogs among them, and they ruined their land.)

⁴⁶ And he gave the fruits of them to rust; and he gave the travails of them to locusts. (And he gave their crops over to mildew; and he gave the produce from their labour over to locusts.)

⁴⁷ And he killed the vines of them with hail; and the (syca)more trees of them with frost.

⁴⁸ And he betook the beasts of them (un)to hail; and the possession(s) of them (un)to fire.

⁴⁹ He sent into them the ire of his indignation; indignation, and ire, and tribulation, sendings-in by evil angels. (He sent into them the anger of his indignation; yea, his indignation, and anger, and trouble, by sending in evil angels among them.)

⁵⁰ He made (a) way to the path of his ire, and he spared not from the death of their lives; and he closed together in death the beasts of them. (He made a way for the path of his anger, and he did not spare their lives from death; but rather he altogether ended them with a pestilence.)

⁵¹ And he smote all the first engendered thing(s) in the land of Egypt [And he smote all the first begotten in the land of Egypt]; the first fruits of all the travail of them in the tabernacles of Ham. (And he struck down all the first-born in the land of Egypt; yea, the first fruits of all their travail in the tents of Ham.)

⁵² And he took away his people as sheep; and he led them forth as a flock in desert. (But he took away his own people from there, like sheep; yea, he led them forth like a flock in the wilderness.)

⁵³ And he led them forth in hope, and they dreaded not; and the sea covered the enemies of them. (And he led them forth in hope, and they were not afraid; and the sea covered their enemies.)

⁵⁴ And he brought them into the hill of his hallowing; into the hill which his right hand (had) gat. (And he brought them to his holy hill; to the Mount which his right hand, or his power, had won.)

⁵⁵ And he casted out heathen men from the face of them; and by lot he parted to them the land in a cord of dealing. And he made the lineages of Israel to dwell in the tabernacles of them. (And he threw out the heathen before them; and by lot he parted the land to them with a measuring cord. And he let the tribes of Israel to live in the tents, or the homes, of the heathen.)

⁵⁶ And they tempted, and wrathed the high God; and they kept not his witnessings. (And still they tempted, and angered, the Most High God; and they did not obey his teachings, or his commands.)

⁵⁷ And they turned away themselves, and they kept not covenant; as their fathers, (they) were turned into a shrewd bow. (And they turned themselves away/And they rebelled, and they did not obey the covenant; like their forefathers, they were bent like a crooked bow.)

⁵⁸ They stirred him into ire in their little hills; and they stirred him to indignation in their graven images. (They stirred him to anger with their high places, or their hill shrines; and they stirred him to indignation with their carved images, or their idols.)

⁵⁹ God heard, and forsook; and brought to nought Israel greatly. (God saw and heard all of this; and then he abandoned them, and he brought down Israel into nothing.)

⁶⁰ And he putted away the tabernacle of Shiloh; his tabernacle in which he dwelled among men. (And he deserted his Tabernacle at Shiloh; the Tent in which he lived among his people.)

⁶¹ And he betook the virtue of them into captivity; and the fairness of them into the hands of the enemy. (And he delivered the symbol of his strength, that is, the Ark of the Covenant, into captivity; yea, the symbol of his beauty, or of his glory, into the hands of the enemy.)

⁶² And he closed together his people in sword; and he despised his heritage. (And he altogether ended his people by the sword; and he despised his inheritance.)

⁶³ Fire ate the young men of them; and the virgins of them were not bewailed/were not bewept. (The fire ate up their young men; and their virgins did not bewail them/and their virgins did not weep for them.)

⁶⁴ The priests of them fell down by sword; and the widows of them were not bewept. (Their priests fell by the sword; and their widows did not weep for them.)

⁶⁵ And the Lord was raised, as sleeping; as mighty greatly filled of wine. (Then the Lord was raised up; like one who had been sleeping, like a mighty man excited by wine.)

⁶⁶ And he smote his enemies on the hinder parts; he gave to them everlasting shame. (And he struck his enemies on their back-sides; yea, he gave them up to everlasting shame.)

⁶⁷ And he putted away the tabernacle of Joseph; and he chose not the lineage of Ephraim. (And he rejected the house of Joseph; and he chose not the tribe of Ephraim.)

⁶⁸ But he chose the lineage of Judah; he chose the hill of Zion, which he loved. (But he chose the tribe of Judah; and he chose Mount Zion, which he loved.)

⁶⁹ And he as an unicorn builded his holy place; in the land, which he founded into worlds. (And he built his holy place like his home in heaven/And he built his holy place as high as the heavens; and he founded it like the earth, to last forever.)

⁷⁰ And he chose David his servant, and took him up from the flocks of sheep; (And he chose David to be his servant, and took him away from the flocks of sheep;)

⁷¹ he took him from behind sheep with lambs. To feed Jacob his servant; and Israel his heritage. (yea, he brought him out from following behind the sheep with their lambs, to feed his people Jacob; yea, his inheritance Israel.)

⁷² And he fed them in the innocence of his heart; and he led them forth in the understandings of his hands. (And David fed them from the innocence of his heart; and he led them forth by the skillfulness of his hands.)

45 Joseph might no longer abstain himself, while many men stood there before him; wherefore he commanded that all men should go out, and that none alien were present in the knowing of Joseph and his brethren. (Joseph could no longer restrain himself, with so many men standing there before him; and so he commanded that all the men go out, so that no stranger was present when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.)

² And Joseph raised up his voice with weeping, which the Egyptians heard, and all the house(hold) of Pharaoh.

³ And he said to his brethren, I am Joseph; liveth my father yet? (yet liveth my father?) His brethren might not answer, and were aghast with full much dread.

⁴ To whom Joseph said meekly, Cometh nigh to me (To whom Joseph meekly said, Come near to me). And when they had nighed nigh, he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt;

⁵ do not ye dread, neither seem it to be hard to you, that ye sold me into these countries; for God hath sent me before you into Egypt for your health. (do not ye fear, nor be ye harsh with yourselves, that ye sold me into this country; for God hath sent me before you into Egypt for your salvation.)

⁶ For it is (but) two years that hunger began to be in the land, (and) yet five (more) years (shall) follow, in which men shall not be able to ear, neither reap;

⁷ and God before-sent me, that ye be kept (alive) on (the) earth, and may have meats to live. (and God sent me ahead, so that ye would be kept alive on this earth, and have food to eat/and have descendants into without end.)

⁸ I was sent hither not by your counsel, but by God’s will, which hath made me as the father of Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and prince in all the land of Egypt. (I was sent here not by your deeds, but by God’s will, who hath made me like a father to Pharaoh, and the lord of all his household, and the ruler in all the land of Egypt.)

⁹ Haste ye, and goeth up to my father, and ye shall say to him, Thy son Joseph sendeth these things to thee; God hath made me lord of all the land of Egypt; come down (here) to me, and tarry not,

¹⁰ and (then) dwell in the land of Goshen; and thou shalt be beside me, thou, and thy sons, and the sons of thy sons, (and) thy sheep, and thy great beasts, and all things which thou wieldest (and all the things which thou possessest),

¹¹ and there I shall feed thee; for yet five years of hunger be left, lest both thou perish, and thine house, and all things which thou wieldest. (and I shall feed thee there; for there be five more years of famine to come, and lest thou, and thy household, or thy family, and all the things that thou possessest, perish.)

¹² Lo! your eyes (see), and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that (it is) my mouth (which) speaketh to you;

¹³ tell ye to my father all my glory, and all things which ye saw in Egypt; haste ye, and bring ye him to me. (tell ye to my father about all of my glory here in Egypt, and all of the things which ye have seen; then haste ye, and bring ye him down here to me.)

¹⁴ And when he had embraced, and felled into the neck of Benjamin, his brother, he wept, the while also Benjamin wept in like manner on the neck of Joseph. (And he embraced his brother, and fell on Benjamin’s neck, and he wept, and Benjamin also wept in like manner upon Joseph’s neck.)

¹⁵ And Joseph kissed all his brethren, and wept on them all (and wept over them all); after which things they were hardy to speak to him.

³² But I will, that ye be without busyness [Forsooth I will you to be without busyness], for he that is without wife, is busy what things be of the Lord, how he shall please God.

³³ But he that is with a wife, is busy what things be of the world, how he shall please the wife [how he shall please his wife], and he is parted.

³⁴ And a woman unwedded and [a] maiden thinketh what things be of the Lord, that she be holy in body and spirit. But she that is wedded, thinketh what things be of the world, how she shall please the husband [how she shall please her husband].

³⁵ And I say these things to your profit, not that I cast to you a snare, but to that that is seemly, and that giveth easiness, without hindering to make prayers to the Lord. [Soothly I say these things to your profit, not that I cast to you a snare, but to that that is honest, and that giveth facility, or easiness, without letting to beseech to the Lord.]

³⁶ And if any man guesseth himself to be seen foul on his virgin, that she is full waxen [that she is well old], and so it behooveth to be done, do she that that she will^[a]; she sinneth not, if she be wedded^[b].

³⁷ For he that ordained stably in his heart [For why he that ordained stably, or steadfast, in his heart], not having need, but having power of his will, and hath deemed in his heart this thing, to keep his virgin [for to keep his virginity], doeth well.

³⁸ Therefore he that joineth his virgin in matrimony, doeth well; and he that joineth not, doeth better.

³⁹ The woman is bound to the law, as long time as her husband liveth; and if her husband is dead, she is delivered from the law of the husband [she is delivered from the law], be she wedded to whom she will, only in the Lord.

⁴⁰ But she shall be more blessed, if she dwelleth thus [if she shall thus dwell], after my counsel; and I ween, that I have the Spirit of God.

6 And he went out from thence, and went into his own country; and his disciples followed him.

² And when the sabbath was come, Jesus began to teach in a synagogue. And many heard him, and wondered in his teaching, and said, Of whence cometh to this [man] all these things? and what is the wisdom that is given to him, and such works of power which be made by his hands? [And the sabbath made, he began to teach in a synagogue. And many hearing wondered in his teaching, saying, Of whence be all these things to this man? and what is the wisdom which is given to him, and such virtues that be made by his hands?]

³ Whether this is not a carpenter [Whether this is not the smith, or carpenter], the son of Mary, the brother of James and of Joseph and of Judas and of Simon? whether [and] his sisters be not here with us? And they were offended in him.

⁴ And Jesus said to them, That a prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his kin, and in his house.

⁵ And he might not do there any work of power [any virtue], save that he healed a few sick men, laying on them his hands.

⁶ And he wondered for the unbelief of them. And he went about castles on each side, and taught [And he went about castles in compass, teaching].

⁷ And he called together twelve, and began to send them by two together [and began to send them by twain and twain]; and gave to them power of unclean spirits,

⁸ and commanded them, that they should not take any thing in the way, but a staff only, not a scrip, nor bread [but a rod only, not a scrip, not bread], neither money in the girdle,

⁹ but shod with sandals, and that they should not be clothed with two coats.

¹⁰ And he said to them, Whither ever [Where ever] ye enter into an house, dwell ye there, till ye go out from thence.

¹¹ And whoever receive you not [And whoever shall not receive], nor hear you, go ye out from thence, and shake away the powder from your feet, into witnessing to them.

¹² And they went forth, and preached, that men should do penance. [And they going out, preached, that men should do penance.]

¹³ And they casted out many fiends [And they cast out many fiends], and anointed with oil many sick men, and they were healed.