Book of Common Prayer
Adonai Still Faithful to Israel
Psalm 106
1 Halleluyah!
Praise Adonai, for He is good,
for His lovingkindness endures forever.
2 Who can speak of Adonai’s mighty acts
or declare His praise?
3 Blessed are those who maintain justice,
who do what is right at all times.
4 Remember me, Adonai,
when You show favor to Your people.
Visit me with Your salvation,
5 so I may behold the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
exult in the joy of Your nation,
and give praise with Your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers,
we have committed iniquity,
we have acted wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not ponder Your wonders.
Nor did they remember Your abundant lovingkindness,
but rebelled by the sea—at the Sea of Reeds.
8 Yet He saved them for His Name’s sake,
to make His mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Sea of Reeds
and it dried up,
and He led them through the depths as through a wilderness.
10 So He saved them from the hand of those who hated them,
redeemed them from the enemy’s hand.
11 The waters covered their adversaries—
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed His words.
They were singing His praise.
13 How quickly they forgot His works,
and would not wait for His counsel!
14 In the wilderness they craved ravenously,
in the desert they tested God.
15 So He gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.
16 Then they envied Moses in the camp,
and also Aaron, the holy one of Adonai.
17 The earth opened up, swallowed Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
18 Also a fire blazed in their company,
a flame consumed the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb
and worshipped a molten image.
20 Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a grass-eating ox.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt—
22 miracles in the land of Ham,
awesome things by the Sea of Reeds.
23 So He commanded their extermination,
had not Moses, His chosen one,
stood in the breach before Him,
to turn His wrath from destroying them.
24 Then they scorned the pleasing land—
they did not trust in His word.
25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents.
They would not listen to Adonai’s voice.
26 Therefore He swore to them
that He would make them fall in the desert,
27 and disperse their offspring among the nations,
and scatter them through the lands.
28 Then they yoked themselves to Baal of Peor,
and ate the sacrifices of dead things.
29 So they provoked Him with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
so the plague was stopped.
31 It was credited to him as righteousness,
from generation to generation forever.
32 By the waters of Meribah they angered Him,
and trouble came on Moses because of them.
33 For they embittered his spirit
and he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the peoples,
as Adonai had commanded them.
35 Instead they mingled with the nations
and learned their practices.
36 They worshipped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and their daughters,
sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was desecrated with blood.
39 So they defiled themselves by their deeds,
and prostituted themselves by their practices.
40 Therefore the anger of Adonai was kindled against His people,
and He abhorred His inheritance.
41 He handed them to the nations—
those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
so they were subdued under their hand.
43 Many times He delivered them,
but they kept rebelling deliberately,
and so sank low into their iniquity.
44 Yet He saw their distress,
when He heard their cry,
45 remembered His covenant to them,[a]
and relented in the greatness of His mercy.
46 He caused them to be pitied
in the presence of all their captors.
47 Save us, Adonai our God,
and gather us from the nations,
so we may praise Your holy Name
and triumph in Your praise.
48 Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting even to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Halleluyah!
A Donkey Rebukes Balaam
22 Then Bnei-Yisrael set out and camped in the plains of Moab alongside the Jordan across from Jericho.
Parashat Balak
2 When Balak son of Zippor, realized all that Bnei-Yisrael had done to the Amorites, 3 Moab became terrified because there were so many people. Moab was filled with dread because of Bnei-Yisrael. 4 Moab said to the elders of Midian, “The multitude will lick up everything around us like the ox licks up the grass of the field.”
Now Balak son of Zippor was king of Moab at that time. 5 He sent messengers to summon Balaam son of Beor, at Pethor near the River[a] in his native land, saying to him, “Look now, a people has come out of Egypt. See now, they cover the surface of the earth and are settling beside me. 6 Come now, curse this people for me, because they are too strong for me! Perhaps I may be able to defeat them and drive them away from the country. I know that whoever you bless will be blessed and whoever you curse will be accursed!”
7 The elders of Moab and Midian left with divination fees in their hand. When they came to Balaam, they told him Balak’s words.
8 He said to them, “Spend the night here. I will give you an answer just as Adonai speaks to me.” So the officials of Moab stayed with Balaam.
9 God came to Balaam and asked, “Who are these men with you?”
10 Balaam said to God, “Balak son of Zippor, king of Moab, sent word to me: 11 See, the people coming out of Egypt cover the surface of the land. Come now, curse them for me. Perhaps I will be able to fight against them and drive them away!”
12 God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them! Do not curse them, for they are blessed!”
13 So Balaam got up in the morning and said to the officials of Balak, “Go back to your country, for Adonai has refused to let me go with you.”
14 So the Moabite officials got up, went back to Balak, and said, “Balaam refused to come with us.” 15 Balak again sent other dignitaries, more numerous and honored than these previous ones.
16 They also came to Balaam and said to him, “Thus says Balak son of Zippor: Please let nothing keep you from coming to me! 17 I will richly reward you, and everything you tell me I will do! Just come now and curse this people for me!”
18 But Balaam answered Balak’s servants, “Even if Balak gave me his house full of silver and gold, I cannot cross beyond the mouth of Adonai my God, to do anything small or great! 19 But now, you may spend the night here, too. Then I may find out anything else Adonai may say to me.”
20 God came to Balaam by night and said to him, “Since the men came to you to summon you, arise and go with them. However, only the word I tell you are you to do!”
21 So Balaam got up in the morning, saddled his donkey, and went with the Moabite princes.
12 Therefore do not let sin rule in your mortal body so that you obey its desires. 13 And do not keep yielding your body parts to sin as tools of wickedness; but yield yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your body parts as tools of righteousness to God. 14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16 Do you not know that to whatever you yield yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves to what you obey—whether to sin resulting in death, or to obedience resulting in righteousness? 17 But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching under which you were placed; 18 and after you were set free from sin, you became enslaved to righteousness.
19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you yielded your body parts as slaves to uncleanness and lawlessness, leading to more lawlessness, so now yield your body parts as slaves to righteousness, resulting in holiness. 20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. 21 So then, what outcome did you have that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now, having been set free from sin and having become enslaved to God, you have your fruit resulting in holiness. And the outcome is eternal life. 23 For sin’s payment[a] is death, but God’s gracious gift is eternal life in Messiah Yeshua our Lord.
12 Then Yeshua entered the Temple[a] and drove out all those selling and buying in the Temple. He overturned the tables of the moneychangers[b] and the seats of those selling doves. [c] 13 And He said to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer,’[d] but you are making it ‘a den of thieves’!”[e]
14 The blind and lame came to Him in the Temple, and He healed them. 15 But when the ruling kohanim and Torah scholars saw the wonders He performed, and the children crying out in the Temple and saying, “Hoshia-na to Ben-David,” they became indignant. 16 And they said to Him, “Do You hear what these children are saying?” “Yes,” Yeshua said to them. “Haven’t you ever read,
‘Out of the mouth of babes and nursing toddlers
You have prepared praise for Yourself’?”[f]
17 Then He left them and went out of the city to Bethany, and He spent the night there.
Faith Moves Mountains
18 Now early in the morning, as He was returning to the city, He became hungry. 19 Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came up to it and found nothing on it except leaves only. And He said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree shriveled up at once.
20 When the disciples saw it they were astonished. “How did the fig tree shrivel on the spot?” they asked.
21 Yeshua answered them, “Amen, I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen. 22 And whatever you ask in prayer, trusting, you shall receive.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.