Book of Common Prayer
The Law of the Lord
119 Happy are those whose lives are faultless,
who live according to the law of the Lord.
2 Happy are those who follow his commands,
who obey him with all their heart.
3 They never do wrong;
they walk in the Lord's ways.
4 Lord, you have given us your laws
and told us to obey them faithfully.
5 How I hope that I shall be faithful
in keeping your instructions!
6 If I pay attention to all your commands,
then I will not be put to shame.
7 As I learn your righteous judgments,
I will praise you with a pure heart.
8 I will obey your laws;
never abandon me!
Obedience to the Law of the Lord
9 How can young people keep their lives pure?
By obeying your commands.
10 With all my heart I try to serve you;
keep me from disobeying your commandments.
11 I keep your law in my heart,
so that I will not sin against you.
12 I praise you, O Lord;
teach me your ways.
13 I will repeat aloud
all the laws you have given.
14 I delight in following your commands
more than in having great wealth.
15 I study your instructions;
I examine your teachings.
16 I take pleasure in your laws;
your commands I will not forget.
Happiness in the Law of the Lord
17 Be good to me, your servant,
so that I may live and obey your teachings.
18 Open my eyes, so that I may see
the wonderful truths in your law.
19 I am here on earth for just a little while;
do not hide your commands from me.
20 My heart aches with longing;
I want to know your judgments at all times.
21 You reprimand the proud;
cursed are those who disobey your commands.
22 Free me from their insults and scorn,
because I have kept your laws.
23 The rulers meet and plot against me,
but I will study your teachings.
24 Your instructions give me pleasure;
they are my advisers.
A Prayer for Help[a]
12 Help us, Lord!
There is not a good person left;
honest people can no longer be found.
2 All of them lie to one another;
they deceive each other with flattery.
3 Silence those flattering tongues, O Lord!
Close those boastful mouths that say,
4 “With our words we get what we want.
We will say what we wish,
and no one can stop us.”
5 “But now I will come,” says the Lord,
“because the needy are oppressed
and the persecuted groan in pain.
I will give them the security they long for.”
6 The promises of the Lord can be trusted;
they are as genuine as silver
refined seven times in the furnace.
7-8 The wicked are everywhere,
and everyone praises what is evil.
Keep us always safe, O Lord,
and preserve us from such people.
A Prayer for Help[b]
13 How much longer will you forget me, Lord? Forever?
How much longer will you hide yourself from me?
2 How long must I endure trouble?
How long will sorrow fill my heart day and night?
How long will my enemies triumph over me?
3 Look at me, O Lord my God, and answer me.
Restore my strength; don't let me die.
4 Don't let my enemies say, “We have defeated him.”
Don't let them gloat over my downfall.
5 I rely on your constant love;
I will be glad, because you will rescue me.
6 I will sing to you, O Lord,
because you have been good to me.
Human Wickedness[c](A)
14 (B)Fools say to themselves,
“There is no God!”
They are all corrupt,
and they have done terrible things;
there is no one who does what is right.
2 The Lord looks down from heaven at us humans
to see if there are any who are wise,
any who worship him.
3 But they have all gone wrong;
they are all equally bad.
Not one of them does what is right,
not a single one.
4 “Don't they know?” asks the Lord.
“Are all these evildoers ignorant?
They live by robbing my people,
and they never pray to me.”
5 But then they will be terrified,
for God is with those who obey him.
6 Evildoers frustrate the plans of the humble,
but the Lord is their protection.
7 How I pray that victory
will come to Israel from Zion.
How happy the people of Israel will be
when the Lord makes them prosperous again!
Introduction
1 In this book are the words that Moses spoke to the people of Israel when they were in the wilderness east of the Jordan River. They were in the Jordan Valley near Suph, between the town of Paran on one side and the towns of Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab on the other. (2 It takes eleven days to travel from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea by way of the hill country of Edom.) 3 On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year after they had left Egypt, Moses told the people everything the Lord had commanded him to tell them. 4 (A)This was after the Lord[a] had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who ruled in the town of Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who ruled in the towns of Ashtaroth and Edrei. 5 It was while the people were east of the Jordan in the territory of Moab that Moses began to explain God's laws and teachings.
He said, 6 “When we were at Mount Sinai, the Lord our God said to us, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and move on. Go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the surrounding regions—to the Jordan Valley, to the hill country and the lowlands, to the southern region, and to the Mediterranean coast. Go to the land of Canaan and on beyond the Lebanon Mountains as far as the great Euphrates River. 8 All of this is the land which I, the Lord, promised to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and to their descendants. Go and occupy it.’”
Moses Appoints Judges(B)
9 Moses said to the people, “While we were still at Mount Sinai, I told you, ‘The responsibility for leading you is too much for me. I can't do it alone. 10 The Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky. 11 May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, make you increase a thousand times more and make you prosperous, as he promised! 12 But how can I alone bear the heavy responsibility for settling your disputes? 13 Choose some wise, understanding, and experienced men from each tribe, and I will put them in charge of you.’ 14 And you agreed that this was a good thing to do. 15 So I took the wise and experienced leaders you chose from your tribes, and I placed them in charge of you. Some were responsible for a thousand people, some for a hundred, some for fifty, and some for ten. I also appointed other officials throughout the tribes.
16 “At that time I instructed them, ‘Listen to the disputes that come up among your people. Judge every dispute fairly, whether it concerns only your own people or involves foreigners who live among you. 17 Show no partiality in your decisions; judge everyone on the same basis, no matter who they are. Do not be afraid of anyone, for the decisions you make come from God. If any case is too difficult for you, bring it to me, and I will decide it.’ 18 At the same time I gave you instructions for everything else you were to do.
God and His People
9 I am speaking the truth; I belong to Christ and I do not lie. My conscience, ruled by the Holy Spirit, also assures me that I am not lying 2 when I say how great is my sorrow, how endless the pain in my heart 3 for my people, my own flesh and blood! For their sake I could wish that I myself were under God's curse and separated from Christ. 4 (A)They are God's people; he made them his children and revealed his glory to them; he made his covenants[a] with them and gave them the Law; they have the true worship; they have received God's promises; 5 they are descended from the famous Hebrew ancestors; and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised forever![b] Amen.
6 I am not saying that the promise of God has failed; for not all the people of Israel are the people of God. 7 (B)Nor are all of Abraham's descendants the children of God. God said to Abraham, “It is through Isaac that you will have the descendants I promised you.” 8 This means that the children born in the usual way[c] are not the children of God; instead, the children born as a result of God's promise are regarded as the true descendants. 9 (C)For God's promise was made in these words: “At the right time[d] I will come back, and Sarah will have a son.”
10 And this is not all. For Rebecca's two sons had the same father, our ancestor Isaac. 11-12 (D)But in order that the choice of one son might be completely the result of God's own purpose, God said to her, “The older will serve the younger.” He said this before they were born, before they had done anything either good or bad; so God's choice was based on his call, and not on anything they had done. 13 (E)As the scripture says, “I loved Jacob, but I hated Esau.”
14 Shall we say, then, that God is unjust? Not at all. 15 (F)For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on anyone I wish; I will take pity on anyone I wish.” 16 So then, everything depends, not on what we humans want or do, but only on God's mercy. 17 (G)For the scripture says to the king of Egypt, “I made you king in order to use you to show my power and to spread my fame over the whole world.” 18 So then, God has mercy on anyone he wishes, and he makes stubborn anyone he wishes.
27 (A)“How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look fine on the outside but are full of bones and decaying corpses on the inside. 28 In the same way, on the outside you appear good to everybody, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and sins.
Jesus Predicts Their Punishment(B)
29 “How terrible for you, teachers of the Law and Pharisees! You hypocrites! You make fine tombs for the prophets and decorate the monuments of those who lived good lives; 30 and you claim that if you had lived during the time of your ancestors, you would not have done what they did and killed the prophets. 31 So you actually admit that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets! 32 Go on, then, and finish up what your ancestors started! 33 (C)You snakes and children of snakes! How do you expect to escape from being condemned to hell? 34 And so I tell you that I will send you prophets and wise men and teachers; you will kill some of them, crucify others, and whip others in the synagogues and chase them from town to town. 35 (D)As a result, the punishment for the murder of all innocent people will fall on you, from the murder of innocent Abel to the murder of Zechariah son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the Temple and the altar. 36 I tell you indeed: the punishment for all these murders will fall on the people of this day!
Jesus' Love for Jerusalem(E)
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem! You kill the prophets and stone the messengers God has sent you! How many times I wanted to put my arms around all your people, just as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not let me! 38 (F)And so your Temple will be abandoned and empty. 39 (G)From now on, I tell you, you will never see me again until you say, ‘God bless him who comes in the name of the Lord.’”
Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition) © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved. For more information about GNT, visit www.bibles.com and www.gnt.bible.