Book of Common Prayer
ALEPH
119 Blessed are those whose ways are blameless,
who walk according to Yahweh’s law.
2 Blessed are those who keep his statutes,
who seek him with their whole heart.
3 Yes, they do nothing wrong.
They walk in his ways.
4 You have commanded your precepts,
that we should fully obey them.
5 Oh that my ways were steadfast
to obey your statutes!
6 Then I wouldn’t be disappointed,
when I consider all of your commandments.
7 I will give thanks to you with uprightness of heart,
when I learn your righteous judgments.
8 I will observe your statutes.
Don’t utterly forsake me.
BETH
9 How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word.
10 With my whole heart I have sought you.
Don’t let me wander from your commandments.
11 I have hidden your word in my heart,
that I might not sin against you.
12 Blessed are you, Yahweh.
Teach me your statutes.
13 With my lips,
I have declared all the ordinances of your mouth.
14 I have rejoiced in the way of your testimonies,
as much as in all riches.
15 I will meditate on your precepts,
and consider your ways.
16 I will delight myself in your statutes.
I will not forget your word.
GIMEL
17 Do good to your servant.
I will live and I will obey your word.
18 Open my eyes,
that I may see wondrous things out of your law.
19 I am a stranger on the earth.
Don’t hide your commandments from me.
20 My soul is consumed with longing for your ordinances at all times.
21 You have rebuked the proud who are cursed,
who wander from your commandments.
22 Take reproach and contempt away from me,
for I have kept your statutes.
23 Though princes sit and slander me,
your servant will meditate on your statutes.
24 Indeed your statutes are my delight,
and my counselors.
For the Chief Musician; upon an eight-stringed lyre. A Psalm of David.
12 Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases.
For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
2 Everyone lies to his neighbor.
They speak with flattering lips, and with a double heart.
3 May Yahweh cut off all flattering lips,
and the tongue that boasts,
4 who have said, “With our tongue we will prevail.
Our lips are our own.
Who is lord over us?”
5 “Because of the oppression of the weak and because of the groaning of the needy,
I will now arise,” says Yahweh;
“I will set him in safety from those who malign him.”
6 Yahweh’s words are flawless words,
as silver refined in a clay furnace, purified seven times.
7 You will keep them, Yahweh.
You will preserve them from this generation forever.
8 The wicked walk on every side,
when what is vile is exalted among the sons of men.
For the Chief Musician. A Psalm by David.
13 How long, Yahweh?
Will you forget me forever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
2 How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
having sorrow in my heart every day?
How long shall my enemy triumph over me?
3 Behold, and answer me, Yahweh, my God.
Give light to my eyes, lest I sleep in death;
4 lest my enemy say, “I have prevailed against him;”
lest my adversaries rejoice when I fall.
5 But I trust in your loving kindness.
My heart rejoices in your salvation.
6 I will sing to Yahweh,
because he has been good to me.
For the Chief Musician. By David.
14 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt.
They have done abominable deeds.
There is no one who does good.
2 Yahweh looked down from heaven on the children of men,
to see if there were any who understood,
who sought after God.
3 They have all gone aside.
They have together become corrupt.
There is no one who does good, no, not one.
4 Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge,
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and don’t call on Yahweh?
5 There they were in great fear,
for God is in the generation of the righteous.
6 You frustrate the plan of the poor,
because Yahweh is his refuge.
7 Oh that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion!
When Yahweh restores the fortunes of his people,
then Jacob shall rejoice, and Israel shall be glad.
1 These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suf, between Paran, Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh Barnea. 3 In the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that Yahweh[a] had given him in commandment to them, 4 after he had struck Sihon the king of the Amorites who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan who lived in Ashtaroth, at Edrei. 5 Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses began to declare this law, saying, 6 “Yahweh our God[b] spoke to us in Horeb, saying, ‘You have lived long enough at this mountain. 7 Turn, and take your journey, and go to the hill country of the Amorites and to all the places near there: in the Arabah, in the hill country, in the lowland, in the South, by the seashore, in the land of the Canaanites, and in Lebanon as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. 8 Behold,[c] I have set the land before you. Go in and possess the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers—to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob—to give to them and to their offspring[d] after them.’”
9 I spoke to you at that time, saying, “I am not able to bear you myself alone. 10 Yahweh your God has multiplied you, and behold, you are today as the stars of the sky for multitude. 11 May Yahweh, the God of your fathers, make you a thousand times as many as you are and bless you, as he has promised you! 12 How can I myself alone bear your problems, your burdens, and your strife? 13 Take wise men of understanding who are respected among your tribes, and I will make them heads over you.”
14 You answered me, and said, “The thing which you have spoken is good to do.” 15 So I took the heads of your tribes, wise and respected men, and made them heads over you, captains of thousands, captains of hundreds, captains of fifties, captains of tens, and officers, according to your tribes. 16 I commanded your judges at that time, saying, “Hear cases between your brothers and judge righteously between a man and his brother, and the foreigner who is living with him. 17 You shall not show partiality in judgment; you shall hear the small and the great alike. You shall not be afraid of the face of man, for the judgment is God’s. The case that is too hard for you, you shall bring to me, and I will hear it.” 18 I commanded you at that time all the things which you should do.
9 I tell the truth in Christ. I am not lying, my conscience testifying with me in the Holy Spirit 2 that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart. 3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brothers’ sake, my relatives according to the flesh 4 who are Israelites; whose is the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service, and the promises; 5 of whom are the fathers, and from whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever. Amen.
6 But it is not as though the word of God has come to nothing. For they are not all Israel that are of Israel. 7 Neither, because they are Abraham’s offspring, are they all children. But, “your offspring will be accounted as from Isaac.”(A) 8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as heirs. 9 For this is a word of promise: “At the appointed time I will come, and Sarah will have a son.”(B) 10 Not only so, but Rebekah also conceived by one, by our father Isaac. 11 For being not yet born, neither having done anything good or bad, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him who calls,[a] 12 it was said to her, “The elder will serve the younger.”(C) 13 Even as it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”(D)
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? May it never be! 15 For he said to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”(E) 16 So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy. 17 For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “For this very purpose I caused you to be raised up, that I might show in you my power, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”(F) 18 So then, he has mercy on whom he desires, and he hardens whom he desires.
27 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitened tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness. 28 Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inwardly you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
29 “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you build the tombs of the prophets and decorate the tombs of the righteous, 30 and say, ‘If we had lived in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.’ 31 Therefore you testify to yourselves that you are children of those who killed the prophets. 32 Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers. 33 You serpents, you offspring of vipers, how will you escape the judgment of Gehenna?[a] 34 Therefore, behold, I send to you prophets, wise men, and scribes. Some of them you will kill and crucify; and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues and persecute from city to city, 35 that on you may come all the righteous blood shed on the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zachariah son of Barachiah, whom you killed between the sanctuary and the altar. 36 Most certainly I tell you, all these things will come upon this generation.
37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I would have gathered your children together, even as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you would not! 38 Behold, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you, you will not see me from now on, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!’”(A)
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