Book of Common Prayer
Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite.
1 ¶ I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
2 For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever in the heavens; in them thou shalt establish thy truth.
3 I have made a covenant with my chosen; I have sworn unto David my slave, saying,
4 Thy seed will I establish for ever and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.
5 ¶ And the heavens shall praise thy wonder, O LORD, thy truth also in the congregation of the saints.
6 For who in the heavens can be compared unto the LORD? who among the sons of the mighty can be likened unto the LORD?
7 God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints and to be had in reverence of all those that are about him.
8 O LORD God of the hosts, who is like unto thee? Strong JAH, compassed about with thy truth.
9 Thou dost rule the raging of the sea: when its waves arise, thou dost still them.
10 Thou hast broken Egypt in pieces as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with thy strong arm.
11 The heavens are thine, the earth also is thine: the world and its fullness, thou didst found.
12 Thou hast created the north and the south; Tabor and Hermon shall sing in thy name.
13 The mighty arm is thine; strong is thy hand, and high is thy right hand.
14 Thy throne is composed of righteousness and judgment; mercy and truth go before thy face.
15 ¶ Happy are the people that know how to enter into joy; they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of thy countenance.
16 In thy name shall they rejoice each day; and in thy righteousness shall they be exalted.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength, and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
18 For the LORD is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel is our king.
19 ¶ Then thou didst speak in vision to thy holy one and didst say, I have laid help upon one that is mighty; I have exalted one chosen out of my people.
20 I have found David my slave; I anointed him with the oil of my holiness,
21 with whom my hand shall be established; mine arm also shall strengthen him.
22 The enemy shall not overcome him, nor the son of iniquity break him down.
23 But I will break down his foes before his face and smite those that hate him.
24 But my truth and my mercy shall be with him, and in my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 In the same manner I will set his hand also in the sea and his right hand in the rivers.
26 He shall call me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my saving health.
27 Also I will make him my firstborn, high above the kings of the earth.
28 I will keep my mercy for him for ever, and my covenant shall stand fast with him.
29 I will also make his seed to endure for ever, and his throne as the days of the heavens.
30 If his sons forsake my law and do not walk in my judgments,
31 if they profane my statutes and do not keep my commandments,
32 then I will visit their rebellion with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless I will not take my mercy from him, neither will I falsify my truth.
34 I will not profane my covenant, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David.
36 His seed shall endure for ever and his throne as the sun before me.
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon and as a faithful witness in heaven. Selah.
38 ¶ But thou hast cast off and abhorred thine anointed; thou hast been wroth with him.
39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy slave; thou hast profaned his crown by casting it to the ground.
40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strong holds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way spoil him; he is a reproach to his neighbours.
42 Thou hast set up the right hand of his adversaries; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice.
43 Thou hast also blunted the edge of his sword and hast not made him to stand in the battle.
44 Thou hast made his clarity to cease and cast his throne down to the ground.
45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened; thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, O LORD? wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy wrath burn like fire?
47 Remember how short my time is; why hast thou made all men subject to vanity?
48 What man is he that lives and shall not see death? shall he deliver his soul from the hand of Sheol? Selah.
49 Lord, where are thy former mercies, which thou didst sware unto David in thy truth?
50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy slaves; how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of many peoples,
51 because thine enemies have dishonoured, O LORD; they have dishonoured the footsteps of thine anointed.
52 Blessed be the LORD for ever. Amen and Amen.
12 ¶ And the men of Ephraim gathered themselves together towards the Aquilon and said unto Jephthah, Why didst thou go over to fight against the sons of Ammon and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thy house upon thee with fire.
2 And Jephthah replied unto them, I and my people were at great strife with the sons of Ammon, and when I called you, ye did not defend me from their hands.
3 Seeing, therefore, that ye did not defend me, I put my life in my hands and went over against the sons of Ammon, and the LORD delivered them into my hand. Why then have ye come up against me this day to fight with me?
4 Then Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim because they had said, Ye are fugitives of Ephraim; ye are Gileadites among Ephraim and Manasseh.
5 And the Gileadites took the passages of the Jordan from Ephraim; and it was such that when any of those of Ephraim who had escaped would say, May I pass? The men of Gilead would ask them, Art thou an Ephrathite? If he said, No;
6 then they would say unto him, Now say Shibboleth. {Heb. a flowing stream} And he would say Sibboleth; {Heb. an ear of wheat} for he could not pronounce it the same. Then they would take him and slay him at the passages of the Jordan. And at that time forty-two thousand of those of Ephraim fell.
7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. Then Jephthah the Gileadite died and was buried in one of the cities of Gilead.
12 ¶ And by the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were wrought in the people. (And they were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
13 And of the others, no one dared join themself to them, but the people magnified them.
14 And those that believed in the Lord increased in number, multitudes both of men and women.)
15 So much that they brought forth the sick into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at the least the shadow of Peter passing by might overshadow some of them.
16 There came also a multitude out of the cities round about unto Jerusalem, bringing sick folks and those who were tormented with unclean spirits, and they were healed every one.
17 ¶ Then the prince of the priests rose up, and all those that were with him (which is the sect of the Sadducees) were filled with jealousy
18 and laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison.
19 But the angel of the Lord by night opened the prison doors and brought them forth and said,
20 Go, stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.
21 And when they heard that, they entered into the temple early in the morning and taught. In the meantime, the prince of the priests came, and those that were with him, and called the council together and all the elders of the sons of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
22 But when the officers came and found them not in the prison, they returned and told,
23 saying, We certainly found the prison shut with all security and the keepers standing outside before the doors, but when we had opened, we found no one within.
24 Now when the high priest and the captain of the temple and the princes of the priests heard these things, they were perplexed regarding what this would come to.
25 Then someone came and told them, saying, Behold, the men whom ye put in prison are standing in the temple and teaching the people.
26 ¶ Then the captain with the officers went and brought them without violence, for they feared being stoned by the people.
3 ¶ There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a prince of the Jews;
2 the same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that thou doest unless God is with him.
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a person be born again from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Unless a man is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again from above.
8 The wind blows where it desires, and thou hearest the sound of it, but canst not tell from where it comes or where it goes; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can this be done?
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a teacher of Israel and knowest not this?
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee that we speak what we know and testify that which we have seen, and ye do not receive our witness.
12 If I have told you earthly things and ye do not believe, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?
13 And no one has ascended up to the heaven but he that came down from the heaven, even the Son of man, who is in the heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up,
15 that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.
17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
18 He that believes on him is not condemned, but he that does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the condemnation, that the light is come into the world, and men loved darkness more than the light because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
21 But he that does truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
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