Book of Common Prayer
89 An instruction, by Ethan the Ezrahite. Of the kind acts of Jehovah, to the age I sing, To all generations I make known Thy faithfulness with my mouth,
2 For I said, `To the age is kindness built, The heavens! Thou dost establish Thy faithfulness in them.'
3 I have made a covenant for My chosen, I have sworn to David My servant:
4 `Even to the age do I establish thy seed, And have built to generation and generation thy throne. Selah.
5 and the heavens confess Thy wonders, O Jehovah, Thy faithfulness also [is] in an assembly of holy ones.
6 For who in the sky, Compareth himself to Jehovah? Is like to Jehovah among sons of the mighty?
7 God is very terrible, In the secret counsel of His holy ones, And fearful over all surrounding Him.
8 O Jehovah, God of Hosts, Who [is] like Thee -- a strong Jah? And Thy faithfulness [is] round about Thee.
9 Thou [art] ruler over the pride of the sea, In the lifting up of its billows Thou dost restrain them.
10 Thou hast bruised Rahab, as one wounded. With the arm of Thy strength Thou hast scattered Thine enemies.
11 Thine [are] the heavens -- the earth also [is] Thine, The habitable world and its fulness, Thou hast founded them.
12 North and south Thou hast appointed them, Tabor and Hermon in Thy name do sing.
13 Thou hast an arm with might, Strong is Thy hand -- high Thy right hand.
14 Righteousness and judgment [Are] the fixed place of Thy throne, Kindness and truth go before Thy face.
15 O the happiness of the people knowing the shout, O Jehovah, in the light of Thy face they walk habitually.
16 In Thy name they rejoice all the day, And in Thy righteousness they are exalted,
17 For the beauty of their strength [art] Thou, And in Thy good will is our horn exalted,
18 For of Jehovah [is] our shield, And of the Holy One of Israel our king.
19 Then Thou hast spoken in vision, To Thy saint, yea, Thou sayest, I have placed help upon a mighty one, Exalted a chosen one out of the people,
20 I have found David My servant, With My holy oil I have anointed him.
21 With whom My hand is established, My arm also doth strengthen him.
22 An enemy exacteth not upon him, And a son of perverseness afflicteth him not.
23 And I have beaten down before him his adversaries, And those hating him I plague,
24 And My faithfulness and kindness [are] with him, And in My name is his horn exalted.
25 And I have set on the sea his hand, And on the rivers his right hand.
26 He proclaimeth me: `Thou [art] my Father, My God, and the rock of my salvation.'
27 I also first-born do appoint him, Highest of the kings of the earth.
28 To the age I keep for him My kindness, And My covenant [is] stedfast with him.
29 And I have set his seed for ever, And his throne as the days of the heavens.
30 If his sons forsake My law, And in My judgments do not walk;
31 If My statutes they pollute, And My commands do not keep,
32 I have looked after with a rod their transgression, And with strokes their iniquity,
33 And My kindness I break not from him, Nor do I deal falsely in My faithfulness.
34 I profane not My covenant, And that which is going forth from My lips I change not.
35 Once I have sworn by My holiness, I lie not to David,
36 His seed is to the age, And his throne [is] as the sun before Me,
37 As the moon it is established -- to the age, And the witness in the sky is stedfast. Selah.
38 And Thou, Thou hast cast off, and dost reject, Thou hast shown Thyself wroth With Thine anointed,
39 Hast rejected the covenant of Thy servant, Thou hast polluted to the earth his crown,
40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges, Thou hast made his fenced places a ruin.
41 Spoiled him have all passing by the way, He hath been a reproach to his neighbours,
42 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his adversaries, Thou hast caused all his enemies to rejoice.
43 Also -- Thou turnest back the sharpness of his sword, And hast not established him in battle,
44 Hast caused [him] to cease from his brightness, And his throne to the earth hast cast down.
45 Thou hast shortened the days of his youth, Hast covered him over [with] shame. Selah.
46 Till when, O Jehovah, art Thou hidden? For ever doth Thy fury burn as fire?
47 Remember, I pray Thee, what [is] life-time? Wherefore in vain hast Thou created All the sons of men?
48 Who [is] the man that liveth, and doth not see death? He delivereth his soul from the hand of Sheol. Selah.
49 Where [are] Thy former kindnesses, O Lord. Thou hast sworn to David in Thy faithfulness,
50 Remember, O Lord, the reproach of Thy servants, I have borne in my bosom all the strivings of the peoples,
51 Wherewith Thine enemies reproached, O Jehovah, Wherewith they have reproached The steps of Thine anointed.
52 Blessed [is] Jehovah to the age. Amen, and amen!
12 And the men of Ephraim are called together, and pass over northward, and say to Jephthah, `Wherefore has thou passed over to fight against the Bene-Ammon, and on us hast not called to go with thee? thy house we burn over thee with fire.'
2 And Jephthah saith unto them, `A man of great strife I have been (I and my people) with the Bene-Ammon, and I call you, and ye have not saved me out of their hand,
3 and I see that thou art not a saviour, and I put my life in my hand, and pass over unto the Bene-Ammon, and Jehovah giveth them into my hand -- and why have ye come up unto me this day to fight against me?'
4 And Jephthah gathered all the men of Gilead, and fighteth with Ephraim, and the men of Gilead smite Ephraim, because they said, `Fugitives of Ephraim [are] ye Gileadites, in the midst of Ephraim -- in the midst of Manasseh.'
5 And Gilead captureth the passages of the Jordan to Ephraim, and it hath been, when [any of] the fugitives of Ephraim say, `Let me pass over,' and the men of Gilead say to him, `An Ephramite thou?' and he saith, `No;'
6 that they say to him, `Say, I pray thee, Shibboleth;' and he saith, `Sibboleth,' and is not prepared to speak right -- and they seize him, and slaughter him at the passages of the Jordan, and there fall at that time, of Ephraim, forty and two chiefs.
7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years, and Jephthah the Gileadite dieth, and is buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead.
12 And through the hands of the apostles came many signs and wonders among the people, and they were with one accord all in the porch of Solomon;
13 and of the rest no one was daring to join himself to them, but the people were magnifying them,
14 (and the more were believers added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women,)
15 so as into the broad places to bring forth the ailing, and to lay [them] upon couches and mats, that at the coming of Peter, even [his] shadow might overshadow some one of them;
16 and there were coming together also the people of the cities round about to Jerusalem, bearing ailing persons, and those harassed by unclean spirits -- who were all healed.
17 And having risen, the chief priest, and all those with him -- being the sect of the Sadducees -- were filled with zeal,
18 and laid their hands upon the apostles, and did put them in a public prison;
19 and a messenger of the Lord through the night opened the doors of the prison, having also brought them forth, he said,
20 `Go on, and standing, speak in the temple to the people all the sayings of this life;'
21 and having heard, they did enter at the dawn into the temple, and were teaching. And the chief priest having come, and those with him, they called together the sanhedrim and all the senate of the sons of Israel, and they sent to the prison to have them brought,
22 and the officers having come, did not find them in the prison, and having turned back, they told,
23 saying -- `The prison indeed we found shut in all safety, and the keepers standing without before the doors, and having opened -- within we found no one.'
24 And as the priest, and the magistrate of the temple, and the chief priests, heard these words, they were doubting concerning them to what this would come;
25 and coming near, a certain one told them, saying -- `Lo, the men whom ye did put in the prison are in the temple standing and teaching the people;'
26 then the magistrate having gone away with officers, brought them without violence, for they were fearing the people, lest they should be stoned;
3 And there was a man of the Pharisees, Nicodemus his name, a ruler of the Jews,
2 this one came unto him by night, and said to him, `Rabbi, we have known that from God thou hast come -- a teacher, for no one these signs is able to do that thou dost, if God may not be with him.'
3 Jesus answered and said to him, `Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born from above, he is not able to see the reign of God;'
4 Nicodemus saith unto him, `How is a man able to be born, being old? is he able into the womb of his mother a second time to enter, and to be born?'
5 Jesus answered, `Verily, verily, I say to thee, If any one may not be born of water, and the Spirit, he is not able to enter into the reign of God;
6 that which hath been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which hath been born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 `Thou mayest not wonder that I said to thee, It behoveth you to be born from above;
8 the Spirit where he willeth doth blow, and his voice thou dost hear, but thou hast not known whence he cometh, and whither he goeth; thus is every one who hath been born of the Spirit.'
9 Nicodemus answered and said to him, `How are these things able to happen?'
10 Jesus answered and said to him, `Thou art the teacher of Israel -- and these things thou dost not know!
11 `Verily, verily, I say to thee -- What we have known we speak, and what we have seen we testify, and our testimony ye do not receive;
12 if the earthly things I said to you, and ye do not believe, how, if I shall say to you the heavenly things, will ye believe?
13 and no one hath gone up to the heaven, except he who out of the heaven came down -- the Son of Man who is in the heaven.
14 `And as Moses did lift up the serpent in the wilderness, so it behoveth the Son of Man to be lifted up,
15 that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during,
16 for God did so love the world, that His Son -- the only begotten -- He gave, that every one who is believing in him may not perish, but may have life age-during.
17 For God did not send His Son to the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him;
18 he who is believing in him is not judged, but he who is not believing hath been judged already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
19 `And this is the judgment, that the light hath come to the world, and men did love the darkness rather than the light, for their works were evil;
20 for every one who is doing wicked things hateth the light, and doth not come unto the light, that his works may not be detected;
21 but he who is doing the truth doth come to the light, that his works may be manifested, that in God they are having been wrought.'