Book of Common Prayer
Tell His Wonders for Israel
Psalm 105
1 Praise Adonai, call upon His Name.
Make known His deeds among the peoples.
2 Sing to Him, sing praises to Him—
tell about all His wonders!
3 Glory in His holy Name.
Let the heart of those who seek Adonai rejoice.
4 Seek Adonai and His strength,
seek His face always.
5 Remember His wonders that He has done,
His miracles and the judgments of His mouth,
6 O seed of Abraham, His servant,
O children of Jacob, His chosen ones.
7 He is Adonai our God.
His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He remembers His covenant forever—
the word He commanded for a thousand generations—
9 which He made with Abraham,
and swore to Isaac,
10 and confirmed to Jacob as a decree,
to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “To you I give the land of Canaan,
the portion of your inheritance.”
12 When they were but few in number,
few indeed, and foreigners in it,[a]
13 wandering from nation to nation,
from one kingdom to another people,
14 He allowed no one to oppress them—
for their sake He rebuked kings:
15 “Touch not My anointed ones,
and do My prophets no harm.”
16 He called down a famine on the land.
He broke the whole supply of bread.
17 He sent a man before them—
Joseph, sold as a slave.
18 They hurt His feet with shackles,
he was put in irons—
19 till the time that his word came true—
the word of Adonai proved him true!
20 The king sent and released him.
The ruler of the peoples set him free.
21 He made him lord of his house,
ruler over all his possessions,
22 to discipline his princes at his will,
and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Then Israel came into Egypt,
Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 He made His people very fruitful,
and made them more numerous than their foes.
25 He turned their hearts to hate His people,
to deal shrewdly with His servants.
26 He sent Moses His servant,
and Aaron, whom He had chosen.
27 They performed His signs among them
—miracles in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and it was dark,
so they did not rebel against His words.
29 He turned their waters into blood,
causing their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in their royal chambers.
31 He spoke, and a swarm of gnats came
within all their borders.
32 He gave them a rain of hail,
flames of fire throughout their land.
33 He struck their vines and their fig trees
and shattered the trees of their country.
34 He spoke, and the locust came
—young locusts without number—
35 to eat up every green thing in their land
and eat up the fruit of their ground.
36 Then He struck all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of all their vigor.
37 Then He brought them out with silver and gold,
and no one among His tribes faltered.
38 Egypt was glad when they left—
for dread of them had fallen on them.
39 He spread a cloud as a covering
and fire to give light at night.
40 They asked, and He brought quail,
and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.[b]
41 He opened a rock, and waters gushed out,
flowed as a river in dry places.
42 For He remembered His holy word
to Abraham His servant.
43 So He brought forth His people with joy,
His chosen ones with singing.
44 He gave them the lands of the nations,
so they inherited the labor of the peoples
45 so that they might keep His statutes
and observe His laws.
Halleluyah!
Riddle of the Lion
14 Then Samson went down to Timnah and eyed in Timnah a woman, one of the daughters of the Philistines. 2 So he came back and told his father and mother saying, “I have seen a woman in Timnah, one of the daughters of the Philistines. So now get her for me as a wife.”
3 Then his father and his mother said to him, “Is there no woman among the daughters of your kinsmen, or among all our people, that you are going to take a wife from the uncircumcised Philistines?”
But Samson said to his father, “Get her for me, for she is the right one in my eyes.”
4 But his father and mother did not know that it was of Adonai, for He was seeking a pretext against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines were ruling over Israel. 5 While his father and mother went down to Timnah, Samson went to the vineyards of Timnah, and behold, a young lion came roaring at him. 6 Then the Ruach Adonai came mightily upon him, and he tore him apart as one would have split a young goat—yet he had nothing in his hand. But he did not tell his father or his mother what he had done.
7 So he went down and talked with the woman, and she looked right in Samson’s eyes. 8 After a while he returned to get her, but turned aside to look at the carcass of the lion; and behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion. 9 So he scraped it into his hands and went on, eating as he went. Now when he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it, though he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey from the carcass of the lion.
10 Then his father went down to the woman, and Samson made a banquet there, for so the young men used to do. 11 Now it came to pass, when they saw him, they brought 30 companions to be with him. 12 Then Samson said to them, “Let me now propose a riddle to you. If you can indeed solve it for me during the seven days of the banquet, and figure it out, then I will give you 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes; 13 but if you cannot solve it for me, then you must give me 30 linen garments and 30 changes of clothes.”
“Propose your riddle,” they said to him. “Let’s hear it!”
14 So he said to them,
“Out of the eater came forth food,
out of the strong came forth sweet.”
But for three days they could not solve the riddle. 15 Now on the seventh day, they said to Samson’s wife, “Coax your husband so that he will explain the riddle to us—or else we will burn you and your father’s house with fire. Have you invited us to impoverish us?”
16 So Samson’s wife wept before him and said, “You only hate me! You don’t love me! You proposed a riddle to the sons of my people—yet you haven’t explained it to me!”
“Look,” he said, “I haven’t explained it to my father or my mother, so should I explain it to you?” 17 But she wept before him the seven days while their banquet lasted. So it was on the seventh day he told her, because she nagged him. Then she told the riddle to the sons of her people. 18 So the men of the city said to him on the seventh day, before the sun went down,
“What is sweeter than honey?
And what is stronger than a lion?”
But he responded to them,
“If you hadn’t plowed with my heifer,
you wouldn’t have solved my riddle.”
19 Then the Ruach Adonai came mightily upon him, and he went down to Ashkelon and killed 30 of their men, took their spoil, and gave the changes of clothes to those who solved the riddle. Since his rage was burning, he went up to his father’s house.
15 Watching him intently, everyone who was sitting in the Sanhedrin saw that his face was like the face of an angel.
7 Then the kohen gadol said, “Are these things so?”
2 Stephen declared, “Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran. 3 He said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come here to the land that I will show you.’ 4 Then he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. From there, after his father died, God moved him to this land where you now live. 5 He gave him no inheritance in it—not even a foothold—yet He promised ‘to give it to him as a possession to him and to his descendants after him,’ even though he had no child.
6 “But God spoke in this way, that his ‘descendants would be foreigners in a land belonging to others, and they would enslave and mistreat them for four hundred years. 7 But I will judge the nation they serve as slaves,’ God said, ‘and afterward they shall come out and serve Me in this place.’[a]
8 “Then God gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision.[b] So he became the father of Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day, and so Isaac with Jacob, and Jacob with the twelve patriarchs. 9 The patriarchs became jealous of Joseph and sold him into Egypt. Yet God was with him. 10 He rescued him out of all his troubles and granted him favor and wisdom before Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his household.
11 “Famine and great suffering came over all Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers could find no food. 12 But when Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers there the first time. 13 On the second visit, Joseph made himself known to his brothers, and his family became known to Pharaoh. 14 So Joseph sent and called for Jacob and all his relatives—seventy-five persons. 15 Jacob went down to Egypt and died, he and our fathers. 16 They were carried to Shechem and laid in the tomb that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor in Shechem.
Ready for Harvest
27 At this moment, His disciples came back. They were amazed that He was speaking with a woman. Yet no one said, “What do You want?” or “Why are You speaking with her?”
28 So the woman left her water jar and went back to the town. She tells the people, 29 “Come see a man who told me everything I ever did! He couldn’t be the Messiah, could He?” 30 The people left the town and began coming to Him.
31 Meanwhile, the disciples were pressing Him, “Rabbi, eat!”
32 But He said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”
33 So the disciples were saying to each other, “No one brought Him food to eat, did they?”
34 Yeshua tells them, “My food is to do the will of the One who sent Me and to accomplish His work. 35 Don’t you say, ‘Four more months, and then comes the harvest’? Look, I tell you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields! They are white and ready for harvest.
36 “The reaper receives a reward and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that the sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For the saying is true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap what you haven’t worked for. Others have worked hard, and you have joined in their work.”
39 Many of the Samaritans from that town put their trust in Him because of the word of the woman testifying, “He told me everything I ever did!” 40 So when the Samaritans came to Him, they kept asking Him to stay with them. He stayed there two days, 41 and many more believed because of His word. 42 They kept telling the woman, “It’s no longer because of your words that we believe. We’ve heard for ourselves! Now we know that this really is the Savior of the world!”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.