Book of Common Prayer
A Prayer of the poor in spirit, when he is overwhelmed, and pours out his complaint before the LORD.
1 ¶ Hear my prayer, O LORD, and let my cry come unto thee.
2 Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me; in the day when I call, answer me speedily.
3 For my days are consumed like smoke, and my bones are burned as in a hearth.
4 My heart is smitten and withered like grass so that I forget to eat my bread.
5 By reason of the voice of my groaning, my bones cleave to my skin.
6 I am like a pelican of the wilderness; I am like an owl of the desert.
7 I watch and am as a sparrow alone upon the house top.
8 My enemies reproach me all the day, and those that are mad against me are sworn against me.
9 For I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping,
10 because of thine indignation and thy wrath; for thou hast lifted me up and cast me down.
11 My days are like a shadow that declines, and I am withered like grass.
12 ¶ But thou, O LORD, shalt endure for ever and thy remembrance unto all generations.
13 Thou shalt arise and have mercy upon Zion; for the time to favour her, the set time, is come.
14 For thy slaves love her stones and have compassion on the dust thereof.
15 So the Gentiles shall fear the name of the LORD, and all the kings of the earth thy glory
16 because the LORD shall have built up Zion, and he shall be seen in his glory.
17 He shall have regarded the prayer of those who are alone and destitute and not despised their prayer.
18 This shall be written for the generation to come, and the people who shall be created shall praise JAH.
19 For he has looked down from the height of his sanctuary; from the heavens the LORD beheld the earth
20 to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death,
21 that they might declare the name of the LORD in Zion and his praise in Jerusalem,
22 when the people are gathered together as one and the kingdoms, to serve the LORD.
23 ¶ He weakened my strength in the way; he shortened my days.
24 I said, O my God, do not cut me off in the midst of my days; thy years are from generation to generation.
25 Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the work of thy hands.
26 They shall perish, but thou shalt endure: yea, all of them shall wax old like a garment; as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed:
27 But thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end.
28 The sons of thy slaves shall continue, and their seed shall be established before thee.
1 ¶ O give thanks unto the LORD, for he is good; for his mercy endures for ever.
2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he has redeemed from the hand of the enemy
3 and gathered them out of the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
4 They wandered lost in the wilderness, alone and out of the way; they found no city to dwell in.
5 Hungry and thirsty, their soul fainted in them.
6 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivered them out of their distresses.
7 And he led them forth by the right way, that they might go to a city of habitation.
8 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
9 For he satisfies the soul that is destitute and fills the hungry soul with goodness.
10 ¶ Such as sat in darkness and in the shadow of death, being bound in affliction and in irons,
11 because they rebelled against the words of God and condemned the counsel of the most High:
12 Therefore he brought down their heart with labour; they fell down, and there was no one to help.
13 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
14 He brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death and broke their bonds asunder.
15 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
16 For he has broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron asunder.
17 ¶ The fools, because of the way of their rebellion, and because of their iniquities, were afflicted.
18 Their soul abhorred all manner of food, and they drew near unto the gates of death.
19 Then they cried unto the LORD in their trouble, and he saved them out of their distresses.
20 He sent his word and healed them and delivered them from their graves.
21 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
22 And let them offer the sacrifices of praise and publish his works with singing.
23 ¶ Those that go down to the sea in ships that do work in many waters,
24 these have seen the works of the LORD and his wonders in the deep.
25 For he commands and raises the stormy wind, which lifts up its waves.
26 They mount up to the heavens; they go down again to the depths; their soul is melted because of trouble.
27 They reel to and fro and stagger like a drunken man, and all of their knowledge is of no avail.
28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he delivers them out of their afflictions.
29 He makes the storm a calm, so that its waves are still.
30 Then they are glad because they are at rest; so he brings them into the haven of his will.
31 Oh that men would praise the LORD for his mercy and for his wonderful works unto the sons of Adam!
32 Let them exalt him also in the congregation of the people and praise him in the assembly of the elders.
20 But Samson’s wife was given to his companion, who had fed him before.
15 ¶ But it came to pass within some days in the time of wheat harvest that Samson visited his wife with a kid, and he said, I will go in to my wife into the chamber. But her father would not allow him to go in.
2 And her father said, I was persuaded that thou didst utterly hate her; therefore, I gave her to thy companion. Is not her younger sister fairer than she? Take her, I pray thee, instead of her.
3 And Samson replied unto them, Now I shall be blameless before the Philistines if I do them injury.
4 And Samson went and caught three hundred foxes, and took torches, and turning them tail to tail, he put a torch between every two tails.
5 Then, setting the torches on fire, he let them go into the standing grain of the Philistines and burnt up both the shocks and also the standing grain with the vineyards and oliveyards.
6 Then the Philistines said, Who has done this? And they answered, Samson, the son-in-law of the Timnite, because he had taken his wife and given her to his companion. And the Philistines came up and burnt her and her father with fire.
7 And Samson said unto them, Though ye have done this, yet I will be avenged of you, and after that I will cease.
8 And he smote them hip and thigh with a great slaughter, and he went down and dwelt in the cleft of the rock Etam.
9 ¶ Then the Philistines went up and pitched camp in Judah and spread themselves in Lehi.
10 And the men of Judah said, Why have ye come up against us? And they answered, We have come up to bind Samson, to do to him as he has done to us.
11 Then three thousand men of Judah went to the cleft of the rock Etam and said to Samson, Knowest thou not that the Philistines are rulers over us? What is this that thou hast done unto us? And he said unto them, As they did unto me, so have I done unto them.
12 And they said unto him, We have come to bind thee that we may deliver thee into the hand of the Philistines. And Samson said unto them, Swear unto me that ye will not fall upon me yourselves.
13 And they answered him, saying, No, we will bind thee fast and deliver thee into their hands; but surely we will not kill thee. And they bound him with two new cords and brought him up from the rock.
14 And when he came unto Lehi, {Heb. jaw} the Philistines received him with shouts; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon him, and the cords that were upon his arms became as flax that was burnt with fire, and his bands loosed from off his hands.
15 And he found a new jawbone of an ass and put forth his hand and took it and slew a thousand men with it.
16 Then Samson said, With the jawbone of an ass, one heap, two heaps; with the jaw of an ass I have slain a thousand men.
17 And when he had finished speaking, he cast away the jawbone out of his hand and called that place Ramathlehi. {Heb. the lifting up of the jaw}
18 ¶ And he was sore athirst and called on the LORD and said, Thou hast given this great salvation by the hand of thy slave; and now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hand of the uncircumcised?
19 Then God broke a tooth that was in the jaw, and water came out there; and he drank, and recovered his spirit, and he lived. Therefore he called the name thereof Enhakkore, {Heb. the fountain of he who called} which is in Lehi unto this day.
20 And he judged Israel in the days of the Philistines twenty years.
17 ¶ But when the time of the promise drew nigh, which God had sworn to Abraham, the people grew and multiplied in Egypt,
18 until another king arose, who did not know Joseph.
19 The same dealt subtly with our kindred and mistreated our fathers so that they exposed their babies to death, to the end that the generation would cease.
20 In which time Moses was born and was beautiful to God and was nourished in his father’s house three months;
21 and when he was put in danger, Pharaoh’s daughter took him in and nourished him as her own son.
22 And Moses was taught in all the wisdom of the Egyptians and was mighty in his words and deeds.
23 And when he was full forty years old, it came into his heart to visit his brethren the sons of Israel.
24 And seeing one of them suffer wrong, he defended him and smote the Egyptian, avenging the oppressed;
25 for he supposed his brethren would have understood how that God was to give them saving health by his hand, but they had not understood.
26 And the next day he showed himself unto them as they strove and urged them to peace, saying, Sirs, ye are brethren; why do ye wrong one to another?
27 But he that did his neighbour wrong thrust him away, saying, Who made thee a prince and a judge over us?
28 Wilt thou kill me as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday?
29 Then Moses fled at this word and became a sojourner in the land of Madian, where he begat two sons.
43 ¶ Now after two days he departed from that place and went into Galilee.
44 For Jesus himself testified that a prophet has no honour in his own country.
45 Then when he was come into Galilee, the Galilaeans received him, having seen all the things that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast, for they had also gone to the feast.
46 So Jesus came again into Cana of Galilee, where he had made the water wine. And there was a certain nobleman whose son was sick at Capernaum.
47 When he heard that Jesus was come out of Judaea into Galilee, he went unto him and besought him that he would come down and heal his son, for he was at the point of death.
48 Then Jesus said unto him, Except ye see signs and wonders, ye will not believe.
49 The nobleman said unto him, Sir, come down before my child dies.
50 Jesus said unto him, Go; thy son lives. And the man believed the word that Jesus spoke unto him, and he went.
51 And as he was now going down, his slaves met him and told him, saying, Thy son lives.
52 Then he enquired of them the hour when he began to get better. And they said unto him, Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him.
53 So the father knew that it was at the same hour in which Jesus said unto him, Thy son lives; and he believed, and his whole house.
54 This again is the second sign that Jesus did when he was come out of Judaea into Galilee.
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