Book of Common Prayer

His Chesed Endures Forever

Psalm 118

Glory of the Kingdom

Psalm 145

¹⁵ “How can you say, ‘I love you,’” she said to him, “when your heart is not with me? This is three times you’ve deceived me and not told me where your great strength comes from.”

¹⁶ Now it came about when she nagged him daily with her speeches and kept bothering him, his soul was annoyed to death. ¹⁷ So he divulged to her all his heart and said to her, “No razor has ever been upon my head, for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If I am shaved, then my strength will go from me, and I will be weak and be like any other man.”

¹⁸ Now when Delilah realized that he had confided to her all his heart, she sent and called for the Philistine lords saying, “Come up this time, for he has told me all his heart.” So the Philistine lords came up to her and brought the silver in their hand. ¹⁹ Then she made him sleep upon her knees, and she called for a man and had the seven locks of his head shaved off. She even began to humiliate him while his strength departed from him. ²⁰ Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” When he awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I’ll go out as at other times, and shake myself off.” He did not comprehend that Adonai had departed from him.

²¹ Then the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze chains, and he became a grinder in the prison. ²² However, the hair of his head began to grow again after it was shaved off.

Samson Avenged

²³ Now the Philistine lords gathered to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god and to celebrate, as they said, “Our god has given our enemy Samson into our hand.”

²⁴ When the people saw him, they praised their god, as they said, “Our god has given into our hand our enemy and the destroyer of our country, who has slain many of us.”

²⁵ Now it came about when their hearts were merry that they said, “Call for Samson, that he may amuse us.” So they called for Samson from the prison, and he did make them laugh, when they made him stand between the pillars.

²⁶ Then Samson said to the lad that held him by the hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the temple rests, so I may lean on them.” ²⁷ Now the temple was full of men and women. All the Philistine lords were there and about 3,000 men and women on the roof looking on while Samson was amusing them.

²⁸ Then Samson called out to Adonai and said, “My Lord Adonai, please remember me and please strengthen me only this once, O God, so that I may this once take revenge on the Philistines for my two eyes.” ²⁹ Then Samson grasped the two middle pillars on which the temple rested and leaned on them, one with his right hand and the other with his left. ³⁰ Then Samson said, “Let me die with the Philistines!” He bent with all his might so that the temple fell on the lords and on all the people who were in it. So the dead whom he killed at his death were more than those whom he killed during his life.

³¹ Then his kinsmen and all his father’s household came down, lifted him, brought him up and buried him between Zorah and Eshtaol in the tomb of his father Manoah. For he had judged Israel 20 years.

Final Warnings

13 This is the third time I am coming to you. “By the testimony^[a] of two or three witnesses shall every word be established.” ^{[b] 2} I spoke a warning, when I was with you the second time. Though now I am away, I am again speaking a warning to those who have sinned before, as well as to all the rest, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone— ³ since you are demanding proof that Messiah is speaking through me. He is not weak toward you, but powerful among you. ⁴ For He was crucified in weakness, yet He lives through the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we shall live with Him by God’s power toward you.

⁵ Test yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Examine yourselves! Or don’t you know yourselves—that Messiah Yeshua is in you? Unless of course you failed the test. ⁶ But I hope that you will realize that we haven’t failed the test. ⁷ Now we pray to God that you do no wrong—not so that we may appear to have passed the test, but in order that you may do what is right even if we may seem to have failed. ⁸ For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth. ⁹ For we rejoice when we are weak and you are strong. We also pray for this—your perfecting. ¹⁰ For this reason I write these things while I am absent, so that when I am present I need not proceed harshly, according to the authority which the Lord gave me—for building up and not for tearing down.

Final Greetings

¹¹ Finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice! Aim for restoration, encourage one another, be of the same mind, live in shalom—and the God of love and shalom will be with you.

²⁵ And there was a woman with a blood flow for twelve years, ^{[a] 26} who had suffered much under many doctors. She had spent all that she had without benefit; instead, she grew worse. ²⁷ When she heard about Yeshua, she came through the crowd from behind and touched His garment. ²⁸ For she kept saying, “If I touch even His clothes, I shall be healed.”

²⁹ Right away the blood flow stopped, and she felt in her body that she was healed from her disease. ³⁰ At once Yeshua, knowing in Himself that power had gone out from Him, turned around in the crowd and said, “Who touched My clothes?”

³¹ His disciples responded, “You see the crowd pressing upon You and you say, ‘Who touched Me?’” ³² But He kept looking around to see who had done this.

³³ But the woman, scared and shaking, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before Him and told Him the whole truth. ³⁴ And He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in shalom and be healed from your disease.”