Book of Common Prayer
18 (0) For the leader. By David the servant of Adonai, who addressed the words of this song to Adonai on the day when Adonai delivered him from the power of all his enemies, including from the power of Sha’ul. 2 He said:
(1) “I love you, Adonai, my strength!
3 (2) “Adonai is my Rock, my fortress and deliverer,
my God, my Rock, in whom I find shelter,
my shield, the power that saves me,
my stronghold.
4 (3) I call on Adonai, who is worthy of praise;
and I am saved from my enemies.
5 (4) “For the cords of death surrounded me,
the floods of B’liya‘al terrified me,
6 (5) the ropes of Sh’ol were wrapped around me,
the snares of death lay there before me.
7 (6) In my distress I called to Adonai;
I cried out to my God.
Out of his temple he heard my voice;
my cry reached his ears.
8 (7) “Then the earth quaked and shook,
the foundations of the mountains trembled.
They were shaken because he was angry.
9 (8) Smoke arose in his nostrils;
out of his mouth came devouring fire;
sparks blazed forth from him.
10 (9) He lowered heaven and came down
with thick darkness under his feet.
11 (10) He rode on a keruv; he flew,
swooping down on the wings of the wind.
12 (11) He made darkness his hiding-place,
his canopy thick clouds dark with water.
13 (12) From the brightness before him,
there broke through his thick clouds
hailstones and fiery coals.
14 (13) “Adonai also thundered in heaven,
Ha‘Elyon sounded his voice —
hailstones and fiery coals.
15 (14) He sent out arrows and scattered them,
shot out lightning and routed them.
16 (15) The channels of water appeared,
the foundations of the world were exposed
at your rebuke, Adonai,
at the blast of breath from your nostrils.
17 (16) “He sent from on high, he took me
and pulled me out of deep water;
18 (17) he rescued me from my powerful enemy,
from those who hated me,
for they were stronger than I.
19 (18) They came against me on my day of disaster,
but Adonai was my support.
20 (19) He brought me out to an open place;
he rescued me, because he took pleasure in me.
21 (20) Adonai rewarded me for my uprightness,
he repaid me because my hands were clean.
22 (21) “For I have kept the ways of Adonai,
I have not done evil by leaving my God;
23 (22) for all his rulings were before me,
I did not distance his regulations from me.
24 (23) I was pure-hearted with him
and kept myself from my sin.
25 (24) “Hence Adonai repaid me for my uprightness,
according to the purity of my hands in his view.
26 (25) With the merciful, you are merciful;
with a man who is sincere, you are sincere;
27 (26) with the pure, you are pure;
but with the crooked you are cunning.
28 (27) People afflicted, you save;
but haughty eyes, you humble.
29 (28) “For you, Adonai, light my lamp;
Adonai, my God, lights up my darkness.
30 (29) With you I can run through a whole troop of men,
with my God I can leap a wall.
31 (30) “As for God, his way is perfect,
the word of Adonai has been tested by fire;
he shields all who take refuge in him.
32 (31) “For who is God but Adonai?
Who is a Rock but our God?
33 (32) “It is God who girds me with strength;
he makes my way go straight.
34 (33) He makes me swift, sure-footed as a deer,
and enables me to stand on my high places.
35 (34) He trains my hands for war
until my arms can bend a bow of bronze;
36 (35) “You give me your shield, which is salvation,
your right hand holds me up,
your humility makes me great.
37 (36) You lengthen the steps I can take,
yet my ankles do not turn.
38 (37) “I pursued my enemies and overtook them,
without turning back until they were destroyed.
39 (38) I crushed them, so that they can’t get up;
they have fallen under my feet.
40 (39) “For you braced me with strength for the battle
and bent down my adversaries beneath me.
41 (40) You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,
and I destroyed those who hated me.
42 (41) “They cried out, but there was no one to help,
even to Adonai, but he didn’t answer.
43 (42) I pulverized them like dust in the wind,
threw them out like mud in the streets.
44 (43) “You also freed me from the quarrels of my people.
You made me head of the nations;
a people I did not know now serve me —
45 (44) the moment they hear of me, they obey me,
foreigners come cringing to me.
46 (45) Foreigners lose heart
as they come trembling from their fortresses.
47 (46) “Adonai is alive! Blessed is my Rock!
Exalted be the God of my salvation,
48 (47) the God who avenges me
and subdues peoples under me.
49 (48) He delivers me from my enemies.
You lift me high above my enemies,
you rescue me from violent men.
50 (49) “So I give thanks to you, Adonai, among the nations;
I sing praises to your name.
51 (50) Great salvation he gives to his king;
he displays grace to his anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.”
31 “Your majesty had a vision of a statue, very large and extremely bright; it stood in front of you and its appearance was terrifying. 32 The head of the statue was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its trunk and thighs of bronze, 33 its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of clay. 34 As you watched, a stone separated itself without any human hand, struck the statue on its feet made of iron and clay, and broke them in pieces. 35 Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were all broken into pieces which became like the chaff on a threshing-floor in summer; the wind blew them away without leaving a trace. But the stone which had struck the statue grew into a huge mountain that filled the whole earth.
36 “That is what you dreamt, and now we will give the king its interpretation. 37 Your majesty, king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, the strength and the glory; 38 so that wherever people, wild animals or birds in the air live, he has handed them over to you and enabled you to rule them all — you are the head of gold. 39 But after you another kingdom will rise, inferior to you; then a third kingdom, of bronze, which will rule the whole world. 40 The fourth kingdom will be as strong as iron. Iron can break anything into pieces, pulverize it and crush it. So just as iron can crush anything, this kingdom will break the other kingdoms into pieces and crush them. 41 Finally, you saw the feet and toes made partly of pottery clay and partly of iron; this will be a divided kingdom; yet it will have some of the firmness of iron, since you saw the iron mixed with clay from the ground. 42 Just as the toes of the feet were part iron and part clay, this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. 43 You saw the iron mixed with clay; that means that they will cement their alliances by intermarriages; but they won’t stick together any more than iron blends with clay.
44 “In the days of those kings the God of heaven will establish a kingdom that will never be destroyed, and that kingdom will not pass into the hands of another people. It will break to pieces and consume all those kingdoms; but it, itself, will stand forever — 45 like the stone you saw, which, without human hands, separated itself from the mountain and broke to pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold. The great God has revealed to the king what will come about in the future. The dream is true, and its interpretation is reliable.”
46 Then King N’vukhadnetzar fell on his face and worshipped Dani’el; he ordered that a grain offering and incense be offered to him. 47 To Dani’el the king said, “Your God is indeed the God of gods, the Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets, since you have been able to reveal this secret.” 48 The king promoted Dani’el to a high rank, gave him many rich gifts and made him governor of the entire province of Bavel and head of all the sages of Bavel. 49 At Dani’el’s request, the king put Shadrakh, Meishakh and ‘Aved-N’go in charge of the affairs of the province of Bavel, while Dani’el remained in attendance on the king.
18 Children, this is the Last Hour. You have heard that an Anti-Messiah is coming; and in fact, many anti-Messiahs have arisen now — which is how we know that this is the Last Hour. 19 They went out from us, but they weren’t part of us; for had they been part of us, they would have remained with us.
20 But you have received the Messiah’s anointing from HaKadosh, and you know all this. 21 It is not because you don’t know the truth that I have written to you, but because you do know it, and because no lie has its origin in the truth. 22 Who is a liar at all, if not the person who denies that Yeshua is the Messiah? Such a person is an anti-Messiah — he is denying the Father and the Son. 23 Everyone who denies the Son is also without the Father, but the person who acknowledges the Son has the Father as well. 24 Let what you heard from the beginning remain in you. If what you heard from the beginning remains in you, you will also remain in union with both the Son and the Father. 25 And this is what he has promised us: eternal life.
26 I have written you these things about the people who are trying to deceive you. 27 As for you, the Messianic anointing you received from the Father remains in you, so that you have no need for anyone to teach you. On the contrary, as his Messianic anointing continues to teach you about all things, and is true, not a counterfeit, so, just as he taught you, remain united with him.
28 And now, children, remain united with him; so that when he appears, we may have confidence and not shrink back from him in shame at his coming. 29 If you know that he is righteous, you should also know that he is the Father of everyone who does what is right.
3 In the fifteenth year of Emperor Tiberius’ rule; when Pontius Pilate was governor of Y’hudah, Herod ruler of the Galil, his brother Philip ruler of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias ruler of Abilene, 2 with ‘Anan and Kayafa being the cohanim g’dolim; the word of God came to Yochanan Ben-Z’kharyah in the desert. 3 He went all through the Yarden region proclaiming an immersion involving turning to God from sin in order to be forgiven. 4 It was just as had been written in the book of the sayings of the prophet Yesha‘yahu,
“The voice of someone crying out:
‘In the desert prepare the way for Adonai!
Make straight paths for him!
5 Every valley must be filled in,
every mountain and hill leveled off;
the winding roads must be straightened
and the rough ways made smooth.
6 Then all humanity will see God’s deliverance.’”[a]
7 Therefore, Yochanan said to the crowds who came out to be immersed by him, “You snakes! Who warned you to escape the coming punishment? 8 If you have really turned from your sins, produce fruit that will prove it! And don’t start saying to yourselves, ‘Avraham is our father’! For I tell you that God can raise up for Avraham sons from these stones! 9 Already the axe is at the root of the trees, ready to strike; every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be chopped down and thrown in the fire!”
10 The crowds asked Yochanan, “So then, what should we do?” 11 He answered, “Whoever has two coats should share with somebody who has none, and whoever has food should do the same.” 12 Tax-collectors also came to be immersed; and they asked him, “Rabbi, what should we do?” 13 “Collect no more than the government assesses,” he told them. 14 Some soldiers asked him, “What about us? What should we do?” To them he said, “Don’t intimidate anyone, don’t accuse people falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.