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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
Darby Translation (DARBY)
Version
Psalm 18

To the chief Musician. [A Psalm] of David, the servant of Jehovah, who spoke to Jehovah the words of this song in the day that Jehovah had delivered him out of the hand of all his enemies and out of the hand of Saul. And he said,

18 I will love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.

Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my rock, in whom I will trust; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower.

I will call upon Jehovah, who is to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies.

The bands of death encompassed me, and torrents of Belial made me afraid.

The bands of Sheol surrounded me, the cords of death encountered me.

In my distress I called upon Jehovah, and I cried out to my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, into his ears.

Then the earth shook and quaked, and the foundations of the mountains trembled and shook, because he was wroth.

There went up a smoke out of his nostrils, and fire out of his mouth devoured: coals burned forth from it.

And he bowed the heavens, and came down; and darkness was under his feet.

10 And he rode upon a cherub and did fly; yea, he flew fast upon the wings of the wind.

11 He made darkness his secret place, his tent round about him: darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies.

12 From the brightness before him his thick clouds passed forth: hail and coals of fire.

13 And Jehovah thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice: hail and coals of fire.

14 And he sent his arrows, and scattered [mine enemies]; and he shot forth lightnings, and discomfited them.

15 And the beds of the waters were seen, and the foundations of the world were uncovered at thy rebuke, Jehovah, at the blast of the breath of thy nostrils.

16 He reached forth from above, he took me, he drew me out of great waters:

17 He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me; for they were mightier than I.

18 They encountered me in the day of my calamity, but Jehovah was my stay.

19 And he brought me forth into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.

20 Jehovah hath rewarded me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands hath he recompensed me.

21 For I have kept the ways of Jehovah, and have not wickedly departed from my God.

22 For all his ordinances were before me, and I did not put away his statutes from me;

23 And I was upright with him, and kept myself from mine iniquity.

24 And Jehovah hath recompensed me according to my righteousness, according to the cleanness of my hands in his sight.

25 With the gracious thou dost shew thyself gracious; with the upright man thou dost shew thyself upright;

26 With the pure thou dost shew thyself pure; and with the perverse thou dost shew thyself contrary.

27 For it is thou that savest the afflicted people; but the haughty eyes wilt thou bring down.

28 For it is thou that makest my lamp to shine: Jehovah my God enlighteneth my darkness.

29 For by thee I have run through a troop; and by my God have I leaped over a wall.

30 As for God, his way is perfect; the word of Jehovah is tried: he is a shield to all that trust in him.

31 For who is +God save Jehovah? and who is a rock if not our God?

32 The God who girdeth me with strength, and maketh my way perfect,

33 Who maketh my feet like hinds' [feet], and setteth me upon my high places;

34 Who teacheth my hands to war, and mine arms bend a bow of brass;

35 And thou didst give me the shield of thy salvation, and thy right hand held me up; and thy condescending gentleness hath made me great.

36 Thou didst enlarge my steps under me, and mine ankles have not wavered.

37 I pursued mine enemies, and overtook them; and I turned not again till they were consumed.

38 I crushed them, and they were not able to rise: they fell under my feet.

39 And thou girdedst me with strength to battle; thou didst subdue under me those that rose up against me.

40 And mine enemies didst thou make to turn their backs unto me, and those that hated me I destroyed.

41 They cried, and there was none to save;—unto Jehovah, and he answered them not.

42 And I did beat them small as dust before the wind; I did cast them out as the mire of the streets.

43 Thou hast delivered me from the strivings of the people; thou hast made me the head of the nations: a people I knew not doth serve me.

44 At the hearing of the ear, they obey me: strangers come cringing unto me.

45 Strangers have faded away, and they come trembling forth from their close places.

46 Jehovah liveth; and blessed be my rock; and exalted be the God of my salvation,

47 The God who hath avenged me, and hath subjected the peoples to me;

48 Who hath delivered me from mine enemies: yea, thou hast lifted me up above them that rose up against me; from the man of violence hast thou delivered me.

49 Therefore will I give thanks to thee, Jehovah, among the nations, and will sing psalms to thy name.

50 [It is he] who giveth great deliverances to his king, and sheweth loving-kindness to his anointed, to David, and to his seed for evermore.

Daniel 2:31-49

31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold, a great image. This image was mighty and its brightness excellent; it stood before thee, and its appearance was terrible.

32 This image's head was of fine gold, its breast and its arms of silver, its belly and its thighs of brass,

33 its legs of iron, its feet part of iron and part of clay.

34 Thou sawest till a stone was cut out without hands; and it smote the image upon its feet of iron and clay, and broke them to pieces.

35 Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold broken in pieces together, and they became like the chaff of the summer threshing-floors; and the wind carried them away, and no place was found for them. And the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

36 This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation of it before the king.

37 Thou, O king, art a king of kings, unto whom the God of the heavens hath given the kingdom, the power, and the strength, and the glory;

38 and wheresoever the children of men, the beasts of the field, and the fowl of the heavens dwell, he hath given them into thy hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all: thou art this head of gold.

39 And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee; then another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

40 And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth everything, and as iron that breaketh all these, so shall it break in pieces and bruise.

41 And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potter's clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay.

42 And [as] the toes of the feet were part of iron and part of clay, the kingdom shall be partly strong and partly fragile.

43 And whereas thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men; but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron doth not mingle with clay.

44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of the heavens set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed; and the sovereignty thereof shall not be left to another people: it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, but itself shall stand for ever.

45 Forasmuch as thou sawest that a stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold,—the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter. And the dream is certain, and the interpretation of it sure.

46 Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell on his face and worshipped Daniel, and commanded that they should offer an oblation and sweet odours unto him.

47 The king answered Daniel and said, Of a truth it is that your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of secrets, because thou wast able to reveal this secret.

48 Then the king made Daniel great, and gave him many great gifts, and made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and chief of the governors over all the wise men of Babylon.

49 And Daniel requested of the king, and he appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego over the administration of the province of Babylon. And Daniel was in the gate of the king.

1 John 2:18-29

18 Little children, it is [the] last hour, and, according as ye have heard that antichrist comes, even now there have come many antichrists, whence we know that it is [the] last hour.

19 They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have surely remained with us, but that they might be made manifest that none are of us.

20 And *ye* have [the] unction from the holy [one], and ye know all things.

21 I have not written to you because ye do not know the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the truth.

22 Who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ? *He* is the antichrist who denies the Father and the Son.

23 Whoever denies the Son has not the Father either; he who confesses the Son has the Father also.

24 As for *you* let that which ye have heard from the beginning abide in you: if what ye have heard from the beginning abides in you, *ye* also shall abide in the Son and in the Father.

25 And this is the promise which *he* has promised us, life eternal.

26 These things have I written to you concerning those who lead you astray:

27 and *yourselves*, the unction which ye have received from him abides in you, and ye have not need that any one should teach you; but as the same unction teaches you as to all things, and is true and is not a lie, and even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him.

28 And now, children, abide in him, that if he be manifested we may have boldness, and not be put to shame from before him at his coming.

29 If ye know that he is righteous, know that every one who practises righteousness is begotten of him.

Luke 3:1-14

Now in the fifteenth year of the government of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Ituraea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, [the] word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

And he came into all the district round the Jordan, preaching [the] baptism of repentance for [the] remission of sins,

as it is written in [the] book of [the] words of Esaias the prophet: Voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of [the] Lord, make straight his paths.

Every gorge shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked [places] shall become a straight [path], and the rough places smooth ways,

and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

He said therefore to the crowds which went out to be baptised by him, Offspring of vipers, who has forewarned you to flee from the coming wrath?

Produce therefore fruits worthy of repentance; and begin not to say in yourselves, We have Abraham for [our] father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

And already also the axe is applied to the root of the trees; every tree therefore not producing good fruit is cut down and cast into [the] fire.

10 And the crowds asked him saying, What should we do then?

11 And he answering says to them, He that has two body-coats, let him give to him that has none; and he that has food, let him do likewise.

12 And tax-gatherers came also to be baptised, and they said to him, Teacher, what should we do?

13 And he said to them, Take no more [money] than what is appointed to you.

14 And persons engaged in military service also asked him saying, And we, what should we do? And he said to them, Oppress no one, nor accuse falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.