Book of Common Prayer

119 In my trouble I cried to the Lord: and he heard me.

² O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, and a deceitful tongue.

³ What shall be given to thee, or what shall be added to thee, to a deceitful tongue?

⁴ The sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that lay waste.

⁵ Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged! I have dwelt with the inhabitants of cedar:

⁶ My soul hath been long a sojourner.

⁷ With them that hated peace I was peaceable: when I spoke to them they fought against me without cause.

12 Unto the end, a psalm for David. How long, O Lord, wilt thou forget me unto the end? how long dost thou turn away thy face from me?

² How long shall I take counsels in my soul, sorrow in my heart all the day?

³ How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

⁴ Consider, and hear me, O Lord my God. Enlighten my eyes that I never sleep in death:

⁵ Lest at any time my enemy say: I have prevailed against him. They that trouble me will rejoice when I am moved:

⁶ But I have trusted in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy salvation: I will sing to the Lord, who giveth me good things: yea I will sing to the name of the Lord the most high.

13 Unto the end, a psalm for David. The fool hath said in his heart: There is no God, They are corrupt, and are become abominable in their ways: there is none that doth good, no not one.

² The Lord hath looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there be any that understand and seek God.

³ They are all gone aside, they are become unprofitable together: there is none that doth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre: with their tongues they acted deceitfully; the poison of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness; their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and unhappiness in their ways: and the way of peace they have not known: there is no fear of God before their eyes.

⁴ Shall not all they know that work iniquity, who devour my people as they eat bread?

⁵ They have not called upon the Lord: there have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear.

⁶ For the Lord is in the just generation: you have confounded the counsel of the poor man, but the Lord is his hope.

⁷ Who shall give out of Sion the salvation of Israel? when the Lord shall have turned away the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice and Israel shall be glad.

14 A psalm of David. Lord, who shall dwell in thy tabernacle? or who shall rest in thy holy hill?

² He that walketh without blemish, and worketh justice:

³ He that speaketh truth in his heart, who hath not used deceit in his tongue: Nor hath done evil to his neighbour: nor taken up a reproach against his neighbours.

⁴ In his sight the malignant is brought to nothing: but he glorifieth them that fear the Lord. He that sweareth to his neighbour, and deceiveth not;

⁵ He that hath not put out his money to usury, nor taken bribes against the innocent: He that doth these things shall not be moved for ever.

¹⁴ And Booz said to her: At mealtime come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. So she sat at the side of the reapers, and she heaped to herself frumenty, and ate and was filled, and took the leavings.

¹⁵ And she arose from thence, to glean the ears of corn as before. And Booz commanded his servants, saying: If she would even reap with you, hinder her not:

¹⁶ And let fall some of your handfuls of purpose, and leave them, that she may gather them without shame, and let no man rebuke her when she gathereth them.

¹⁷ She gleaned therefore in the field till evening: and beating out with a rod and threshing what she had gleaned, she found about the measure of an ephi of barley, that is, three bushels:

¹⁸ Which she took up and returned into the city, and shewed it to her mother in law: moreover she brought out, and gave her of the remains of her meat, wherewith she had been filled.

¹⁹ And her mother in law said to her: Where hast thou gleaned to day, and where hast thou wrought? blessed be he that hath had pity on thee. And she told her with whom she had wrought: and she told the man's name, that he was called Booz.

²⁰ And Noemi answered her: Blessed be he of the Lord: because the same kindness which he shewed to the living, he hath kept also to the dead. And again she said: The man is our kinsman.

²¹ And Ruth said, He also charged me, that I should keep close to his reapers, till all the corn should be reaped.

²² And her mother in law said to her: It is better for thee, my daughter, to go out to reap with his maids, lest in another man's field some one may resist thee.

²³ So she kept close to the maids of Booz: and continued to glean with them, till all the barley and the wheat were laid up in the barns.

3 A faithful saying: if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.

² It behoveth therefore a bishop to be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, prudent, of good behaviour, chaste, given to hospitality, a teacher,

³ Not given to wine, no striker, but modest, not quarrelsome, not covetous, but

⁴ One that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all chastity.

⁵ But if a man know not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the church of God?

⁶ Not a neophyte: lest being puffed up with pride, he fall into the judgment of the devil.

⁷ Moreover he must have a good testimony of them who are without: lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

⁸ Deacons in like manner chaste, not double tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre:

⁹ Holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience.

¹⁰ And let these also first be proved: and so let them minister, having no crime.

¹¹ The women in like manner chaste, not slanderers, but sober, faithful in all things.

¹² Let deacons be the husbands of one wife: who rule well their children, and their own houses.

¹³ For they that have ministered well, shall purchase to themselves a good degree, and much confidence in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.

¹⁴ These things I write to thee, hoping that I shall come to thee shortly.

¹⁵ But if I tarry long, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to behave thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.

¹⁶ And evidently great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed in the world, is taken up in glory.

¹⁸ He said therefore: To what is the kingdom of God like, and whereunto shall I resemble it?

¹⁹ It is like to a grain of mustard seed, which a man took and cast into his garden, and it grew and became a great tree, and the birds of the air lodged in the branches thereof.

²⁰ And again he said: Whereunto shall I esteem the kingdom of God to be like?

²¹ It is like to leaven, which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened.

²² And he went through the cities and towns teaching, and making his journey to Jerusalem.

²³ And a certain man said to him: Lord, are they few that are saved? But he said to them:

²⁴ Strive to enter by the narrow gate; for many, I say to you, shall seek to enter, and shall not be able.

²⁵ But when the master of the house shall be gone in, and shall shut the door, you shall begin to stand without, and knock at the door, saying: Lord, open to us. And he answering, shall say to you: I know you not, whence you are.

²⁶ Then you shall begin to say: We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets.

²⁷ And he shall say to you: I know you not, whence you are: depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity.

²⁸ There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you shall see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourselves thrust out.

²⁹ And there shall come from the east and the west, and the north and the south; and shall sit down in the kingdom of God.

³⁰ And behold, they are last that shall be first; and they are first that shall be last.