Book of Common Prayer
45 (0) For the leader. Set to “Lilies.” By the descendants of Korach. A maskil. A lovesong:
2 (1) My heart is stirred by a noble theme;
I address my verses to the king;
My tongue is the pen of an expert scribe.
3 (2) You are the most handsome of men;
gracious speech flows from your lips.
For God has blessed you forever.
4 (3) Warrior, strap your sword at your thigh;
[gird on] your splendor and majesty.
5 (4) In your majesty, succeed, ride on
in the cause of truth, meekness and righteousness.
May your right hand teach you awesome things.
6 (5) Your arrows are sharp. The people fall under you,
as they penetrate the hearts of the king’s enemies.
7 (6) Your throne, God, will last forever and ever;
you rule your kingdom with a scepter of equity.
8 (7) You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.
Therefore God, your God, has anointed you
with the oil of joy in preference to your companions.
9 (8) Your robes are all fragrant with myrrh, aloes and cassia;
from ivory palaces stringed instruments bring you joy.
10 (9) Daughters of kings are among your favorites;
at your right stands the queen in gold from Ofir.
11 (10) Listen, daughter! Think, pay attention!
Forget your own people and your father’s house,
12 (11) and the king will desire your beauty;
for he is your lord, so honor him.
13 (12) Then the daughter of Tzor, the richest of peoples,
will court your favor with gifts.
14 (13) Inside [the palace], the king’s daughter looks splendid,
attired in checker-work embroidered with gold.
15 (14) In brocade, she will be led to the king,
to you, with the virgins in her retinue.
16 (15) They will be led in with gladness and joy,
they will enter the king’s palace.
17 (16) You will have sons to succeed your ancestors;
you will make them princes in all the land.
18 (17) I will make your name known through all generations;
thus the peoples will praise you forever and ever.
47 (0) For the leader. A psalm of the descendants of Korach:
2 (1) Clap your hands, all you peoples!
Shout to God with cries of joy!
3 (2) For Adonai ‘Elyon is awesome,
a great king over all the earth.
4 (3) He makes peoples subject to us,
puts nations under our feet.
5 (4) He chooses our heritage for us,
the pride of Ya‘akov, whom he loves. (Selah)
6 (5) God goes up to shouts of acclaim,
Adonai to a blast on the shofar.
7 (6) Sing praises to God, sing praises!
Sing praises to our king, sing praises!
8 (7) For God is king of all the earth;
sing praises in a maskil.
9 (8) God rules the nations;
God sits on his holy throne.
10 (9) The leaders of the people gather together,
the people of the God of Avraham;
for the rulers of the earth belong to God,
who is exalted on high.
48 (0) A song. A psalm of the descendants of Korach:
2 (1) Great is Adonai
and greatly to be praised,
in the city of our God,
his holy mountain,
3 (2) beautiful in its elevation,
the joy of all the earth,
Mount Tziyon, in the far north,
the city of the great king.
4 (3) In its citadels God
has been revealed as a strong defense.
5 (4) For the kings met by agreement;
together they advanced.
6 (5) They saw and were filled with consternation;
terrified, they took to flight.
7 (6) Trembling took hold of them,
pains like those of a woman in labor,
8 (7) as when the wind out of the east
wrecks the “Tarshish” ships.
9 (8) We heard it, and now we see for ourselves
in the city of Adonai-Tzva’ot,
in the city of our God.
May God establish it forever. (Selah)
10 (9) God, within your temple
we meditate on your grace.
11 (10) God, your praise, like your name,
extends to the ends of the earth.
Your right hand is filled with righteousness.
12 (11) Let Mount Tziyon rejoice,
let the daughters of Y’hudah be glad,
because of your judgment [on the enemy].
13 (12) Walk through Tziyon, go all around it;
count how many towers it has.
14 (13) Note its ramparts, pass through its citadels,
so that you can tell generations to come
15 (14) that such is God, our God forever;
he will guide us eternally.
12 Here are the laws and rulings you are to observe and obey in the land Adonai, the God of your ancestors, has given you to possess as long as you live on earth. 2 You must destroy all the places where the nations you are dispossessing served their gods, whether on high mountains, on hills, or under some leafy tree. 3 Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place.
4 “But you are not to treat Adonai your God this way. 5 Rather, you are to come to the place where Adonai your God will put his name. He will choose it from all your tribes; and you will seek out that place, which is where he will live, and go there. 6 You will bring there your burnt offerings, your sacrifices, your tenths [that you set aside for Adonai], the offerings that you give, the offerings you have vowed, your voluntary offerings, and the firstborn of your cattle and sheep. 7 There you will eat in the presence of Adonai your God; and you will rejoice over everything you set out to do, you and your households, in which Adonai your God has blessed you. 8 You will not do things the way we do them here today, where everyone does whatever in his own opinion seems right; 9 because you haven’t yet arrived at the rest and inheritance which Adonai your God is giving you. 10 But when you cross the Yarden and live in the land Adonai your God is having you inherit, and he gives you rest from all your surrounding enemies, so that you are living in safety; (ii) 11 then you will bring all that I am ordering you to the place Adonai your God chooses to have his name live — your burnt offerings, sacrifices, tenths, the offering from your hand, and all your best possessions that you dedicate to Adonai; 12 and you will rejoice in the presence of Adonai your God — you, your sons and daughters, your male and female slaves and the Levi staying with you, inasmuch as he has no share or inheritance with you.
3 We try not to put obstacles in anyone’s path, so that no one can find fault with the work we do. 4 On the contrary, we try to commend ourselves in every way as workers for God by continually enduring troubles, hardships, calamities, 5 beatings, imprisonments, riots, overwork, lack of sleep and food. 6 We commend ourselves by our purity, knowledge, patience and kindness; by the Ruach HaKodesh; by genuineness of love 7 and truthfulness of speech; and by God’s power. We commend ourselves through our use of righteous weapons, whether for pressing our cause or defending it; 8 through being honored and dishonored, praised and blamed, considered deceptive and sincere, 9 unknown and famous. And we commend ourselves as God’s workers headed for death, yet look! we’re alive! as punished, yet not killed; 10 as having reason to be sad, yet always filled with joy; as poor, yet making many people rich; as having nothing, yet having everything!
11 Dear friends in Corinth! We have spoken frankly to you, we have opened our hearts wide. 12 Any constraint you feel has not been imposed by us, but by your own inner selves. 13 So, just to be “fair” (I am using the language of children), open wide your hearts too.
14 Do not yoke yourselves together in a team with unbelievers. For how can righteousness and lawlessness be partners? What fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 What harmony can there be between the Messiah and B’liya‘al? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 What agreement can there be between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God — as God said,
“I will house myself in them, . . .
and I will walk among you.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.”[a]
17 Therefore Adonai says,
“‘Go out from their midst;
separate yourselves;
don’t even touch what is unclean.[b]
Then I myself will receive you.[c]
18 In fact, I will be your Father,
and you will be my sons and daughters.’
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.”[d]
7 Therefore, my dear friends, since we have these promises, let us purify ourselves from everything that can defile either body or spirit, and strive to be completely holy, out of reverence for God.
11 On his way to Yerushalayim, Yeshua passed along the border country between Shomron and the Galil. 12 As he entered one of the villages, ten men afflicted with tzara‘at met him. They stood at a distance 13 and called out, “Yeshua! Rabbi! Have pity on us!” 14 On seeing them, he said, “Go and let the cohanim examine you!” And as they went, they were cleansed. 15 One of them, as soon as he noticed that he had been healed, returned shouting praises to God, 16 and fell on his face at Yeshua’s feet to thank him. Now he was from Shomron. 17 Yeshua said, “Weren’t ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18 Was no one found coming back to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And to the man from Shomron he said, “Get up, you may go; your trust has saved you.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.