Book of Common Prayer

Longing for the Temple Worship.

For the choir director; ^[a]on the Gittith. A Psalm of the sons of Korah.

Elijah Flees from Jezebel

19 Now Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and ^[a](A)how he had killed all the prophets with the sword. ² Then Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, saying, “^(B)So may the gods do to me and even more, if I do not make your ^[b]life as the ^[c]life of one of them by tomorrow about this time.” ³ And he ^[d]was afraid and arose and ran for his ^[e]life and came to ^(C)Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there. ⁴ But he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a ^[f]juniper tree; and ^(D)he requested for himself that he might die, and said, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my ^[g]life, for I am not better than my fathers.” ⁵ He lay down and slept under a ^[h]juniper tree; and behold, there was ^(E)an angel touching him, and he said to him, “Arise, eat.” ⁶ Then he looked and behold, there was at his head a bread cake baked on hot stones, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank and lay down again. ⁷ The angel of the Lord came again a second time and touched him and said, “Arise, eat, because the journey is too great for you.” ⁸ So he arose and ate and drank, and went in the strength of that food ^(F)forty days and forty nights to ^(G)Horeb, the mountain of God.

Elijah at Horeb

⁹ Then he came there to a cave and lodged there; and behold, ^(H)the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ¹⁰ He said, “^(I)I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, ^(J)torn down Your altars and killed Your prophets with the sword. And ^(K)I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.”

¹¹ So He said, “^(L)Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And ^(M)a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. ¹² After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire ^(N)a sound of a gentle blowing.

Ministers of a New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to ^(A)commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, ^(B)letters of commendation to you or from you? ^2 (C)You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; ³ being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, ^[a](D)cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of ^(E)the living God, not on ^(F)tablets of stone but on ^(G)tablets of ^[b](H)human hearts.

⁴ Such ^(I)confidence we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but ^(J)our adequacy is from God, ⁶ who also made us adequate as ^(K)servants of a ^(L)new covenant, not of ^(M)the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but ^(N)the Spirit gives life.

⁷ But if the ^(O)ministry of death, ^(P)in letters engraved on stones, came ^[c]with glory, ^(Q)so that the sons of Israel could not look intently at the face of Moses because of the glory of his face, fading as it was, ⁸ how will the ministry of the Spirit fail to be even more with glory? ⁹ For if ^(R)the ministry of condemnation has glory, much more does the ^(S)ministry of righteousness abound in glory.

¹⁸ But we all, with unveiled face, ^(A)beholding as in a mirror the ^(B)glory of the Lord, are being ^(C)transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from ^(D)the Lord, the Spirit.