Book of Common Prayer
God’s Faithfulness in Israel’s History
A maskil of Asaph.[a]
78 Listen, O my people, to my teaching.
Incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will offer[b] a parable with my mouth.
I will pour out riddles from long ago,
3 that we have heard and known,
and our ancestors[c] have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,[d]
telling the next generation the praises of Yahweh,
and his power and his wonders that he has done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob,
and appointed a law[e] in Israel,
which he commanded our ancestors[f]
to teach to their children,
6 so that the next generation might know—
children yet to be born—
that they might rise up and tell their children,
7 that they might set their confidence in God,
and not forget the deeds of God,
but keep his commandments,
8 and not be like their ancestors,[g]
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not make ready its heart,
whose spirit was not faithful to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim, armed with archers,[h]
turned back on the day of battle.
10 They did not keep the covenant of God
and refused to go in his law.[i]
11 They also forgot his deeds,
and his wonders that he had shown them.
12 In front of their ancestors[j] he did a wonder,
in the land of Egypt, in the region of Zoan.
13 He split the sea and caused them to go over,
and he caused waters to stand like a heap.
14 And he led them with the cloud by day,
and all night with a fiery light.
15 He caused rocks to split in the wilderness
and provided drink abundantly as from the depths.
16 And he brought streams out of the rock
and caused water to flow down like rivers.
17 But they sinned still further against him
by rebelling against the Most High in the desert.
18 And they tested God in their heart
by asking food for their craving.[k]
19 And they spoke against God.
They said, “Is God able
to prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 Yes, he struck the rock and water flowed
and streams gushed out,
but can he also give food
or provide meat for his people?”
21 Therefore Yahweh heard
and he was very angry,
and a fire was kindled against Jacob,
and his anger also rose up against Israel,
22 because they did not believe God,
and they did not trust his salvation.
23 Nevertheless, he commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and rained down on them manna to eat
and gave them the grain of heaven.
25 Humankind ate the bread of angels.[l]
He sent them food enough to be satisfied.
26 He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens
and drove along the south wind by his strength.
27 Then he rained meat on them like dust,
even winged birds[m] like the sand of the seas.
28 He caused them to fall in the midst of his camp,
all around his dwellings.
29 So they ate and were well filled,
and he brought about what they craved.
30 They had not yet turned aside from their craving,
while their food was still in their mouth,
31 the anger of God rose against them,
and he killed some of the stoutest of them,
even the young men of Israel he caused to bow down in death.
32 In spite of all this they sinned further
and did not believe his wonders.
33 And he consumed their days with futility [n]
their years with terror.[o]
34 When he killed some of them, then they sought him,
and repented and earnestly sought God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock,
and God Most High their redeemer.
36 But they enticed him with their mouth
and lied to him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not steadfast with him,
nor were they faithful to his covenant.
38 But he was compassionate; he pardoned[p] their guilt
and did not destroy them.
And many times he turned back his anger
and did not stir up all his wrath,
39 for he remembered that they were flesh,
a passing wind that does not return.
40 How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness
and vexed him in the wasteland!
41 So they again tested God
and distressed[q] the Holy One of Israel.
42 And they did not remember his power[r]
when[s] he redeemed them from the enemy,
43 how he performed[t] his signs in Egypt
and his wonders in the region of Zoan,
44 when he turned their rivers[u] to blood
so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent among them flies that devoured them
and frogs that destroyed them.
46 And he gave their crop to the locusts
and their labor to the locust.[v]
47 He destroyed their vines with hail
and their sycamore trees with sleet.[w]
48 He also handed their cattle over to the hail
and their livestock to the lightning bolts.
49 He sent against them his fierce anger,
rage and indignation and trouble,
a band of destroying[x] angels.
50 He cleared a path for his anger.
He did not spare them[y] from death
but handed their life over to the plague.
51 And he struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the first of their virility in the tents of Ham.
52 Then he led out his people like sheep
and guided them like a herd in the wilderness.
53 And he led them safely and they were not afraid,
but the sea covered their enemies.
54 So he brought them to his holy territory,[z]
this mountain his right hand acquired.[aa]
55 And he drove out nations before them
and allocated them for an inheritance by boundary line,
and settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 But they tested and rebelled against God Most High
and did not keep his statutes.
57 And they turned and were treacherous like their ancestors.[ab]
They twisted like a crooked[ac] bow.
58 For they provoked him to anger with their high places,
and made him jealous with their images.
59 God heard and he was very angry
and rejected Israel utterly.
60 So he abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh,
the tent he had placed among humankind.
61 And he gave his strength into captivity
and his splendor into the hand of the enemy.
62 He also handed his people over to the sword,
and he was very angry with his inheritance.
63 Fire devoured his young men,
and his young women[ad] were not praised.
64 His priests fell by the sword,
and his widows did not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke like one who had been asleep,
awoke like a warrior who had been drunk with wine.[ae]
66 And he beat back his enemies;
he gave them over to perpetual scorn.
67 And he rejected the tent of Joseph,
and did not chose the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion[af] that he loved.
69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that he established forever.
70 And he chose David his servant
and took him from the sheepfolds.
71 He brought him from following nursing ewes
to shepherd Jacob, his people,
and Israel, his inheritance.
72 And he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart,
and led them by the skillfulness of his hands.
19 He said to him, “Go in peace,” so he went from him a short distance.[a]
20 But Gehazi the servant of Elisha, the man of God, thought, “Look, my master has refrained from taking what this Aramean Naaman brought from his hand. As Yahweh lives,[b] I will certainly run after him, and I will accept something from him.” 21 So Gehazi pursued after Naaman. When Naaman saw someone running after him, he jumped off his chariot to meet him and asked him, “Is it peace?” 22 He said, “Peace. My master has sent me saying, ‘Look, just now[c] two servants from the hill country of Ephraim came to me, from the sons of the prophets. Please give them a talent of silver and two sets of clothing.’” 23 Then Naaman said, “Be prepared to accept two talents.” So he urged him and tied up two talents of silver in two bags, with two sets of clothing and gave it to two of his servants and they carried it before him. 24 When he came to the citadel, he took them from their hand and put them in the house, then sent away the men so that they went. 25 When he went and stood by his master, Elisha asked him, “From where have you come, Gehazi?” And he said, “Your servant has not gone anywhere.”[d]
26 Then he said to him, “Did not my heart go with you as the man turned from on his chariot to meet you? Is it time to take silver, clothes, olive orchards, vineyards, sheep, oxen, male slaves, and female slaves? 27 The skin disease of Naaman shall cling to you and to your offspring forever.” Then he went out from before him having a skin disease like the snow.
Immoral Behavior and Church Discipline
5 It is reported everywhere that there is sexual immorality among you, and sexual immorality of such a kind which does not even exist among the Gentiles, so that someone has the wife of his father. 2 And you are inflated with pride, and should you not rather have mourned, so that the one who has done this deed would be removed from your midst? 3 For although I[a] am absent in body but present in spirit, I have already passed judgment on the one who has done this in this way, as if I[b] were present. 4 In the name of our Lord Jesus, when[c] you are assembled, and my spirit, together with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5 I have decided[d] to hand over such a person to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, in order that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole batch of dough? 7 Clean out the old leaven in order that you may be a new batch of dough, just as you are unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed. 8 So then, let us celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven or with the leaven of wickedness and sinfulness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
The Sermon on the Mount: Adultery and Lust
27 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’[a] 28 But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. 29 And if your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it from you! For it is better for you that one of your members be destroyed than your whole body be thrown into hell. 30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it from you! For it is better for you that one of your limbs be destroyed than your whole body go into hell.
The Sermon on the Mount: Divorce
31 “And it was said, ‘Whoever divorces his wife must give her a certificate of divorce.’[b] 32 But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except for a matter of sexual immorality, causes her to commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
The Sermon on the Mount: Taking Oaths
33 “Again you have heard that it was said to the people of old,[c] ‘Do not swear falsely,[d] but fulfill your oaths to the Lord.’[e] 34 But I say to you, do not swear at all, either by heaven, because it is the throne of God, 35 or by the earth, because it is the footstool of his feet, or by Jerusalem, because it is the city of the great king. 36 And do not swear by your head, because you are not able to make one hair white or black. 37 But let your statement be ‘Yes, yes; no, no,’ and anything beyond these is from the evil one.[f]
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