Book of Common Prayer

87 A canticle of a psalm for the sons of Core: unto the end, for Maheleth, to answer understanding of Eman the Ezrahite.

² O Lord, the God of my salvation: I have cried in the day, and in the night before thee.

³ Let my prayer come in before thee: incline thy ear to my petition.

⁴ For my soul is filled with evils: and my life hath drawn nigh to hell.

⁵ I am counted among them that go down to the pit: I am become as a man without help,

⁶ Free among the dead. Like the slain sleeping in the sepulchres, whom thou rememberest no more: and they are cast off from thy hand.

⁷ They have laid me in the lower pit: in the dark places, and in the shadow of death.

⁸ Thy wrath is strong over me: and all thy waves thou hast brought in upon me.

⁹ Thou hast put away my acquaintance far from me: they have set me an abomination to themselves. I was delivered up, and came not forth:

¹⁰ My eyes languished through poverty. All the day I cried to thee, O Lord: I stretched out my hands to thee.

¹¹ Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? or shall physicians raise to life, and give praise to thee?

¹² Shall any one in the sepulchre declare thy mercy: and thy truth in destruction?

¹³ Shall thy wonders be known in the dark; and thy justice in the land of forgetfulness?

¹⁴ But I, O Lord, have cried to thee: and in the morning my prayer shall prevent thee.

¹⁵ Lord, why castest thou off my prayer: why turnest thou away thy face from me?

¹⁶ I am poor, and in labours from my youth: and being exalted have been humbled and troubled.

¹⁷ Thy wrath hath come upon me: and thy terrors have troubled me.

¹⁸ They have come round about me like water all the day: they have compassed me about together.

¹⁹ Friend and neighbour thou hast put far from me: and my acquaintance, because of misery.

90 The praise of a canticle for David. He that dwelleth in the aid of the most High, shall abide under the protection of the God of Jacob.

² He shall say to the Lord: Thou art my protector, and my refuge: my God, in him will I trust.

³ For he hath delivered me from the snare of the hunters: and from the sharp word.

⁴ He will overshadow thee with his shoulders: and under his wings thou shalt trust.

⁵ His truth shall compass thee with a shield: thou shalt not be afraid of the terror of the night.

⁶ Of the arrow that flieth in the day, of the business that walketh about in the dark: of invasion, or of the noonday devil.

⁷ A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

⁸ But thou shalt consider with thy eyes: and shalt see the reward of the wicked.

⁹ Because thou, O Lord, art my hope: thou hast made the most High thy refuge.

¹⁰ There shall no evil come to thee: nor shall the scourge come near thy dwelling.

¹¹ For he hath given his angels charge over thee; to keep thee in all thy ways.

¹² In their hands they shall bear thee up: lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

¹³ Thou shalt walk upon the asp and the basilisk: and thou shalt trample under foot the lion and the dragon.

¹⁴ Because he hoped in me I will deliver him: I will protect him because he hath known my name.

¹⁵ He shall cry to me, and I will hear him: I am with him in tribulation, I will deliver him, and I will glorify him.

¹⁶ I will fill him with length of days; and I will shew him my salvation.

136 Upon the rivers of Babylon, there we sat and wept: when we remembered Sion:

² On the willows in the midst thereof we hung up our instruments.

³ For there they that led us into captivity required of us the words of songs. And they that carried us away, said: Sing ye to us a hymn of the songs of Sion.

⁴ How shall we sing the song of the Lord in a strange land?

⁵ If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand be forgotten.

⁶ Let my tongue cleave to my jaws, if I do not remember thee: If I make not Jerusalem the beginning of my joy.

⁷ Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom, in the day of Jerusalem: Who say: Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

⁸ O daughter of Babylon, miserable: blessed shall he be who shall repay thee thy payment which thou hast paid us.

⁹ Blessed be he that shall take and dash thy little ones against the rock.

11 And Athalia the mother of Ochozias seeing that her son was dead, arose, and slew all the royal seed.

² But Josaba the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ochozias, took Joas the son of Ochozias, and stole him from among the king's sons that were slain, out of the bedchamber with his nurse: and hid him from the face of Athalia, so that he was not slain.

³ And he was with her six years hid in the house of the Lord. And Athalia reigned over the land.

⁴ And in the seventh year Joiada seat, and taking the centurions and the soldiers, brought them in to him into the temple of the Lord, and made a covenant with them: and taking an oath of them in the house of the Lord, shewed them the king's son:

⁵ And he commanded them, saying: This is the thing that you must do:

⁶ Let a third part of you go in on the sabbath, and keep the watch of the king's house. And let a third part be at the gate of Sur: and let a third part be at the gate behind the dwelling of the shieldbearers: and you shall keep the watch of the house of Messa.

⁷ But let two parts of you, all that go forth on the sabbath, keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king.

⁸ And you shall compass him round about, having weapons in your hands: and if any man shall enter the precinct of the temple, let him be slain: and you shall be with the king coming in and going out.

⁹ And the centurions did according to all things that Joiada the priest had commanded them: and taking every one their men, that went in on the sabbath, with them that went out on the sabbath, came to Joiada the priest.

¹⁰ And he gave them the spears, and the arms of king David, which were in the house of the Lord.

¹¹ And they stood having every one their weapons in their hands, from the right side of the temple, unto the left side of the altar, and of the temple, about the king.

¹² And he brought forth the king's son, and put the diadem upon him, and the testimony: and they made him king, and anointed him: and clapping their hands. they said, God save the king.

¹³ And Athalia heard the noise of the people running: and going in to the people into the temple of the Lord,

¹⁴ She saw the king standing upon a tribunal, as the manner was, and the singers, and the trumpets near him, and all the people of the land rejoicing, and sounding the trumpets: and she rent her garments, and cried: A conspiracy, a conspiracy.

¹⁵ But Joiada commended the centurions that were over the army, and said to them: Have her forth without the precinct of the temple, and whosoever shall follow her, let him be slain with the sword. For the priest had said: Let her not be slain in the temple of the Lord.

¹⁶ And they laid hands on her: and thrust her out by the way by which the horses go in, by the palace, and she was slain there.

¹⁷ And Joiada made a covenant between the Lord, and the king, and the people, that they should be the people of the Lord, and between the king and the people.

¹⁸ And all the people of the land went into the temple of Baal, and broke down his altars, and his images they broke in pieces thoroughly: they slew also Mathan the priest of Baal before the altar. And the priest set guards in the house of the Lord.

¹⁹ And he took the centurions, and the bands of the Cerethi and the Phelethi, and all the people of the land, and they brought the king from the house of the Lord: and they came by the way of the gate of the shieldbearers into the palace. and he sat on the throne of the kings.

²⁰ And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet: but Athalia was slain with the sword in the king's house.

¹⁰ But to them that are married, not I but the Lord commandeth, that the wife depart not from her husband.

¹¹ And if she depart, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband. And let not the husband put away his wife.

¹² For to the rest I speak, not the Lord. If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she consent to dwell with him, let him not put her away.

¹³ And if any woman hath a husband that believeth not, and he consent to dwell with her, let her not put away her husband.

¹⁴ For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife; and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband: otherwise your children should be unclean; but now they are holy.

¹⁵ But if the unbeliever depart, let him depart. For a brother or sister is not under servitude in such cases. But God hath called us in peace.

¹⁶ For how knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? Or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?

¹⁷ But as the Lord hath distributed to every one, as God hath called every one, so let him walk: and so in all churches I teach.

¹⁸ Is any man called, being circumcised? let him not procure uncircumcision. Is any man called in uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised.

¹⁹ Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing: but the observance of the commandments of God.

²⁰ Let every man abide in the same calling in which he was called.

²¹ Wast thou called, being a bondman? care not for it; but if thou mayest be made free, use it rather.

²² For he that is called in the Lord, being a bondman, is the freeman of the Lord. Likewise he that is called, being free, is the bondman of Christ.

²³ You are bought with a price; be not made the bondslaves of men.

²⁴ Brethren, let every man, wherein he was called, therein abide with God.

¹⁹ Lay not up to yourselves treasures on earth: where the rust, and moth consume, and where thieves break through and steal.

²⁰ But lay up to yourselves treasures in heaven: where neither the rust nor moth doth consume, and where thieves do not break through, nor steal.

²¹ For where thy treasure is, there is thy heart also.

²² The light of thy body is thy eye. If thy eye be single, thy whole body shall be lightsome.

²³ But if thy eye be evil thy whole body shall be darksome. If then the light that is in thee, be darkness: the darkness itself how great shall it be!

²⁴ No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one, and love the other: or he will sustain the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.