Book of Common Prayer
97 1 The Prophet exhorteth all to rejoice for the coming of the kingdom of Christ, 7 dreadful to the rebels and idolaters, 8 and joyful to the just, whom he exhorteth to innocency, 12 to rejoicing and thanksgiving.
1 The [a]Lord reigneth: let the earth rejoice: let the [b]multitude of the Isles be glad.
2 [c]Clouds and darkness are round about him: righteousness and judgment are the foundation of his throne.
3 There shall go a fire before him, and burn up his enemies round about.
4 His lightnings gave light unto the world: the earth saw it and was [d]afraid.
5 The mountains melted like wax at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the Lord of the whole earth.
6 The heavens declare his righteousness, and all the people see his glory.
7 [e]Confounded be all they that serve graven images, and that glory in idols: worship him [f]all ye gods.
8 Zion heard of it, and was glad: and the [g]daughters of Judah rejoiced, because of thy judgments, O Lord.
9 For thou, Lord, art most High above all the earth: thou art much exalted above all gods.
10 Ye that [h]love the Lord, hate evil: he preserveth the souls of his Saints: he will deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
11 [i]Light is sown for the righteous, and joy for the upright in heart.
12 Rejoice ye righteous in the Lord, and give thanks for his holy [j]remembrance.
99 1 He commendeth the power, equity, and excellency of the kingdom of God by Christ over the Jews and Gentiles, 5 And provoketh them to magnify the same, and to serve the Lord, 6 following the example of the ancient fathers, Moses, Aaron, Samuel, who calling upon God, were heard in their prayers.
1 The Lord reigneth, let the [a]people tremble: he sitteth between the (A)Cherubims, let the earth be moved.
2 The Lord is great in Zion, and he is high above all the people.
3 They shall [b]praise thy great and fearful Name (for it is holy.)
4 And the King’s power, that loveth judgment: for thou hast prepared equity: thou hast executed judgment and justice in Jacob.
5 Exalt the Lord our God, and fall down before his [c]footstool: for he is holy.
6 Moses and Aaron were among his Priests, [d]and Samuel among such as call upon his Name: these called upon the Lord, and he heard them.
7 He spake unto them in the cloudy pillar: they kept his testimonies, and the Law that he gave them.
8 Thou heardest them, O Lord our God: thou wast a favorable God unto them, though thou didst take vengeance for [e]their inventions.
9 Exalt the Lord our God and fall down before his holy Mountain: for the Lord our God is holy.
100 1 He exhorteth all to serve the Lord, 3 who hath chosen us, and preserved us, 4 and to enter into his assemblies to praise his Name.
A Psalm of praise.
1 Sing [f]ye loud unto the Lord, all the earth.
2 Serve the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyfulness.
3 Know ye that even the Lord is God; he hath [g]made us, and not we ourselves: we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
4 [h]Enter into his gates with praise, and into his courts with rejoicing: praise him and bless his Name.
5 For the Lord is good: his mercy is [i]everlasting, and his truth is from generation to generation.
94 1 He prayeth unto God against the violence and arrogance of tyrants, 10 warning them of God’s judgments. 12 Then doth he comfort the afflicted by the good issue of their afflictions, as he felt in himself, and did set in others, and by the ruin of the wicked, 23 whom the Lord will destroy.
1 O Lord God [a]the avenger, O God the avenger, show thyself [b]clearly.
2 Exalt thyself, O Judge of the world, and render a reward to the proud.
3 Lord, how long shall the wicked, how long shall the wicked [c]triumph?
4 They prate and speak fiercely: all the workers of iniquity vaunt themselves.
5 They [d]smite down thy people, O Lord, and trouble thine heritage.
6 They slay the widow and the stranger, and murder the fatherless.
7 [e]Yet they say, The Lord shall not see: neither will the God of Jacob regard it.
8 Understand, ye unwise among the people: and ye fools, when will ye be wise?
9 He that [f]planted the ear, shall he not hear? or he that formed the eye, shall he not see?
10 Or he that chastiseth the [g]nations, shall he not correct? he that teacheth man knowledge, shall he not know?
11 The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are vanity.
12 Blessed is the man whom thou [h]chastisest, O Lord, and teachest him in thy Law,
13 That thou mayest give him rest from the days of evil, while the pit is dug for the wicked.
14 Surely the Lord will not fail his people, neither will he forsake his inheritance.
15 For [i]judgment shall return to justice, and all the upright in heart shall follow after it.
16 Who will rise up with me against the wicked? or who will take my part against the workers of iniquity?
17 If the Lord had not [j]helped me, my soul had almost dwelt in silence.
18 When I said, [k]My foot slideth, thy mercy, O Lord, stayed me.
19 In the multitude of my [l]thoughts in mine heart, thy comforts have rejoiced my soul.
20 Hath the throne of iniquity [m]fellowship with thee, which forgeth wrong for a Law?
21 They gather them together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood.
22 But the Lord is my refuge, and my God is the rock of mine hope.
23 And he will recompense them their wickedness, and [n]destroy them in their own malice, yea, the Lord our God shall destroy them.
95 1 An earnest exhortation to praise God, 4 for the government of the world and the election of the Church. 8 An admonition not to follow the rebellion of the old fathers, that tempted God in the wilderness. 11 For the which they might not enter into the land of promise.
1 Come, let us rejoice unto the Lord: let us sing [o]aloud unto the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his face with praise: let us sing loud unto him with Psalms.
3 For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all [p]gods,
4 In whose hand are the deep places of the earth, and the [q]heights of the mountains are his,
5 To whom the Sea belongeth, for he made it, and his hands formed the dry land.
6 Come, let us [r]worship and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our maker.
7 For he is our God, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his [s]hand: today, if ye will hear his voice,
8 [t]Harden not your heart, as in [u]Meribah, and as in the day of [v]Massah in the wilderness,
9 When your fathers (A)tempted me, proved me, though they had seen my work.
10 Forty years have I contended with this generation, and said, They are a people that [w]err in heart, for they have not known my ways.
11 Wherefore I sware in my wrath, saying, Surely they shall not enter into [x]my rest.
29 3, 5 Hezekiah repaireth the Temple, and advertiseth the Levites of the corruption of religion. 12 The levites prepare the Temple. 20 The king and his princes sacrifice in the Temple. 25 The Levites sing praises. 31 The oblation of the people.
1 Hezekiah (A)began to reign, when he was five and twenty years old, and reigned nine and twenty years in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was [a]Abijah the daughter of Zechariah.
2 And he did uprightly in the sight of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done.
3 He opened the [b]doors of the house of the Lord in the [c]first year, and in the first month of his reign, and repaired them.
30 1, 13 The keeping of the Passover by the king’s commandment. 6 He exhorteth Israel to turn to the Lord. 18 He prayeth for the people. 24 His oblation and the princes’. 27 The Levites bless the people.
1 And Hezekiah sent to all Israel and Judah, and also wrote letters to [a]Ephraim and Manasseh, that they should come to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel.
2 And the king and his princes and all the Congregation had taken counsel in Jerusalem to keep the Passover in the [b]second month.
3 For they could not keep it at this time, because there were not Priests enough sanctified, neither was the people gathered to Jerusalem.
4 And the thing pleased the king, and all the Congregation.
5 And they decreed to make proclamation throughout all Israel from [c]Beersheba even to Dan, that they should come to keep the Passover unto the Lord God of Israel at Jerusalem: for they had not done it of a great time, [d]as it was written.
6 ¶ So the posts went with letters by the commission of the King, and his princes, throughout all Israel and Judah, and with the commandment of the King, saying, Ye children of Israel, turn again unto the Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, and [e]he will return to the remnant that are escaped of you, out of the hands of the kings of Assyria.
7 And be not ye like your fathers, and like your brethren, which trespassed against the Lord God of their fathers: and therefore he made them desolate, as ye see.
8 Be not ye now stiff-necked like your fathers, but [f]give the hand to the Lord, and come into his Sanctuary, which he hath sanctified forever, and serve the Lord your God, and the fierceness of his wrath shall turn away from you.
9 For if ye return unto the Lord, your brethren and your children shall find mercy before them that led them captives, and they shall [g]return unto this land: for the Lord your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn away his face from you, if ye convert unto him.
10 ¶ So the posts went from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, even unto Zebulun: but they [h]laughed them to scorn and mocked them.
11 Nevertheless, divers of Asher, and Manasseh, and of Zebulun, submitted themselves, and came to Jerusalem.
12 And the hand of God was in Judah, so that he gave them one [i]heart to do the commandment of the king, and of the rulers, according to the word of the Lord.
13 And there assembled to Jerusalem much people, to keep the feast of the unleavened bread in the second month, a very great assembly.
14 ¶ And they arose, and took away the [j]altars that were in Jerusalem, and all those for incense took they away, and cast them into the brook Kidron.
15 Afterward they slew the Passover the fourteenth day of the second month: and the Priests and Levites were [k]ashamed, and sanctified themselves, and brought the burnt offerings into the house of the Lord.
16 And they stood in their place after their manner, according to the Law of Moses the man of God: and the Priests sprinkled the [l]blood returned of the hands of the Levites.
17 Because there were many in the Congregation that were not sanctified, therefore the Levites had the charge of the killing of the Passover for all that were not clean, to sanctify it to the Lord.
18 For a multitude of the people, even a multitude of Ephraim, and Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun had not cleansed themselves, yet did eat the Passover, but not as it was written: wherefore Hezekiah prayed for them, saying, The [m]good Lord be merciful toward him,
19 That prepareth his whole heart to seek the Lord God, the God of his fathers, though he be not cleansed, according to the purification of the Sanctuary.
20 And the Lord heard Hezekiah, and [n]healed the people.
21 And the children of Israel that were present at Jerusalem, kept the feast of the unleavened bread seven days with great joy, and the Levites, and the priests praised the Lord day by day, singing with loud instruments unto the Lord.
22 And Hezekiah [o]spake comfortably unto all the Levites that had good knowledge to sing unto the Lord: and they did eat in that feast seven days, and offered peace offerings, and praised the Lord God of their fathers.
23 And the whole assembly took counsel to keep it another seven days. So they kept it seven days with joy.
24 For Hezekiah king of Judah had given to the Congregation a [p]thousand bullocks, and seven thousand sheep. And the princes had given to the Congregation a thousand bullocks, and ten thousand sheep: and many Priests were sanctified.
25 And all the Congregation of Judah rejoiced with the Priests and the Levites, and all the Congregation that came out of Israel, and the strangers that came out of the land of Israel, and that dwelt in Judah.
26 So there was great joy in Jerusalem: for since the time of Solomon the son of David king of Israel there was not the like thing in Jerusalem.
27 Then the Priests and the Levites arose, and [q]blessed the people, and their voice was heard, and their prayer came up unto heaven, to his holy habitation.
32 And I would have you without care. The unmarried careth for things of the Lord, how he may please the Lord.
33 But he that is married, [a]careth for the things of the world, how he may please his wife.
34 There is difference also between a virgin and a wife: the unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy, both in body and in [b]spirit: but she that is married, careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.
35 And this I speak for your own [c]commodity, not to tangle you in a snare, but that ye follow that which is honest, and that ye may cleave fast unto the Lord without separation.
36 [d]But if any man think that it is uncomely for his virgin, if she pass the flower of her age, and need so require, let him do what he will, he [e]sinneth not: let them be married.
37 Nevertheless, he that standeth firm in his [f]heart, that he hath no [g]need, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart, that he will keep his virgin, he doeth well.
38 So then he that giveth her to marriage, doeth well, but he that giveth her not to marriage, doeth [h]better.
39 [i]The wife is bound by the [j]law, as long as her husband (A)liveth: but if her husband be dead, she is at liberty to marry with whom she will, only in the [k]Lord.
40 But she is more blessed, if she so abide in my judgment: (B)and I think that I have also the Spirit of God.
7 1 We may not give judgment of our neighbors, 6 Nor cast that which is holy unto dogs. 13 The broad and strait way. 15 False prophets. 18 The tree and fruit. 24 The house built on a rock, 26 and on the sand.
1 Judge [a]not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what (A)judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what (B)measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you again.
3 And why seest thou the mote, that is in thy brother’s eye, and perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 (C)Or how sayest thou to thy brother, Suffer me to cast out the mote out of thine eye, and behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Hypocrite, first cast out that beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
6 ¶ [b]Give ye not that which is holy to dogs, neither cast ye your [c]pearls before swine, lest they tread them under their feet, and turning again, all to rent you.
7 ¶ (D)[d]Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and ye shall find: knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
8 For whosoever asketh, receiveth: and he that seeketh, findeth: and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.
9 For what man is there among you, which if his son ask him bread, would give him a stone?
10 Or if he ask fish, will he give him a serpent?
11 If ye then, which are evil, can give to your children good gifts, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him?
12 (E)[e]Therefore whatsoever ye would that men should do to you: even so do ye to them: for this is the [f]Law and the Prophets.
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