Book of Common Prayer
Adonai Still Faithful to Israel
Psalm 106
1 Halleluyah!
Praise Adonai, for He is good,
for His lovingkindness endures forever.
2 Who can speak of Adonai’s mighty acts
or declare His praise?
3 Blessed are those who maintain justice,
who do what is right at all times.
4 Remember me, Adonai,
when You show favor to Your people.
Visit me with Your salvation,
5 so I may behold the prosperity of Your chosen ones,
exult in the joy of Your nation,
and give praise with Your inheritance.
6 We have sinned with our fathers,
we have committed iniquity,
we have acted wickedly.
7 Our fathers in Egypt did not ponder Your wonders.
Nor did they remember Your abundant lovingkindness,
but rebelled by the sea—at the Sea of Reeds.
8 Yet He saved them for His Name’s sake,
to make His mighty power known.
9 He rebuked the Sea of Reeds
and it dried up,
and He led them through the depths as through a wilderness.
10 So He saved them from the hand of those who hated them,
redeemed them from the enemy’s hand.
11 The waters covered their adversaries—
not one of them was left.
12 Then they believed His words.
They were singing His praise.
13 How quickly they forgot His works,
and would not wait for His counsel!
14 In the wilderness they craved ravenously,
in the desert they tested God.
15 So He gave them what they asked for,
but sent a wasting disease among them.
16 Then they envied Moses in the camp,
and also Aaron, the holy one of Adonai.
17 The earth opened up, swallowed Dathan,
and covered the company of Abiram.
18 Also a fire blazed in their company,
a flame consumed the wicked.
19 They made a calf in Horeb
and worshipped a molten image.
20 Thus they exchanged their glory
for an image of a grass-eating ox.
21 They forgot God their Savior,
who had done great things in Egypt—
22 miracles in the land of Ham,
awesome things by the Sea of Reeds.
23 So He commanded their extermination,
had not Moses, His chosen one,
stood in the breach before Him,
to turn His wrath from destroying them.
24 Then they scorned the pleasing land—
they did not trust in His word.
25 Instead, they grumbled in their tents.
They would not listen to Adonai’s voice.
26 Therefore He swore to them
that He would make them fall in the desert,
27 and disperse their offspring among the nations,
and scatter them through the lands.
28 Then they yoked themselves to Baal of Peor,
and ate the sacrifices of dead things.
29 So they provoked Him with their deeds,
and a plague broke out among them.
30 But Phinehas stood up and intervened,
so the plague was stopped.
31 It was credited to him as righteousness,
from generation to generation forever.
32 By the waters of Meribah they angered Him,
and trouble came on Moses because of them.
33 For they embittered his spirit
and he spoke rashly with his lips.
34 They did not destroy the peoples,
as Adonai had commanded them.
35 Instead they mingled with the nations
and learned their practices.
36 They worshipped their idols,
which became a snare to them.
37 They even sacrificed their sons
and their daughters to demons.
38 They shed innocent blood—
the blood of their sons and their daughters,
sacrificed to the idols of Canaan.
So the land was desecrated with blood.
39 So they defiled themselves by their deeds,
and prostituted themselves by their practices.
40 Therefore the anger of Adonai was kindled against His people,
and He abhorred His inheritance.
41 He handed them to the nations—
those who hated them ruled over them.
42 Their enemies oppressed them,
so they were subdued under their hand.
43 Many times He delivered them,
but they kept rebelling deliberately,
and so sank low into their iniquity.
44 Yet He saw their distress,
when He heard their cry,
45 remembered His covenant to them,[a]
and relented in the greatness of His mercy.
46 He caused them to be pitied
in the presence of all their captors.
47 Save us, Adonai our God,
and gather us from the nations,
so we may praise Your holy Name
and triumph in Your praise.
48 Blessed be Adonai, the God of Israel,
from everlasting even to everlasting!
Let all the people say, “Amen!”
Halleluyah!
Wicked Kings Manasseh and Amon
21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned 55 years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Hephzi-bah. 2 But he did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes, following the abominations of the nations that Adonai had dispossessed before Bnei-Yisrael. 3 For he rebuilt the shrines that his father Hezekiah had destroyed and he erected altars for Baal and made an Asherah pole, as King Ahab of Israel had done, and bowed down to all the host of heaven and worshipped them. 4 He even built altars in Adonai’s House, where Adonai had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My Name.” 5 He built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the House of Adonai. 6 He also made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in Adonai’s eyes to provoke Him.
7 Then he set up the carved image of Asherah that he made in the House about which Adonai had said to David and to his son Solomon, “In this House and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel, I will put My Name forever. 8 No longer will I cause the feet of Israel to wander from the land which I gave their fathers—if only they will keep doing all I have commanded them and the whole Torah that My servant Moses commanded them.”
9 But they did not listen, so Manasseh led them astray to do more evil than the nations that Adonai had destroyed before Bnei-Yisrael. 10 Then Adonai spoke through His servants the prophets, saying: 11 “Since King Manasseh of Judah has done these abominations, and has outdone in wickedness all that the Amorites who were before him did, and has also made Judah sin with his idols, 12 therefore thus says Adonai, God of Israel, behold, I am bringing such evil on Jerusalem and Judah that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle! 13 I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab, and I will utterly wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish—wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 Then I will cast off the remnant of My inheritance and hand them over to their enemies—they will become plunder and spoil to all their enemies. 15 For they have done such evil in My eyes, and kept provoking Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt up to this day.”
16 Moreover, Manasseh shed so much innocent blood until he filled Jerusalem with blood from one end to another—in addition to his sin which he made Judah sin, in doing what was evil in Adonai’s eyes. 17 Now the rest of the deeds of Manasseh, all that he did and his sin that he committed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 18 Then Manasseh slept with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own palace, in the garden of Uzza.
Then his son Amon became king in his place.
Feast with the Lord—Not with Idols
14 Therefore, my dearly loved ones, flee from idolatry. 15 I speak as to sensible people—judge for yourselves what I say. 16 The cup of blessing that we bless—isn’t it a sharing of Messiah’s blood? The bread which we break—isn’t it a sharing of Messiah’s body? 17 Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body—for we all partake of the one bread. 18 Consider physical Israel. Those who eat the sacrifices—aren’t they partners in the altar?[a]
19 What am I saying then—that an idol sacrifice is anything, or that an idol is anything? 20 No, I’m saying that what the pagans sacrifice is to demons and not to God, and I don’t want you to become partners with demons. [b] 21 You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. 22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy?[c] We are not stronger than He, are we?
23 “Everything is permitted”—but not everything is helpful. “Everything is permitted”—but not everything builds up. 24 Let no one seek his own good, but the good of his neighbor. 25 Eat whatever is sold in the meat market, without raising questions of conscience. 26 For “the earth is the Lord’s, and its fullness.” [d] 27 If an unbeliever invites you over and you want to go, eat whatever is set before you, without raising questions of conscience. 28 But if anyone says to you, “This is from an idol sacrifice,” do not eat it, for the sake of the one who informed you, and for the sake of conscience— 29 not your own conscience, I mean, but the other person’s. For why is my freedom judged by another’s conscience? 30 If I partake with thankfulness, why am I denounced because of something I give thanks for?
31 Therefore, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 32 Give no offense either to Jewish or Greek people or to God’s community— 33 just as I also try to please everyone in everything, not seeking my own benefit but the benefit of many, so that they may be saved.
11 Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Messiah.
Freedom from Demons
28 When He came to the other side, into the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-plagued men coming from the graveyard[a] met Him. They were so violent that no one could pass by that way. 29 And they screamed, “What’s between You and us,[b] Ben-Elohim? Have You come here to torment us, before the appointed time?”
30 Now a large herd of pigs was feeding some distance away from them. 31 The demons kept begging Him, “If You drive us out, send us into the herd of pigs.”
32 And He told them, “Go!” So they came out and went into the pigs, and the whole herd rushed down the cliff into the sea and drowned. 33 The herdsmen ran away, went into the town, and told everything, including what had happened to the demon-plagued men. 34 The whole town came out to meet Yeshua. And when they saw him, they begged Him to leave their region.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.