Book of Common Prayer
140 I have cried to the, O Lord, hear me: hearken to my voice, when I cry to thee.
2 Let my prayer be directed as incense in thy sight; the lifting up of my hands, as evening sacrifice.
3 Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth: and a door round about my lips.
4 Incline not my heart to evil words; to make excuses in sins. With men that work iniquity: and I will not communicate with the choicest of them.
5 The just shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me: but let not the oil of the sinner fatten my head. For my prayer also shall still be against the things with which they are well pleased:
6 Their judges falling upon the rock have been swallowed up. They shall hear my words, for they have prevailed:
7 As when the thickness of the earth is broken up upon the ground: Our bones are scattered by the side of hell.
8 But o to thee, O Lord, Lord, are my eyes: in thee have I put my trust, take not away my soul.
9 Keep me from the snare, which they have laid for me, and from the stumblingblocks of them that work iniquity.
10 The wicked shall fall in his net: I am alone until I pass.
142 Hear, O Lord, my prayer: give ear to my supplication in thy truth: hear me in thy justice.
2 And enter not into judgment with thy servant: for in thy sight no man living shall be justified.
3 For the enemy hath persecuted my soul: he hath brought down my life to the earth. He hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been dead of old:
4 And my spirit is in anguish within me: my heart within me is troubled.
5 I remembered the days of old, I meditated on all thy works: I meditated upon the works of thy hands.
6 I stretched forth my hands to thee: my soul is as earth without water unto thee.
7 Hear me speedily, O Lord: my spirit hath fainted away. Turn not away thy face from me, lest I be like unto them that go down into the pit.
8 Cause me to hear thy mercy in the morning; for in thee have I hoped. Make the way known to me, wherein I should walk: for I have lifted up my soul to thee.
9 Deliver me from my enemies, O Lord, to thee have I fled:
10 Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God. Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right land:
11 For thy name's sake, O Lord, thou wilt quicken me in thy justice. Thou wilt bring my soul out of trouble:
12 And in thy mercy thou wilt destroy my enemies. And thou wilt cut off all them that afflict my soul: for I am thy servant.
141 Of understanding for David. A prayer when he was in the cave. [1 Kings 24.]
2 I cried to the Lord with my voice: with my voice I made supplication to the Lord.
3 In his sight I pour out my prayer, and before him I declare my trouble:
4 When my spirit failed me, then thou newest my paths. In this way wherein I walked, they have hidden a snare for me.
5 I looked on my right hand, and beheld, and there was no one that would know me. Flight hath failed me: and there is no one that hath regard to my soul.
6 I cried to thee, O Lord: I said: Thou art my hope, my portion in the land of the living.
7 Attend to my supplication: for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors; for they are stronger than I.
8 Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name: the just wait for me, until thou reward me.
143 Blessed be the Lord my God, who teacheth my hands to fight, and my fingers to war.
2 My mercy, and my refuge: my support, and my deliverer: My protector, and I have hoped in him: who subdueth my people under me.
3 Lord, what is man, that thou art made known to him? or the son of man, that thou makest account of him?
4 Man is like to vanity: his days pass away like a shadow.
5 Lord, bow down thy heavens and descend: touch the mountains and they shall smoke.
6 Send forth lightning, and thou shalt scatter them: shoot out thy arrows, and thou shalt trouble them.
7 Put forth thy hand from on high, take me out, and deliver me from many waters: from the hand of strange children:
8 Whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity.
9 To thee, O God, I will sing a new canticle: on the psaltery and an instrument of ten strings I will sing praises to thee.
10 Who givest salvation to kings: who hast redeemed thy servant David from the malicious sword:
11 Deliver me, And rescue me out of the hand of strange children; whose mouth hath spoken vanity: and their right hand is the right hand of iniquity:
12 Whose sons are as new plants in their youth: Their daughters decked out, adorned round about after the similitude of a temple:
13 Their storehouses full, flowing out of this into that. Their sheep fruitful in young, abounding in their goings forth:
14 Their oxen fat. There is no breach of wall, nor passage, nor crying out in their streets.
15 They have called the people happy, that hath these things: but happy is that people whose God is the Lord.
14 These shall lift up their voice, and shall give praise: when the Lord shall be glorified, they shall make a joyful noise from the sea.
15 Therefore glorify ye the Lord in instruction: the name of the Lord God of Israel in the islands of the sea.
16 From the ends of the earth we have heard praises, the glory of the just one. And I said: My secret to myself, my secret to myself, woe is me: the prevaricators have prevaricated, and with the prevarication of transgressors they have prevaricated.
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare are upon thee, O thou inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: and he that shall rid himself out of the pit, shall be taken in the snare: for the flood-gates from on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth shall be shaken.
19 With breaking shall the earth be broken, with crushing shall the earth be crushed, with trembling shall the earth be moved.
20 With shaking shall the earth be shaken as a drunken man, and shall be removed as the tent of one night: and the iniquity thereof shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fell, and not rise again.
21 And it shall come to pass, that in that day the Lord shall visit upon the host of heaven on high, and upon the kings of the earth, on the earth.
22 And they shall be gathered together as in the gathering of one bundle into the pit, and they shall be shut up there in prison: and after many days they shall be visited.
23 And the moon shall blush, and the sun shall be ashamed, when the Lord of hosts shall reign in mount Sion, and in Jerusalem, and shall be glorified in the sight of his ancients.
13 And who is he that can hurt you, if you be zealous of good?
14 But if also you suffer any thing for justice' sake, blessed are ye. And be not afraid of their fear, and be not troubled.
15 But sanctify the Lord Christ in your hearts, being ready always to satisfy every one that asketh you a reason of that hope which is in you.
16 But with modesty and fear, having a good conscience: that whereas they speak evil of you, they may be ashamed who falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
17 For it is better doing well (if such be the will of God) to suffer, than doing ill.
18 Because Christ also died once for our sins, the just for the unjust: that he might offer us to God, being put to death indeed in the flesh, but enlivened in the spirit,
19 In which also coming he preached to those spirits that were in prison:
20 Which had been some time incredulous, when they waited for the patience of God in the days of Noe, when the ark was a building: wherein a few, that is, eight souls, were saved by water.
21 Whereunto baptism being of the like form, now saveth you also: not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the examination of a good conscience towards God by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
22 Who is on the right hand of God, swallowing down death, that we might be made heirs of life everlasting: being gone into heaven, the angels and powers and virtues being made subject to him.
4 Christ therefore having suffered in the flesh, be you also armed with the same thought: for he that hath suffered in the flesh, hath ceased from sins:
2 That now he may live the rest of his time in the flesh, not after the desires of men, but according to the will of God.
3 For the time past is sufficient to have fulfilled the will of the Gentiles, for them who have walked in riotousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and unlawful worshipping of idols.
4 Wherein they think it strange, that you run not with them into the same confusion of riotousness, speaking evil of you.
5 Who shall render account to him, who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
6 For, for this cause was the gospel preached also to the dead: that they might be judged indeed according to men, in the flesh; but may live according to God, in the Spirit.
17 And Jesus going up to Jerusalem, took the twelve disciples apart, and said to them:
18 Behold we go up to Jerusalem, and the Son of man shall be betrayed to the chief priests and the scribes, and they shall condemn him to death.
19 And shall deliver him to the Gentiles to be mocked, and scourged, and crucified, and the third day he shall rise again.
20 Then came to him the mother of the sons of Zebedee with her sons, adoring and asking something of him.
21 Who said to her: What wilt thou? She saith to him: Say that these my two sons may sit, the one on thy right hand, and the other on thy left, in thy kingdom.
22 And Jesus answering, said: You know not what you ask. Can you drink the chalice that I shall drink? They say to him: We can.
23 He saith to them: My chalice indeed you shall drink; but to sit on my right or left hand, is not mine to give to you, but to them for whom it is prepared by my Father.
24 And the ten hearing it, were moved with indignation against the two brethren.
25 But Jesus called them to him, and said: You know that the princes of the Gentiles lord it over them; and they that are the greater, exercise power upon them.
26 It shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be the greater among you, let him be your minister:
27 And he that will be first among you, shall be your servant.
28 Even as the Son of man is not come to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a redemption for many.
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)