Book of Common Prayer
An instruction. Of Asaph.
78 Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter riddles from of old,
3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us:
4 We will not hide [them] from their sons, shewing forth to the generation to come the praises of Jehovah, and his strength, and his marvellous works which he hath done.
5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
6 That the generation to come might know [them], the children that should be born; that they might rise up and tell [them] to their children,
7 And that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but observe his commandments;
8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that prepared not their heart, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.
9 The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;
11 And forgot his doings, and his marvellous works which he had shewn them.
12 In the sight of their fathers had he done wonders, in the land of Egypt, the field of Zoan.
13 He clave the sea, and caused them to pass through; and made the waters to stand as a heap;
14 And he led them with a cloud in the daytime, and all the night with the light of fire.
15 He clave rocks in the wilderness, and gave [them] drink as out of the depths, abundantly;
16 And he brought streams out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 Yet they still went on sinning against him, provoking the Most High in the desert;
18 And they tempted God in their heart, by asking meat for their lust;
19 And they spoke against God: they said, Is God able to prepare a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, he smote the rock, and waters gushed out, and streams overflowed; is he able to give bread also, or provide flesh for his people?
21 Therefore Jehovah heard, and was wroth; and fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also went up against Israel:
22 Because they believed not in God, and confided not in his salvation;
23 Though he had commanded the clouds from above, and had opened the doors of the heavens,
24 And had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them the corn of the heavens.
25 Man did eat the bread of the mighty; he sent them provision to the full.
26 He caused the east wind to rise in the heavens, and by his strength he brought the south wind;
27 And he rained flesh upon them as dust, and feathered fowl as the sand of the seas,
28 And he let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations:
29 And they did eat, and were well filled; for that they lusted after, he brought to them.
30 They were not alienated from their lust, their meat was yet in their mouths,
31 When the anger of God went up against them; and he slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32 For all this, they sinned still, and believed not in his marvellous works;
33 And he consumed their days in vanity, and their years in terror.
34 When he slew them, then they sought him, and returned and sought early after God;
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and God, the Most High, their redeemer.
36 But they flattered him with their mouth, and lied unto him with their tongue;
37 For their heart was not firm toward him, neither were they stedfast in his covenant.
38 But he was merciful: he forgave the iniquity, and destroyed [them] not; but many a time turned he his anger away, and did not stir up all his fury:
39 And he remembered that they were flesh, a breath that passeth away and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness, and grieve him in the desert!
41 And they turned again and tempted God, and grieved the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not his hand, the day when he delivered them from the oppressor,
43 How he set his signs in Egypt, and his miracles in the field of Zoan;
44 And turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink;
45 He sent dog-flies among them, which devoured them, and frogs, which destroyed them;
46 And he gave their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust;
47 He killed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with hail-stones;
48 And he delivered up their cattle to the hail, and their flocks to thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and distress,—a mission of angels of woes.
50 He made a way for his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;
51 And he smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the first-fruits of their vigour in the tents of Ham.
52 And he made his own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock;
53 And he led them safely, so that they were without fear; and the sea covered their enemies.
54 And he brought them to his holy border, this mountain, which his right hand purchased;
55 And he drove out the nations before them, and allotted them for an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56 But they tempted and provoked God, the Most High, and kept not his testimonies,
57 And they drew back and dealt treacherously like their fathers: they turned like a deceitful bow.
58 And they provoked him to anger with their high places, and moved him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 God heard, and was wroth, and greatly abhorred Israel:
60 And he forsook the tabernacle at Shiloh, the tent where he had dwelt among men,
61 And gave his strength into captivity, and his glory into the hand of the oppressor;
62 And delivered up his people unto the sword, and was very wroth with his inheritance:
63 The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not praised in [nuptial] song;
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awoke as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth aloud by reason of wine;
66 And he smote his adversaries in the hinder part, and put them to everlasting reproach.
67 And he rejected the tent of Joseph, and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
68 But chose the tribe of Judah, the mount Zion which he loved;
69 And he built his sanctuary like the heights, like the earth which he hath founded for ever.
70 And he chose David his servant, and took him from the sheepfolds:
71 From following the suckling-ewes, he brought him to feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance.
72 And he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and led them by the skilfulness of his hands.
26 And there was a famine in the land, besides the former famine which had been in the days of Abraham. And Isaac went to Abimelech the king of the Philistines, to Gerar.
2 And Jehovah appeared to him and said, Go not down to Egypt: dwell in the land that I shall tell thee of.
3 Sojourn in this land; and I will be with thee and bless thee; for unto thee, and unto thy seed, I will give all these countries; and I will perform the oath which I swore unto Abraham thy father.
4 And I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and unto thy seed will I give all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth bless themselves—
5 because that Abraham hearkened to my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
6 And Isaac dwelt at Gerar.
12 And Isaac sowed in that land, and received in the same year a hundredfold; and Jehovah blessed him.
13 And the man became great, and he became continually greater, until he was very great.
14 And he had possessions of flocks, and possessions of herds, and a great number of servants; and the Philistines envied him.
15 And all the wells that his father's servants had dug in the days of Abraham his father, the Philistines stopped them and filled them with earth.
16 And Abimelech said to Isaac, Go from us; for thou art become much mightier than we.
17 And Isaac departed thence, and pitched his camp in the valley of Gerar, and dwelt there.
18 And Isaac dug again the wells of water that they had dug in the days of Abraham his father, and that the Philistines had stopped after the death of Abraham; and he called their names after the names by which his father had called them.
19 And Isaac's servants dug in the valley, and found there a well of springing water.
20 But the shepherds of Gerar strove with Isaac's shepherds, saying, The water is ours. And he called the name of the well Esek, because they had quarrelled with him.
21 And they dug another well, and they strove for that also; and he called the name of it Sitnah.
22 And he removed thence and dug another well; and they did not strive for that. And he called the name of it Rehoboth, and said, For now Jehovah has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.
23 And he went up thence to Beer-sheba.
24 And Jehovah appeared to him the same night, and said, I am the God of Abraham thy father: fear not, for I am with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my servant Abraham's sake.
25 And he built an altar there, and called upon the name of Jehovah. And he pitched his tent there; and there Isaac's servants dug a well.
26 And Abimelech, and Ahuzzath his friend, and Phichol the captain of his host, went to him from Gerar.
27 And Isaac said to them, Why are ye come to me, seeing ye hate me, and have driven me away from you?
28 And they said, We saw certainly that Jehovah is with thee; and we said, Let there be then an oath between us—between us and thee, and let us make a covenant with thee,
29 that thou wilt do us no wrong, as we have not touched thee, and as we have done to thee nothing but good, and have let thee go in peace; thou art now blessed of Jehovah.
30 And he made them a feast, and they ate and drank.
31 And they rose early in the morning, and swore one to another; and Isaac sent them away, and they departed from him in peace.
32 And it came to pass the same day, that Isaac's servants came, and told him concerning the well that they had dug, and said to him, We have found water.
33 And he called it Shebah; therefore the name of the city is Beer-sheba to this day.
17 Obey your leaders, and be submissive; for *they* watch over your souls as those that shall give account; that they may do this with joy, and not groaning, for this [would be] unprofitable for you.
18 Pray for us: for we persuade ourselves that we have a good conscience, in all things desirous to walk rightly.
19 But I much more beseech [you] to do this, that I may the more quickly be restored to you.
20 But the God of peace, who brought again from among [the] dead our Lord Jesus, the great shepherd of the sheep, in [the power of the] blood of [the] eternal covenant,
21 perfect you in every good work to the doing of his will, doing in you what is pleasing before him through Jesus Christ; to whom [be] glory for the ages of ages. Amen.
22 But I beseech you, brethren, bear the word of exhortation, for it is but in few words that I have written to you.
23 Know that our brother Timotheus is set at liberty; with whom, if he should come soon, I will see you.
24 Salute all your leaders, and all the saints. They from Italy salute you.
25 Grace [be] with you all. Amen.
53 And every one went to his home.
8 But Jesus went to the mount of Olives.
2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came to him; and he sat down and taught them.
3 And the scribes and the Pharisees bring [to him] a woman taken in adultery, and having set her in the midst,
4 they say to him, Teacher, this woman has been taken in the very act, committing adultery.
5 Now in the law Moses has commanded us to stone such; thou therefore, what sayest thou?
6 But this they said proving him, that they might have [something] to accuse him [of]. But Jesus, having stooped down, wrote with his finger on the ground.
7 But when they continued asking him, he lifted himself up and said to them, Let him that is without sin among you first cast the stone at her.
8 And again stooping down he wrote on the ground.
9 But they, having heard [that], went out one by one beginning from the elder ones until the last; and Jesus was left alone and the woman standing there.
10 And Jesus, lifting himself up and seeing no one but the woman, said to her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no one condemned thee?
11 And she said, No one, sir. And Jesus said to her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
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