Book of Common Prayer
Israel from Moses to David
Psalm 78
1 A contemplative song of Asaph.
Listen, my people, to my teaching.
Turn your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth with a parable.
I will utter perplexing sayings from of old,
3 which we have heard and known,
and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children,
telling to the next generation the praises of Adonai
and His strength and the wonders He has done.
5 For He established a testimony in Jacob
and ordained Torah in Israel,
which He commanded our fathers to teach their children,
6 so that the next generation might know,
even the children yet to be born:
they will arise and tell their children.
7 Then they will put their trust in God,
not forgetting the works of God,
but keeping His mitzvot.
8 So they will not be like their fathers—
a stubborn and rebellious generation,
a generation that did not prepare its heart,
whose spirit was not loyal to God.
9 The sons of Ephraim were archers armed with bows,
yet they turned back in the day of battle.
10 They did not keep God’s covenant
and refused to walk in His Torah.
11 They forgot His deeds
and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 He did miracles in front of their fathers
in the land of Egypt, in the plain of Zoan.
13 He split the sea and led them through,
and He made the water stand like a wall.
14 By day He led them with a cloud
and all night with a light of fire.
15 He split apart rocks in the wilderness
and gave them drink as abundant as the depths.
16 So He brought streams out of a rock,
and made waters flow down like rivers.[a]
17 Yet they added more sinning against Him,
rebelling against Elyon in the desert.
18 They put God to the test in their heart
by demanding food for their craving.
19 Then they spoke against God, saying,
“Can God set a table in the wilderness?
20 See, He struck the rock,
waters gushed out, streams overflowed.
But can He give bread?
Will He provide meat for His people?”
21 When Adonai heard, He was angry.
A fire was kindled against Jacob,
and fury also rose against Israel.
22 For they did not believe in God
or trust in His salvation.
23 Yet He commanded the skies above
and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and rained down manna upon them to eat,
and gave them grain of heaven.[b]
25 Man did eat the bread of angels.
He sent them abundant provision.
26 He loosed the east wind in the skies,
and by His power He drove the south wind.
27 He rained meat upon them like dust,
and winged fowl like sand of the seas.
28 And He let it fall amidst their camp,
all around their tents.
29 So they ate and were very full—
for He gave them their desire.
30 No longer a stranger from their desire,
while their food was still in their mouths,
31 the anger of God rose against them
and slew the stoutest of them,
and struck down young men of Israel.
32 Despite all this they sinned still more,
and did not trust in His wonders.
33 So He ended their days in futility
and their years in terror.
34 But when He slew them,
then they sought Him, and turned back,
and desired God eagerly.
35 Then they remembered that God was their Rock
and El Elyon their Redeemer.
36 But they flattered Him with their mouth
and kept lying to Him with their tongue.
37 For their heart was not steadfast with Him,
nor were they faithful to His covenant.
38 But He is compassionate,
forgives iniquity and does not destroy.
Yes, many times He restrains His anger,
and does not stir up all His wrath.
39 For He remembered that they are but flesh,
a passing breath that never returns.
40 How often they rebelled against Him in the wilderness,
and grieved Him in the desert!
41 Again and again they tested God,
and pained the Holy One of Israel.
42 They did not remember His hand—
the day He redeemed them from the foe,
43 when He displayed His signs in Egypt
and His wonders in the plain of Zoan.
44 He turned their rivers into blood,
so they could not drink from their streams.
45 He sent on them flies to devour them,
and frogs to devastate them,
46 and gave their crops to the grasshopper,
and their labor to the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail,
and their sycamore trees with frost,
48 and gave over their cattle to the hail,
and their flocks to fiery bolts.
49 He sent on them the fury of His anger
—wrath and indignation and trouble—
a band of evil angels.
50 He cleared a path for His anger.
He spared not their soul from death,
but gave their life over to the plague.
51 He struck down all the firstborn in Egypt,
the firstfruits of their strength in the tents of Ham.
52 But He brought His people out like sheep,
and led them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 He led them to safety, so they did not fear,
but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 Then He brought them to His holy territory,
to the mountain His right hand had gotten.
55 He drove out nations before them,
and allotted them an inheritance.
He settled the tribes of Israel in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and rebelled against El Elyon,
and did not keep His decrees.
57 Like their fathers they turned and were treacherous.
They turned aside like a faulty bow.
58 For they provoked Him
with their high places,
so they aroused His jealousy
with their graven images.
59 God heard and was furious,
and He greatly detested Israel.
60 He abandoned the tabernacle of Shiloh,
the tent He pitched among men.
61 He gave up His strength into captivity,
and His glory into the adversary’s hand.
62 He gave His people over to the sword,
when He was angry at His inheritance.
63 Fire consumed their young men,
and their virgins had no wedding songs.
64 Their priests fell by the sword,
and their widows could not weep.
65 Then the Lord awoke as from sleep,
as a warrior shaking off wine.
66 He beat back His foes,
putting them to lasting scorn.
67 Then He detested Joseph’s tent
and chose not the tribe of Ephraim.
68 Instead He chose the tribe of Judah,
Mount Zion, which He loved.
69 He built His Sanctuary like the heights,
like the earth that He established forever.
70 He also chose David His servant
and took him from the sheepfolds,
71 from following nursing ewes.
He brought him to shepherd Jacob His people,
and Israel His inheritance.
72 So He shepherded them with the integrity of His heart,
and led them with His skillful hands.
Confirming the Covenant with Isaac
26 Now there was a famine in the land—aside from the previous famine that happened in Abraham’s days. So Isaac went to King Abimelech of the Philistines, to Gerar. 2 Then Adonai appeared to him and said, “Do not go down to Egypt. Dwell in the land about which I tell you. 3 Live as an outsider in this land and I will be with you and bless you—for to you and to your seed I give all these lands—and I will confirm my pledge that I swore to Abraham your father. 4 I will multiply your seed like the stars of the sky and I will give your seed all these lands. And in your seed all the nations of the earth will continually be blessed, 5 because Abraham listened to My voice and kept My charge, My mitzvot, My decrees, and My instructions.” 6 So Isaac stayed in Gerar.
Adonai Blesses Isaac
12 Then Isaac sowed in that land and in that year reaped a hundredfold. Adonai blessed him 13 and the man became great and continued to become greater until he became very great. 14 He acquired livestock of sheep and livestock of cattle, and numerous servants. Then the Philistines envied him. 15 All the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the days of his father Abraham the Philistines stopped up and filled with dirt. 16 So Abimelech said to Isaac, “Go away from us, for you are much more powerful than us.”
17 So Isaac departed from there, camped in the Valley of Gerar and dwelled there. 18 Then Isaac dug again the wells of water that had been dug in the days of his father Abraham—the Philistines had stopped them up after Abraham’s death. He gave them the same names that his father had given them. 19 Then Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and found a well of living water there. 20 But the shepherds of Gerar quarreled with Isaac’s shepherds saying, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Quarrel, because they quarreled with him. 21 Then he dug another well and they quarreled over it too, so he named it Accusation. 22 Then he moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he named it Wide Spaces and said, “Because now Adonai has created wide spaces for us and we will be fruitful in the land.”
23 He went up from there to Beer-sheba. 24 Adonai appeared to him that night and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you, and I will bless you and multiply your seed for the sake of Abraham my servant.”
25 So he built an altar there and called on the Name of Adonai. He pitched his tent there and Isaac’s servants hollowed out a well there.
Covenant of Isaac and Abimelech
26 Now Abimelech went to him from Gerar along with Achuzzat his friend and Phicol the commander of his army. 27 Isaac said to them, “Why have you come to me, since you hate me and sent me away from you?”
28 They said, “We’ve clearly seen that Adonai has been with you. So we said, ‘Let there now be an agreement between us—between us and you—and let us make a covenant with you: 29 that you will do us no harm, just as we haven’t touched you and just as we did nothing to you but good, and sent you away in shalom. You are now blessed by Adonai.”
30 Then he made a feast for them and they ate and drank. 31 Then they got up early in the morning and made a pledge, each to his brother. Then Isaac sent them away and they departed from him in shalom. 32 Now it happened that on that day Isaac’s servants came and told him about the well that they dug, and said to him, “We’ve found water.” 33 So he called it Pledge. That is why the city’s name is Beer-sheba to this day.
17 Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as ones who must give an account. Let them do this with joy and not with groaning, for that would be of no benefit to you.
18 Pray for us, for we are convinced that we have a clear conscience, desiring to conduct ourselves honorably in all things. 19 I especially urge you to do this, so that I may be restored to you sooner.
Closing Blessing
20 Now may the God of shalom, who brought up from the dead the great Shepherd of the sheep by the blood of an everlasting covenant,[a] our Lord Yeshua, 21 make you complete in every good thing to do His will, accomplishing in us what is pleasing in His sight, through Messiah Yeshua. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.
Final Greetings
22 But I urge you, brothers and sisters, listen patiently to this word of exhortation, for in fact I have written to you in few words. 23 Know that our brother Timothy has been released. If he comes soon, I will visit you with him.
24 Greet all your leaders and all the kedoshim—those from Italy greet you.
25 Grace be with you all.
53 Then everyone went to his own house.
Mercy for a Sinful Woman
8 But Yeshua went to the Mount of Olives. 2 At dawn, He came again into the Temple. All the people were coming to Him, and He sat down and began to teach them.
3 The Torah scholars and Pharisees bring in a woman who had been caught in adultery. After putting her in the middle, 4 they say to Yeshua, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of committing adultery. 5 In the Torah, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do You say?” 6 Now they were saying this to trap Him, so that they would have grounds to accuse Him.
But Yeshua knelt down and started writing in the dirt with His finger. 7 When they kept asking Him, He stood up and said, “The sinless one among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Then He knelt down again and continued writing on the ground.
9 Now when they heard, they began to leave, one by one, the oldest ones first, until Yeshua was left alone with the woman in the middle. 10 Straightening up, Yeshua said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?”
11 “No one, Sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Yeshua said. “Go, and sin no more.”
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.