Book of Common Prayer

101 The prayer of the poor man, when he was anxious, and poured out his supplication before the Lord.

² Hear, O Lord, my prayer: and let my cry come to thee.

³ Turn not away thy face from me: in the day when I am in trouble, incline thy ear to me. In what day soever I shall call upon thee, hear me speedily.

⁴ For my days are vanished like smoke: and my bones are grown dry like fuel for the fire.

⁵ I am smitten as grass, and my heart is withered: because I forgot to eat my bread.

⁶ Through the voice of my groaning, my bone hath cleaved to my flesh.

⁷ I am become like to a pelican of the wilderness: I am like a night raven in the house.

⁸ I have watched, and am become as a sparrow all alone on the housetop.

⁹ All the day long my enemies reproached me: and they that praised me did swear against me.

¹⁰ For I did eat ashes like bread, and mingled my drink with weeping.

¹¹ Because of thy anger and indignation: for having lifted me up thou hast thrown me down.

¹² My days have declined like a shadow, and I am withered like grass.

¹³ But thou, O Lord, endurest for ever: and thy memorial to all generations.

¹⁴ Thou shalt arise and have mercy on Sion: for it is time to have mercy on it, for the time is come.

¹⁵ For the stones thereof have pleased thy servants: and they shall have pity on the earth thereof.

¹⁶ And the Gentiles shall fear thy name, O Lord, and all the kings of the earth thy glory.

¹⁷ For the Lord hath built up Sion: and he shall be seen in his glory.

¹⁸ He hath had regard to the prayer of the humble: and he hath not despised their petition.

¹⁹ Let these things be written unto another generation: and the people that shall be created shall praise the Lord:

²⁰ Because he hath looked forth from his high sanctuary: from heaven the Lord hath looked upon the earth.

²¹ That he might hear the groans of them that are in fetters: that he might release the children of the slain:

²² That they may declare the name of the Lord in Sion: and his praise in Jerusalem;

²³ When the people assemble together, and kings, to serve the Lord.

²⁴ He answered him in the way of his strength: Declare unto me the fewness of my days.

²⁵ Call me not away in the midst of my days: thy years are unto generation and generation.

²⁶ In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundedst the earth: and the heavens are the works of thy hands.

²⁷ They shall perish but thou remainest: and all of them shall grow old like a garment: And as a vesture thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed.

²⁸ But thou art always the selfsame, and thy years shall not fail.

²⁹ The children of thy servants shall continue: and their seed shall be directed for ever.

109 The Lord said to my Lord: Sit thou at my right hand: Until I make thy enemies thy footstool.

² The Lord will send forth the sceptre of thy power out of Sion: rule thou in the midst of thy enemies.

³ With thee is the principality in the day of thy strength: in the brightness of the saints: from the womb before the day star I begot thee.

⁴ The Lord hath sworn, and he will not repent: Thou art a priest for ever according to the order of Melchisedech.

⁵ The Lord at thy right hand hath broken kings in the day of his wrath.

⁶ He shall judge among nations, he shall fill ruins: he shall crush the heads in the land of the many.

⁷ He shall drink of the torrent in the way: therefore shall he lift up the head.

²⁵ Now Jacob had pitched his tent in the mountain: and when he with his brethren had overtaken him, he pitched his tent in the same mount of Galaad.

²⁶ And he said to Jacob: Why hast thou done thus, to carry away, without my knowledge, my daughters, as captives taken with the sword.

²⁷ Why wouldst thou run away privately and not acquaint me, that I might have brought thee on the way with joy, and with songs, and with timbrels, and with harps?

²⁸ Thou hast not suffered me to kiss my sons and daughters: thou hast done foolishly: and now, indeed,

²⁹ It is in my power to return thee evil: but the God of your father said to me yesterday: Take heed thou speak not any thing harshly against Jacob.

³⁰ Suppose thou didst desire to go to thy friends, and hadst a longing after thy father's house: why hast thou stolen away my gods?

³¹ Jacob answered: That I departed unknown to thee, it was for fear lest thou wouldst take away thy daughters by force.

³² But whereas thou chargest me with theft: with whomsoever thou shalt find thy gods, let him be slain before our brethren. Search, and if thou find any of thy things with me, take them away. Now when he said this, he knew not that Rachel had stolen the idols.

³³ So Laban went into the tent of Jacob, and of Lia, and of both the handmaids, and found them not. And when he was entered into Rachel's tent,

³⁴ She in haste hid the idols under the camel's furniture, and sat upon them: and when he had searched all the tent, and found nothing,

³⁵ She said: Let not my lord be angry that I cannot rise up before thee, because it has now happened to me, according to the custom of women, So his careful search was in vain.

³⁶ And Jacob being angry, said in a chiding manner: For what fault of mine, and for what offence on my part hast thou so hotly pursued me,

³⁷ And searched all my household stuff? What hast thou found of all the substance of thy house? lay it here before my brethren, and thy brethren, and let them judge between me and thee.

³⁸ Have I therefore been with thee twenty years? thy ewes and goats were not barren, the rams of thy flocks I did not eat:

³⁹ Neither did I shew thee that which the beast had torn, I made good all the damage: whatsoever was lost by theft, thou didst exact it of me:

⁴⁰ Day and night was I parched with heat, and with frost, and sleep departed from my eyes.

⁴¹ And in this manner have I served thee in thy house twenty years, fourteen for thy daughters, and six for thy flocks: thou hast changed also my wages ten times.

⁴² Unless the God of my father Abraham, and the fear of Isaac had stood by me, peradventure now thou hadst sent me away naked: God beheld my affliction and the labour of my hands, and rebuked thee yesterday.

⁴³ Laban answered him: The daughters are mine and the children, and thy flocks, and all things that thou seest are mine: what can I do to my children, and grandchildren?

⁴⁴ Come therefore, let us enter into a league: that it may be for a testimony between me and thee.

⁴⁵ And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a title:

⁴⁶ And he said to his brethren: Bring hither stones. And they gathering stones together, made a heap, and they ate upon it.

⁴⁷ And Laban called it The witness heap: and Jacob, The hillock of testimony: each of them according to the propriety of his language.

⁴⁸ And Laban said: This heap shall be a witness between me and thee this day, and therefore the name thereof was called Galaad, that is, The witness heap.

⁴⁹ The Lord behold and judge between us when we shall be gone one from the other.

⁵⁰ If thou afflict my daughters, and if thou bring in other wives over them: none is witness of our speech but God, who is present and beholdeth.

¹² I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for his name's sake.

¹³ I write unto you, fathers, because you have known him, who is from the beginning. I write unto you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.

¹⁴ I write unto you, babes, because you have known the Father. I write unto you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.

¹⁵ Love not the world, nor the things which are in the world. If any man love the world, the charity of the Father is not in him.

¹⁶ For all that is in the world, is the concupiscence of the flesh, and the concupiscence of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father, but is of the world.

¹⁷ And the world passeth away, and the concupiscence thereof: but he that doth the will of God, abideth for ever.

10 Amen, amen I say to you: He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber.

² But he that entereth in by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.

³ To him the porter openeth; and the sheep hear his voice: and he calleth his own sheep by name, and leadeth them out.

⁴ And when he hath let out his own sheep, he goeth before them: and the sheep follow him, because they know his voice.

⁵ But a stranger they follow not, but fly from him, because they know not the voice of strangers.

⁶ This proverb Jesus spoke to them. But they understood not what he spoke to them.

⁷ Jesus therefore said to them again: Amen, amen I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.

⁸ All others, as many as have come, are thieves and robbers: and the sheep heard them not.

⁹ I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved: and he shall go in, and go out, and shall find pastures.

¹⁰ The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I am come that they may have life, and may have it more abundantly.

¹¹ I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep.

¹² But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and flieth: and the wolf catcheth, and scattereth the sheep:

¹³ And the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling: and he hath no care for the sheep.

¹⁴ I am the good shepherd; and I know mine, and mine know me.

¹⁵ As the Father knoweth me, and I know the Father: and I lay down my life for my sheep.

¹⁶ And other sheep I have, that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

¹⁷ Therefore doth the Father love me: because I lay down my life, that I may take it again.

¹⁸ No man taketh it away from me: but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to lay it down: and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of my Father.