Book of Common Prayer
33 He changed rivers into a desert.
He stopped springs from flowing.
34 He made the fertile land become salty,
because the people living there did such evil things.
35 He changed the desert into a land with pools of water.
He caused springs to flow from dry ground.
36 He led the hungry to that good land,
and they built a city to live in.
37 They planted seeds in their fields and grapes in their vineyards,
and they had a good harvest.
38 God blessed them with many children
and plenty of animals.
39 But because of disaster and troubles,
their families became small and weak.
40 God shames even great leaders
and makes them wander through empty deserts.
41 But he rescues the poor from their misery.
He makes their families large like flocks of sheep.
42 Good people see this and are happy.
But the wicked see it and don’t know what to say.
43 Whoever is wise will remember these things
and begin to understand the Lord’s faithful love.
A praise song of David.
108 God, I am ready, heart and soul,
to sing songs of praise.
Wake up, my soul!
2 Harps and lyres, wake up,
and let’s wake the dawn!
3 Lord, I will praise you before all people.
I will sing praises about you to every nation.
4 Your faithful love is higher
than the highest clouds in the sky!
5 Rise above the heavens, God.
Let all the world see your glory.
6 Use your great power and help us!
Answer my prayer and save the people you love.
7 God has made this promise in his Temple[a]:
“I will win the war and rejoice in victory!
I will divide this land among my people.
I will give them Shechem.
I will give them Succoth Valley.
8 Gilead and Manasseh will be mine.
Ephraim will be my helmet.
Judah will be my royal scepter.
9 Moab will be the bowl for washing my feet.
Edom will be the slave who carries my sandals.
I will defeat the Philistines and shout in victory!”
10-11 But, God, it seems that you have left us!
You do not go out with our army.
So who will lead me into the strong, protected city?
Who will lead me into battle against Edom?
12 Help us defeat the enemy!
No one on earth can rescue us.
13 Only God can make us strong.
Only God can defeat our enemies!
33 Rejoice in the Lord, good people!
It is only right for good people to praise him.
2 Play the lyre and praise the Lord.
Play the ten-stringed harp for him.
3 Sing a new song[a] to him.
Play it well and sing it loud!
4 The Lord’s word is true,
and he is faithful in everything he does.
5 He loves goodness and justice.
The Lord’s faithful love fills the earth.
6 The Lord spoke the command, and the world was made.
The breath from his mouth created everything in the heavens.
7 He gathered together the water of the sea.
He put the ocean in its place.
8 Everyone on earth should fear and respect the Lord.
All the people in the world should fear him,
9 because when he speaks, things happen.
And if he says, “Stop!”—then it stops.[b]
10 The Lord can ruin every decision the nations make.
He can spoil all their plans.
11 But the Lord’s decisions are good forever.
His plans are good for generation after generation.
12 Great blessings belong to those who have the Lord as their God!
He chose them to be his own special people.
13 The Lord looked down from heaven
and saw all the people.
14 From his high throne he looked down
at all the people living on earth.
15 He created every person’s mind,
and he knows what each one is doing.
16 A king is not saved by the power of his army.
A soldier does not survive by his own great strength.
17 Horses don’t really bring victory in war.
Their strength cannot help you escape.
18 The Lord watches over his followers,
those who wait for him to show his faithful love.
19 He saves them from death.
He gives them strength when they are hungry.
20 So we will wait for the Lord.
He helps us and protects us.
21 He makes us happy.
We trust his holy name.
22 Lord, we worship you,
so show your great love for us.
Jacob in Bethel
35 God said to Jacob, “Go to the town of Bethel.[a] That is where I appeared to you when you were running away from your brother Esau. Live there and make an altar to honor me as El,[b] the God who appeared to you.”
2 So Jacob told his family and all the other people with him, “Destroy all these foreign gods that you have. Make yourselves pure. Put on clean clothes. 3 We will leave here and go to Bethel. There I will build an altar to the God who has always helped me during times of trouble. He has been with me wherever I have gone.”
4 So the people gave Jacob all the foreign gods they had, and they gave him all the rings they were wearing in their ears. He buried everything under an oak tree near the town called Shechem.
5 Then Jacob and his sons left that place. The people in the surrounding cities wanted to follow and kill them, but God filled them with such great fear that they did not go after them. 6 So Jacob and his people went to Luz, which is now called Bethel. It is in the land of Canaan. 7 Jacob built an altar there. He named the place “El Bethel.”[c] Jacob chose this name because that is the place where God first appeared to him when he was running from his brother.
8 Deborah, Rebekah’s nurse, died there. They buried her under the oak tree at Bethel. They named that place Allon Bacuth.[d]
Jacob’s New Name
9 When Jacob came back from Paddan Aram, God appeared to him again. God blessed Jacob 10 and said to him, “Your name is Jacob, but I will change that name. You will no longer be called Jacob. Your new name will be Israel.[e]” So God named him Israel.
11 God said to him, “I am God All-Powerful,[f] and I give you this blessing: Have many children and grow into a great nation. Other nations and other kings will come out of you. 12 I gave Abraham and Isaac some special land. Now I give the land to you and to all your people who will live after you.” 13 Then God left that place. 14-15 Jacob set up a memorial stone there. He made the rock holy by pouring wine and oil on it. This was a special place because God spoke to Jacob there, and Jacob named the place Bethel.
Rachel Dies Giving Birth
16 Jacob and his group left Bethel. Before they came to Ephrath, Rachel began giving birth to her baby. 17 She was having a lot of trouble with this birth. She was in great pain. When her nurse saw this, she said, “Don’t be afraid, Rachel. You are giving birth to another son.”
18 Rachel died while giving birth to the son. Before dying, she named the boy Benoni.[g] But Jacob called him Benjamin.[h]
19 Rachel was buried on the road to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). 20 Jacob put a special rock on Rachel’s grave to honor her. That special rock is still there today.
We Must Love One Another
11 This is the teaching you have heard from the beginning: We must love each other. 12 Don’t be like Cain. He belonged to the Evil One. Cain killed his brother. But why did he kill him? Because what Cain did was evil, and what his brother did was good.
13 Brothers and sisters, don’t be surprised when the people of this world hate you. 14 We know that we have left death and have come into life. We know this because we love each other as brothers and sisters. Anyone who does not love is still in death. 15 Anyone who hates a fellow believer is a murderer.[a] And you know that no murderer has eternal life.
16 This is how we know what real love is: Jesus gave his life for us. So we should give our lives for each other as brothers and sisters. 17 Suppose a believer who is rich enough to have all the necessities of life sees a fellow believer who is poor and does not have even basic needs. What if the rich believer does not help the poor one? Then it is clear that God’s love is not in that person’s heart. 18 My children, our love should not be only words and talk. No, our love must be real. We must show our love by the things we do.
The Death of Lazarus
11 There was a man named Lazarus who was sick. He lived in the town of Bethany, where Mary and her sister Martha lived. 2 (Mary is the same woman who put perfume on the Lord and wiped his feet with her hair.) Mary’s brother was Lazarus, the man who was now sick. 3 So Mary and Martha sent someone to tell Jesus, “Lord, your dear friend Lazarus is sick.”
4 When Jesus heard this he said, “The end of this sickness will not be death. No, this sickness is for the glory of God. This has happened to bring glory to the Son of God.” 5 Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. 6 So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days 7 and then said to his followers, “We should go back to Judea.”
8 They answered, “But Teacher, those Jews there tried to stone you to death. That was only a short time ago. Now you want to go back there?”
9 Jesus answered, “There are twelve hours of light in the day. Whoever walks in the day will not stumble and fall because they can see with the light from the sun.[a] 10 But whoever walks at night will stumble because there is no light.”
11 Then Jesus said, “Our friend Lazarus is now sleeping, but I am going there to wake him.”
12 The followers answered, “But, Lord, if he can sleep, he will get well.” 13 They thought Jesus meant that Lazarus was literally sleeping, but he really meant that Lazarus was dead.
14 So then Jesus said plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad I was not there. I am happy for you because now you will believe in me. We will go to him now.”
16 Then Thomas, the one called “Twin,” said to the other followers, “We will go too. We will die there with Jesus.”
Copyright © 2006 by Bible League International