Book of Common Prayer
MEM מ
97 O how I love Your Torah!
It is my meditation all day.
98 Your mitzvot make me wiser than my enemies
—for they are mine forever.
99 I have more insight than all my teachers,
for Your testimonies are my meditation.
100 I have gained more understanding than all my elders,
for I have kept Your precepts.
101 I kept my feet from every evil way,
in order to follow Your word.
102 I do not turn away from Your rulings,
for You Yourself have taught me.
103 How sweet is Your word to my taste—
yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!
104 From Your precepts I get discernment,
therefore I hate every false way.
NUN נ
105 Your word is a lamp to my feet
and a light to my path.[a]
106 I have sworn and confirmed
to observe Your righteous rulings.
107 I am severely afflicted.
Keep me alive, Adonai, according to Your word.
108 Please accept the freewill offerings of my mouth, Adonai,
and teach me Your rulings.
109 My soul is continually in danger,
yet I have not forgotten Your Torah.
110 The wicked have set a snare for me,
yet I did not stray from Your precepts.
111 Your testimonies I have as a heritage
forever, for they are my heart’s joy.
112 I turned my heart to do Your decrees,
forever, to the very end.
SAMECH ס
113 I hate double-minded ones,
but Your Torah I love.
114 You are my hiding place and my shield
—in Your word I hope.
115 Away from me, evildoers,
so I may keep the mitzvot of my God!
116 Sustain me according to Your word, so I may live,
and let me not be ashamed of my hope.
117 Support me and I will be saved,
and study Your decrees continually.
118 You despise all who wander from Your decrees,
for their deceitfulness is in vain.
119 All the wicked of the earth You remove like dross.
Therefore I love Your testimonies.
120 My flesh shudders for fear of You,
and I am in awe of Your judgments.
Hear O Israel
Psalm 81
1 For the music director, on the Gittite lyre, of Asaph.
2 Sing for joy to God our strength,
shout to the God of Jacob!
3 Lift up a song and sound a tambourine,
a sweet lyre with a harp.
4 Blow the shofar at the New Moon,
at the full moon for the day of our festival.
5 For it is a decree for Israel,
an ordinance of the God of Jacob.
6 He set it up as a testimony in Joseph,
when He went throughout the land of Egypt,
I heard a language I did not understand.
7 “I relieved his shoulder of the burden,
his hands were set free from the basket.
8 You called out in trouble, and I rescued you.
I answered you from the hiding place of thunder.
I tested you at the waters of Meribah. Selah
9 Hear, My people, I will admonish you—
if you would listen to Me, O Israel!
10 Let there be no foreign god among you,
and you shall not worship any alien god.
11 I am Adonai your God,
who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.
12 But My people did not listen to My voice.
Israel was not willing to be Mine.
13 So I gave them over
to the stubbornness of their heart,
to walk in their own counsels.
14 Oh that My people would listen to Me,
that Israel would walk in My ways!
15 I would soon subdue their enemies,
and turn My hand against their foes.
16 Those who hate Adonai would cringe before Him—
their time of doom would be forever.
17 But you would be fed with the finest wheat,
with honey out of a rock would I satisfy you.”
A Rebuke for Unjust Judges
Psalm 82
1 A psalm of Asaph.
God takes His stand in the assembly of God.
He judges among the ‘gods’:
2 “How long will you judge unjustly
and show partiality to the wicked? Selah
3 Give justice to the poor and fatherless.
Be just to the afflicted and destitute.
4 Rescue the weak and needy.
Deliver them out of the hand of the wicked.
5 They know nothing;
they understand nothing—
they walk about in darkness.
All of earth’s foundations are shaken.
6 I said: ‘You are ‘gods’,
and you are all sons of Elyon,[a]
7 yet you will die like men,
and will fall like any of the princes.’”
8 Arise, O God, judge the earth!
For You possess all the nations.
16 When the commotion was heard in Pharaoh’s house—“Joseph’s brothers have come!”—it was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and his servants, 17 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Say to your brothers: ‘Do this! Load your animals and go to the land of Canaan. 18 Then get your father, your households, and come to me. I’ll give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you will eat the fat of the land.’ 19 You are also commanded to say: “Do this! Take for yourselves wagons from the land of Egypt for your little children and for your wives, and pick up your father and come. 20 Don’t be concerned about your goods, because the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.’”
21 So the sons of Israel did so. Joseph gave them carts by Pharaoh’s command and he gave them provisions for the journey. 22 To each of them he gave a change of clothes, while to Benjamin he gave 300 pieces of silver and five sets of clothes. 23 Also to his father he sent the following: ten donkeys carrying from the best of Egypt, and ten female donkeys carrying grain and food and provisions for his father’s journey. 24 Then he sent his brothers off, and as they departed, he said to them, “Don’t be anxious on the way.”
25 Then they went up from Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to Jacob their father. 26 They told him saying, “Joseph is still alive and he is ruler of the whole land of Egypt!”
His heart went numb, for he did not believe them. 27 But they told him all of Joseph’s words that he had told them. When he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to pick him up, the spirit of their father Jacob revived. 28 Then Israel said, “Enough! My son Joseph is still alive. I must go and see him, before I die.”
Concerning Idol Sacrifices
8 Now concerning idol sacrifices, we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. 2 If anyone thinks he knows anything, he doesn’t yet know as he ought to know. 3 But if anyone loves God, he is known by Him.
4 Therefore concerning the eating of idol sacrifices, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no God but one. [a] 5 For even if there are so-called “gods,” whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”),
6 yet for us there is one God, the Father,[b]
from whom are all things,
and we exist for Him;
and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah,
through whom are all things,
and we exist through Him.
7 But that knowledge is not in everyone—some, so accustomed to idols up until now, eat food as an idol sacrifice; and their conscience, being weak, is defiled. 8 But food will not bring us before God. We are no worse off if we do not eat and no better off if we do eat. 9 But watch out that this freedom of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak. [c] 10 For suppose someone sees you—who have this knowledge—dining in an idol’s temple. If his conscience is weak, won’t he be emboldened to eat idol sacrifices? 11 For the one who is weak is destroyed by your knowledge—the brother for whom Messiah died. 12 In this way, when you sin against the brothers and sisters and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Messiah. 13 For this reason, if food causes my brother to stumble, I will never eat meat again, so that I do not cause my brother to stumble.
13 and they were driving out many demons and anointing with oil many who were sick and healing them.
14 King Herod heard, for Yeshua’s name had become known. Some were saying, “John the Immerser has risen from the dead! Because of this, these powers are at work in Him!” 15 But others were saying, “It’s Elijah!” Still others were saying, “It’s a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.”[a]
16 But when Herod heard, he said, “John, the one I beheaded, has been raised!” 17 For Herod himself sent and arrested John and bound him in prison for the sake of Herodias, the wife of his brother Philip, because Herod had married her. 18 For John had been telling Herod, “It is not permitted for you to have your brother’s wife.” [b] 19 Now Herodias had a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she wasn’t able. 20 For Herod was in awe of John and kept him safe, knowing him to be a righteous and holy man. When he listened to John he was confused, but he still listened gladly.
21 An opportunity came—when Herod, on his birthday, gave a banquet for his high officials, military brass, and the leaders of the Galilee. 22 When the daughter of Herodias[c] came in and danced, she pleased Herod and those reclining with him. And the king said to the girl, “Ask me for whatever you want, and I’ll give it to you!” 23 He vowed to her, “Whatever you ask of me I’ll give you, up to half of my kingdom!”
24 She left the room and said to her mother, “What should I ask for?”
Her mother said, “The head of John the Immerser!”
25 Immediately she rushed to the king and requested, “I want you to give me, right now, the head of John the Immerser on a platter!”
26 The king became very sorrowful; but because of his oaths and those reclining with him, he didn’t want to refuse her.
27 Immediately the king sent an executioner and gave orders to bring John’s head. And the executioner went out and beheaded John in the prison, 28 brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl; and the girl gave it to her mother. 29 When John’s disciples heard, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.