Book of Common Prayer
An instruction. Of Ethan the Ezrahite.
89 I will sing of the loving-kindness of Jehovah for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness from generation to generation.
2 For I said, Loving-kindness shall be built up for ever; in the very heavens wilt thou establish thy faithfulness.
3 I have made a covenant with mine elect, I have sworn unto David my servant:
4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne from generation to generation. Selah.
5 And the heavens shall celebrate thy wonders, O Jehovah, and thy faithfulness in the congregation of the saints.
6 For who in the heaven can be compared to Jehovah? [who] among the sons of the mighty shall be likened to Jehovah?
7 God is greatly to be feared in the council of the saints, and terrible for all that are round about him.
8 Jehovah, God of hosts, who is like unto thee, the strong Jah? And thy faithfulness is round about thee.
9 *Thou* rulest the pride of the sea: when its waves arise, *thou* stillest them.
10 Thou hast crushed Rahab as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength.
11 Thine are the heavens, the earth also is thine; the world and its fulness, *thou* hast founded them.
12 The north and the south, *thou* hast created them: Tabor and Hermon triumph in thy name.
13 Thine is the arm of might: strong is thy hand, high is thy right hand.
14 Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne; loving-kindness and truth go before thy face.
15 Blessed is the people that know the shout of joy: they walk, O Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance.
16 In thy name are they joyful all the day, and in thy righteousness are they exalted.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength; and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
18 For Jehovah is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel, our king.
19 Then thou spakest in vision of thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
21 With whom my hand shall be established; and mine arm shall strengthen him.
22 No enemy shall exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him;
23 But I will beat down his adversaries before his face, and will smite them that hate him.
24 And my faithfulness and my loving-kindness shall be with him, and by my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
26 *He* shall call unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation;
27 And as to me, I will make him firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My loving-kindness will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him;
29 And I will establish his seed for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his sons forsake my law, and walk not in mine ordinances;
31 If they profane my statutes, and keep not my commandments:
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor belie my faithfulness;
34 My covenant will I not profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness; I will not lie unto David:
36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me;
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and the witness in the sky is firm. Selah.
38 But thou hast rejected and cast off; thou hast been very wroth with thine anointed:
39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown to the ground:
40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way plunder him; he is become a reproach to his neighbours.
42 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his oppressors; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice:
43 Yea, thou hast turned back the edge of his sword, and hast not made him stand in the battle.
44 Thou hast made his brightness to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground;
45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened; thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, Jehovah, wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy fury burn like fire?
47 Remember, as regards me, what life is. Wherefore hast thou created all the children of men to be vanity?
48 What man liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.
49 Where, Lord, are thy former loving-kindnesses, [which] thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness?
50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants—that I bear in my bosom [that of] all the mighty peoples—
51 Wherewith thine enemies, O Jehovah, have reproached, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
52 Blessed be Jehovah for evermore! Amen, and Amen.
12 And the men of Ephraim were called together, and passed over northwards, and said to Jephthah, Why didst thou pass over to fight against the children of Ammon, and didst not call us to go with thee? We will burn thy house upon thee with fire.
2 And Jephthah said to them, I was at great strife, I and my people, with the children of Ammon; and I called you, but ye saved me not out of their hand.
3 And when I saw that ye would not save me, I put my life in my hand, and passed over against the children of Ammon, and Jehovah gave them into my hand. Why then are ye come up to me this day, to fight against me?
4 And Jephthah gathered together all the men of Gilead, and fought with Ephraim; and the men of Gilead smote Ephraim, because they said, Ye, Gilead, ye are fugitives of Ephraim in the midst of Ephraim, [and] in the midst of Manasseh.
5 And Gilead took the fords of the Jordan before Ephraim; and it came to pass that when the fugitives of Ephraim said, Let me go over, the men of Gilead said to him, Art thou an Ephraimite? and he said, No.
6 Then they said to him, Say now Shibboleth! and he said, Sibboleth, and did not manage to pronounce [it] rightly. Then they took him, and slaughtered him at the fords of the Jordan. And there fell at that time of Ephraim forty-two thousand.
7 And Jephthah judged Israel six years. And Jephthah the Gileadite died, and was buried in [one of] the cities of Gilead.
12 And by the hands of the apostles were many signs and wonders done among the people; (and they were all with one accord in Solomon's porch,
13 but of the rest durst no man join them, but the people magnified them;
14 and believers were more than ever added to the Lord, multitudes both of men and women;)
15 so that they brought out the sick into the streets and put [them] on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter, when he came, might overshadow some one of them.
16 And the multitude also of the cities round about came together to Jerusalem, bringing sick persons and persons beset by unclean spirits, who were all healed.
17 And the high priest rising up, and all they that were with him, which is the sect of the Sadducees, were filled with wrath,
18 and laid hands on the apostles and put them in the public prison.
19 But an angel of [the] Lord during the night opened the doors of the prison, and leading them out, said,
20 Go ye and stand and speak in the temple to the people all the words of this life.
21 And when they heard it, they entered very early into the temple and taught. And when the high priest was come, and they that were with him, they called together the council and all the elderhood of the sons of Israel, and sent to the prison to have them brought.
22 And when the officers were come, they did not find them in the prison; and returned and reported
23 saying, We found the prison shut with all security, and the keepers standing at the doors; but when we had opened [them], within we found no one.
24 And when they heard these words, both the priest and the captain of the temple and the chief priests were in perplexity as to them, what this would come to.
25 And some one coming reported to them, Lo, the men whom ye put in the prison are in the temple, standing and teaching the people.
26 Then the captain, having gone with the officers, brought them, not with violence, for they feared the people, lest they should be stoned.
3 But there was a man from among the Pharisees, his name Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;
2 he came to him by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art come a teacher from God, for none can do these signs that thou doest unless God be with him.
3 Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4 Nicodemus says to him, How can a man be born being old? can he enter a second time into the womb of his mother and be born?
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Do not wonder that I said to thee, It is needful that *ye* should be born anew.
8 The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9 Nicodemus answered and said to him, How can these things be?
10 Jesus answered and said to him, Thou art the teacher of Israel and knowest not these things!
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which we know, and we bear witness of that which we have seen, and ye receive not our witness.
12 If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?
13 And no one has gone up into heaven, save he who came down out of heaven, the Son of man who is in heaven.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, thus must the Son of man be lifted up,
15 that every one who believes on him may [not perish, but] have life eternal.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believes on him may not perish, but have life eternal.
17 For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him.
18 He that believes on him is not judged: but he that believes not has been already judged, because he has not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God.
19 And this is the judgment, that light is come into the world, and men have loved darkness rather than light; for their works were evil.
20 For every one that does evil hates the light, and does not come to the light that his works may not be shewn as they are;
21 but he that practises the truth comes to the light, that his works may be manifested that they have been wrought in God.
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