Book of Common Prayer
A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ I will sing of mercy and judgment; unto thee, O LORD, will I sing.
2 When thou shalt come unto me, I will walk in the way of perfection and understand. I will walk in the midst of my house in the perfection of my heart.
3 I will set nothing of Belial before my eyes: I hate the work of those that betray; it shall not cleave to me.
4 A perverse heart shall depart from me; I will not know a wicked person.
5 Whosoever secretly slanders his neighbour, I will cut off; he that has a high look and a proud heart I will not suffer.
6 My eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me; he that walks in the way of perfection, he shall serve me.
7 He that works deceit shall not dwell within my house; he that tells lies shall not tarry in my sight.
8 I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the workers of iniquity from the city of the LORD.
To the Overcomer, A Psalm of David.
1 ¶ Do not hold thy peace, O God of my praise;
2 for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me; they have spoken of me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about with words of hatred and fought against me without a cause.
4 They have responded to my love by becoming my adversaries, but I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 ¶ Set thou the wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned, and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few, and let another take his office.
9 Let his children be fatherless and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek their bread out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he has, and let the strangers spoil his labour.
12 Let there be no one to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favour his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off, and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 Because he did not remember to show mercy but persecuted the man who is poor in spirit and destitute and broken in heart, that he might slay him.
17 As he loved the curse, so let it come unto him; as he delighted not in the blessing, so let it be far from him.
18 As he clothed himself with the curse like as with his garment, and it entered into his bowels like water and like oil into his bones.
19 Let it be unto him as the garment which covers him and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20 Let this be the reward from the LORD of those who spoke falsely against me and of those that speak evil against my soul.
21 ¶ And thou, O GOD the Lord, do unto me for thy name’s sake; because thy mercy is good, deliver me.
22 For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23 I am gone like the shadow when it declines; I am tossed up and down by the wind as the locust.
24 My knees are weak through fasting, and my flesh fails for lack of fatness.
25 I have become a reproach unto them; when they looked upon me they shook their heads.
26 Help me, O LORD my God; O save me according to thy mercy,
27 that they may know that this is thy hand, that thou, O LORD, hast done it.
28 Let them curse, but bless thou; when they arise, let them be ashamed, but let thy slave rejoice.
29 Let those who speak evil against me falsely be clothed with shame, and let them cover themselves with their own confusion as with a mantle.
30 I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
AIN.
121 ¶ I have complied with judgment and righteousness; do not leave me to my oppressors.
122 Be surety for thy slave for good; do not let the proud do violence unto me.
123 ¶ Mine eyes fail for thy saving health and for the spoken word of thy righteousness.
124 ¶ Deal with thy slave according to thy mercy, and teach me thy statutes.
125 I am thy slave; give me understanding, that I may know thy testimonies.
126 ¶ It is time for thee, O LORD, to act; for they have dissipated thy law.
127 ¶ Therefore I have loved thy commandments above gold, yea, above fine gold.
128 Therefore I have esteemed all thy precepts concerning all things to be right and I have hated every false way.
PE.
129 ¶ Thy testimonies are wonderful; therefore does my soul keep them.
130 ¶ The exposition of thy words gives light; it gives understanding unto the simple.
131 ¶ I opened my mouth and panted; for I longed for thy commandments.
132 ¶ Look thou upon me and be merciful unto me, as thou didst use to do unto those that love thy name.
133 ¶ Order my steps with thy word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me.
134 ¶ Ransom me from the violence of men, and I will keep thy precepts.
135 ¶ Make thy face to shine upon thy slave and teach me thy statutes.
136 ¶ Rivers of waters ran down my eyes because they did not keep thy law.
TZADDI.
137 ¶ Righteous art thou, O LORD, and upright are thy judgments.
138 Thou hast commanded righteousness, which consists of thy testimonies and thy truth.
139 ¶ My zeal has consumed me, because my enemies have forgotten thy words.
140 ¶ Thy word is very pure; therefore thy slave loves it.
141 ¶ I am small and despised; yet I have not forgotten thy precepts.
142 ¶ Thy righteousness is eternal righteousness, and thy law is the truth.
143 ¶ Trouble and anguish found me; but thy commandments were my delights.
144 Thy testimonies are eternal righteousness; give me understanding, and I shall live.
15 ¶ And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, I pray thee, let us detain thee until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.
16 And the angel of the LORD replied unto Manoah, Though thou detain me, I will not eat of thy bread, but if thou wilt offer a burnt offering, sacrifice it unto the LORD. For Manoah did not know that this was the angel of the LORD.
17 And Manoah said unto the angel of the LORD, What is thy name that when thy words come to pass we may honour thee?
18 And the angel of the LORD replied, Why dost thou ask for my name? It is wonderful.
19 So Manoah took a kid with a present and sacrificed it upon a rock unto the LORD, and the angel did wondrously, and Manoah and his wife looked on.
20 For it came to pass, when the flame went up toward heaven from off the altar, that the angel of the LORD ascended in the flame of the altar as Manoah and his wife looked on, and they prostrated themselves on the ground on their faces.
21 But the angel of the LORD did not appear any more to Manoah and to his wife. Then Manoah knew that he was the angel of the LORD.
22 And Manoah said unto his wife, We shall surely die because we have seen God.
23 But his wife said unto him, If the LORD had desired to kill us, he would not have received a burnt offering and the present from our hands, neither would he have showed us all these things, nor would he have announced this according to the time.
24 ¶ And the woman bore a son and called his name Samson. And the child grew, and the LORD blessed him.
6 ¶ And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, that their widows were neglected in the daily ministry.
2 Then the twelve called the multitude of the disciples unto them and said, It is not right that we should leave the word of God and serve tables;
3 therefore, brethren, seek out among you seven men of whom you bear witness, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
4 And we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word.
5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit, and Philip and Prochorus and Nicanor and Timon and Parmenas and Nicolas, a proselyte of Antioch:
6 these they set before the apostles, and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them.
7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly, and also a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.
8 ¶ And Stephen, full of faith and power, did great wonders and miracles in the people.
9 Then there arose certain of the synagogue, which is called the synagogue of the Libertines, and Cyrenians and Alexandrians and of those of Cilicia and of Asia, disputing with Stephen.
10 And they were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.
11 Then they suborned men, who said, We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.
12 And they stirred up the people and the elders and the scribes and came upon him and caught him and brought him to the council
13 and set up false witnesses, who said, This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law,
14 for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth shall destroy this place and shall change the traditions which Moses delivered us.
15 Then all that sat in the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as the face of an angel.
4 ¶ When therefore the Lord knew how the Pharisees had heard that Jesus made and baptized more disciples than John
2 (though Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples),
3 he left Judaea and departed again into Galilee.
4 ¶ And it was necessary that he go through Samaria.
5 Then he came to a city of Samaria, which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph.
6 Now Jacob’s well was there. Jesus, therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the well; and it was about the sixth hour.
7 There came a woman of Samaria to draw water; Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink.
8 (For his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy food.)
9 Then said the Samaritan woman unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me, who am a woman of Samaria? for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans.
10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
11 The woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep; from where then hast thou that living water?
12 Art thou greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank thereof himself, and his sons and his cattle?
13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinks of this water shall thirst again,
14 but whosoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a fountain of water springing up into eternal life.
15 The woman said unto him, Lord, give me this water, that I not thirst, neither come here to draw.
16 Jesus said unto her, Go, call thy husband and come here.
17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband;
18 for thou hast had five husbands, and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband; this hast thou said with truth.
19 The woman said unto him, Lord, I perceive that thou art a prophet.
20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place where it is necessary to worship.
21 Jesus said unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour comes when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem shall ye worship the Father.
22 Ye worship what ye know not; we worship what we know, for saving health is of the Jews.
23 But the hour comes, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeks such to worship him.
24 God is a Spirit and those that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
25 The woman said unto him, I know that the Messiah is to come, who is called the Christ; when he is come, he will declare unto us all things.
26 Jesus said unto her, I AM that speak unto thee.
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