Book of Common Prayer
105 O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name; make known His deeds among the people.
2 Sing unto Him, sing psalms unto Him; talk ye of all His wondrous works.
3 Glory ye in His holy name; let the heart of them rejoice that seek the Lord.
4 Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore.
5 Remember His marvelous works that He hath done, His wonders and the judgments of His mouth,
6 O ye seed of Abraham, His servant, ye children of Jacob, His chosen.
7 He is the Lord our God; His judgments are over all the earth.
8 He hath remembered His covenant for ever, the word which He commanded to a thousand generations,
9 which covenant He made with Abraham, and His oath unto Isaac,
10 and confirmed the same unto Jacob as a law, and to Israel for an everlasting covenant,
11 saying, “Unto thee will I give the land of Canaan, the lot of your inheritance,”
12 when they were but a few men in number, yea, very few and strangers in it.
13 When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people,
14 He suffered no man to do them wrong; yea, He reproved kings for their sakes,
15 saying, “Touch not Mine anointed, and do My prophets no harm.”
16 Moreover He called for a famine upon the land; He broke the whole staff of bread.
17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph who was sold as a servant,
18 whose feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in irons.
19 Until the time when his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tried him.
20 The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the people, and let him go free.
21 He made him lord of his house and ruler of all his possessions,
22 to command his princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Israel also came into Egypt, and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.
24 And He increased His people greatly, and made them stronger than their enemies.
25 He turned their heart to hate His people and to deal subtly with His servants.
26 He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron whom He had chosen.
27 They showed His signs among them, and wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness and made it dark, and they rebelled not against His word.
29 He turned their waters into blood, and slew their fish.
30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, even in the chambers of their kings.
31 He spoke and there came divers sorts of flies and lice in all their borders.
32 He gave them hail for rain and flaming fire in their land.
33 He smote their vines also and their fig trees, and broke the trees of their borders.
34 He spoke and the locusts came, and caterpillars without number,
35 and they ate up all the herbs in their land and devoured the fruit of their ground.
36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the chief of all their strength.
37 He brought them forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.
38 Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen upon them.
39 He spread a cloud for a covering and fire to give light in the night.
40 The people asked, and He brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.
41 He opened the rock and the waters gushed out, and ran in the dry places like a river.
42 For He remembered His holy promise and Abraham His servant.
43 And He brought forth His people with joy, His chosen with gladness,
44 and gave them the lands of the heathen; and they inherited the labor of the people,
45 that they might observe His statutes and keep His laws. Praise ye the Lord!
14 And Samson went down to Timnah, and saw a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines.
2 And he came up and told his father and his mother, and said, “I have seen a woman in Timnah of the daughters of the Philistines. Now therefore get her for me for a wife.”
3 Then his father and his mother said unto him, “Is there not a woman among the daughters of thy brethren or among all my people, that thou goest to take a wife of the uncircumcised Philistines?” And Samson said unto his father, “Get her for me, for she pleaseth me well.”
4 But his father and his mother knew not that it was because of the Lord, and that He sought an occasion against the Philistines. For at that time the Philistines had dominion over Israel.
5 Then went Samson and his father and his mother down to Timnah, and came to the vineyards of Timnah; and behold, a young lion roared against him.
6 And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he rent him as he would have rent a kid, and he had nothing in his hand; but he told not his father or his mother what he had done.
7 And he went down and talked with the woman, and she pleased Samson well.
8 And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcass of the lion; and behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of the lion.
9 And he took thereof in his hands and went on eating, and came to his father and mother; and he gave to them, and they ate. But he told them not that he had taken the honey out of the carcass of the lion.
10 So his father went down unto the woman; and Samson made there a feast, for so used the young men to do.
11 And it came to pass, when they saw him, that they brought thirty companions to be with him.
12 And Samson said unto them, “I will now put forth a riddle unto you. If ye can with certainty explain it to me within the seven days of the feast and find it out, then I will give you thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments;
13 but if ye cannot explain it to me, then shall ye give me thirty shirts and thirty changes of garments.” And they said unto him, “Put forth thy riddle, that we may hear it.”
14 And he said unto them, “Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness.” And they could not in three days expound the riddle.
15 And it came to pass on the seventh day that they said unto Samson’s wife, “Entice thy husband, that he may explain unto us the riddle, lest we burn thee and thy father’s house with fire. Have ye called us to take what we have? Is it not so?”
16 And Samson’s wife wept before him, and said, “Thou dost but hate me, and lovest me not. Thou hast put forth a riddle unto the children of my people, and hast not told it me.” And he said unto her, “Behold, I have not told it to my father nor my mother, and shall I tell it to thee?”
17 And she wept before him the seven days while their feast lasted. And it came to pass on the seventh day that he told her, because she pressed sorely upon him; and she told the riddle to the children of her people.
18 And the men of the city said unto him on the seventh day before the sun went down: “What is sweeter than honey? And what is stronger than a lion?” And he said unto them, “If ye had not plowed with my heifer, ye would not have found out my riddle.”
19 And the Spirit of the Lord came upon him; and he went down to Ashkelon, and slew thirty men of them and took their apparel, and gave changes of garments unto those who expounded the riddle. And his anger was kindled, and he went up to his father’s house.
15 And all who sat on the council, looking steadfastly on him, saw his face as though it were the face of an angel.
7 Then said the high priest, “Are these things so?”
2 And Stephen said, “Men, brethren and fathers, hearken! The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Haran,
3 and said unto him, ‘Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall show thee.’
4 Then he came out of the land of the Chaldeans, and dwelt in Haran; and from thence, when his father was dead, He removed himself into this land wherein ye now dwell.
5 And He gave him no inheritance in it — no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him as a possession and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.
6 And God spoke in this way: that his seed should sojourn in a strange land, and that they should be brought into bondage and be mistreated for four hundred years.
7 ‘And the nation to whom they shall be in bondage will I judge,’ said God, ‘and after that shall they come forth, and serve Me in this place.’
8 And He gave him the covenant of circumcision. And so Abraham begot Isaac and circumcised him on the eighth day; and Isaac begot Jacob, and Jacob begot the twelve patriarchs.
9 And the patriarchs, moved with envy, sold Joseph into Egypt. But God was with him
10 and delivered him out of all his afflictions, and gave him favor and wisdom in the sight of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, who made him governor over Egypt and all his house.
11 “Now there came a dearth and great affliction over all the land of Egypt and Canaan, and our fathers found no sustenance.
12 But when Jacob heard that there was corn in Egypt, he first sent out our fathers.
13 And on the second visit Joseph was made known to his brethren, and Joseph’s kindred were made known unto Pharaoh.
14 Then Joseph sent and called his father Jacob to him and all his kindred, threescore and fifteen souls.
15 So Jacob went down into Egypt and died, he and our fathers.
16 And they were carried back into Shechem, and laid in the sepulcher that Abraham had bought for a sum of money from the sons of Hamor, the father of Shechem.
27 And upon this came His disciples and marveled that He talked with the woman; yet no man said, “What seekest Thou?” or, “Why talkest Thou with her?”
28 The woman then left her waterpot, and went her way into the city and said to the men,
29 “Come, see a man who told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ?”
30 Then they went out of the city and came unto Him.
31 Meanwhile His disciples entreated Him, saying, “Master, eat.”
32 But He said unto them, “I have meat to eat that ye know not of.”
33 Therefore the disciples said one to another, “Hath any man brought Him aught to eat?”
34 Jesus said unto them, “My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.
35 Say not ye, ‘There are yet four months and then cometh the harvest’? Behold, I say unto you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white already to harvest.
36 And he that reapeth receiveth wages and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he that soweth and he that reapeth may rejoice together.
37 And herein is that saying true, ‘One soweth and another reapeth.’
38 I sent you to reap that whereon ye bestowed no labor; other men labored, and ye have entered into their labors.”
39 And many of the Samaritans of that city believed in Him because of the saying of the woman who testified, “He told me all that ever I did.”
40 So when the Samaritans had come unto Him, they besought Him that He would tarry with them; and He abode there two days.
41 And many more believed because of His own word,
42 and said unto the woman, “Now we believe, not because of thy saying, for we have heard Him ourselves and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Savior of the world.”
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.