Book of Common Prayer
To the chief Musician. Upon Shoshannim. [A Psalm] of David.
69 Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto [my] soul.
2 I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing; I am come into the depths of waters, and the flood overfloweth me.
3 I am weary with my crying, my throat is parched; mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.
4 They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of my head; they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.
5 Thou, O God, knowest my foolishness, and my trespasses are not hidden from thee.
6 Let not them that wait on thee, Lord, Jehovah of hosts, be ashamed through me; let not those that seek thee be confounded through me, O God of Israel.
7 Because for thy sake I have borne reproach; confusion hath covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's sons;
9 For the zeal of thy house hath devoured me, and the reproaches of them that reproach thee have fallen upon me.
10 And I wept, my soul was fasting: that also was to my reproach;—
11 And I made sackcloth my garment: then I became a proverb to them.
12 They that sit in the gate talk of me, and [I am] the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, Jehovah, in an acceptable time: O God, in the abundance of thy loving-kindness answer me, according to the truth of thy salvation:
14 Deliver me out of the mire, let me not sink; let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the depths of waters.
15 Let not the flood of waters overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up; and let not the pit shut its mouth upon me.
16 Answer me, O Jehovah; for thy loving-kindness is good: according to the abundance of thy tender mercies, turn toward me;
17 And hide not thy face from thy servant, for I am in trouble: answer me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, be its redeemer; ransom me because of mine enemies.
19 *Thou* knowest my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonour: mine adversaries are all before thee.
20 Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am overwhelmed: and I looked for sympathy, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 Yea, they gave me gall for my food, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them, and their very welfare a trap;
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not, and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out thine indignation upon them, and let the fierceness of thine anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation be desolate; let there be no dweller in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom *thou* hast smitten, and they talk for the sorrow of those whom thou hast wounded.
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am afflicted and sorrowful: let thy salvation, O God, set me secure on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song, and will magnify him with thanksgiving;
31 And it shall please Jehovah more than an ox,—a bullock with horns and cloven hoofs.
32 The meek shall see it, they shall be glad; ye that seek God, your heart shall live.
33 For Jehovah heareth the needy, and despiseth not his prisoners.
34 Let heavens and earth praise him; the seas, and everything that moveth therein.
35 For God will save Zion, and will build the cities of Judah; and they shall dwell there, and possess it:
36 And the seed of his servants shall inherit it, and they that love his name shall dwell therein.
A Psalm of Asaph.
73 Truly God is good to Israel, to such as are of a pure heart.
2 But as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had well nigh slipped;
3 For I was envious at the arrogant, seeing the prosperity of the wicked.
4 For they have no pangs in their death, and their body is well nourished;
5 They have not the hardships of mankind, neither are they plagued like [other] men:
6 Therefore pride encompasseth them as a neck-chain, violence covereth them [as] a garment;
7 Their eyes stand out from fatness, they exceed the imaginations of their heart:
8 They mock and speak wickedly of oppression, they speak loftily:
9 They set their mouth in the heavens, and their tongue walketh through the earth.
10 Therefore his people turn hither, and waters in fulness are wrung out to them.
11 And they say, How can God know, and is there knowledge in the Most High?
12 Behold, these are the wicked, and they prosper in the world: they heap up riches.
13 Truly have I purified my heart in vain, and washed my hands in innocency:
14 For all the day have I been plagued, and chastened every morning.
15 If I said, I will speak thus, behold, I should be faithless to the generation of thy children.
16 When I thought to be able to know this, it was a grievous task in mine eyes;
17 Until I went into the sanctuaries of God; [then] understood I their end.
18 Truly thou settest them in slippery places, thou castest them down in ruins.
19 How are they suddenly made desolate! they pass away, consumed with terrors.
20 As a dream, when one awaketh, wilt thou, Lord, on arising despise their image.
21 When my heart was in a ferment, and I was pricked in my reins,
22 Then I was brutish and knew nothing; I was [as] a beast with thee.
23 Nevertheless I am continually with thee: thou hast holden my right hand;
24 Thou wilt guide me by thy counsel, and after the glory, thou wilt receive me.
25 Whom have I in the heavens? and there is none upon earth I desire beside thee.
26 My flesh and my heart faileth: God is the rock of my heart and my portion for ever.
27 For behold, they that are far from thee shall perish; thou destroyest every one that goeth a whoring from thee.
28 But as for me, it is good for me to draw near to God: I have put my trust in the Lord Jehovah, that I may declare all thy works.
1 And it came to pass in the days of Ahasuerus (that is, the Ahasuerus that reigned from India even to Ethiopia, over a hundred and twenty-seven provinces),
2 in those days, when the king Ahasuerus sat on the throne of his kingdom, which was in Shushan the fortress,
3 in the third year of his reign, he made a feast to all his princes and his servants; the power of Persia and Media, the nobles and the princes of the provinces being before him;
4 when he shewed the glorious wealth of his kingdom and the splendid magnificence of his grandeur many days, a hundred and eighty days.
10 On the seventh day, when the king's heart was merry with wine, he commanded Mehuman, Biztha, Harbona, Bigtha, and Abagtha, Zethar, and Carcas, the seven chamberlains that served in the presence of king Ahasuerus,
11 to bring Vashti the queen before the king with the royal crown to shew the peoples and the princes her beauty; for she was of beautiful countenance.
12 But the queen Vashti refused to come at the word of the king which was [sent] by the chamberlains; and the king was very wroth, and his fury burned in him.
13 And the king said to the wise men who knew the times (for so was the king's business [conducted] before all that knew law and judgment;
14 and the next to him were Carshena, Shethar, Admatha, Tarshish, Meres, Marsena, [and] Memucan, the seven princes of Persia and Media, who saw the king's face, and who sat first in the kingdom),
15 What shall be done to the queen Vashti according to law, because she has not performed the word of the king Ahasuerus by the chamberlains?
16 Then said Memucan before the king and the princes, The queen Vashti has not done wrong to the king only, but also to all the princes, and to all the peoples that are in all the provinces of the king Ahasuerus.
17 For the act of the queen will come abroad to all women, so as to render their husbands contemptible in their eyes, when they shall say, The king Ahasuerus commanded the queen Vashti to be brought in before him, and she came not!
18 And the princesses of Persia and Media who have heard of the queen's act, will say it this day to all the king's princes, and there will be contempt and anger enough.
19 If it please the king, let a royal order go forth from him, and let it be written among the laws of the Persians and the Medes, that it may not pass, That Vashti come no more before king Ahasuerus; and let the king give her royal estate to another that is better than she;
17 And having journeyed through Amphipolis and Apollonia, they came to Thessalonica, where was the synagogue of the Jews.
2 And according to Paul's custom he went in among them, and on three sabbaths reasoned with them from the scriptures,
3 opening and laying down that the Christ must have suffered and risen up from among the dead, and that this is the Christ, Jesus whom *I* announce to you.
4 And some of them believed, and joined themselves to Paul and Silas, and of the Greeks who worshipped, a great multitude, and of the chief women not a few.
5 But the Jews having been stirred up to jealousy, and taken to [themselves] certain wicked men of the lowest rabble, and having got a crowd together, set the city in confusion; and having beset the house of Jason sought to bring them out to the people;
6 and not having found them, dragged Jason and certain brethren before the politarchs, crying out, These [men] that have set the world in tumult, are come here also,
7 whom Jason has received; and these all do contrary to the decrees of Caesar, saying, that there is another king, Jesus.
8 And they troubled the crowd and the politarchs when they heard these things.
9 And having taken security of Jason and the rest, they let them go.
10 But the brethren immediately sent away, in the night, Paul and Silas to Berea; who, being arrived, went away into the synagogue of the Jews.
11 And these were more noble than those in Thessalonica, receiving the word with all readiness of mind, daily searching the scriptures if these things were so.
12 Therefore many from among them believed, and of Grecian women of the upper classes and men not a few.
13 But when the Jews from Thessalonica knew that the word of God was announced in Berea also by Paul, they came there also, stirring up the crowds.
14 And then immediately the brethren sent away Paul to go as to the sea; but Silas and Timotheus abode there.
15 But they that conducted Paul brought him as far as Athens; and, having received a commandment to Silas and Timotheus, that they should come to him as quickly as possible, they departed.
36 While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may become sons of light. Jesus said these things, and going away hid himself from them.
37 But though he had done so many signs before them, they believed not on him,
38 that the word of the prophet Esaias which he said might be fulfilled, Lord, who has believed our report? and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
39 On this account they could not believe, because Esaias said again,
40 He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, that they may not see with their eyes, and understand with their heart and be converted, and I should heal them.
41 These things said Esaias because he saw his glory and spoke of him.
42 Although indeed from among the rulers also many believed on him, but on account of the Pharisees did not confess [him], that they might not be put out of the synagogue:
43 for they loved glory from men rather than glory from God.
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