Book of Common Prayer

To the chief Musician. On Shoshannim-Eduth. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

80 Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, thou that leadest Joseph like a flock; thou that sittest [between] the cherubim, shine forth.

² Before Ephraim and Benjamin and Manasseh, stir up thy strength, and come to our deliverance.

³ O God, restore us; and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

⁴ Jehovah, God of hosts, how long will thine anger smoke against the prayer of thy people?

⁵ Thou hast fed them with the bread of tears, and given them tears to drink in large measure:

⁶ Thou hast made us a strife unto our neighbours, and our enemies mock among themselves.

⁷ Restore us, O God of hosts; and cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

⁸ Thou broughtest a vine out of Egypt; thou didst cast out the nations, and plant it:

⁹ Thou preparedst space before it, and it took deep root, and filled the land;

¹⁰ The mountains were covered with its shadow, and the branches thereof were [like] cedars of God;

¹¹ It sent out its boughs unto the sea, and its shoots unto the river.

¹² Why hast thou broken down its fences, so that all who pass by the way do pluck it?

¹³ The boar out of the forest doth waste it, and the beast of the field doth feed off it.

¹⁴ O God of hosts, return, we beseech thee; look down from the heavens, and behold, and visit this vine;

¹⁵ Even the stock which thy right hand hath planted, and the young plant thou madest strong for thyself.

¹⁶ It is burned with fire, it is cut down; they perish at the rebuke of thy countenance.

¹⁷ Let thy hand be upon the man of thy right hand, upon the son of man whom thou hast made strong for thyself.

¹⁸ So will we not go back from thee. Revive us, and we will call upon thy name.

¹⁹ Restore us, O Jehovah, God of hosts; cause thy face to shine, and we shall be saved.

To the chief Musician. On Jeduthun. Of Asaph. A Psalm.

77 My voice is unto God, and I will cry; my voice is unto God, and he will give ear unto me.

² In the day of my trouble, I sought the Lord: my hand was stretched out in the night, and slacked not; my soul refused to be comforted.

³ I remembered God, and I moaned; I complained, and my spirit was overwhelmed. Selah.

⁴ Thou holdest open mine eyelids; I am full of disquiet and cannot speak.

⁵ I consider the days of old, the years of ancient times.

⁶ I remember my song in the night; I muse in mine own heart, and my spirit maketh diligent search.

⁷ Will the Lord cast off for ever? and will he be favourable no more?

⁸ Hath his loving-kindness ceased for ever? hath [his] word come to an end from generation to generation?

⁹ Hath God forgotten to be gracious? or hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Selah.

¹⁰ Then said I, This is my weakness:—the years of the right hand of the Most High

¹¹ Will I remember,—the works of Jah; for I will remember thy wonders of old,

¹² And I will meditate upon all thy work, and muse upon thy doings.

¹³ O God, thy way is in the sanctuary: who is so great a god as God?

¹⁴ Thou art the God that doest wonders; thou hast declared thy strength among the peoples.

¹⁵ Thou hast with [thine] arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. Selah.

¹⁶ The waters saw thee, O God, the waters saw thee; they trembled, yea, the depths were troubled:

¹⁷ The thick clouds poured out water; the skies sent out a sound, yea, thine arrows went abroad:

¹⁸ The voice of thy thunder was in the whirlwind, lightnings lit up the world; the earth was troubled and it quaked.

¹⁹ Thy way is in the sea, and thy paths are in the great waters; and thy footsteps are not known.

²⁰ Thou leddest thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.

A Psalm of Asaph.

79 O God, the nations are come into thine inheritance: thy holy temple have they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem in heaps.

² The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowl of the heavens, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth:

³ Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem, and there was none to bury [them].

⁴ We are become a reproach to our neighbours, a mockery and a derision to them that are round about us.

⁵ How long, O Jehovah? wilt thou be angry for ever? Shall thy jealousy burn like fire?

⁶ Pour out thy fury upon the nations that have not known thee, and upon the kingdoms that call not upon thy name:

⁷ For they have devoured Jacob, and laid waste his habitation.

⁸ Remember not against us the iniquities of [our] forefathers; let thy tender mercies speedily come to meet us: for we are brought very low.

⁹ Help us, O God of our salvation, because of the glory of thy name; and deliver us, and forgive our sins, for thy name's sake.

¹⁰ Wherefore should the nations say, Where is their God? Let the avenging of the blood of thy servants that is shed be known among the nations in our sight.

¹¹ Let the groaning of the prisoner come before thee; according to the greatness of thine arm, preserve those that are appointed to die;

¹² And render unto our neighbours, sevenfold into their bosom, their reproach, wherewith they have reproached thee, O Lord.

¹³ And we, thy people and the sheep of thy pasture, will give thanks unto thee for ever; we will shew forth thy praise from generation to generation.

⁴ And Esther's maids and her chamberlains came and told [it] her; and the queen was exceedingly grieved: and she sent raiment to clothe Mordecai, and to take away his sackcloth from him; but he received [it] not.

⁵ Then Esther called for Hatach, [one] of the king's chamberlains, whom he had appointed to wait upon her, and gave him a commandment to Mordecai, to know what it was, and why it was.

⁶ And Hatach went forth to Mordecai, unto the public place of the city which was before the king's gate.

⁷ And Mordecai told him of all that had happened to him, and of the sum of money that Haman had promised to pay to the king's treasuries for the Jews, to destroy them.

⁸ And he gave him a copy of the writing of the decree that had been given at Shushan to destroy them, to shew [it] to Esther, and to declare [it] to her, and to charge her that she should go in unto the king, to make supplication to him, and to make request before him, for her people.

⁹ And Hatach came and told Esther the words of Mordecai.

¹⁰ And Esther spoke to Hatach, and gave him commandment unto Mordecai:

¹¹ All the king's servants and the people of the king's provinces do know that whoever, whether man or woman, shall come to the king into the inner court, who is not called, there is *one* law, to put [him] to death, except [such] to whom the king shall hold out the golden sceptre, that he may live; and I have not been called to come in unto the king these thirty days.

¹² And they told Mordecai Esther's words.

¹³ And Mordecai bade to answer Esther: Imagine not in thy heart that thou shalt escape in the king's house, more than all the Jews.

¹⁴ For if thou altogether holdest thy peace at this time, then shall there arise relief and deliverance to the Jews from another place; but thou and thy father's house shall perish. And who knows whether thou art [not] come to the kingdom for such a time as this?

¹⁵ And Esther bade to answer Mordecai:

¹⁶ Go, gather together all the Jews that are found in Shushan, and fast for me, and neither eat nor drink three days, night or day: I also and my maidens will fast likewise, and so will I go in unto the king, which is not according to the law; and if I perish, I perish.

¹⁷ And Mordecai went his way, and did according to all that Esther had commanded him.

18 And after these things, having left Athens, he came to Corinth;

² and finding a certain Jew by name Aquila, of Pontus by race, just come from Italy, and Priscilla his wife, (because Claudius had ordered all the Jews to leave Rome,) came to them,

³ and because they were of the same trade abode with them, and wrought. For they were tent-makers by trade.

⁴ And he reasoned in the synagogue every sabbath, and persuaded Jews and Greeks.

⁵ And when both Silas and Timotheus came down from Macedonia, Paul was pressed in respect of the word, testifying to the Jews that Jesus was the Christ.

⁶ But as they opposed and spoke injuriously, he shook his clothes, and said to them, Your blood be upon your own head: *I* [am] pure; from henceforth I will go to the nations.

⁷ And departing thence he came to the house of a certain [man], by name Justus, who worshipped God, whose house adjoined the synagogue.

⁸ But Crispus the ruler of the synagogue believed in the Lord with all his house; and many of the Corinthians hearing, believed, and were baptised.

⁹ And the Lord said by vision in [the] night to Paul, Fear not, but speak and be not silent;

¹⁰ because *I* am with thee, and no one shall set upon thee to injure thee; because I have much people in this city.

¹¹ And he remained [there] a year and six months, teaching among them the word of God.

1 Forasmuch as many have undertaken to draw up a relation concerning the matters fully believed among us,

² as those who from the beginning were eye-witnesses of and attendants on the Word have delivered them to us,

³ it has seemed good to *me* also, accurately acquainted from the origin with all things, to write to thee with method, most excellent Theophilus,

⁴ that thou mightest know the certainty of those things in which thou hast been instructed.

3 Now in the fifteenth year of the government of Tiberius Caesar, Pontius Pilate being governor of Judaea, and Herod tetrarch of Galilee, and Philip his brother tetrarch of Ituraea and the region of Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene,

² in the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, [the] word of God came upon John, the son of Zacharias, in the wilderness.

³ And he came into all the district round the Jordan, preaching [the] baptism of repentance for [the] remission of sins,

⁴ as it is written in [the] book of [the] words of Esaias the prophet: Voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare ye the way of [the] Lord, make straight his paths.

⁵ Every gorge shall be filled up, and every mountain and hill shall be brought low, and the crooked [places] shall become a straight [path], and the rough places smooth ways,

⁶ and all flesh shall see the salvation of God.

⁷ He said therefore to the crowds which went out to be baptised by him, Offspring of vipers, who has forewarned you to flee from the coming wrath?

⁸ Produce therefore fruits worthy of repentance; and begin not to say in yourselves, We have Abraham for [our] father, for I say unto you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.

⁹ And already also the axe is applied to the root of the trees; every tree therefore not producing good fruit is cut down and cast into [the] fire.

¹⁰ And the crowds asked him saying, What should we do then?

¹¹ And he answering says to them, He that has two body-coats, let him give to him that has none; and he that has food, let him do likewise.

¹² And tax-gatherers came also to be baptised, and they said to him, Teacher, what should we do?

¹³ And he said to them, Take no more [money] than what is appointed to you.

¹⁴ And persons engaged in military service also asked him saying, And we, what should we do? And he said to them, Oppress no one, nor accuse falsely, and be satisfied with your pay.