Book of Common Prayer
KOPH.
145 ¶ I cried with my whole heart; answer me, O LORD, and I will keep thy statutes.
146 I cried unto thee; save me, and I shall keep thy testimonies.
147 ¶ I arose before the dawning of the morning and cried: I waited in thy word.
148 My eyes anticipate the night watches that I might meditate in thy spoken word.
149 ¶ Hear my voice according to thy mercy; O LORD, cause me to live according to thy judgment.
150 ¶ Those that persecute me draw near unto evil; they have strayed from thy law.
151 Thou art near, O LORD; and all thy commandments are truth.
152 ¶ Concerning thy testimonies, I have known of old that thou hast founded them for ever.
RESH.
153 ¶ Consider my affliction and deliver me; for I have not forgotten thy law.
154 Plead my cause and redeem me; quicken me according to thy spoken word.
155 ¶ Saving health is far from the wicked, for they do not seek thy statutes.
156 ¶ Many are thy tender mercies, O LORD: cause me to live according to thy judgments.
157 ¶ Many are my persecutors and my enemies; yet I do not deviate from thy testimonies.
158 ¶ I beheld the transgressors and was grieved because they did not keep thy words.
159 ¶ Consider, O LORD, that I love thy precepts; cause me to live according to thy mercy.
160 ¶ The beginning of thy word is truth, and every one of the judgments of thy righteousness is eternal.
SCHIN.
161 ¶ Princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart stands in awe of thy words.
162 ¶ I rejoice at thy spoken word, as one that finds great spoil.
163 ¶ I hate and abhor lying, but I love thy law.
164 ¶ Seven times a day do I praise thee because of the judgments of thy righteousness.
165 ¶ Those who love thy law have great peace, and nothing shall cause them to stumble.
166 ¶ LORD, I have waited for thy saving health and done thy commandments.
167 ¶ My soul has kept thy testimonies, and I have loved them exceedingly.
168 I have kept thy precepts and thy testimonies, for all my ways are before thee.
TAU.
169 ¶ Let my cry come near before thee, O LORD; give me understanding according to thy word.
170 Let my supplication come before thee; deliver me according to thy spoken word.
171 ¶ My lips shall overflow with praise when thou hast taught me thy statutes.
172 ¶ My tongue shall speak thy words; for all thy commandments are righteousness.
173 ¶ Let thine hand help me, for I have chosen thy precepts.
174 I have longed for thy saving health, O LORD, and thy law is my delight.
175 ¶ Let my soul live, and it shall praise thee, and let thy judgments help me.
176 ¶ I have gone astray like a lost sheep; seek thy slave; for I have not forgotten thy commandments.
A Song of degrees.
1 ¶ Blessed is every one that fears the LORD, that walks in his ways.
2 When thou shalt eat the labour of thine hands; happy shalt thou be, and it shall be well with thee.
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thy house; thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that fears the LORD.
5 The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion, and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children and peace upon Israel.
A Song of degrees.
1 ¶ Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth, may Israel now say:
2 Many a time have they afflicted me from my youth; yet they have not prevailed against me.
3 The plowers plowed upon my back; they made long their furrows.
4 The LORD is righteous; he has cut asunder the cords of the wicked.
5 ¶ All those that hate Zion shall all be confounded and turned back.
6 They shall be as the grass upon the housetops, which withers before it grows up,
7 with which the reaper does not fill his hand nor he that binds sheaves his bosom.
8 Neither did those who go by say, The blessing of the LORD be upon you; we bless you in the name of the LORD.
A Song of degrees.
1 ¶ Out of the depths I cry unto thee, O LORD.
2 Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplications.
3 If thou, O LORD, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall endure?
4 Therefore there is forgiveness close to thee, that thou may be feared.
5 ¶ I have waited for the LORD, my soul has waited, and for his word I have waited.
6 My soul has waited for the Lord more than those that watch for the morning: I say, more than those that watch for the morning.
7 Let Israel wait for the LORD; for with the LORD there is mercy and plenteous redemption close to him.
8 And he shall ransom Israel from all his sins.
2 ¶ Woe unto those that devise iniquity and fabricate evil upon their beds! when the morning is light, they put it into effect because they have power in their hands.
2 And they coveted fields and stole them, and houses and took them away; so they oppressed the man and his house, even the man and his heritage.
3 Therefore thus hath the LORD said; Behold, I devise an evil against this family, from which ye shall not remove your necks; neither shall ye walk haughtily; for the time shall be evil.
4 In that time shall one take up a saying against you and lament with a doleful lamentation and say, We have been utterly destroyed; he has changed the portion of my people; how has he taken our fields! He has given and divided our fields unto others.
5 Therefore thou shalt have no one to cast a cord by lot in the congregation of the LORD.
6 ¶ Do not prophesy, they say to those that prophesy: Do not prophesy unto them that they are to understand shame.
7 O thou that calls thyself the house of Jacob, is the spirit of the LORD shortened? are these his doings? do not my words do good to him that walks uprightly?
8 He who yesterday was my people is risen up as an enemy; ye pull off the robe with the garment from those that pass by as those who return from war.
9 Ye have cast the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their children ye have taken away my continual praise.
10 Arise and depart, for this is not your rest because it is polluted; it has become corrupted and with a great corruption.
11 If there is one walking in the spirit of falsehood, he shall lie, saying, I will prophesy unto thee of wine and of strong drink; he shall even be the prophet of this people.
12 ¶ I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah as the flock in the midst of their fold; they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
13 The breaker shall go up before them; they shall break through and pass through the gate and go out by it; and their king shall pass before them, the LORD at the head of them.
23 And he called unto him two centurions, saying, Make ready two hundred soldiers to go to Caesarea and seventy horsemen and two hundred spearmen, at the third hour of the night
24 and provide them beasts that they may set Paul on and bring him safe unto Felix the governor.
25 And he wrote a letter after this manner:
26 Claudius Lysias unto the most excellent governor Felix sends greeting.
27 This man was taken of the Jews and should have been killed by them; then I came with an army and rescued him, having understood that he was a Roman.
28 And when I desired to know the cause of why they accused him, I brought him forth into their council,
29 whom I found to be accused of questions of their law, but to have nothing laid to his charge worthy of death or of bonds.
30 And when it was told me how the Jews lay in wait to ambush the man, I sent straightway to thee and gave commandment to his accusers also to say before thee what they had against him. Farewell.
31 Then the soldiers, as it was commanded them, took Paul and brought him by night to Antipatris.
32 On the next day they left the horsemen to go with him and returned to the fortress,
33 who, when they came to Caesarea and delivered the epistle to the governor, presented Paul also before him.
34 And when the governor had read the letter, he asked of what province he was. And when he understood that he was of Cilicia,
35 I will hear thee, said he, when thine accusers are also come. And he commanded him to be kept in Herod’s judgment hall.
18 And the disciples of John showed him of all these things.
19 ¶ And John calling unto him two of his disciples sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?
20 When the men were come unto him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us unto thee, saying, Art thou he that should come? or look we for another?
21 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues and of evil spirits, and unto many that were blind he gave sight.
22 Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go and tell John the things ye have seen and heard: how the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached;
23 and blessed is whoever shall not be offended in me.
24 And when the messengers of John were departed, he began to speak unto the people concerning John, What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind?
25 But what went ye out to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? Behold, those that are gorgeously apparelled and live delicately are in kings’ courts.
26 But what went ye out to see? A prophet? Yea, I say unto you, and much more than a prophet.
27 This is he of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, who shall prepare thy way before thee.
28 For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist, but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.
29 And all the people that heard him and the publicans justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John.
30 But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him.
31 And the Lord said, Unto whom then shall I compare the men of this generation? and to what are they like?
32 They are like unto children sitting in the marketplace and calling one to another and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced; we have mourned to you, and ye have not wept.
33 For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and ye say, He has a demon.
34 The Son of man is come eating and drinking, and ye say, Behold a gluttonous man and a winebibber, a friend of publicans and sinners!
35 But wisdom is justified of all her children.
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