Book of Common Prayer

¹ By the rivers of Babylon,
we sat down and wept,
when we remembered Zion.
² On the willows there
we hung up our harps.
³ For there our captors demanded songs
and our tormentors asked for joy:
“Sing us one of the songs of Zion.”
⁴ How can we sing a song of Adonai in a foreign land?
⁵ If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
let my right hand wither.
⁶ May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth
if I cease to remember you,
if I do not set Jerusalem above my chief joy.
⁷ Remember, Adonai, the children of Edom,
what they said on the day Jerusalem fell:
“Strip her, strip her to her very foundation!”
⁸ O daughter of Babylon, the devastated one,
happy is the one who repays you
as you have paid us.
⁹ Happy is the one who seizes your little ones
and dashes them upon the rock.

¹ Of David.
Blessed be Adonai my Rock—
who trains my hands for war,
my fingers for battle.
² He is my lovingkindness, my fortress,
my strong tower, and my deliverer,
my shield, in whom I take refuge,
who subdues my people under me.
³ Adonai, what is man, that You take note of him?
Or the son of man, that You consider him?^[a]
4 Man is like a breath—
his days are like a passing shadow.
⁵ Adonai, part Your heavens and come down.
Touch the mountains, so they smoke.
⁶ Flash forth lightning and scatter them.
Send out Your arrows and confuse them.
⁷ Stretch forth Your hands from on high.
Snatch me, deliver me out of deep waters,
    out of the hand of foreigners,
⁸ whose mouth speaks falsehood,
whose right hand is a right hand of deceit.
⁹ God, I sing a new song to You, on a ten-string harp
I sing praises to You—
¹⁰ who gives salvation to kings,
who rescues Your servant David from the evil sword.
¹¹ Snatch me, deliver me
out of the hand of foreigners,
whose mouth speaks falsehood,
whose right hand is a right hand of deceit.
¹² Then our sons will be like plants nurtured in their youth,
our daughters like corner pillars carved for the construction of a palace.
¹³ Our storehouses are full,
supplying every kind of produce.
Our flocks increase by thousands
and ten thousands in our fields.
¹⁴ Our oxen bear a heavy load.
There is no breach,
no going into captivity,
no outcry in our streets.
¹⁵ Happy are such a people!
Blessed are the people whose God is Adonai!

¹ Bless Adonai, O my soul.
Adonai my God, You are very great!
You are clothed with splendor and majesty—
² wrapping Yourself in light as a robe,
stretching out heaven like a curtain,
³ laying beams for His upper rooms in waters,
    making the clouds His chariot,
    walking on the wings of the wind,
⁴ making His angels spirits,
    His servants a flaming fire.
⁵ He set the earth upon its foundations,
so it should not totter forever and ever.
⁶ You covered it with the deep as with a garment—
    the waters standing above the mountains.
⁷ At Your rebuke the waters fled.
At the sound of Your thunder they hurried away.
⁸ The waters go up the mountains,
then down to the valleys—
to the place that You assigned to them.
⁹ You set a boundary to the waters
    that they may not cross over,
so they may not return to cover the earth.
¹⁰ You make springs gush into the valleys.
They run between the mountains.
¹¹ They give drink to all the beasts of the field—
the wild donkeys quench their thirst.
¹² Beside them the birds of the sky dwell—
they sing among the branches.
¹³ He waters mountains from His upper rooms.
The earth is full of the fruit of Your labors.
¹⁴ He causes grass to spring up for the cattle,
and vegetation for man to cultivate,
    to bring forth bread out of the earth,
¹⁵ wine that makes man’s heart glad,
    oil to make his face shine,
    and bread that sustains man’s heart.
¹⁶ The trees of Adonai are satisfied,
the cedars of Lebanon that He planted,
¹⁷ where birds make their nests,
and the stork—her home is the fir trees.
¹⁸ The high mountains are for wild goats,
the cliffs a refuge for rock badgers.

5 But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah^[a]—
least among the clans of Judah—
from you will come out to Me
    One to be ruler in Israel,
One whose goings forth are from of old,
    from days of eternity.
² Therefore He will give them up
until the time when she who is in labor has given birth.
Then the remnant of His brothers
    will return to Bnei-Yisrael.
³ So He will arise and tend His flock
with the strength of Adonai—
    in the majesty of the Name of Adonai His God.
And they will live securely,
    for then He will be great to the ends of the earth.
⁴ This One will be shalom.^[b]
When Assyria invades our land
    when he treads on our citadels,
then we will raise up against him seven shepherds
    and eight human princes.

¹⁰ I will cut off the cities of your land,
and throw down all your strongholds.
¹¹ I will cut off sorceries from your hand,
and you will have no more diviners.
¹² I will cut off your carved images
and your sacred pillars from among you,
so you will no longer bow down
    to the work of your hands.
¹³ I will uproot your Asherah poles from among you,
and destroy your cities.
¹⁴ So I will execute vengeance in anger
and wrath on the nations that have not listened.