Book of Common Prayer
Psalm 105
1 O give thanks unto the Lord, call upon His name, make known His doings among the peoples!
2 Sing to Him, sing praises to Him; meditate on and talk of all His marvelous deeds and devoutly praise them.
3 Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those rejoice who seek and require the Lord [as their indispensable necessity].
4 Seek, inquire of and for the Lord, and crave Him and His strength (His might and inflexibility to temptation); seek and require His face and His presence [continually] evermore.
5 [Earnestly] remember the marvelous deeds that He has done, His miracles and wonders, the judgments and sentences which He pronounced [upon His enemies, as in Egypt].(A)
6 O you offspring of Abraham His servant, you children of Jacob, His chosen ones,
7 He is the Lord our God; His judgments are in all the earth.
8 He is [earnestly] mindful of His covenant and forever it is imprinted on His heart, the word which He commanded and established to a thousand generations,
9 The covenant which He made with Abraham, and His sworn promise to Isaac,(B)
10 Which He confirmed to Jacob as a statute, to Israel as an everlasting covenant,
11 Saying, Unto you will I give the land of Canaan as your measured portion, possession, and inheritance.
12 When they were but a few men in number, in fact, very few, and were temporary residents and strangers in it,
13 When they went from one nation to another, from one kingdom to another people,
14 He allowed no man to do them wrong; in fact, He reproved kings for their sakes,(C)
15 Saying, Touch not My anointed, and do My prophets no harm.(D)
16 Moreover, He called for a famine upon the land [of Egypt]; He cut off every source of bread.(E)
17 He sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold as a servant.(F)
18 His feet they hurt with fetters; he was laid in chains of iron and his soul entered into the iron,
19 Until his word [to his cruel brothers] came true, until the word of the Lord tried and tested him.
20 The king sent and loosed him, even the ruler of the peoples, and let him go free.
21 He made Joseph lord of his house and ruler of all his substance,(G)
22 To bind his princes at his pleasure and teach his elders wisdom.
23 Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham.(H)
24 There [the Lord] greatly increased His people and made them stronger than their oppressors.
25 He turned the hearts [of the Egyptians] to hate His people, to deal craftily with His servants.
26 He sent Moses His servant, and Aaron, whom He had chosen.
27 They showed His signs among them, wonders and miracles in the land of Ham (Egypt).
28 He sent [thick] darkness and made the land dark, and they [God’s two servants] rebelled not against His word.(I)
29 He turned [Egypt’s] waters into blood and caused their fish to die.(J)
30 Their land brought forth frogs in abundance, even in the chambers of their kings.(K)
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of beetles and flies and mosquitoes and lice in all their borders.(L)
32 He gave them hail for rain, with lightning like flaming fire in their land.(M)
33 He smote their vines also and their fig trees and broke the [ice-laden] trees of their borders.(N)
34 He spoke, and the locusts came, and the grasshoppers, and that without number,(O)
35 And ate up all the vegetation in their land and devoured the fruit of their ground.
36 He smote also all the firstborn in their land, the beginning and chief substance of all their strength.(P)
37 He brought [Israel] forth also with silver and gold, and there was not one feeble person among their tribes.(Q)
38 Egypt was glad when they departed, for the fear of them had fallen upon the people.(R)
39 The Lord spread a cloud for a covering [by day], and a fire to give light in the night.(S)
40 [The Israelites] asked, and He brought quails and satisfied them with the bread of heaven.(T)
41 He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it ran in the dry places like a river.(U)
42 For He [earnestly] remembered His holy word and promise to Abraham His servant.(V)
43 And He brought forth His people with joy, and His chosen ones with gladness and singing,
44 And gave them the lands of the nations [of Canaan], and they reaped the fruits of those peoples’ labor,(W)
45 That they might observe His statutes and keep His laws [hearing, receiving, loving, and obeying them]. Praise the Lord! (Hallelujah!)
2 And now, O you priests, this commandment is for you.
2 If you will not hear and if you will not lay it to heart to give glory to My name, says the Lord of hosts, then I will send the curse upon you, and I will curse your blessings; yes, I have already turned them to curses because you do not lay it to heart.
3 Behold, I will rebuke your seed [grain—which will prevent due harvest], and I will spread the [a]dung from the festival offerings upon your faces, and you shall be taken away with it.
4 And you shall know, recognize, and understand that I have sent this [new] decree to you priests, to be My [new] covenant with Levi [the priestly tribe], says the Lord of hosts.
5 My covenant [on My part with Levi] was to give him life and peace, because [on his part] of the [reverent and worshipful] fear with which [the priests] would revere Me and stand in awe of My name.
6 The law of truth was in [Levi’s] mouth, and unrighteousness was not found in his lips; he walked with Me in peace and uprightness and turned many away from iniquity.
7 For the priest’s lips should guard and keep pure the knowledge [of My law], and the people should seek (inquire for and require) instruction at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.
8 But you have turned aside out of the way; you have caused many to stumble by your instruction [in the law]; you have corrupted the covenant of Levi [with Me], says the Lord of hosts.
9 Therefore have I also made you despised and abased before all the people, inasmuch as you have not kept My ways but have shown favoritism to persons in your administration of the law [of God].
10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why then do we deal faithlessly and treacherously each against his brother, profaning the covenant of [God with] our fathers?
11 Judah has been faithless and dealt treacherously, and an abomination has been committed in Israel and in Jerusalem; for Judah [that is, Jewish men] has profaned the holy sanctuary of the Lord which He loves, and has married the daughter of a foreign god [having divorced his Jewish wife].(A)
12 The Lord will cast out of the tents of Jacob to the last man those who do this [evil thing], the master and the servant [or the pupil] alike, even him who brings an offering to the Lord of hosts.
13 And this you do with double guilt; you cover the altar of the Lord with tears [shed by your unoffending wives, divorced by you that you might take heathen wives], and with [your own] weeping and crying out because the Lord does not regard your offering any more or accept it with favor at your hand.
14 Yet you ask, Why does He reject it? Because the Lord was witness [to the covenant made at your marriage] between you and the wife of your youth, against whom you have dealt treacherously and to whom you were faithless. Yet she is your companion and the wife of your covenant [made by your marriage vows].
15 And did not God make [you and your wife] one [flesh]? Did not One make you and preserve your spirit alive? And why [did God make you two] one? Because He sought a godly offspring [from your union]. Therefore take heed to yourselves, and let no one deal treacherously and be faithless to the wife of his youth.
16 For the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I hate divorce and marital separation and him who covers his garment [his wife] with violence. Therefore keep a watch upon your spirit [that it may be controlled by My Spirit], that you deal not treacherously and faithlessly [with your marriage mate].
13 Come now, you who say, Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a city and spend a year there and carry on our business and make money.
14 Yet you do not know [the least thing] about what may happen tomorrow. What is the nature of your life? You are [really] but a wisp of vapor (a puff of smoke, a mist) that is visible for a little while and then disappears [into thin air].
15 You ought instead to say, If the Lord is willing, we shall live and we shall do this or that [thing].
16 But as it is, you boast [falsely] in your presumption and your self-conceit. All such boasting is wrong.
17 So any person who knows what is right to do but does not do it, to him it is sin.
5 Come now, you rich [people], weep aloud and lament over the miseries (the woes) that are surely coming upon you.
2 Your abundant wealth has rotted and is ruined, and your [many] garments have become moth-eaten.
3 Your gold and silver are completely rusted through, and their rust will be testimony against you and it will devour your flesh as if it were fire. You have heaped together treasure for the last days.
4 [But] look! [Here are] the wages that you have withheld by fraud from the laborers who have reaped your fields, crying out [for vengeance]; and the cries of the harvesters have come to the ears of the Lord of hosts.
5 [Here] on earth you have abandoned yourselves to soft (prodigal) living and to [the pleasures of] self-indulgence and self-gratification. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter.
6 You have condemned and have murdered the righteous (innocent man), [while] he offers no resistance to you.
20 Asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He replied to them by saying, The kingdom of God does not come with signs to be observed or with visible display,
21 Nor will people say, Look! Here [it is]! or, See, [it is] there! For behold, the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] and among you [surrounding you].
22 And He said to the disciples, The time is coming when you will long to see [even] one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see [it].
23 And they will say to you, Look! [He is] there! or, Look! [He is] here! But do not go out or follow [them].
24 For like the lightning, that flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other, so will the Son of Man be in His [own] day.
25 But first He must suffer many things and be disapproved and repudiated and rejected by this age and generation.
26 And [just] as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the time of the Son of Man.
27 [People] ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, right up to the day when Noah went into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all.(A)
28 So also [it was the same] as it was in the days of Lot. [People] ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;
29 But on the [very] day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed [them] all.
30 That is the way it will be on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.(B)
31 On that day let him who is on the housetop, with his belongings in the house, not come down [and go inside] to carry them away; and likewise let him who is in the field not turn back.
32 Remember Lot’s wife!(C)
33 Whoever tries to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve and [a]quicken it.
34 I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed; one will be taken and the other will be left.
35 There will be two women grinding together; one will be taken and the other will be left.
36 [b]Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other will be left.
37 Then they asked Him, Where, Lord? He said to them, Wherever the dead body is, there will the vultures or eagles be gathered together.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation