Book of Common Prayer
105 Give thanks to Adonai! Call on his name!
Make his deeds known among the peoples.
2 Sing to him, sing praises to him,
talk about all his wonders.
3 Glory in his holy name;
let those seeking Adonai have joyful hearts.
4 Seek Adonai and his strength;
always seek his presence.
5 Remember the wonders he has done,
his signs and his spoken rulings.
6 You descendants of Avraham his servant,
you offspring of Ya‘akov, his chosen ones,
7 he is Adonai our God!
His rulings are everywhere on earth.
8 He remembers his covenant forever,
the word he commanded to a thousand generations,
9 the covenant he made with Avraham,
the oath he swore to Yitz’chak,
10 and established as a law for Ya‘akov,
for Isra’el as an everlasting covenant:
11 “To you I will give the land of Kena‘an
as your allotted heritage.”
12 When they were but few in number,
and not only few, but aliens there too,
13 wandering from nation to nation,
from this kingdom to that people,
14 he allowed no one to oppress them.
Yes, for their sakes he rebuked even kings:
15 “Don’t touch my anointed ones
or do my prophets harm!”
16 He called down famine on the land,
broke off all their food supply,
17 but sent a man ahead of them —
Yosef, who was sold as a slave.
18 They shackled his feet with chains,
and they bound him in irons;
19 until the time when his word proved true,
God’s utterance kept testing him.
20 The king sent and had him released,
the ruler of peoples set him free;
21 he made him lord of his household,
in charge of all he owned,
22 correcting his officers as he saw fit
and teaching his counselors wisdom.
23 Then Isra’el too came into Egypt,
Ya‘akov lived as an alien in the land of Ham.
24 There God made his people very fruitful,
made them too numerous for their foes,
25 whose hearts he turned to hate his people,
and treat his servants unfairly.
26 He sent his servant Moshe
and Aharon, whom he had chosen.
27 They worked his signs among them,
his wonders in the land of Ham.
28 He sent darkness, and the land grew dark;
they did not defy his word.
29 He turned their water into blood
and caused their fish to die.
30 Their land swarmed with frogs,
even in the royal chambers.
31 He spoke, and there came swarms of insects
and lice throughout their land.
32 He gave them hail instead of rain,
with fiery [lightning] throughout their land.
33 He struck their vines and fig trees,
shattering trees all over their country.
34 He spoke, and locusts came,
also grasshoppers without number;
35 they ate up everything green in their land,
devoured the fruit of their ground.
36 He struck down all the firstborn in their land,
the firstfruits of all their strength.
37 Then he led his people out,
laden with silver and gold;
among his tribes not one stumbled.
38 Egypt was happy to have them leave,
because fear of [Isra’el] had seized them.
39 He spread out a cloud to screen them off
and fire to give them light at night.
40 When they asked, he brought them quails
and satisfied them with food from heaven.
41 He split a rock, and water gushed out,
flowing as a river over the dry ground,
42 for he remembered his holy promise
to his servant Avraham.
43 He led out his people with joy,
his chosen ones with singing.
44 Then he gave them the lands of the nations,
and they possessed what peoples had toiled to produce,
45 in order to obey his laws
and follow his teachings.
Halleluyah!
2 “Now, cohanim, this command is for you.
2 If you won’t listen, if you won’t pay attention
to honoring my name,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot,
“then I will send the curse on you;
I will turn your blessings into curses.
Yes, I will curse them,
because you pay no attention.
3 I will reject your seed;
I will throw dung in your faces,
the dung from your festival offerings;
and you will be carted off with it.
4 Then you will know that I sent you this command
to affirm my covenant with Levi,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
5 “My covenant with him was one of life and peace,
and I gave him these things.
It was also one of fear, and he feared me;
he was in awe of my name.
6 The true Torah was in his mouth,
and no dishonesty was found on his lips;
he walked with me in peace and uprightness
and turned many away from sin.
7 A cohen’s lips should safeguard knowledge,
and people should seek Torah from his mouth,
because he is the messenger
of Adonai-Tzva’ot.
8 But you turned away from the path,
you caused many to fail in the Torah,
you corrupted the covenant of Levi,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
9 “Therefore I have in turn made you
contemptible and vile before all the people,
because you did not keep my ways
but were partial in applying the Torah.”
10 Don’t we all have the same father?
Didn’t one God create us all?
Then why do we break faith with each other,
profaning the covenant of our ancestors?
11 Y’hudah has broken faith;
an abomination has been committed
in Isra’el and Yerushalayim.
For Y’hudah has profaned the sanctuary
of Adonai, which he loves,
by marrying the daughter of a foreign god.
12 If a man does this and presents an offering
to Adonai-Tzva’ot, may Adonai cut him off
from the tents of Ya‘akov,
whether initiator or follower.
13 Here is something else you do:
you cover Adonai’s altar with tears,
with weeping and with sighing,
because he no longer looks at the offering
or receives your gift with favor.
14 Nevertheless, you ask, “Why is this?”
Because Adonai is witness
between you and the wife of your youth
that you have broken faith with her,
though she is your companion, your wife by covenant.
15 And hasn’t he made [them] one [flesh]
in order to have spiritual blood-relatives?
For what the one [flesh] seeks
is a seed from God.
Therefore, take heed to your spirit,
and don’t break faith with the wife of your youth.
16 “For I hate divorce,”
says Adonai the God of Isra’el,
“and him who covers his clothing with violence,”
says Adonai-Tzva’ot.
Therefore take heed to your spirit,
and don’t break faith.
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such-and-such a city, stay there a year trading and make a profit”! 14 You don’t even know if you will be alive tomorrow! For all you are is a mist that appears for a little while and then disappears. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If Adonai wants it to happen, we will live” to do this or that. 16 But as it is, in your arrogance you boast. All such boasting is evil. 17 So then, anyone who knows the right thing to do and fails to do it is committing a sin.
5 Next, a word for the rich: weep and wail over the hardships coming upon you! 2 Your riches have rotted, and your clothes have become moth-eaten; 3 your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat up your flesh like fire! This is the acharit-hayamim, and you have been storing up wealth! 4 Listen! The wages you have fraudulently withheld from the workers who mowed your fields are calling out against you, and the outcries of those who harvested have reached the ears of Adonai-Tzva’ot. 5 You have led a life of luxury and self-indulgence here on earth — in a time of slaughter, you have gone on eating to your heart’s content. 6 You have condemned, you have murdered the innocent; they have not withstood you.
20 The P’rushim asked Yeshua when the Kingdom of God would come. “The Kingdom of God,” he answered, “does not come with visible signs; 21 nor will people be able to say, ‘Look! Here it is!’ or, ‘Over there!’ Because, you see, the Kingdom of God is among you.” 22 Then he said to his talmidim, “The time is coming when you will long to see even one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. 23 People will say to you, ‘Look! Right here!’ or, ‘See! Over there!’ Don’t run off, don’t follow them, 24 because the Son of Man in his day will be like lightning that flashes and lights up the sky from one horizon to the other. 25 But first he must endure horrible suffering and be rejected by this generation.
26 “Also, at the time of the Son of Man, it will be just as it was at the time of Noach. 27 People ate and drank, and men and women married, right up until the day Noach entered the ark; then the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, as it was in the time of Lot — people ate and drank, bought and sold, planted and built; 29 but the day Lot left S’dom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 That is how it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, if someone is on the roof with his belongings in his house, he must not go down to take them away. Similarly, if someone is in the field, he must not turn back — 32 remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever aims at preserving his own life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will stay alive. 34 I tell you, on that night there will be two people in one bed — one will be taken and the other left behind. 35 There will be two women grinding grain together — one will be taken and the other left behind.” 36 [a]
37 They asked him, “Where, Lord?” He answered, “Wherever there’s a dead body, that’s where the vultures gather.”
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.