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Book of Common Prayer

Daily Old and New Testament readings based on the Book of Common Prayer.
Duration: 861 days
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
Version
Psalm 26

26 (0) By David:

(1) Vindicate me, Adonai,
for I have lived a blameless life;
unwaveringly I trust in Adonai.
Examine me, Adonai, test me,
search my mind and heart.
For your grace is there before my eyes,
and I live my life by your truth.
I have not sat with worthless folks,
I won’t consort with hypocrites,
I hate the company of evildoers,
I will not sit with the wicked.

I will wash my hands in innocence
and walk around your altar, Adonai,
lifting my voice in thanks
and proclaiming all your wonders.
Adonai, I love the house where you live,
the place where your glory abides.

Don’t include me with sinners
or my life with the bloodthirsty.
10 In their hands are evil schemes;
their right hands are full of bribes.
11 As for me, I will live a blameless life.
Redeem me and show me favor.
12 My feet are planted on level ground;
in the assemblies I will bless Adonai.

Psalm 28

28 (0) By David:

(1) Adonai, I am calling to you;
my Rock, don’t be deaf to my cry.
For if you answer me with silence,
I will be like those who fall in a pit.
Hear the sound of my prayers
when I cry to you,
when I lift my hands
toward your holy sanctuary.

Don’t drag me off with the wicked,
with those whose deeds are evil;
they speak words of peace to their fellowmen,
but evil is in their hearts.
Pay them back for their deeds,
as befits their evil acts;
repay them for what they have done,
give them what they deserve.
For they don’t understand the deeds of Adonai
or what he has done.
He will break them down;
he will not build them up.

Blessed be Adonai,
for he heard my voice as I prayed for mercy.
Adonai is my strength and shield;
in him my heart trusted, and I have been helped.
Therefore my heart is filled with joy,
and I will sing praises to him.

Adonai is strength for [his people],
a stronghold of salvation to his anointed.
Save your people! Bless your heritage!
Shepherd them, and carry them forever!

Psalm 36

36 (0) For the leader. By David, the servant of Adonai:

(1) Crime speaks to the wicked.
I perceive this in my heart;
before his eyes there is no fear
of God.
(2) For, the way he sees it,
crime makes his life easy —
that is, until his wrongs are discovered;
then, he is hated.
(3) His words are wrong and deceitful;
he has stopped being wise and doing good.
(4) He devises trouble as he lies in bed;
so set is he on his own bad way
that he doesn’t hate evil.

(5) Adonai, in the heavens is your grace;
your faithfulness reaches to the skies.
(6) Your righteousness is like the mountains of God,
your judgments are like the great deep.
You save man and beast, Adonai.
(7) How precious, God, is your grace!
People take refuge in the shadow of your wings,
(8) they feast on the rich bounty of your house,
and you have them drink from the stream of your delights.
10 (9) For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.
11 (10) Continue your grace to those who know you
and your righteousness to the upright in heart.
12 (11) Don’t let the foot of the proud tread on me
or the hands of the wicked drive me away.
13 (12) There they lie fallen, those evildoers,
flung down and unable to rise.

Psalm 39

39 (0) For the leader. Set in the style of Y’dutun. A psalm of David:

(1) I said, “I will watch how I behave,
so that I won’t sin with my tongue;
I will put a muzzle on my mouth
whenever the wicked confront me.”

(2) I was silent, said nothing, not even good;
but my pain kept being stirred up.
(3) My heart grew hot within me;
whenever I thought of it, the fire burned.
Then, [at last,] I let my tongue speak:

(4) “Make me grasp, Adonai, what my end must be,
what it means that my days are numbered;
let me know what a transient creature I am.
(5) You have made my days like handbreadths;
for you, the length of my life is like nothing.”

Yes, everyone, no matter how firmly he stands,
is merely a puff of wind. (Selah)
(6) Humans go about like shadows;
their turmoil is all for nothing.
They accumulate wealth, not knowing
who will enjoy its benefits.

(7) Now, Adonai, what am I waiting for?
You are my only hope.
(8) Rescue me from all my transgressions;
don’t make me the butt of fools.
10 (9) I am silent, I keep my mouth shut,
because it is you who have done it.

11 (10) Stop raining blows on me;
the pounding of your fist is wearing me down.
12 (11) With rebukes you discipline people for their guilt;
like a moth, you destroy what makes them attractive;
yes, everyone is merely a puff of wind. (Selah)

13 (12) Hear my prayer, Adonai, listen to my cry,
don’t be deaf to my weeping;
for with you, I am just a traveler
passing through, like all my ancestors.
14 (13) Turn your gaze from me, so I can smile again
before I depart and cease to exist.

Isaiah 44:9-20

All idol-makers amount to nothing;
their precious productions profit no one;
and their witnesses, to their own shame,
neither see nor understand.
10 Who would fashion a god or cast an image
that profits no one anything?
11 All involved will be ashamed,
but more than anyone else, the people who made them.
Let them all be assembled, let them stand up;
let them fear and be shamed together.

12 A blacksmith makes a tool over burning coals;
with his strong arm he shapes it with hammers.
But when he gets hungry, his strength fails;
if he doesn’t drink water, he grows tired.

13 A carpenter takes his measurements,
sketches the shape with a stylus,
planes the wood, checks it with calipers,
and carves it into the shape of a man;
and, since it is honored like a man,
of course it has to live in a house.
14 He goes to chop down cedars;
he takes an evergreen and an oak;
he especially tends one tree in the forest,
plants a pine for the rain to nourish.
15 In time, when it’s ready for use as fuel,
he takes some of it to keep himself warm
and burns some more to bake bread.
Then he makes a god and worships it,
carves it into an idol and falls down before it.
16 So half of it he burns in the fire;
with that half he roasts meat and eats his fill;
he warms himself; says, “It feels so good,
getting warm while watching the flames!”
17 With the rest of the log he fashions a god,
a carved image, then falls down before it;
he worships it and prays to it.
“Save me,” he says, “for you are my god!”

18 Such people know nothing, understand nothing.
Their eyes are sealed shut, so that they can’t see;
their hearts too, so they can’t understand.
19 Not one thinks to himself or has the knowledge
or the discernment to say,
“I burned half of it in the fire,
baked bread on its coals, roasted meat and ate it.
Should I now make the rest an abomination?
Should I prostrate myself to a tree trunk?”
20 He is relying on ashes!
A deceived heart has led him astray;
so that now he won’t save himself, just won’t say,
“This thing in my hand is a fraud!”

Ephesians 4:17-32

17 Therefore I say this — indeed, in union with the Lord I insist on it: do not live any longer as the pagans live, with their sterile ways of thinking. 18 Their intelligence has been shrouded in darkness, and they are estranged from the life of God, because of the ignorance in them, which in turn comes from resisting God’s will. 19 They have lost all feeling, so they have abandoned themselves to sensuality, practicing any kind of impurity and always greedy for more. 20 But this is not the lesson you learned from the Messiah! 21 If you really listened to him and were instructed about him, then you learned that since what is in Yeshua is truth, 22 then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires; 23 and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed, 24 and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth.

25 Therefore, stripping off falsehood, let everyone speak truth with his neighbor,[a] because we are intimately related to each other as parts of a body. 26 Be angry, but don’t sin[b] — don’t let the sun go down before you have dealt with the cause of your anger; 27 otherwise you leave room for the Adversary.

28 The thief must stop stealing; instead, he should make an honest living by his own efforts. This way he will be able to share with those in need.

29 Let no harmful language come from your mouth, only good words that are helpful in meeting the need, words that will benefit those who hear them. 30 Don’t cause grief to God’s Ruach HaKodesh, for he has stamped you as his property until the day of final redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, violent assertiveness and slander, along with all spitefulness. 32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted; and forgive each other, just as in the Messiah God has also forgiven you.

Mark 3:19-35

19 and Y’hudah from K’riot, the one who betrayed him.

Then he entered a house; 20 and once more, such a crowd came together that they couldn’t even eat. 21 When his family heard about this, they set out to take charge of him; for they said, “He’s out of his mind!”

22 The Torah-teachers who came down from Yerushalayim said, “He has Ba‘al-Zibbul in him,” and “It is by the ruler of the demons that he expels the demons.” 23 But he called them and spoke to them in parables: “How can Satan expel Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom can’t survive; 25 and if a household is divided against itself, that household can’t survive. 26 So if Satan has rebelled against himself and is divided, he can’t survive either; and that’s the end of him. 27 Furthermore, no one can break into a strong man’s house and make off with his possessions unless he first ties up the strong man. After that, he can ransack his house. 28 Yes! I tell you that people will be forgiven all sins and whatever blasphemies they utter; 29 however, someone who blasphemes against the Ruach HaKodesh never has forgiveness but is guilty of an eternal sin.” 30 For they had been saying, “He has an unclean spirit in him.”

31 Then his mother and brothers arrived. Standing outside, they sent a message asking for him. 32 A crowd was sitting around him; and they said to him, “Your mother and your brothers are outside, asking for you.” 33 He replied, “Who are my mother and my brothers?” 34 Looking at those seated in a circle around him, he said, “See! Here are my mother and my brothers! 35 Whoever does what God wants is my brother, sister and mother!”

Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)

Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.