Book of Common Prayer
78 Give ear, O my people, to my law; incline your ears to the words of my mouth.
2 I will open my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old,
3 which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
4 We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord and His strength, and His wonderful works that He hath done.
5 For He established a testimony in Jacob and appointed a law in Israel, which He commanded to our fathers, that they should make them known to their children;
6 that the generation to come might know them, even the children who should be born, who should arise and declare them to their children,
7 that they might set their hope in God and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments;
8 and so might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God.
9 The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.
10 They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law;
11 they forgot His works and His wonders that He had shown them.
12 Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers, in the land of Egypt, in the field of Zoan.
13 He divided the sea and caused them to pass through; and He made the waters to stand as a heap.
14 In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire.
15 He cleaved the rocks in the wilderness, and gave them drink as out of the great depths.
16 He brought streams also out of the rock, and caused waters to run down like rivers.
17 And they sinned yet more against Him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness.
18 And they tempted God in their heart by asking for meat for their lust.
19 Yea, they spoke against God: they said, “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?
20 Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed. Can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?”
21 Therefore the Lord heard this and was wroth; so a fire was kindled against Jacob, and anger also rose up against Israel,
22 because they believed not in God and trusted not in His salvation,
23 though He had commanded the clouds from above, and opened the doors of heaven,
24 and had rained down manna upon them to eat, and had given them of the corn of heaven.
25 Man ate angels’ food; He sent them meat to the full.
26 He caused an east wind to blow in the heaven, and by His power He brought in the south wind.
27 He rained flesh also upon them as dust, and feathered fowls as the sand of the sea.
28 And He let it fall in the midst of their camp, round about their habitations.
29 So they ate and were well filled, for He gave them their own desire.
30 But they were not estranged from their lust; but while their meat was yet in their mouths,
31 the wrath of God came upon them and slew the fattest of them, and smote down the chosen men of Israel.
32 For all this, they sinned still and believed not in His wondrous works.
33 Therefore their days did He consume in vanity, and their years in trouble.
34 When He slew them, then they sought Him; and they returned and inquired early after God.
35 And they remembered that God was their rock, and the high God, their redeemer.
36 Nevertheless they flattered Him with their mouth, and they lied unto Him with their tongues.
37 For their heart was not right with Him, neither were they steadfast in His covenant.
38 But He, being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity and destroyed them not. Yea, many a time turned He His anger away, and did not stir up all His wrath;
39 for He remembered that they were but flesh, a wind that passeth away and cometh not again.
40 How oft did they provoke Him in the wilderness, and grieve Him in the desert!
41 Yea, they turned back and tested God, and limited the Holy One of Israel.
42 They remembered not His hand, nor the day when He delivered them from the enemy,
43 how He had wrought His signs in Egypt and His wonders in the field of Zoan,
44 and had turned their rivers into blood, and their streams, that they could not drink.
45 He sent divers sorts of flies among them which devoured them, and frogs which destroyed them.
46 He gave also their harvest unto the caterpillar, and their labor unto the locust.
47 He destroyed their vines with hail, and their sycamore trees with frost.
48 He gave up their cattle also to the hail, and their flocks to hot thunderbolts.
49 He cast upon them the fierceness of His anger, wrath, indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.
50 He made a path to His anger; He spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence,
51 and smote all the firstborn in Egypt, the chief of their strength in the tabernacles of Ham.
52 But He made His own people to go forth like sheep, and guided them in the wilderness like a flock.
53 And He led them on safely, so that they feared not; but the sea overwhelmed their enemies.
54 And He brought them to the border of His sanctuary, even to this mountain, which His right hand had purchased.
55 He cast out the heathen also before them, and apportioned them an inheritance by line, and made the tribes of Israel to dwell in their tents.
56 Yet they tested and provoked the Most High God and kept not His testimonies,
57 but turned back and dealt unfaithfully like their fathers; they were turned aside like a deceitful bow.
58 For they provoked Him to anger with their high places, and loved Him to jealousy with their graven images.
59 When God heard this, He was wroth and greatly abhorred Israel,
60 so that He forsook the tabernacle of Shiloh, the tent which He had placed among men,
61 and delivered His strength into captivity, and His glory into the enemy’s hand.
62 He gave His people over also unto the sword, and was wroth with His inheritance.
63 The fire consumed their young men, and their maidens were not given to marriage.
64 Their priests fell by the sword, and their widows made no lamentation.
65 Then the Lord awakened as one out of sleep, like a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine.
66 And He smote His enemies in the hinder parts, and laid upon them a perpetual reproach.
67 Moreover He refused the tabernacle of Joseph and chose not the tribe of Ephraim,
68 but chose the tribe of Judah, the Mount Zion which He loved.
69 And He built His sanctuary like high palaces, like the earth which He hath established for ever.
70 He also chose David His servant, and took him from the sheepfolds;
71 from following the ewes great with young He brought him to feed Jacob His people, and Israel His inheritance.
72 So he fed them according to the integrity of his heart, and guided them by the skillfulness of his hands.
21 And the man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer unto the Lord the yearly sacrifice and his vow.
22 But Hannah went not up; for she said unto her husband, “I will not go up until the child is weaned, and then I will bring him, that he may appear before the Lord and there abide for ever.”
23 And Elkanah her husband said unto her, “Do what seemeth to thee good. Tarry until thou have weaned him, only the Lord establish His word.” So the woman remained, and gave her son suck until she weaned him.
24 And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks and one ephah of flour and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh; and the child was young.
25 And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli.
26 And she said, “Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman who stood by thee here, praying unto the Lord.
27 For this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition which I asked of Him.
28 Therefore also I have lent him to the Lord; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the Lord.” And he worshiped the Lord there.
2 And Hannah prayed and said, “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord; mine horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in Thy salvation.
2 There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none besides Thee; neither is there any rock like our God.
3 Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogance come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.
4 “The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.
5 They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased hungering, so that the barren hath borne seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
6 “The Lord killeth and maketh alive; He bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up.
7 The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich; He bringeth low and lifteth up.
8 He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’S, and He hath set the world upon them.
9 “He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
10 The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto His king and exalt the horn of His anointed.”
11 And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child ministered unto the Lord before Eli the priest.
15 And in those days Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (the number of names altogether were about a hundred and twenty) and said,
16 “Men and brethren, it was necessary that this Scripture be fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spoke before concerning Judas, who was the guide to those who took Jesus.
17 For he was numbered with us, and had obtained a part of this ministry.
18 Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the middle, and all his bowels gushed out.
19 And it was known unto all the dwellers at Jerusalem, insomuch as that field is called in their proper tongue, Akel Dama, that is to say, the Field of Blood.
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms: ‘Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein’; and, ‘His bishopric let another take.’
21 Therefore from these men who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us,
22 beginning from the baptism of John until that same day that He was taken up from us, must one be ordained to be a witness with us of His resurrection.”
23 And they appointed two: Joseph called Barsabas, who was surnamed Justus, and Matthias.
24 And they prayed and said, “Thou, Lord, who knowest the hearts of all men, show us which of these two Thou hast chosen,
25 that he may take part of this ministry and apostleship from which Judas by transgression fell, that he might go to his own place.”
26 And they cast their lots, and the lot fell upon Matthias; and he was numbered with the eleven apostles.
19 And the chief priests and the scribes that same hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the people; for they perceived that He had spoken this parable against them.
20 And they watched Him and sent forth spies, who should feign themselves to be just men, that they might take hold of His words and so they might deliver Him unto the power and authority of the governor.
21 And they asked Him, saying, “Master, we know that thou sayest and teachest rightly, neither acceptest thou the person of any, but teachest the way of God truly.
22 Is it lawful for us to give tribute unto Caesar or no?”
23 But He perceived their craftiness and said unto them, “Why tempt ye Me?
24 Show Me a penny. Whose image and superscription hath it?” They answered and said, “Caesar’s.”
25 And He said unto them, “Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s, and unto God the things which are God’s.”
26 And they could not take hold of His words before the people. And they marveled at His answer and held their peace.
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.