Book of Common Prayer
To the chief Musician. A Psalm of David.
41 Blessed is he that understandeth the poor: Jehovah will deliver him in the day of evil.
2 Jehovah will preserve him, and keep him alive; he shall be made happy in the land; and thou wilt not deliver him to the will of his enemies.
3 Jehovah will sustain him upon the bed of languishing: thou turnest all his bed in his sickness.
4 As for me, I said, Jehovah, be gracious unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against thee.
5 Mine enemies wish me evil: When will he die, and his name perish?
6 And if one come to see [me], he speaketh falsehood; his heart gathereth wickedness to itself: he goeth abroad, he telleth [it].
7 All that hate me whisper together against me; against me do they devise my hurt.
8 A thing of Belial cleaveth fast unto him; and now that he is laid down, he will rise up no more.
9 Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I confided, who did eat of my bread, hath lifted up [his] heel against me.
10 But thou, Jehovah, be gracious unto me, and raise me up, that I may requite them.
11 By this I know that thou delightest in me, because mine enemy doth not triumph over me.
12 But as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.
13 Blessed be Jehovah, the God of Israel, from eternity to eternity! Amen, and Amen.
To the chief Musician: an instruction. Of David; when Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul, and said unto him, David came to the house of Ahimelech.
52 Why boastest thou thyself in evil, thou mighty man? The loving-kindness of God [abideth] continually.
2 Thy tongue deviseth mischievous things, like a sharp razor, practising deceit.
3 Thou hast loved evil rather than good, lying rather than to speak righteousness. Selah.
4 Thou hast loved all devouring words, O deceitful tongue!
5 God shall likewise destroy thee for ever; he shall take thee away, and pluck thee out of [thy] tent, and root thee out of the land of the living. Selah.
6 The righteous also shall see, and fear, and shall laugh at him, [saying,]
7 Behold the man that made not God his strength, but put confidence in the abundance of his riches, [and] strengthened himself in his avarice.
8 But as for me, I am like a green olive-tree in the house of God: I will confide in the loving-kindness of God for ever and ever.
9 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done [it]; and I will wait on thy name, before thy godly ones, for it is good.
To the chief Musician. Of the sons of Korah. An instruction.
44 O God, with our ears have we heard, our fathers have told us, the work thou wroughtest in their days, in the days of old:
2 Thou, by thy hand, didst dispossess the nations, but them thou didst plant; thou didst afflict the peoples, but them didst thou cause to spread out.
3 For not by their own sword did they take possession of the land, neither did their own arm save them; but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst delight in them.
4 Thou thyself art my king, O God: command deliverance for Jacob.
5 Through thee will we push down our adversaries; through thy name will we tread them under that rise up against us.
6 For I will not put confidence in my bow, neither shall my sword save me.
7 For thou hast saved us from our adversaries, and hast put them to shame that hate us.
8 In God will we boast all the day, and we will praise thy name for ever. Selah.
9 But thou hast cast off, and put us to confusion, and dost not go forth with our armies;
10 Thou hast made us to turn back from the adversary, and they that hate us spoil for themselves;
11 Thou hast given us over like sheep [appointed] for meat, and hast scattered us among the nations;
12 Thou hast sold thy people for nought, and hast not increased [thy wealth] by their price;
13 Thou makest us a reproach to our neighbours, a mockery and a derision for them that are round about us;
14 Thou makest us a byword among the nations, a shaking of the head among the peoples.
15 All the day my confusion is before me, and the shame of my face hath covered me,
16 Because of the voice of him that reproacheth and blasphemeth; by reason of the enemy and the avenger.
17 All this is come upon us; yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely against thy covenant:
18 Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy path;
19 Though thou hast crushed us in the place of jackals, and covered us with the shadow of death.
20 If we had forgotten the name of our God, and stretched out our hands to a strange god,
21 Would not God search this out? for he knoweth the secrets of the heart.
22 But for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are reckoned as sheep for slaughter.
23 Awake, why sleepest thou, Lord? arise, cast [us] not off for ever.
24 Wherefore hidest thou thy face, [and] forgettest our affliction and our oppression?
25 For our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth.
26 Rise up for our help, and redeem us for thy loving-kindness' sake.
24 And it came to pass when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that it was told him, saying, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.
2 And Saul took three thousand men, chosen out of all Israel, and went to seek David and his men upon the rocks of the wild goats.
3 And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where was a cave; and Saul went in to cover his feet; and David and his men were abiding in the recesses of the cave.
4 And David's men said to him, Behold the day of which Jehovah said to thee, Behold, I will give thine enemy into thy hand, that thou mayest do to him as it shall seem good to thee. And David arose, and cut off the skirt of Saul's robe secretly.
5 And it came to pass afterwards that David's heart smote him, because he had cut off Saul's skirt.
6 And he said to his men, Jehovah forbid that I should do this thing to my master, Jehovah's anointed, to stretch forth my hand against him, for he is the anointed of Jehovah.
7 And David checked his men with these words, and suffered them not to rise against Saul. And Saul rose up out of the cave, and went on [his] way.
8 David also arose afterwards, and went out of the cave, and cried after Saul, saying, My lord the king! And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and did obeisance.
9 And David said to Saul, Why dost thou listen to words of men, saying, Behold, David seeks thy hurt?
10 Behold, this day thine eyes have seen how that Jehovah had given thee this day into my hand in the cave; and they bade me kill thee; but [mine eye] spared thee; and I said, I will not put forth my hand against my lord, for he is the anointed of Jehovah.
11 And see, my father, yes, see the skirt of thy robe in my hand. For in that I cut off the skirt of thy robe, and killed thee not, know and see that there is neither evil nor transgression in my hand, and I have not sinned against thee; yet thou liest in wait for my life to take it.
12 Jehovah judge between me and thee, and Jehovah avenge me of thee; but my hand shall not be upon thee.
13 As saith the proverb of the ancients, Wickedness proceedeth from the wicked; but my hand shall not be upon thee.
14 After whom is the king of Israel come out? after whom dost thou pursue? after a dead dog, after a single flea.
15 Jehovah therefore shall be judge, and judge between me and thee, and see, and plead my cause, and do me justice [in delivering me] out of thy hand.
16 And as soon as David had ended speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this thy voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
17 And he said to David, Thou art more righteous than I; for thou hast rewarded me good, whereas I have rewarded thee evil.
18 And thou hast shewed this day how that thou hast dealt well with me, forasmuch as when Jehovah had delivered me up into thy hand, thou didst not kill me.
19 For if a man find his enemy, will he let him go well away? wherefore Jehovah reward thee good for that thou hast done to me this day.
20 And now behold, I know that thou shalt certainly be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in thy hand.
21 Swear now therefore to me by Jehovah, that thou wilt not cut off my seed after me, and that thou wilt not destroy my name out of my father's house.
22 And David swore to Saul. And Saul went home; and David and his men went up to the stronghold.
44 And on the coming sabbath almost all the city was gathered together to hear the word of God.
45 But the Jews, seeing the crowds, were filled with envy, and contradicted the things said by Paul, [contradicting and] speaking injuriously.
46 And Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly and said, It was necessary that the word of God should be first spoken to you; but, since ye thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, lo, we turn to the nations;
47 for thus has the Lord enjoined us: I have set thee for a light of the nations, that thou shouldest be for salvation to the end of the earth.
48 And [those of] the nations, hearing it, rejoiced, and glorified the word of the Lord, and believed, as many as were ordained to eternal life.
49 And the word of the Lord was carried through the whole country.
50 But the Jews excited the women of the upper classes who were worshippers, and the first people of the city, and raised a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and cast them out of their coasts.
51 But they, having shaken off the dust of their feet against them, came to Iconium.
52 And the disciples were filled with joy and [the] Holy Spirit.
4 And again he began to teach by the sea. And a great crowd was gathered together to him, so that going on board ship he sat in the sea, and all the crowd were close to the sea on the land.
2 And he taught them many things in parables. And he said to them in his doctrine,
3 Hearken: Behold, the sower went forth to sow.
4 And it came to pass as he sowed, one fell by the wayside, and the birds came and devoured it.
5 And another fell on the rocky ground, where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprung up out [of the ground] because it had no depth of earth;
6 and when the sun arose it was burnt up, and because of its not having any root, it withered.
7 And another fell among the thorns, and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no fruit.
8 And another fell into the good ground, and yielded fruit, growing up and increasing; and bore, one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred.
9 And he said, He that has ears to hear, let him hear.
10 And when he was alone, those about him with the twelve asked him [as to] the parables.
11 And he said to them, To you is given [to know] the mystery of the kingdom of God; but to them who are without, all things are done in parables,
12 that beholding they may behold and not see, and hearing they may hear and not understand, lest it may be, they should be converted and they should be forgiven.
13 And he says to them, Do ye not know this parable? and how will ye be acquainted with all the parables?
14 The sower sows the word:
15 and these are they by the wayside where the word is sown, and when they hear, immediately Satan comes and takes away the word that was sown in them.
16 And these are they in like manner who are sown upon the rocky places, who when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy,
17 and they have no root in themselves, but are for a time: then, tribulation arising, or persecution on account of the word, immediately they are offended.
18 And others are they who are sown among the thorns: these are they who have heard the word,
19 and the cares of life, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things, entering in, choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.
20 And these are they who have been sown on the good ground, such as hear the word and receive it, and bear fruit; one thirty, and one sixty, and one a hundred [fold].
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