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.
18 Then went King David in and sat before the Lord, and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that Thou hast brought me hitherto?
19 And this was yet a small thing in Thy sight, O Lord God; but Thou hast spoken also of Thy servant’s house for a great while to come. And is this the manner of man, O Lord God?
20 And what can David say more unto Thee? For Thou, Lord God, knowest Thy servant.
21 For Thy word’s sake and according to Thine own heart hast Thou done all these great things to make Thy servant know them.
22 Therefore Thou art great, O Lord God; for there is none like Thee, neither is there any God besides Thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
23 And what one nation on the earth is like Thy people, even like Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to Himself, and to make Him a name and to do for You great things and fearsome for Thy land, before Thy people whom Thou redeemed to Thee from Egypt, from the nations and their gods?
24 For Thou hast confirmed for Thyself Thy people Israel to be a people unto Thee for ever; and Thou, Lord, art become their God.
25 And now, O Lord God, the word that Thou hast spoken concerning Thy servant and concerning his house, establish it for ever, and do as Thou hast said.
26 And let Thy name be magnified for ever saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel’; and let the house of Thy servant David be established before Thee.
27 For Thou, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, hast revealed to Thy servant, saying, ‘I will build thee a house.’ Therefore hath Thy servant found in his heart to pray this prayer unto Thee.
28 And now, O Lord God, Thou art that God, and Thy words be true, and Thou hast promised this goodness unto Thy servant.
29 Therefore now let it please Thee to bless the house of Thy servant, that it may continue for ever before Thee; for Thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it, and with Thy blessing let the house of Thy servant be blessed for ever.”
12 And when Gallio was deputy of Achaia, the Jews with one accord began an insurrection against Paul, and brought him to the judgment seat,
13 saying, “This fellow persuadeth men to worship God contrary to the law.”
14 And when Paul was about to open his mouth, Gallio said unto the Jews, “If it were a matter of wrong or wicked lewdness, O ye Jews, reason would have it that I should bear with you.
15 But if it be a question of words and names and your own law, look ye to it; for I will not be judge of such matters.”
16 And he drove them from the judgment seat.
17 Then all the Greeks took Sosthenes, the chief ruler of the synagogue, and beat him in front of the judgment seat. But Gallio was concerned about none of those things.
18 And Paul after this tarried there yet a good while, and then took his leave of the brethren and sailed thence into Syria, and with him Priscilla and Aquila, having shorn his head at Cenchrea, for he had made a vow.
19 And he came to Ephesus and left them there, but he himself entered into the synagogue and reasoned with the Jews.
20 When they desired him to tarry a longer time with them, he consented not,
21 but bade them farewell, saying, “I must by all means keep this feast that cometh in Jerusalem, but I will return again unto you, if God wills.” And he sailed from Ephesus.
22 And when he had landed at Caesarea and had gone up and saluted the church, he went down to Antioch.
23 And after he had spent some time there, he departed and went through all the country of Galatia and Phrygia in order, strengthening all the disciples.
24 And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man and mighty in the Scriptures, came to Ephesus.
25 This man was instructed in the Way of the Lord; and being fervent in the Spirit, he spoke and taught diligently the things of the Lord, though he knew only the baptism of John.
26 And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue. When Aquila and Priscilla had heard him, they took him unto them and expounded unto him the Way of God more perfectly.
27 And when he was disposed to pass into Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him. And when he had come, he helped them much who had believed through grace;
28 for he mightily refuted the Jews (and that publicly), showing by the Scriptures that Jesus was Christ.
22 And He came to Bethsaida, and they brought a blind man unto Him, and besought Him to touch him.
23 And He took the blind man by the hand, and led him out of the town. And when He had spit on his eyes and put His hands upon him, He asked him if he saw anything.
24 And he looked up and said, “I see men as trees, walking.”
25 After that He put His hands again upon his eyes and made him look up; and he was restored, and saw every man clearly.
26 And He sent him away to his house, saying, “Neither go into the town, nor tell it to any in the town.”
27 And Jesus went out with His disciples into the towns of Caesarea Philippi; and on the way He asked His disciples, saying unto them, “Who do men say that I am?”
28 And they answered, “John the Baptist; but some say Elijah, and others, one of the prophets.”
29 And He said unto them, “But whom say ye that I am?” And Peter answered and said unto Him, “Thou art the Christ.”
30 And He charged them that they should tell no man of Him.
31 And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and by the chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again.
32 And He spoke that saying openly. And Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him.
33 But when He had turned about and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get thee behind Me, Satan; for thou savorest not the things that are of God, but the things that are of men.”
Copyright © 1994 by Deuel Enterprises, Inc.