Book of Common Prayer
40 Unto the end, a psalm for David himself.
2 Blessed is he that understandeth concerning the needy and the poor: the Lord will deliver him in the evil day.
3 The Lord preserve him and give him life, and make him blessed upon the earth: and deliver him not up to the will of his enemies.
4 The Lord help him on his bed of sorrow: thou hast turned all his couch in his sickness.
5 I said: O Lord, be thou merciful to me: heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee.
6 My enemies have spoken evils against me: when shall he die and his name perish?
7 And if he came in to see me, he spoke vain things: his heart gathered together iniquity to itself. He went out and spoke to the same purpose.
8 All my enemies whispered together against me: they devised evils to me.
9 They determined against me an unjust word: shall he that sleepeth rise again no more?
10 For even the man of peace, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, hath greatly supplanted me.
11 But thou, O Lord, have mercy on me, and raise me up again: and I will requite them.
12 By this I know, that thou hast had a good will for me: because my enemy shall not rejoice over me.
13 But thou hast upheld me by reason of my innocence: and hast established me in thy sight for ever.
14 Blessed by the Lord the God of Israel from eternity to eternity. So be it. So be it.
54 Unto the end, in verses, understanding for David.
2 Hear, O God, my prayer, and despise not my supplication:
3 Be attentive to me and hear me. I am grieved in my exercise; and am troubled,
4 At the voice of the enemy, and at the tribulation of the sinner. For they have cast iniquities upon me: and in wrath they were troublesome to me.
5 My heart is troubled within me: and the fear of death is fallen upon me.
6 Fear and trembling are come upon me: and darkness hath covered me.
7 And I said: Who will give me wings like a dove, and I will fly and be at rest?
8 Lo, I have gone far off flying away; and I abode in the wilderness.
9 I waited for him that hath saved me from pusillanimity of spirit, and a storm.
10 Cast down, O Lord, and divide their tongues; for I have seen iniquity and contradiction in the city.
11 Day and night shall iniquity surround it upon its walls: and in the midst thereof are labour,
12 And injustice. And usury and deceit have not departed from its streets.
13 For if my enemy had reviled me, I would verily have borne with it. And if he that hated me had spoken great things against me, I would perhaps have hidden myself from him.
14 But thou a man of one mind, my guide, and my familiar,
15 Who didst take sweetmeats together with me: in the house of God we walked with consent.
16 Let death come upon them, and let them go down alive into hell. For there is wickedness in their dwellings: in the midst of them.
17 But I have cried to God: and the Lord will save me.
18 Evening and morning, and at noon I will speak and declare: and he shall hear my voice.
19 He shall redeem my soul in peace from them that draw near to me: for among many they were with me.
20 God shall hear, and the Eternal shall humble them. For there is no change with them, and they have not feared God:
21 He hath stretched forth his hand to repay. They have defiled his covenant,
22 They are divided by the wrath Of his countenance, and his heart hath drawn near. His words are smoother than oil, and the same are darts.
23 Cast thy care upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee: he shall not suffer the just to waver for ever.
24 But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days; but I will trust in thee, O Lord.
51 Unto the end, understanding for David,
2 When Doeg the Edomite came and told Saul David went to the house of Achimelech. [1 Kings 22.]
3 Why dost thou glory in malice, thou that art mighty in iniquity?
4 All the day long thy tongue hath devised injustice: as a sharp razor, thou hast wrought deceit.
5 Thou hast loved malice more than goodness: and iniquity rather than to speak righteousness.
6 Thou hast loved all the words of ruin, O deceitful tongue.
7 Therefore will God destroy thee for ever: he will pluck thee out, and remove thee from thy dwelling place: and thy root out of the land of the living.
8 The just shall see and fear, and shall laugh at him, and say:
9 Behold the man that made not God his helper: But trusted in the abundance of his riches: and prevailed in his vanity.
10 But I, as a fruitful olive tree in the house of God, have hoped in the mercy of God for ever, yea for ever and ever.
11 I will praise thee for ever, because thou hast done it: and I will wait on thy name, for it is good in the sight of thy saints.
20 Achab sent to all the children of Israel, and gathered together the prophets unto mount Carmel.
21 And Elias coming to all the people, said: How long do you halt between two sides? if the Lord be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people did not answer him a word.
22 And Elias said again to the people: I only remain a prophet of the Lord: but the prophets of Baal are four hundred and fifty men.
23 Let two bullocks be given us, and let them choose one bullock for themselves, and cut it in pieces and lay it upon wood, but put no fire under: and I will dress the other bullock, and lay it on wood, and put no fire under it.
24 Call ye on the names of your gods, and I will call on the name of my Lord: and the God that shall answer by fire, let him be God. And all the people answering said: A very good proposal.
25 Then Elias said to the prophets of Baal: Choose you one bullock and dress it first, because you are many: and call on the names of your gods, but put no fire under.
26 And they took the bullock which he gave them, and dressed it: and they called on the name of Baal from morning even till noon, saying: O Baal, hear us. But there was no voice, nor any that answered: and they leaped over the altar that they had made.
27 And when it was now noon, Elias jested at them, saying: Cry with a louder voice: for he is a God, and perhaps he is talking, or is in an inn, or on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep, and must be awaked.
28 So they cried with a loud voice, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till they were all covered with blood.
29 And after midday was past, and while they were prophesying, the time was come of offering sacrifice, and there was no voice heard, nor did any one answer, nor regard them as they prayed:
30 Elias said to all the people: Come ye unto me. And the people coming near unto him, he repaired the altar of the Lord, that was broken down:
31 And he took twelve stones according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying: Israel shall be thy name.
32 And he built with the stones an altar to the name of the Lord: and he made a trench for water, of the breadth of two furrows round about the altar.
33 And he laid the wood in order, and cut the bullock in pieces, and laid it upon the wood.
34 And he said: Fill four buckets with water, and pour it upon the burnt offering, and upon the wood. And again he said: Do the same the second time. And when they had done it the second time, he said: Do the same also the third time. And they did so the third time.
35 And the water run round about the altar, and the trench was filled with water.
36 And when it was now time to offer the holocaust, Elias the prophet came near and said: O Lord God of Abraham, and Isaac, and Israel, shew this day that thou art the God of Israel, and I thy servant, and that according to thy commandment I have done all these things.
37 Hear me, O Lord, hear me: that this people may learn, that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart again.
38 Then the fire of the Lord fell, and consumed the holocaust, and the wood, and the stones, and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench.
39 And when all the people saw this, they fell on their faces, and they said: The Lord he is God, the Lord he is God.
40 And Elias said to them: Take the prophets of Baal, and let not one of them escape. And when they had taken them, Elias brought them down to the torrent Cison, and killed them there.
3 As to the rest, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not wearisome, but to you it is necessary.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.
3 For we are the circumcision, who in spirit serve God; and glory in Christ Jesus, not having confidence in the flesh.
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other thinketh he may have confidence in the flesh, I more,
5 Being circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; according to the law, a Pharisee:
6 According to zeal, persecuting the church of God; according to the justice that is in the law, conversing without blame.
7 But the things that were gain to me, the same I have counted loss for Christ.
8 Furthermore I count all things to be but loss for the excellent knowledge of Jesus Christ my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but as dung, that I may gain Christ:
9 And may be found in him, not having my justice, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ Jesus, which is of God, justice in faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death,
11 If by any means I may attain to the resurrection which is from the dead.
12 Not as though I has already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may by any means apprehend, wherein I am also apprehended by Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended. But one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and stretching forth myself to those that are before,
14 I press towards the mark, to the prize of the supernal vocation of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded; and if in any thing you be otherwise minded, this also God will reveal to you.
16 Nevertheless whereunto we are come, that we be of the same mind, let us also continue in the same rule.
3 And in those days cometh John the Baptist preaching in the desert of Judea.
2 And saying: Do penance: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
3 For this is he that was spoken of by Isaias the prophet, saying: A voice of one crying in the desert, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.
4 And the same John had his garment of camels' hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins: and his meat was locusts and wild honey.
5 Then went out to him Jerusalem and all Judea, and all the country about Jordan:
6 And were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins.
7 And seeing many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them: Ye brood of vipers, who hath shewed you to flee from the wrath to come?
8 Bring forth therefore fruit worthy of penance.
9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham for our father. For I tell you that God is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham.
10 For now the axe is laid to the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that doth not yield good fruit, shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.
11 I indeed baptize you in the water unto penance, but he that shall come after me, is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear; he shall baptize you in the Holy Ghost and fire.
12 Whose fan is in his hand, and he will thoroughly cleanse his floor and gather his wheat into the barn; but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.
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