Book of Common Prayer
Majestic and Unshakable
Psalm 93
1 Adonai reigns—He is robed in majesty!
Adonai has robed and armed Himself with strength.
Yes, the world is firmly established—unshakable.
2 Your throne is established from of old.
You are from everlasting.
3 The floods have lifted up, Adonai,
the floods have lifted up their voice,
the floods lift up their crashing waves.
4 More than the sounds of many waters—
more majestic than the breakers of the sea—
so majestic is Adonai on high!
5 Your testimonies are very sure.
Holiness befits Your House, Adonai, for endless days.
Sing a New Song
Psalm 96
1 Sing to Adonai a new song!
Sing to Adonai, all the earth.
2 Sing to Adonai, bless His Name.
Proclaim the good news of His salvation from day to day.
3 Declare His glory among the nations,
His marvelous deeds among all peoples.
4 For great is Adonai, and greatly to be praised.
He is to be feared above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols,
but Adonai made the heavens.
6 Splendor and majesty are before Him.
Strength and beauty are in His Sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to Adonai, O families of peoples.
Ascribe to Adonai glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to Adonai the glory of His Name.
Bring an offering and come into His courts.
9 Bow down to Adonai in holy splendor.
Tremble before Him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations: “Adonai reigns!”
The world is firmly established—it will not move.
He will judge the peoples with fairness.
11 Let the heavens be glad, let the earth rejoice.
Let the sea roar—and all that fills it.
12 Let the land exult—and all that is in it.
Then all the trees of the forest will sing for joy—
13 before Adonai, for He is coming!
For He is coming to judge the earth.
He will judge the world with righteousness
and the peoples in His faithfulness.[a]
Taste and See
Psalm 34
1 Of David, when he feigned insanity before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he left.
2 I will bless Adonai at all times.
His praise is continually in my mouth.
3 My soul boasts in Adonai.
The humble ones hear of it and rejoice.
4 Magnify Adonai with me
and let us exalt His Name together.
5 I sought Adonai, and He answered me,
and delivered me from all my fears.
6 They who looked to Him were radiant,
and their faces will never be ashamed.
7 This poor man cried, and Adonai heard,
and saved him out of all his troubles.
8 The angel of Adonai encamps around those who fear Him,
and delivers them.
9 Taste and see how good Adonai is.
Blessed is the one who takes refuge in Him.
10 Fear Adonai, His kedoshim,
For those who fear Him lack nothing.
11 Young lions may lack, and go hungry,
but those who seek Adonai want for no good thing.
12 Come, children, listen to me:
I will teach you the fear of Adonai.
13 Who is the one who delights in life,
and loves to see good days?
14 Keep your tongue from evil,
and your lips from speaking treachery.
15 Depart from evil and do good.
Seek shalom and pursue it.[a]
16 The eyes of Adonai are on the righteous,
and His ears are attentive to their cry.
17 The face of Adonai is against evildoers,
to cut off the memory of them from the earth.
18 The righteous cry out and Adonai hears,
and delivers them from all their troubles.
19 Adonai is close to the brokenhearted,
and saves those crushed in spirit.
20 Many are the distresses of the righteous,
but Adonai delivers him out of them all.
21 He keeps all his bones—
not one of them is broken.[b]
22 Evil kills the wicked—
those who hate the righteous will be held guilty.
23 Adonai redeems the soul of His servants
—no one who takes refuge in Him will be held guilty.
Shunammite Hospitality
8 One day when Elisha passed through Shunem, where there was a prominent woman who persuaded him to eat some food. And so it was, whenever he passed through, he would stop for a meal. 9 Then she said to her husband, “Behold now, I realize that this man who often passes through is a holy man of God. 10 Please, let’s make a little walled room on the roof, and let’s put there a bed, a table, a chair, and a lampstand for him. Then whenever he comes to us, he can stay there.”
11 One day he came there, and retired to the upper chamber and lay down there. 12 Then he said to Gehazi his servant, “Call this Shunammite woman.” When he had called her, she stood before him. 13 He said to him, “Tell her: Behold, you have gone to all this trouble for us. What can be done for you? Can something be communicated to the king or to the commander of the army for you?”
She answered, “I am living among my own people.”
14 So he asked, “Then what should be done for her?”
Then Gehazi answered, “In fact, she has no son, and her husband is old.”
15 “Call her,” he said. And when he had called her, she stood in the doorway. 16 Then he said, “At this season next year, you will be embracing a son.”
But she said, “No, my lord, do not lie to your handmaid, man of God.”
17 Nevertheless, the woman conceived and bore a son during that season the following year, just as Elisha had told her.
18 Now when the child was grown, one day he went out to his father among the reapers. 19 Then he said to his father, “My head, my head!” So he said to his servant, “Carry him to his mother.” 20 So he picked him up and brought him to his mother. The child sat on her lap until noon, and then died. 21 She then went up and laid him on the bed of the man of God, shut the door on him and went out. 22 Then she called to her husband, and said, “Please send me one of the servants and one of the donkeys that I may run to the man of God and come back.”
23 But he said, “Why are you going to him today? It is neither New Moon nor Shabbat.”
But she said, “It will be well.”
24 Then she saddled the donkey and said to her servant, “Move on! Don’t slow down riding unless I tell you.”
25 So she set out and came near the man of God at Mount Carmel. Upon seeing her from a distance, the man of God said to his servant Gehazi, “Look! There’s the Shunammite. 26 Please, run now to meet her and ask her: ‘Is it well with you? Is it well with your husband? Is it well with the boy?’”
She answered, “It is well.” 27 But when she arrived at the mountain, up to the man of God, she caught hold of his feet.
Then Gehazi stepped forward to push her away, but the man of God said, “Leave her alone, for her soul is bitter within her, yet Adonai has hid it from me and has not told me.”
28 “Did I ask my lord for a son?” she said. “Didn’t I say, ‘Don’t deceive me’?”
29 Then he said to Gehazi, “Gird up your loins and take my staff in your hand and go. If you meet anyone, don’t greet him. Or if anyone greets you, don’t answer him; and lay my staff on the face of the child.”
30 But the mother of the child said, “As Adonai lives and as you live, I won’t leave you.” So he arose and followed her. 31 Gehazi passed on ahead of them and laid the staff on the face of the child, but there was no sound or response. So he returned to meet him and told him, saying, “The boy has not awakened.”
32 When Elisha entered the house, there was the child, dead and laying on his bed. 33 So he entered and shut the door behind the two of them and prayed to Adonai. 34 Then he got up and lay on the child, and put his mouth on his mouth and his eyes on his eyes and his hands on his hands, and he stretched himself upon him. So the flesh of the child became warm. 35 Then he stepped down and walked in the house to and fro, and then he got up on the bed and stretched himself on him. The child sneezed seven times, then the child opened his eyes. 36 He then called Gehazi and said, “Call the Shunammite.”
So he called her. When she came in to him, he said, “Pick up your son.” 37 She came, fell at his feet and bowed down to the ground. Then she picked up her son and went out.
10 Now there was a disciple named Ananias in Damascus. The Lord said to him, “Ananias.”
He said, “Here I am, Lord.”
11 The Lord said to him, “Get up and go to the street named Straight, and ask in the house of Judah for someone from Tarsus named Saul. For look, he is praying; 12 and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in and laying his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight.”
13 But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man—how much harm he has done to your kedoshim in Jerusalem. 14 And here he has authority from the ruling kohanim to tie up all who call on Your name.”
15 But the Lord said to him, “Go, for he is a choice instrument to carry My name before nations and kings and Bnei-Yisrael. 16 For I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake.”
17 So Ananias left and entered into the house. Laying hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Yeshua, the One who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming—has sent me, so that you might regain your sight and be filled with the Ruach ha-Kodesh.”
18 Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he regained his sight. Then he got up and was immersed; 19 and when he had taken food, he was strengthened. Now for several days, he was with the disciples in Damascus. 20 Immediately he began proclaiming Yeshua in the synagogues, saying, “He is Ben-Elohim.”
21 All those hearing him were amazed. They were saying, “Isn’t this the one who made havoc in Jerusalem for all those who call on this name? And hasn’t he come here to bring them as prisoners before the ruling kohanim?” 22 But Saul kept growing stronger, and he was confounding the Jewish people living in Damascus by proving that Yeshua is the Messiah. 23 When many days had passed, these Jewish people plotted to kill him— 24 but their plot became known to Saul. They were watching the gates day and night, to kill him. 25 But the disciples took Saul by night and let him down over the wall, lowering him in a basket.
26 When Saul arrived in Jerusalem, he made attempts to join up with the disciples—but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. 27 But Barnabas took him in and brought him to the emissaries. He described to them how Saul had seen the Lord on the road and the Lord had spoken to him, and how he had spoken boldly in the name of Yeshua.
28 So Saul was with them, going in and out in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord. 29 He was speaking and arguing with the Hellenists, but they were trying to kill him. 30 When the brothers found out, they brought him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.
31 So Messiah’s community throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria had shalom and was built up. Walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Ruach ha-Kodesh, it kept multiplying.
7 Therefore John was saying to the crowds that came out to be immersed by him, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Therefore produce fruits worthy of repentance; and don’t even begin to say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father’! For I tell you that from these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 9 Even now the axe is laid at the root of the trees, so every tree that does not produce good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire!”
10 The crowds were asking him, “What should we do?”
11 He answered them, saying, “Whoever has two coats, let him give to the one who has none; and whoever has food, let him do the same.”[a]
12 Tax collectors also came to him to be immersed. “Teacher,” they said to him, “what should we do?”
13 He said to them, “Do not take more than you are supposed to.”
14 Also soldiers asked him, saying, “And what should we do?”
He said to them, “Do not take things from anyone by force, do not falsely accuse anyone, and be content with your wages.”[b]
15 Now the people were filled with expectation, and all were wondering in their hearts about John, whether he might be the Messiah. 16 John answered them all, saying, “As for me, I immerse you with water. But One is coming who is mightier than I am; I am not worthy to untie the strap of His sandals! He will immerse you in the Ruach ha-Kodesh and fire. 17 His winnowing fork is in His hand to clear His threshing floor and gather the wheat into His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with inextinguishable fire.” [c] 18 So with many other exhortations, John proclaimed Good News to the people.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.