Book of Common Prayer
89 A prayer of Moses the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our refuge from generation to generation.
2 Before the mountains were made, or the earth and the world was formed; from eternity and to eternity thou art God.
3 Turn not man away to be brought low: and thou hast said: Be converted, O ye sons of men.
4 For a thousand years in thy sight are as yesterday, which is past. And as a watch in the night,
5 Things that are counted nothing, shall their years be.
6 In the morning man shall grow up like grass; in the morning he shall flourish and pass away: in the evening he shall fall, grow dry, and wither.
7 For in thy wrath we have fainted away: and are troubled in thy indignation.
8 Thou hast set our iniquities before thy eyes: our life in the light of thy countenance.
9 For all our days are spent; and in thy wrath we have fainted away. Our years shall be considered as a spider:
10 The days of our years in them are threescore and ten years. But if in the strong they be fourscore years: and what is more of them is labour and sorrow. For mildness is come upon us: and we shall be corrected.
11 Who knoweth the power of thy anger, and for thy fear
12 Can number thy wrath? So make thy right hand known: and men learned in heart, in wisdom.
13 Return, O Lord, how long? and be entreated in favour of thy servants.
14 We are filled in the morning with thy mercy: and we have rejoiced, and are delighted all our days.
15 We have rejoiced for the days in which thou hast humbled us: for the years in which we have seen evils.
16 Look upon thy servants and upon their works: and direct their children.
17 And let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us: and direct thou the works of our hands over us; yea, the work of our hands do thou direct.
24 And the king of the Assyrians brought people from Babylon, and from Cutha, and from Avah, and from Emath, and from Sepharvaim: and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel: and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in the cities thereof.
25 And when they began to dwell there, they feared not the Lord: and the Lord sent lions among them, which killed them.
26 And it was told the king of the Assyrians, and it was said: The nations which thou hast removed, and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria, know not the ordinances of the God of the land: and the Lord hath sent lions among them: and behold they kill them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land.
27 And the king of the Assyrians commanded, saying: Carry thither one of the priests whom you brought from thence captive, and let him go, and dwell with them: and let him teach them the ordinances of the God of the land.
28 So one of the priests who had been carried away captive from Samaria, came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should worship the Lord.
29 And every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the temples of the high places, which the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities where they dwelt.
30 For the men of Babylon made Sochothbenoth: and the Cuthites made Nergel: and the men of Emath made Asima.
31 And the Hevites made Nebahaz and Tharthac. And they that were of Sepharvaim burnt their children in fire, to Adramelech and Anamelech the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 And nevertheless they worshipped the Lord. And they made to themselves, of the lowest of the people, priests of the high places, and they placed them in the temples of the high places.
33 And when they worshipped the Lord, they served also their own gods according to the custom of the nations out of which they were brought to Samaria:
34 Unto this day they followed the old manner: they fear not the Lord, neither do they keep his ceremonies, and judgments, and law, and the commandment, which the Lord commanded the children of Jacob, whom he surnamed Israel:
35 With whom he made a covenant, and charged them, saying: You shall not fear strange gods, nor shall you adore them, nor worship them, nor sacrifice to them.
36 But the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt with great power, and a stretched out arm, him shall you fear, and him shall you adore, and to him shall you sacrifice.
37 And the ceremonies, and judgments, and law, and the commandment, which he wrote for you, you shall observe to do them always: and you shall not fear strange gods.
38 And the covenant that he made with you, you shall not forget: neither shall ye worship strange gods,
39 But fear the Lord your God, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40 But they did not hearken, but did according to their old custom.
41 So these nations feared the Lord, but nevertheless served also their idols: their children also and grandchildren, as their fathers did, so do they unto this day.
25 Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment of the Lord; but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful.
26 I think therefore that this is good for the present necessity, that it is good for a man so to be.
27 Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife.
28 But if thou take a wife, thou hast not sinned. And if a virgin marry, she hath not sinned: nevertheless, such shall have tribulation of the flesh. But I spare you.
29 This therefore I say, brethren; the time is short; it remaineth, that they also who have wives, be as if they had none;
30 And they that weep, as though they wept not; and they that rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and they that buy, as though they possessed not;
31 And they that use this world, as if they used it not: for the fashion of this world passeth away.
25 Therefore I say to you, be not solicitous for your life, what you shall eat, nor for your body, what you shall put on. Is not the life more than the meat: and the body more than the raiment?
26 Behold the birds of the air, for they neither sow, nor do they reap, nor gather into barns: and your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are not you of much more value than they?
27 And which of you by taking thought, can add to his stature by one cubit?
28 And for raiment why are you solicitous? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they labour not, neither do they spin.
29 But I say to you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was arrayed as one of these.
30 And if the grass of the field, which is to day, and to morrow is cast into the oven, God doth so clothe: how much more you, O ye of little faith?
31 Be not solicitous therefore, saying, What shall we eat: or what shall we drink, or wherewith shall we be clothed?
32 For after all these things do the heathens seek. For your Father knoweth that you have need of all these things.
33 Seek ye therefore first the kingdom of God, and his justice, and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Be not therefore solicitous for to morrow; for the morrow will be solicitous for itself. Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof.
Public Domain (Why are modern Bible translations copyrighted?)