Book of Common Prayer
An instruction. Of Ethan the Ezrahite.
89 I will sing of the loving-kindness of Jehovah for ever; with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness from generation to generation.
2 For I said, Loving-kindness shall be built up for ever; in the very heavens wilt thou establish thy faithfulness.
3 I have made a covenant with mine elect, I have sworn unto David my servant:
4 Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne from generation to generation. Selah.
5 And the heavens shall celebrate thy wonders, O Jehovah, and thy faithfulness in the congregation of the saints.
6 For who in the heaven can be compared to Jehovah? [who] among the sons of the mighty shall be likened to Jehovah?
7 God is greatly to be feared in the council of the saints, and terrible for all that are round about him.
8 Jehovah, God of hosts, who is like unto thee, the strong Jah? And thy faithfulness is round about thee.
9 *Thou* rulest the pride of the sea: when its waves arise, *thou* stillest them.
10 Thou hast crushed Rahab as one that is slain; thou hast scattered thine enemies with the arm of thy strength.
11 Thine are the heavens, the earth also is thine; the world and its fulness, *thou* hast founded them.
12 The north and the south, *thou* hast created them: Tabor and Hermon triumph in thy name.
13 Thine is the arm of might: strong is thy hand, high is thy right hand.
14 Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of thy throne; loving-kindness and truth go before thy face.
15 Blessed is the people that know the shout of joy: they walk, O Jehovah, in the light of thy countenance.
16 In thy name are they joyful all the day, and in thy righteousness are they exalted.
17 For thou art the glory of their strength; and in thy favour our horn shall be exalted.
18 For Jehovah is our shield, and the Holy One of Israel, our king.
19 Then thou spakest in vision of thy Holy One, and saidst, I have laid help upon a mighty one; I have exalted one chosen out of the people.
20 I have found David my servant; with my holy oil have I anointed him:
21 With whom my hand shall be established; and mine arm shall strengthen him.
22 No enemy shall exact upon him, nor the son of wickedness afflict him;
23 But I will beat down his adversaries before his face, and will smite them that hate him.
24 And my faithfulness and my loving-kindness shall be with him, and by my name shall his horn be exalted.
25 And I will set his hand in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers.
26 *He* shall call unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation;
27 And as to me, I will make him firstborn, the highest of the kings of the earth.
28 My loving-kindness will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him;
29 And I will establish his seed for ever, and his throne as the days of heaven.
30 If his sons forsake my law, and walk not in mine ordinances;
31 If they profane my statutes, and keep not my commandments:
32 Then will I visit their transgression with the rod, and their iniquity with stripes.
33 Nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor belie my faithfulness;
34 My covenant will I not profane, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips.
35 Once have I sworn by my holiness; I will not lie unto David:
36 His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me;
37 It shall be established for ever as the moon, and the witness in the sky is firm. Selah.
38 But thou hast rejected and cast off; thou hast been very wroth with thine anointed:
39 Thou hast made void the covenant of thy servant; thou hast profaned his crown to the ground:
40 Thou hast broken down all his hedges; thou hast brought his strongholds to ruin.
41 All that pass by the way plunder him; he is become a reproach to his neighbours.
42 Thou hast exalted the right hand of his oppressors; thou hast made all his enemies to rejoice:
43 Yea, thou hast turned back the edge of his sword, and hast not made him stand in the battle.
44 Thou hast made his brightness to cease, and cast his throne down to the ground;
45 The days of his youth hast thou shortened; thou hast covered him with shame. Selah.
46 How long, Jehovah, wilt thou hide thyself for ever? shall thy fury burn like fire?
47 Remember, as regards me, what life is. Wherefore hast thou created all the children of men to be vanity?
48 What man liveth, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the power of Sheol? Selah.
49 Where, Lord, are thy former loving-kindnesses, [which] thou swarest unto David in thy faithfulness?
50 Remember, Lord, the reproach of thy servants—that I bear in my bosom [that of] all the mighty peoples—
51 Wherewith thine enemies, O Jehovah, have reproached, wherewith they have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed.
52 Blessed be Jehovah for evermore! Amen, and Amen.
24 And the king of Assyria brought [people] from Babylon, and from Cuthah, and from Avva, and from Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and made them dwell in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they possessed Samaria, and dwelt in its cities.
25 And so it was, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they feared not Jehovah; and Jehovah sent lions among them, which killed [some] of them.
26 And they spoke to the king of Assyria saying, The nations that thou hast removed and made to dwell in the cities of Samaria know not the manner of the god of the land; therefore he has sent lions among them, and behold, they slay them, because they know not the manner of the god of the land.
27 And the king of Assyria commanded saying, Carry thither one of the priests whom ye have brought away from thence; and let them go and abide there, and let him teach them the manner of the god of the land.
28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and abode in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear Jehovah.
29 And every nation made gods of their own, and put them in the houses of the high places that the Samaritans had made, every nation in their cities in which they dwelt.
30 And the people of Babylon made Succoth-benoth, and the people of Cuth made Nergal, and the people of Hamath made Ashima,
31 and the Avvites made Nibhaz and Tartak, and the Sepharvites burned their children in the fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech the gods of Sepharvaim.
32 So they feared Jehovah, and made to themselves from all classes of them priests of the high places, who offered [sacrifices] for them in the houses of the high places.
33 They feared Jehovah, and served their own gods after the manner of the nations, whence they had been carried away.
34 To this day they do after their former customs: they fear not Jehovah, neither do they after their statutes or after their ordinances, nor after the law and commandment that Jehovah commanded the sons of Jacob, whom he named Israel.
35 And Jehovah had made a covenant with them, and charged them saying, Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow down yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them;
36 but Jehovah alone, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt with great power and a stretched-out arm, him shall ye fear, and him shall ye worship, and to him shall ye do sacrifice.
37 And the statutes and the ordinances and the law, and the commandment which he wrote for you, ye shall observe to do for evermore; and ye shall not fear other gods.
38 And ye shall not forget the covenant that I have made with you, neither shall ye fear other gods;
39 but ye shall fear Jehovah your God, and he shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies.
40 And they did not hearken, but did after their former customs.
41 And these nations feared Jehovah, and served their graven images, both their children and their children's children: as did their fathers, so do they, unto this day.
25 But concerning virgins, I have no commandment of [the] Lord; but I give my opinion, as having received mercy of [the] Lord to be faithful.
26 I think then that this is good, on account of the present necessity, that [it is] good for a man to remain so as he is.
27 Art thou bound to a wife? seek not to be loosed; art thou free from a wife? do not seek a wife.
28 But if thou shouldest also marry, thou hast not sinned; and if the virgin marry, they have not sinned: but such shall have tribulation in the flesh; but I spare you.
29 But this I say, brethren, the time is straitened. For the rest, that they who have wives, be as not having [any]:
30 and they that weep, as not weeping; and they that rejoice, as not rejoicing; and they that buy, as not possessing;
31 and they that use the world, as not disposing of it as their own; for the fashion of this world passes.
25 For this cause I say unto you, Do not be careful about your life, what ye should eat and what ye should drink; nor for your body what ye should put on. Is not the life more than food, and the body than raiment?
26 Look at the birds of the heaven, that they sow not, nor reap, nor gather into granaries, and your heavenly Father nourishes them. Are *ye* not much more excellent than they?
27 But which of you by carefulness can add to his growth one cubit?
28 And why are ye careful about clothing? Observe with attention the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, neither do they spin;
29 but I say unto you, that not even Solomon in all his glory was clothed as one of these.
30 But if God so clothe the herbage of the field, which is to-day, and to-morrow is cast into [the] oven, will he not much rather you, O [ye] of little faith?
31 Be not therefore careful, saying, What shall we eat? or What shall we drink? or What shall we put on?
32 for all these things the nations seek after; for your heavenly Father knows that ye have need of all these things.
33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.
34 Be not careful therefore for the morrow, for the morrow shall be careful about itself. Sufficient to the day [is] its own evil.
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